Posted by Derrick on January 12, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | 
Inlet Technologies, the leader in innovative solutions for digital media preparation, announced that 2009 was a year of record growth, with 2009 revenues 140% higher than 2008. Inlet’s success can be attributed in large part to several first-to-market innovations, the addition of over 150 new customers, and high demand for its streaming solutions across many industries, including the public sector.
Inlet continued its practice of first-to-market innovations with several major developments in 2009. The company was one of the first encoding technology providers to publicly demonstrate and support live streaming to the Apple® iPhone™. In March, Inlet was the first to announce live and VoD support for the Microsoft IIS7 Smooth Streaming platform. Inlet’s Spinnaker encoders now support adaptive streaming solutions from all of the major market players, including Microsoft’s Smooth Streaming, Adobe’s Dynamic Streaming, and HTTP streaming to the Apple iPhone.
Further market-leading innovations include recent upgrades to the Armada video-on-demand workflow management system, and to the Fathom encoding platform, allowing for Microsoft IIS Smooth Streaming for VC-1 and providing Microsoft PlayReady digital rights management support for Smooth Streaming. The latest Armada release also allows for Apple iPhone adaptive bitrate encoding and segmentation, among other additions.
Inlet added more than 150 new customers in 2009, and powered the live and on-demand streaming of many of the world’s most prestigious events, including: Roland Garros French International and The Championships, Wimbledon tennis tournaments; the Indy 500 motor race; Major League Baseball; the National Hockey League; and UniversalSports.com events; Home Shopping Network; TV 2 HD premium television; and GameSpot E3 content. Additionally, shipments of Inlet’s Spinnaker live streaming appliances were up approximately 150% in 2009.
“Given our impressive growth, customer successes, and other technology innovations over the past year, Inlet has emerged as the de facto provider of encoding solutions to enable live and on-demand streaming of content for three screens – web, mobile and STB,” said Don Bossi, chairman and CEO, Inlet Technologies. “We will continue to redefine online video by building cohesiveness between traditional and new media that will allow our customers to easily reach their dynamic audiences with more unique and personalized experiences.”
Posted by Derrick on September 2, 2009 under Video Streaming and Compression |
Inlet Technologies, the leader in live streaming and video-on-demand solutions for digital media, announced it is powering the live online streaming of many of the world’s most prestigious sporting events, establishing the company as the go-to provider of encoding solutions to enable sports-related content on the web.
Inlet has powered the streaming of some of the world’s most widely-viewed sports events such as the Roland Garros French International and The Championships, Wimbledon tennis tournaments, the A1GP and Indy 500 motor races, Major League Baseball, the NCAA Division I Men’s College Basketball Tournament (a.k.a. March Madness), Italian FIFA Confederations Cup soccer matches, as well as the recent Tour de France cycling race.
Inlet also powered the streaming of the World Swimming Championships, the World Championships in Athletics, and 91st PGA Championship golf tournament to Apple iPhone and iPod touch users. Inlet is also working with XOS Technologies to encode live and on-demand sports content for an NCAA Division I conference.
“The Spinnaker 5000 was so easy to set up and use that we were able to get our first encodes under way within minutes of receiving our first unit,” said Steve Quinn, CTO, XOS Technologies. “Video and audio quality has been outstanding and the level of support we have received from Inlet has been top notch.”
Although the ability to stream online content has been around for quite some time, many content owners are just beginning to view live and on-demand streams of sports events as an interactive complement to the traditional broadcast experience. In a recent article, PC World’s Ian Paul notes that the ability to watch sports online is a privilege that many are willing to pay for. Viewership statistics also support the fact that sports programming is indeed one of the fastest growing segments for streaming content on the Web. A study by The Conference Board and TNS shows that of the nearly one-fifth of American households who use the Internet to watch television broadcasts online, sports was one of the top five types of shows viewed online.
“There has been an exponential increase, especially within the past year, in the number of sports organizations looking to expand their reach by streaming events over the Internet,” commented Neil Selvin, president, Inlet Technologies. “Our work with some of the early adopters, such as Major League Baseball, has proven the success of implementing a complementary Internet model to drive new revenue opportunities through ad insertions, subscription-based viewing, and other means.”
Inlet’s Spinnaker family of encoding solutions is especially well-suited for live sports as it provides broadcast-quality streams over the Internet to any device. With its built-in support for adaptive streaming protocols, including Microsoft Smooth Streaming and Adobe Dynamic Streaming, Spinnaker generates high-quality streams with exceptional quality that enhances online viewing of live sports action. Inlet was also one of the first encoding technology providers to publicly demonstrate and support HTTP adaptive streaming to the Apple iPhone, opening even more opportunities for content creators to generate revenue and build viewership.
Users benefit from the ability to experience their favorite sporting event in an entirely new way – on their device of choice. The viewing experience has become much more interactive and personal, backed by exceptional video quality with DVR-like capabilities, instant replay, and no stuttering, buffering, or other interruptions. Users can easily switch between multiple games or camera angles. URLs or captions, such as scores and statistics, can also be inserted directly into the live stream.
“Inlet has been instrumental in helping us pursue our strategy of putting live baseball games on every device that has a plug or a battery,” said Joe Inzerillo, senior vice president, multimedia & distribution of Major League Baseball Advanced Media. “When we wanted to upgrade MLB.com At Bat 2009™ to allow us to deliver live streams of games to the iPhone and iPod touch, Inlet was immediately able to help.”
