Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced Gains More Than 1,000 Beta Customers

Wowza Media Systems®, the media server software company, announced that more than 1,000 beta customers are using a preview release of its Wowza Media Server® 2 Advanced software, including numerous customers who have already deployed Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced servers in production networks.

Among the first production deployments was global CDN Mirror Image Internet, which launched a Wowza-powered multi-protocol video delivery service for Flash®, iPhone™ and other desktop and mobile clients. In addition to content delivery networks like Mirror Image, Wowza has seen a surge in adoption of its new server from online TV platforms and television broadcasters.

Early adopter Livestation, an online destination for global TV and radio news, is using Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced to offer live broadcasts from international channels like BBC World News, C-SPAN, Deutsche Welle, euronews and others to viewers on multiple screens – the iPhone, desktop and other devices.

“Wowza is changing the way the business of online video content delivery is conducted and is doing so in a way that generates value across the entire content delivery chain,” said Matteo Berlucchi, CEO, Livestation. “Whether you are an online TV platform like us or a content creator, the power and flexibility of the Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced cannot be ignored. And at the end of the day, that enables us to bring quality content to the everyday consumer on any device – a strong value proposition for our customers as well as our viewers.”

Spanish national broadcast channel laSexta and a UK-based TVCatchup, an online TV platform delivering over 30 channels from broadcaster like BBC, Sky and Virgin, have deployed Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced for concurrent Flash and iPhone streaming.

“Wowza gave us a unified streaming platform that greatly simplified our infrastructure and gave us tremendous competitive and cost advantage,” commented Guillermo Revuelta, systems engineer, laSexta. “The combination of these capabilities along with Wowza’s incredible customer support is what makes all the difference. I can’t think of television streaming without it going forward.”

“The Wowza unified workflow architecture is a real breakthrough,” said Nick Parr, co-founder, TVCatchup. “The ability to serve multiple client technologies from one streaming platform has greatly improved our market reach. As demand for our service continues to soar, Wowza remains our first and indeed the only choice for media servers.”

Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced is the world’s first multi-protocol unified media streaming platform to provide media properties, service providers, enterprises and other organizations the ability to deliver video to the three most popular digital screens – computer, mobile phone, and IPTV set-top boxes – without the need for costly investments in separate client-specific technologies for the encoding, storage and delivery.

“Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced provides a dramatic shift towards a democratization of video that is focused on the needs of all involved in the content delivery value chain, from creators to consumers. Instead of locking the industry into special-interest media platforms, protocols and players, Wowza 2 Advanced provides a unified platform for content delivery to multiple players” said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and co-founder, Wowza Media Systems. “Built on the proven Wowza Media Server platform currently deployed by more than 30,000 licensees worldwide, Wowza 2 Advanced is the first media server software to truly unify streaming capabilities in a simple delivery workflow.” 



The Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced has been named a finalist in the category of Best Streaming Innovation by the readers of Streaming Media magazine. The winner will be announced on November 19 at the Readers' Choice Awards reception at the Streaming Media West/Online Video Platform event in San Jose, CA. A live demonstration of Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced will be conducted at Wowza Media booth number 527.

Digital Rapids to Showcase New Technology and Share Expertise at IBC 2009

Digital Rapids -- the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences -- is bringing more than just advanced technology to this year's IBC Conference and Exhibition, September 11-15 in Amsterdam. In addition to the IBC debuts of new and enhanced solutions in stand # 7.G41, Digital Rapids will be sharing its expertise with attendees both at the stand and in free sessions in the IBC Training Zone. Digital Rapids systems have also been chosen to power the encoding of content for the IBC TV News website and mobile delivery for the sixth consecutive year. For first time, IBC TV News will feature live streaming of news updates on the Web, complementing their on-demand news clips.

Digital Rapids' award-winning TouchStream portable live streaming appliance will also be featured alongside the Datpresenter rich media webcasting service and software from Datmedia in stand IP511 in the IBC IPTV Zone.

"We believe it's important to offer IBC attendees more than just the chance to experience our technology and products. Robust, versatile and efficient solutions are as important as ever with customers' shrinking budgets and increasing audience expectations, but technology is just part of what media organisations need to meet these challenges. Customers are looking to us for expertise, guidance, and the flexibility to meet their unique needs," said Clive Vickery, Managing Director, EMEA and Asia at Digital Rapids.

"With a range of activities to share our solutions and knowledge both in and beyond our stand, we can help attendees learn how to maximise new revenue opportunities with the flexibility, efficiency and cost-effectiveness they need to come out of the economic storm stronger than ever. "

On2 Technologies, Inc. and Google Inc. jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire On2, a leading developer of video compression technology. Under the terms of the agreement, each outstanding share of On2 common stock will be converted into $0.60 worth of Google class A common stock in a stock-for-stock transaction. The transaction is valued at approximately $106.5 million.

"Today video is an essential part of the web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the web platform," said Sundar Pichai, Vice President, Product Management, Google. "We are committed to innovation in video quality on the web, and we believe that On2's team and technology will help us further that goal."

"We're thrilled that On2 is joining one of the world's most innovative companies," said Matt Frost, interim CEO of On2. "After intensive review of On2 products, Google confirmed our long-held beliefs as to the quality of our video technologies. This transaction is a testament to the hard work of every On2 employee and the strongest possible endorsement of our products and people. On2 will continue to improve, support and sell our products throughout the transition. We believe that Google shares our ambitions and know that our products and expertise, combined with Google's globally recognized brand, ingenuity and resources, will create an incredible team."

On2 VP7 Video Codec Selected by 21Vianet

On2 Technologies, a leader in video compression solutions, announced it has licensed its VP7 video codec to 21ViaNet (China), Inc.. Founded in 1996, 21ViaNet is the leading carrier-neutral IDC service provider in China.

21ViaNet was named in Deloitte's '2008 Technology Fast 50 Companies in China' in recognition of its achievements and market success. The company has expansive partnerships with China's major telecom operators including China Telecom and China Unicom, as well as major content providers like CCTV. As part of its ongoing commitment to provide its extensive customer base with value added services, 21ViaNet has launched a new video services business division, using On2 Technologies'VP7 video codec as a key component of its video distribution platform.

The On2 VP7 video codec requires less data for high quality video, thereby reducing overall bandwidth costs without compromise to the end user viewing experience. As proprietary technology to On2, the video codec is patent pool free. This brings additional cost efficiency for publishing and distributing all kinds of content, as the video codec is not subject to MPEG-LA royalties. For more information about On2 VP7 please visit www.on2.com/on2video

The new On2 VP7-enabled video services division enables 21ViaNet to offer more value added options to its customers, assisting content providers and owners, such as TV stations and Telecom operators, to generate more traffic and to broaden revenue streams. 21Vianet is also currently developing another product that deploys On2 VP7 which it hopes will help promote sales of Internet video service enabled TV sets.