Marvell Technology Integrates Sorenson Spark Video Decoder into Platform Solutions

Posted by Derrick on August 5, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

Sorenson Media announced that the Sorenson Spark Software Developers Kit (SDK) has been licensed by Marvell Technology to incorporate the Sorenson Spark decoder in Marvell products. Sorenson Spark will be included in the company’s platform solutions designed to scale with set-top boxes, media players, e-readers, netbooks, smart phones, high-performance tablets and other advanced mobile devices.

Sorenson Spark is the industry’s most ubiquitous video codec and was the first codec used in Macromedia Flash, now Adobe Flash. The decoder exclusively enables the playback of hundreds of millions of videos on the Internet, including those on YouTube, the single largest online video destination today. The Sorenson Spark SDK allows developers to integrate the Sorenson Spark decoder into a wide array of programmable chipsets and semiconductors. The kit is designed to provide Sorenson Spark decoding on any platform, including custom silicon.

Marvell is a leading fabless semiconductor company with expertise in microprocessor architecture.   Marvell’s multiple platforms included networked Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, media players, mobile and wireless, and high volume storage solutions. These are used to power the complete value chain of mobile and wireless devices.

“Marvell is a technology leader, driving highly efficient and scalable platform solutions for consumers worldwide,” said Douglas Cebik, director of business development of Sorenson Media.  “Now, the company’s high performance mobile platforms will be able to play Internet video using the industry’s most common codec and consumers will enjoy more complete access to the full world of online video.”

VP8 Video from Anystream Avalon and Agility 2G

Posted by Derrick on August 1, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

Anystream, the leading provider of automated multi-platform media publishing solutions, announced that Agility 2G and Avalon products will produce VP8 video in support of the WebM initiative.

“A key factor in the web’s success is that its core technologies are open and freely implementable. Video is fundamental to the web experience, and developers and content publishers need an open video format option,” said Mike Jazayeri, Group Product Manager at Google. “We are excited Grab Networks is joining a broad coalition of industry leaders supporting the WebM project to bring a new era of open innovation in web video.”

“Avalon with VP8 automates media packaging for on-line distribution to YouTube.” said Jim Duval, Director of Product Management at Anystream.  “Avalon eliminates the complexity of manually assembling and validating media, metadata, graphics and other media elements that are required by YouTube and other digital media distribution outlets.”

Agility 2G automates and streamlines content production and delivery for television, web and mobile media applications.  In a single workflow, Avalon assembles and validates commercial metadata that is seen in the promotions and displays on video portals, electronic storefronts and electronic program guides.  Avalon also converts media into the specified formats and packages the content with the metadata into media products that conform to all of the delivery requirements.

Shipment of Agility 2G with VP8 will begin in the second half of 2010.

LifeSize Communications Chooses Wowza for Video Streaming Solution

Posted by Derrick on July 4, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

Wowza Media Systems, the media server company, announced that LifeSize Communications, a division of Logitech, has licensed the Wowza Media Server 2 software to support the delivery of streaming video via LifeSize Video Center.

Organizations are increasingly using video communications to share knowledge and communicate critical information. The unified streaming capabilities of Wowza Media Server 2 provide an effective solution to broadly extend the high definition video experience to desktop and mobile participants.

“Wowza shares our vision to make HD video communications accessible to anyone, anywhere,” said Rafi Anuar, product manager, LifeSize Communications. “The integration of Wowza software helps us give customers a cost-efficient video delivery architecture while expanding the type of devices they reach.”

Wowza software is part of LifeSize Video Center, the industry’s first solution to enable an unprecedented 20 concurrent recordings in HD, 1000 simultaneous live streams and up to 350 simultaneous on-demand streams, all in crisp, 720p30 HD video.

“Businesses who are serious about visual communications are looking for easy to use, highly efficient and integrated solutions that don’t limit them to specific client technologies or devices,” said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and co-founder, Wowza Media Systems. “Placing our unified media server software as a component in LifeSize products takes immersive video to a new level of performance, cost effectiveness and simplicity.”

Wowza Media Server 2 is the first in the industry to offer a single software platform capable of simultaneously delivering video from a single encoded source to multiple clients and devices, including Adobe’s Flash player, Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Microsoft’s Silverlight and others. First to democratize media streaming, Wowza Media Server is recognized as the Streaming Media Readers’ Choice for Best Innovation of 2009.

Encoding to Windows Media Standard in Squeeze 6 for Mac

Posted by Derrick on June 27, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

Encoding to Windows Media Standard in Squeeze 6 for Mac is different than in the past with using Squeeze 4 and 5. Most likely you’ll think that it’s not possible in Squeeze 6 if you look under the Windows Media Presets. However, it is possible just a little hidden in this latest version.

The benefit of using Windows Media Standard is you can encode videos using 2-pass CBR and get other features for encoding Windows Media video files.   First, you must have a license of  Telestream’s Flip4Mac WMV. OK, so let’s show you where to look to encode to Windows Media Standard in Squeeze 6.

Navigate to the presets in Squeeze 6 and choose the Formats view.  Click on the + button similar to above and choose the creation of a QuickTime Export preset.

When the next dialog opens choose Windows Media from the Pop-up Menu.

Now on the right of the Custom preset dialog you’ll see an Option button on the right towards the top.  Click the Option button.

Now you can see all the options available for encoding to Windows Media. Bascially these are the Flip4Mac options.  Within Flip4Mac you can choose your desired output settings as well as 2-pass CBR or other compression methods. You can also select the Windows Media Standard option.  Once you make your adjustments click the OK button.

Now you should see your compression preset for output to Windows Media Standard listed under the Windows Media presets with the QuickTime Export options.

Create FTP Accounts on Windows 2003 Server with FileZilla Server

Posted by Derrick on June 17, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

Create FTP Accounts on Windows 2003 Server with FileZilla Server.  This is a free tool that you can use on your PC Server to quickly set-up your accounts.  The tool is straightforward and easy to use and works similar to other FTP tools.  FileZilla is not available on the Mac platform so you’ll need another FTP tool for that.  One of the benefits you’ll find with using FileZilla Server is the capability it gives you for creating accounts for on-demand streaming media. You can use FileZilla Server to create FTP accounts on your Windows Media Streaming Server, Wowza Media Server or Web Server.  Be sure to utilize this tool to keep your costs down and get started with your streaming media delivery.