Posted by Derrick on under Video Streaming and Compression |
Inlet Technologies, the leader in live streaming and video-on-demand solutions for digital media, announced it is powering the live online streaming of many of the world’s most prestigious sporting events, establishing the company as the go-to provider of encoding solutions to enable sports-related content on the web.
Inlet has powered the streaming of some of the world’s most widely-viewed sports events such as the Roland Garros French International and The Championships, Wimbledon tennis tournaments, the A1GP and Indy 500 motor races, Major League Baseball, the NCAA Division I Men’s College Basketball Tournament (a.k.a. March Madness), Italian FIFA Confederations Cup soccer matches, as well as the recent Tour de France cycling race.
Inlet also powered the streaming of the World Swimming Championships, the World Championships in Athletics, and 91
st PGA Championship golf tournament to Apple® iPhone™ and iPod® touch® users. Inlet is also working with XOS Technologies to encode live and on-demand sports content for an NCAA Division I conference.
“The Spinnaker 5000 was so easy to set up and use that we were able to get our first encodes under way within minutes of receiving our first unit,” said Steve Quinn, CTO, XOS Technologies. “Video and audio quality has been outstanding and the level of support we have received from Inlet has been top notch.”
Although the ability to stream online content has been around for quite some time, many content owners are just beginning to view live and on-demand streams of sports events as an interactive complement to the traditional broadcast experience. In a recent
article, PC World’s Ian Paul notes that the ability to watch sports online is a privilege that many are willing to pay for. Viewership statistics also support the fact that sports programming is indeed one of the fastest growing segments for streaming content on the Web. A
study by The Conference Board and TNS shows that of the nearly one-fifth of American households who use the Internet to watch television broadcasts online, sports was one of the top five types of shows viewed online.
“There has been an exponential increase, especially within the past year, in the number of sports organizations looking to expand their reach by streaming events over the Internet,” commented Neil Selvin, president, Inlet Technologies. “Our work with some of the early adopters, such as Major League Baseball, has proven the success of implementing a complementary Internet model to drive new revenue opportunities through ad insertions, subscription-based viewing, and other means.”
Inlet’s SpinnakerTM family of encoding solutions is especially well-suited for live sports as it provides broadcast-quality streams over the Internet to any device. With its built-in support for adaptive streaming protocols, including Microsoft Smooth Streaming and Adobe Dynamic Streaming, Spinnaker generates high-quality streams with exceptional quality that enhances online viewing of live sports action. Inlet was also one of the first encoding technology providers to publicly demonstrate and support HTTP adaptive streaming to the Apple iPhone, opening even more opportunities for content creators to generate revenue and build viewership.
Users benefit from the ability to experience their favorite sporting event in an entirely new way – on their device of choice. The viewing experience has become much more interactive and personal, backed by exceptional video quality with DVR-like capabilities, instant replay, and no stuttering, buffering, or other interruptions. Users can easily switch between multiple games or camera angles. URLs or captions, such as scores and statistics, can also be inserted directly into the live stream.
“Inlet has been instrumental in helping us pursue our strategy of putting live baseball games on every device that has a plug or a battery,” said Joe Inzerillo, senior vice president, multimedia & distribution of Major League Baseball Advanced Media. “When we wanted to upgrade MLB.com At Bat 2009™ to allow us to deliver live streams of games to the iPhone and iPod touch, Inlet was immediately able to help.”
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 14, 2009 under Video Streaming and Compression |
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, announced today it will serve as the exclusive live video streaming provider to Turner Sports for the official PGA Championship App available on the App Store. The 91st PGA Championship will be held August 13-16 with 18 hours of television coverage on TNT complemented by four video streams of live coverage exclusively on PGA.com.
The PGA Championship iPhone App for the iPhone and iPod touch supports Turner Sports’ integrated broadcast strategy of combining traditional television coverage with online and mobile components to provide fans with a multiplatform experience. “Turner Sports is known for its innovation in presenting content across multiple platforms, and this is another example of that strategy,” said Tim Napoleon, Chief Strategist for Digital Media at Akamai. “Organizations like Turner Sports are leading the charge with live streaming and taking the fan experience to a whole new level to mobile devices. Streaming the PGA Championship live to the iPhone and iPod touch brings a personalized and high-quality experience to even more golf fans, no matter where they are. With increasingly better connectivity over WiFi, we’ve reached the point where high definition experiences are no longer limited to the PC.”
Variable bit rate streaming benefits the consumer by enabling a high fidelity viewing experience at any bitrate – critical for mobile video as viewing conditions vary dramatically between carrier edge networks to 3G to WIFI. Using Akamai HTTP Streaming for iPhone and Inlet Technologies SpinnakerTM solution to deliver live and on-demand content, content owners can enable higher-quality video experiences at near HD bitrates over WiFi and 3G.
“Inlet works closely with Akamai to ensure our live encoding service for mobile applications works seamlessly across the Akamai network to provide for the optimal live video experience,” said John Bishop, senior vice president of strategy and business development, Inlet Technologies. “Working with Akamai we are able to provide a smooth end to end process for content providers to make it easier to deliver next generation video experiences – such as variable bit rate streaming.”
