New Streambox Live IP-Based Contribution Service Receives STAR Awar

Streambox, Inc. announced that its newly launched Streambox Live IP-based video contribution service was honored with a 2009 STAR (Superior Technology Award Recipient) Award by the editorial staff of TV Technology Europe, at the recent IBC2009 show in Amsterdam. In addition, Streambox Live “caught the eye” of IBC staffers, who featured the product in a special conference session entitled “What Caught My Eye.”

Based on Streambox’s award-winning ACT-L3 technology, the Streambox Live service enables remote broadcasters and citizen reporters to upload compressed live video streams to broadcast studios through Internet-based Streambox Live Data Centers. The Streambox Live service interoperates seamlessly with Streambox's industry-leading platform of SD and HD broadcast-quality video encoders and decoders, as well as its complete line of broadcast and distribution servers.

The STAR Award (Superior Technology Award Recipient) is designed to celebrate and showcase the preeminent technological innovations available to the broadcast industry. TV Technology Europe's editor reviewed a variety of products, examined the technical applications and their overall contribution to the industry, and then chose Streambox Live as one of 25 winners. For the “What Caught My Eye” designation, the Streambox Live demonstration was captured by a roving IBC film crew and the footage was featured the next day in a presentation shown to conference delegates.

“We believe Streambox Live has tremendous potential to revolutionize news programming by enabling broadcasters to add citizen reporters and ad hoc contributors to the newsgathering team in an easy-to-use and cost-effective manner,” said Bob Hildeman, chairman and CEO of Streambox. “It’s truly an honor to be among only 25 solutions at IBC to receive a STAR Award, and it’s a real validation of Streambox Live's potential in the industry. And the fact that the ‘What Caught My Eye’ team picked up right away on the solution’s value and benefits really shows its instant appeal to broadcasters.”

RipCode On-Demand Transcoding Brings Video to AccessU2's Property By Phone

RipCode, Inc., the leader in transactional video transcoding announced it has partnered with AccessU2 to deliver on-demand property videos to virtually any mobile device – enabling ‘anytime, anywhere, any device’ viewing of agent profile and virtual tour property videos.

AccessU2 Mobile Solutions, LLC, a pioneer in mobile marketing for real estate, and its patent pending product, Property By Phone, are revolutionizing property information delivery by providing the same experience to a buyer's cell phone that virtual tours have delivered to websites. The Property By Phone application lets clients dial a toll-free number listed on the property sign or in print advertising, entering a displayed property code. After making a language selection and confirming the cell phone number, an SMS text message description of the property, up to 10 photos, and a streaming video link are presented nearly instantly. Agents receive a text message of the cell phone capture at the same time. If the client selects the video link, RipCode’s TransAct solution automatically discovers the mobile device type, retrieves the source video file, transcodes the file for the best video playback experience for that particular mobile device, and streams the content within seconds of request – all through its innovate and unique On Demand Transcoding technology. Clients can even set an appointment instantly to view the listing by connecting with a live operator 24/7, who can book an appointment, and text the confirmation and full contact info back to the consumer and agent.

“Adding video viewing to Property By Phone improves the buyer’s purchase experience and enables agents to build those all important relationships faster, especially when they can deliver an agent profile video instantly. It is simply not enough to deliver a text message and photos any longer,” said AccessU2’s Founder and CEO, Kenneth O’Hanlon. “The ability to deliver video instantly enables endless marketing opportunities for brokers, agents, and real estate suppliers, the likes of which the industry has never been seen before. RipCode’s solution lets us deliver these videos to virtually any mobile device prospective buyers may carry – without us having to pre-format our entire video library for each device when only a small subset may actually be required for a given site. Multiply that activity times thousands of properties and buyers, and you can see why this approach is advantageous.”

“We are excited to see one of our flagship innovations – on demand transcoding – penetrate the world of enterprise and consumer mobile video delivery,” said Neal Hartsell, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management for RipCode. “What AccessU2 is doing for real estate buying and selling is creative, advanced, and indicative of the growing expansion of mobile video beyond entertainment and into business and consumer productivity, a trend that is set to explode worldwide in the coming years.”