Posted by Derrick on August 22, 2009 under Video Streaming and Compression | 
ViewCast Corporation (OTCBB: VCST), a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over IP and mobile networks, today unveiled the Niagara® 2120, a low-cost, easy to use streaming media appliance that supports H.264 streaming via the Adobe® Flash® platform. The compact and portable Niagara 2120 provides professional-quality performance and reliability for organizations in corporate, government, education, worship and athletic settings seeking a plug-and-play platform for streaming video content across enterprise networks or over the Internet.
“The Niagara 2120 delivers exceptional value and powerful capabilities that enable customers of all levels of technical expertise to quickly and easily stream high quality live and on-demand video,” said ViewCast President and CEO Dave Stoner. “With seamless support for H.264 streaming, the Niagara 2120 expands ViewCast’s leadership in the streaming media appliance market and equips customers to leverage ViewCast’s industry-renowned capabilities on the Adobe Flash Platform.”
“ViewCast solutions based on the Adobe Flash Platform enable the delivery of rich, real-time media experiences to an ever-growing audience of consumers that rely on Adobe Flash technology for high quality video over the Web,” said Bill Rusitzky, senior director of global media alliances for Adobe. “The Niagara 2120 is the latest example of ViewCast’s continued technological innovation and commitment to providing high-performance video streaming solutions based on Adobe Flash technologies.”
The Niagara 2120 shares many of the same advanced features found in ViewCast’s other professional-grade streaming media encoders, and is optimized for simplified set-up and operation. Featuring a built-in Web interface to enable streamlined management from anywhere on the network, the compact, self-contained unit is ideal for location streaming applications and also fits easily into any production control room. Users simply set the desired streaming parameters via the intuitive Web interface, then initiate one or more streams simultaneously from the front panel “Stream” button.
The Niagara 2120 enables organizations of all sizes, and those with limited budgets, to stream live and on-demand sports, educational and training content, corporate events and more to an expansive Web-based audience, which in turn creates marketing and sponsorship opportunities that can increase revenue streams. With support for H.264 streaming to the Adobe Flash Platform, customers are afforded high-performance streaming capabilities across a broad range of bandwidths to elevate the quality and impact of their Internet video programming.
The Niagara 2120 comes standard with ViewCast SimulStream® technology, which enables a single video source to generate several video streams simultaneously – in multiple resolutions and bit rates – with each stream configured differently for laptops, cell phones, or mobile devices. ViewCast’s Niagara SCX® streaming media management software is also included with the Niagara 2120, enabling centralized set-up, monitoring and control over multiple systems positioned anywhere on the network – all from a single desktop.
Like all Niagara appliances, the Niagara 2120 features image scaling, cropping, de-interlacing, inverse telecine and closed caption rendering capabilities. The Niagara 2120 provides flexible connectivity options including component, Y/C (S-Video), and composite video inputs, as well as balanced and unbalanced stereo audio.
ViewCast at IBC 2009
ViewCast will be demonstrating the Niagara 2120 at IBC 2009 in Amsterdam, September 11 – 15. The company will also be demonstrating its Niagara 7500, a powerful, feature-rich streaming
appliance for Web-based delivery of high-definition video, specifically designed to simplify the most demanding professional broadcasting applications. Visit ViewCast at IBC #IP323.
Posted by Derrick on August 20, 2009 under Video Streaming and Compression |
In an effort to offer more choices for live video streaming, Telestream announced release of Wirecast™ 3.5.3 webcast software. Wirecast is a live video production tool that allows users to easily create real-time and on-demand broadcasts for the web. Version 3.5.3 adds Flash® media streaming through Akamai, a leading content distribution network (CDN).
“Customer response has been overwhelming to the recent support in Wirecast for Flash streaming,” said Barbara DeHart, VP of Marketing at Telestream. “We are pleased to extend this support to include Flash streaming through Akamai, giving users more choices for streaming their video broadcasts to audiences located anywhere in the world.”
Posted by Derrick on August 18, 2009 under Video Streaming and Compression |
HSN (hsn.com), the leading interactive lifestyle network and retail destination, announces the launch of a dynamic new application (“app”) for the Apple® iPhone™ and iPod® touch®. The 45 million subscribers to the devices who download the HSN Shop App now have the ability to view HSN programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout the US. The launch creates the e-commerce industry’s first live-video “3-screen experience,” enabling consumers to browse and shop the network’s 35,000-plus array of products from home or on the go.
