Posted by Derrick on March 30, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | 
Limelight Networks announced new and upgraded services designed to address the evolving requirements of Global 1000 financial, public sector, and enterprise IT departments and operators of e-commerce storefronts. These new capabilities meet the needs of companies looking to reach customers, prospects, employees, and other targeted users on an array of mobile and connected devices.
New enterprise services from Limelight Networks include:
- A next-generation version of Limelight SITE
- A new Content Storage solution supporting incremental storage upgrades
- A Traffic Balancer solution for distributing site traffic to improve performance and reduce risk
- An enhanced version of Limelight REACH for mobile delivery
- New features in Limelight CONTROL for better service visibility and customization
- A technology preview of an edge-computing service
“Today we have expanded the set of services we provide to enterprise IT departments and e-commerce retailers with new capabilities that go beyond site acceleration to value-added edge computing, mobility, and data center services. Together, these services can help customers achieve their business objectives by increasing sales conversions, improving customer support, and increasing employee productivity. We are enabling customers to create brilliant interactive online brand experiences, all while increasing infrastructure efficiency and helping customers extend their IT resources,” said David Hatfield, senior vice president, Limelight Networks, Inc.
Each new service introduced today fully supports Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), the next-generation protocol that is transforming the basis of communications on the Internet. As companies continue to strategize for their own IPv6 migrations, they can gain peace of mind knowing that all Limelight content delivery services and the company’s global network platform are fully IPv6-enabled.
The Limelight SITE web acceleration service helps increase visitor loyalty and reduces operating costs by providing a consistent web experience from any location. Building on the successful March 2009 launch, the latest version of this service offers more control over cache management, SSL support, increased failover options, and integrated content security options. The service includes Origin Direct technology, which accelerates traffic by routing it over Limelight’s private, network-based infrastructure, rather than through the congested “middle-mile” of the Internet. This enables consistent, high-fidelity performance of static, dynamic, personalized, and rich media content.
Debuting with SITE is Content Storage, Limelight’s new high-performance CDN storage architecture. This service provides customers with a virtual continuous environment for storing content. Instead of requiring new hardware for every customer upgrade, the Content Storage service offers a modular solution that spans multiple servers for fast and flexible scalability.
Also unveiled today is Traffic Balancer, a new service that offers customers a way to distribute site traffic among multiple origin sources, or even multiple content delivery service providers. Customers can define how traffic loads are managed and enjoy both improved site performance and lower delivery risk. The Traffic Balancer service works at the DNS level to allocate traffic dynamically based on customer parameters.
The Limelight REACH mobility service today adds support for enterprises and retailer environments. The solution uses Limelight’s intelligent auto-detection technology to distribute properly formatted rich media content to almost any mobile or connected device. REACH can: help improve communications with remote or off-site employees by delivering optimized content to a trusted mobile device; enhance the in-store purchase experience by delivering on-demand video to a mobile handset; or provide a rich-media experience to mobile customers.
Also today, Limelight Networks introduces a technology preview of a framework for edge computing-as-a-managed-service. Using the massive processing capacity available in Limelight’s dense regional server clusters, along with programmable, virtual environments called “stacks,” customers will be able to execute real-time code right at the network edge. Each stack provides virtualization technologies to contain individual applications and ensure consistent allocation of resources.
Limelight’s Global Professional Services organization provides enterprise IT and marketing departments with turnkey solutions for infrastructure optimization, website management, online marketing campaigns, live corporate events, and product launch announcements.
Additionally, all customers are supported by the CONTROL management and reporting portal, which provides visibility into their online businesses and control of Limelight Networks services. Through CONTROL, customers can create custom reports for site traffic, top URLs, most-requested content, storage usage, sub-accounts, or by content “tag.” They can also set real-time alerts or use a web services (SOAP) interface to export data into their own analytics systems. Through the Self Provisioning tool, customers can add or manage their delivery services, upload or purge content, and add administrators to their account.
Posted by Derrick on March 14, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression |
Network Foundation Technologies (NiFTy) has received an Issue of Notification from the U.S. Patent Office for its latest patent (#7,664,840, ‘Systems for Distributing Data Over a Computer Network and Methods for Arranging Nodes for Distribution of Data Over a Computer Network (Vtree)’). This represents the fifth and latest in a series of patents issued to date, with eight additional patents pending, related to NiFTy’s innovative online distributed broadcasting technology. The technology utilizes the shared bandwidth of all viewers to redistribute the broadcast content, dramatically reducing the broadcaster’s bandwidth and server costs (50% reduction and higher) of reaching large online audiences, while still ensuring excellent broadcast and picture quality.
“The receipt of this new patent further validates NiFTy’s vision for streaming live video,” said Dr. Mike O’Neal, NiFTy’s founder, Chief Scientist and named inventor on the patent. “The cost of traditional CDN (Content Delivery Network) technology, used by virtually all other online broadcasters today, is prohibitively expensive for both small and very large broadcasters, resulting in either small customers not to broadcasting at all, or large customers limiting their viewing audience to reduce cost. NiFTy’s technology, coupled with its range of broadcasting services, provides an affordable platform, making possible for the first time a viable Free-For-View, ad supported broadcasting model.”
