UniversalSports.com Taps Inlet Technologies for Both Live Streaming and Video-On-Demand

Inlet Technologies, the leader in innovative solutions for digital media preparation, announced that Universal Sports has selected its Spinnaker and Armad solutions to power UniversalSports.com’s live and on-demand coverage of world-class sports.

Universal Sports serves as the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic and lifestyle sports programming, offering more than 1,000 live events and 7,000 hours of annual original event programming. UniversalSports.com delivers more than 100,000 hours of programming content with dedicated, sport-specific "channels," including Skiing, Rowing, Swimming, and Cycling, to give fans a centralized, convenient, consistent place to go for event video, video highlights, breaking news, and features. Universal Sports is following a growing trend in the sports industry by complementing traditional broadcasts with unprecedented online access.

"We're dedicated to delivering our fans and viewers at UniversalSports.com the highest quality video presentation of our world-class sporting events," said Carlos Silva, president and COO of Universal Sports. "Increasingly, fans are turning to the web to view their favorite sports, competitions and events. Our partners at Inlet Technologies allow us to deliver the online sports-viewing experience that brings our viewers back for more."

“Inlet’s Spinnaker and Armada solutions, along with Microsoft Smooth Streaming, will offer UniversalSports.com viewers the highest quality video and more personalized viewing options,” said John Bishop, senior vice president of strategy and business development, Inlet Technologies. “Following the recent Vancouver Winter Games announcement, we are excited and proud of this collaboration with UniversalSports.com, which further solidifies Inlet’s role as a strategic partner of NBC Sports, and as a leader in online sports video.”

Inlet’s Spinnaker family of encoding solutions is especially well-suited for live sports as it provides broadcast-quality streams over the Internet to multiple devices and screens. With its built-in support for adaptive streaming protocols, including iPhone streaming and Microsoft Smooth Streaming, Spinnaker delivers exceptional quality that enhances online viewing of live sports action. Spinnaker’s patent pending stream synchronization capability makes it ideal for adaptive bitrate delivery.

Inlet is also redefining the process of building and scaling a video-on-demand operation. Automation and software intelligence are the keys to building scale and quality while minimizing costs. Inlet's Armada is a revolutionary workflow management system that automates the entire file preparation process and adds encoding intelligence, not just simple node management.

Action Football Extreme Announces Partnership With NiFTy

Action Football Extreme (AFX) and Network Foundation Technologies (NiFTy) announced an agreement to broadcast the AFX inaugural 2010 season games and events on the Internet.

AFX, a new international entertainment and professional sports league which will have teams throughout all of Europe, is offering a new style of American football which is designed as fast paced, hard hitting, exciting entertainment that fits with the style of sport played in the European markets today. The football match will be the background for AFX “Events,” combining a wide choice of professional entertainment, music, dance, extreme sports, and many other initiatives that encourages fan interaction.

Currently finalizing negotiations, AFX will reveal several major sponsors in an upcoming league press conference. The AFX management team includes well known names such as Ernest Givins, James “Brock” Olivo, Ken Harvey and Phil Hickey. Hickey will head league operations and media relations.

“Providing global online broadcasts of AFX Events is a very important part of our mission statement,” said Gregory Anderson, Executive Director of the AFX league. “It complements our regional TV and radio coverage, ensuring that fans anywhere in Europe and around the world can follow their teams.”

“We are really looking forward to the opportunity to carry the 2010 AFX inaugural season online,” said Marcus Morton, NiFTy’s President and co-founder. “AFX is a great compliment to our broadcast family, especially for football fans, who have enjoyed NiFTy’s broadcasts of arena football 2 (af2) for two seasons now.”