All the engaging highlights that HSN and hsn.com users enjoy are packed into the clever app, available for download at both the iTunes App Store and hsn.com. Live, ‘round-the-clock HSN TV (along with a library of original videos), the HSN Today’s Special, Items Recently Aired, and the many hosts, featured designers and their tens of thousands of products are among the familiar and favorite hallmarks of HSN programming that will be available through the mobile experience. Additionally, the HSN Shop App brings with it a set of new features, including the interactive shake2shop, which, with a simple shake of the device, generates random product recommendations as well as deals and promotions targeted at HSN’s mobile customers.
“Our customer is fashionable and discerning, and thrives on information, ideas and discovery,” says HSNi CEO, Mindy Grossman. “HSN strives to be the true multichannel experience, and this new iPhone app now allows our customer to take HSN with her, anytime, anywhere, and be that reliable, ‘on-the-go’ resource for lifestyle information she craves.”
The HSN Shop App also makes for a seamless transactional experience, allowing the user to call HSN directly or use the device’s browser to purchase an item. Items can also be saved for later purchase, or emailed to a friend.
While the HSN Shop App is supremely navigable and user-friendly,hsn.com will soon feature a tutorial that walks all new users through the app’s various fundamentals and features. To insure the optimal experience, the app will also evolve based on customer feedback.
“HSN truly leads the way in total convergence of its media technologies,” says Brian Bradley, EVP/ GM, HSN Online & Advanced Services. “The loyalty of our customer base has been predicated in large part on a unique ability to engage them in all aspects of their lives, and the addition of a mobile ‘third screen’ opens up an entirely new dimension for interaction.”
Inlet Technologies’ SpinnakerTM live streaming appliance provides the encoding backbone for the HSN Shop App’s streaming video. Spinnaker fully supports Apple’s HTTP adaptive streaming, which reduces buffering and other interruptions to create an exceptional viewing experience and diminish latency, helping HSN customers move through the purchasing process quickly. Inlet, the leader in advanced encoding solutions for new media, has been a HSN web streaming partner since 2008.
At launch, the HSN Shop App will be marketed via on-air promos run throughout HSN TV programming. Other promotional efforts will follow.
The HSN Shop App arrives amidst HSN’s ongoing multichannel convergence effort, which includes expansion of its Shop-by-Remote service and complete transition to high-definition (HD) format.
Tags: adaptive streaming, encoding, HTTP, Inlet Technologies, iPod touch, Live Streaming, Phone, solutions, Spinnaker, streaming, Video
Posted by Derrick on August 16, 2009 under Video Streaming and Compression |
ISPA judges select Astream as Best Streaming Host for 2007 & 2008 & 2009. Astream, the Streaming Solutions Provider founded in 1999 has for the 3rd year in a row, won the coveted award for ‘Best Streaming Host’ at the 11th Annual UK Internet Industry Awards, held at the Marriot, Grosvenor Square, London.
The ‘Internet Event of the Year’ is attended by senior members of the industry as well as members of the government. Judges from organisations including: NetSumo, thinkbroadband.com, Computeractive, Web User and Ovum voted Astream’s customer service and server delivery as the best.
ISPA said, “Competition for finalists’ places was particularly fierce this year with a record amount of
entries from companies across the Internet sector. The announcement of the finalists follows
three months of rigorous testing of entrants by ISPA’s technical testing partners, Epitiro.”.
As well as customer service, support, value for money, product variety and distribution capabilities, the testing process included network measurements of video availability and performance, including stream connection time, rebuffering time, average stream bandwidth, packet loss, packet out of order and non-cached download speed.
Astream’s Managing Director Alex Wolfe said, “We are delighted to have maintained our position as number one in the industry and have strived to release new additions to our offering including online transcoding, a leading edge statistics and reporting portal, as well as a new eshop. We intend to continue to exceed customer expectations moving forward”.
Posted by Derrick on August 15, 2009 under Video Streaming and Compression |
Making video adjustments encoding with MPEG Streamclip is a huge benefit if you need to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation or volume. The is an invaluable benefit if you have audio that was recorded low during the video recording process and you need to increase the volume. Imagine being able to fix the audio on 50 to 100 video clips while converting to QuickTime, Windows Media or iPod video. Well, that’s what MPEG Streamclip can do.
Using the Batch List you can include all of your desired videos to convert and apply your desired video adustments to all output video clips.
Tags: adjust, adjustments, brightness, contrast, Converting, converting to, encoding, iPod, MPEG Streamclip, output, quicktime, saturation, Video, video clips, volume, windows media