NiFTy provides complete end-to-end online broadcasting services, specializing in LIVE long-play sports content, beginning with the patented distributed broadcasting technology at the core, customer branded media players, hosting and distribution, ad insertion, advertising marketing and sales services, On Demand viewing and end-user customer support. NiFTy was the first broadcasting company to provide a complete Free-For-View (no cost to the viewer) model for a professional sports league, with LIVE broadcasting of all games, for all teams, for the entire season. NiFTy continues this model for the third consecutive year of providing broadcasts of the sport of arena football, with the new season starting in April 2010.
Tags: CDN, content, delivery, Foundation, live, network, on-demand, online, streaming, technologies, Video
Posted by Derrick on March 13, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression |
Limelight Networks, Inc. announced that Avex Broadcasting & Communications Inc. has selected LimelightSTREAM to power its mobile TV service, BeeTV. As a content delivery network (CDN) partner, Limelight Networks enables Avex to reduce stress on its infrastructure system while also providing BeeTV subscribers with a smoother streaming experience on the go.
The BeeTV service takes advantage of Limelight Networks’ robust, global network to ensure faster, more reliable streaming for consumers. With direct connections to more than 900 access networks, the Limelight CDN extends the reach of the mobile TV service and speeds up delivery to the BeeTV audience.
Since May 2009, Avex has provided its content via the Limelight CDN to support widespread and enhanced distribution in a highly secure environment. This partnership between Limelight Networks and BeeTV showcases the comprehensive streaming capabilities of the LimelightSTREAM product, and its ability to support audiences of any size, anywhere in the world.
Posted by Derrick on February 2, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression |
A one-day national fundraising effort championed by a collection of Dutch radio and TV stations helped to raise a startling €83,448,252 for earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. Supporting the effort, U.S.-based Wowza Media Systems, donated its media servers and the Dutch IS Internet Services in cooperation with Radio538 hosted the live webcast streams that reached more than one million online listeners.
Recognized for creating the first unified media server capable of simultaneously streaming to all major desktop, mobile device and IPTV player clients, Wowza Media Systems has been particularly embraced by radio and TV broadcasters worldwide looking to expand their audiences through the online channel.
The participating radio stations, including popular commercial stations Radio538, Q Music, SLAM FM, Radio Veronica, as well as public networks 3FM and Radio 2, broadcasted the fundraiser Thursday, January 21 as Radio 555. The giro number 555 is used in the Netherlands for donations to charities such as Oxfam, Unicef, the Red Cross and others which fall under the Dutch national aid organization cooperative, Samenwerkende Hulporganisaties (SHO).
“We’ve been using Wowza Media Servers to stream our programming content online for some time now and we knew the technology was more than up to the task of supporting this kind of effort,” said Alexander Josiassen, Technology and Operations Manager of Radio538. “Without hesitation, Wowza donated the additional software to power the massive webcast and wildly surpassed our technical expectations by enabling streaming to 145,000 simultaneous online listeners and reaching more than one million people in total for the day.”
This realization is driving strong demand for Wowza Media Server 2 from a broad range of customers. Mirror Image Internet, a global CDN that has already upgraded to Wowza Media Server 2, was able to add iPhone streaming capability to its portfolio of services at virtually zero incremental cost. Other companies including Livestream, one of the largest live streaming platforms, is now offering customers simultaneous Flash and iPhone reach without having to make any investment or impose changes to how they encode content.
The broadcast fundraiser for Haiti mirrors efforts by the Dutch broadcasters who conducted a similar national relief effort for victims of the 2004 tsunami in Asia.
“The incredibly quick and effective response by these broadcasters, and the tremendous outpouring of support from the Dutch people themselves provides great deal of hope that we’ll be able to make a difference in the lives of those who have been affected by this tragedy,” said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-founder of Wowza Media Systems. “We are humbled and proud to have been able to play a role in this humanitarian effort.”
Tags: CDN, content, encode, live, media, Server 2, streaming, streams, Systems, webcast, Wowza
Posted by Derrick on December 16, 2009 under Video Streaming and Compression |
Limelight Networks, Inc. announced that The Knot, the number-one online wedding portal, has selected the LimelightSITE whole-site delivery service for its content delivery network (CDN) needs. The Knot selected Limelight Networks after extensive testing showed the company’s network-based delivery platform would not only support the company’s continued growth, but also deliver the best online experience to any consumer device on any network connection.
LimelightSITE is designed to accelerate whole website delivery. For The Knot, LimelightSITE provides assurances of the highest quality content delivery without the cost of upgrading internal infrastructure, particularly as The Knot looks to expand in the coming months. Prior to making the switch to Limelight Networks, the team from The Knot laid out expectations for a smooth migration with no adverse effects on site visitors. Using Limelight Networks Integration Services, The Knot was able to meet those requirements.
“Limelight Networks brings customer service to a new level,” said Nic Di Iiorio, CTO of The Knot, Inc. “During our very aggressive project to deploy their services, Limelight personnel acted as a seamless extension of our best teams. The Limelight services team was well prepared to ensure a quick and successful project which resulted in a very smooth transition with no negative impact to our Brides.”
