dicas and Wowza Media Systems unveil multiple bit rate live Flash streaming

dicas, the German MPEG-4 experts, and Wowza Media Systems, a US-based developer of Flash streaming media server software, have announced the interoperability of dicas MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoders with Wowza Media Server Pro. Broadcasters, operators and enterprises delivering IPTV and streaming services now have at their disposal a versatile and cost-effective conduit for the live distribution of broadcast-quality video content in multiple bit rates to Internet-connected Flash player clients.

Wowza Media Server Pro is an award-winning solution for Flash streaming that counts more than 15,000 global licensees across a broad range of industries. Its popularity is due in large part to its exclusive ability to stream to Flash players using both RTMP and non-RTMP live encoders.

"We knew that a server allowing non-Flash RTP/RTSP encoders for H.264 live Flash streaming would be an extremely attractive product," says David Stubenvoll, CEO & Co-Founder, Wowza Media Systems. "But we never foresaw such a broad and deep affection for what we have done. Now the combination of Wowza Pro with dicas2020 multiple bit rate ability offers customers a great way to stream Flash while simplifying encoding infrastructure and reducing cost."

"The compatibility with Wowza Media Server Pro is a natural advancement of our product portfolio," says Sebastian Moeritz, CEO at dicas. "In addition to the dicas Flash plug-in allowing for H.264 live Flash streaming over RTMP, clients now have the choice of using RTMP or delivering streams to the media server at multiple bit rates over a standard non-Flash transport protocol that best fits with their needs."
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The recently launched dicas2020 multi-format encoder is a perfect complement to Wowza Media Server Pro. The dicas2020 encodes a single input channel into up to six parallel output signals at varying bit rates (adjustable from 40 kbps to 6 Mbps), resolution (from QCIF to SDTV), and transport protocols (RTMP, RTP/RTSP, MPEG-TS). Wowza Media Server Pro can ingest streams over any transport protocol from the dicas2020 encoder, selecting from a bit rate appropriate to the user's bandwidth and reliably deliver it over RTMP to the Flash player.

Unrestricted multi-format live streaming with the dicas2020

German MPEG-4 video coding expert dicas will add a new product to the successful dicas2000 hardware series at the beginning of next week. The dicas2020 is a multi-format encoder that enables broadcasters, content providers and satellite operators to deliver one input channel of video and audio simultaneously to various end-user applications such as set-top boxes, PCs, broadcast-quality decoders, handheld devices and Flash Players.

"The dicas2020 convinces with enormous flexibility" says Klaas Schuur, CTO at dicas. "It's a single 1RU encoder, but it creates a user-defined number of output formats for different clients." For each output format users can continuously adjust bit rates (from 40 kbps to 6 Mbps) and chose between various video (MPEG-4, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, H.263) and audio codecs (AAC, AMR), transport protocols (MPEG-2 transport stream, RTP and RTMP for Flash) as well as resolutions (from QCIF to full D1, PAL and NTSC, interlaced and progressive displays). The dicas2020 supports for Adobe's Flash format as well as 3GPP for streaming to mobile devices

dicas to develop H.264 HD encoder for Cell B.E.

dicas, the German MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 specialist, has just started to develop an HD encoder for Cell processor platforms in collaboration with IBM. The objective of the technological co-operation is to bring together one of the most powerful video codecs, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, with one of the most powerful currently available microprocessors, the Cell B.E. chip, for professional broadcast applications.

Initially designed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM for the extreme processing demands of the PlayStation3, the Cell chip has rapidly gained in importance for a large number of further graphic-intensive applications. "Its revolutionary architecture makes the Cell chip a great deal for video encoding" says Philipp Kraetzer, managing director at dicas. Due to eight independent processing cores the Cell is claimed to be more than 10 times faster than any current PC processor. "It's a very interesting challenge to divide the H.264 encoding algorithms across the Cell's processing cores", Kraetzer continues

"Utilizing the Cell's mighty processing power makes broadcast-quality HD encoding and even 1080p in real-time possible" says Klaas Schuur, co-founder of dicas. "dicas has gained considerable expertise in porting the H.264 codec to various platforms. The combination of Cell and H.264 is a convincing answer to the requirements of broadcasters and IPTV content providers in the age of HDTV."

The launch of the HD encoder for Cell is scheduled for the second quarter of 2009.

Adobe and dicas enable H.264 live streaming via Adobe Flash technology

dicas, the German MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 specialist, announced it is working in collaboration with Adobe Systems to deliver high-performance video encoding technology supporting MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 live streaming with the latest version of Adobe Flash Media Server software.

"With new support for delivering high-quality live streaming, dicas is enabling users to experience events live on the Web via the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player software, the world's most pervasive software installed on 98 percent of Internet connected desktops," said Sebastian Moeritz, CEO at dicas. "With our expertise and the power of Adobe Flash technology, we are opening new opportunities to bring exciting live online viewing experiences to broad audiences worldwide."

In spring 2008, dicas launched the video coding software development kit, mpegableDS Flash, a set of DirectShow filters converting video content into formats compatible with Adobe Flash technology. At the forthcoming IBC 2008, dicas introduced a new plug-in for Adobe Flash Media Server that works with dicas' well-established hardware encoders dicas2010 (SD) and dicas2030 (HD).

"We are pleased to work with dicas, a developer with open-standards expertise specializing in the H.264 codec," said Laurel Reitman, senior product manager, Flash Media Solutions at Adobe. " With the ubiquity of Adobe Flash Player software for viewing live streaming events online, plus the advancement of the H.264 codec to play back high-definition video on a PC or Mac, dicas will help bring live HD online experiences to viewers that meet the high quality standards Adobe customers are accustomed to."