ViewCast’s New Niagara 4100 Streaming Media Appliance Delivers Rugged Portability

Posted by Derrick on August 26, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over enterprise, broadband, and mobile networks, today unveiled the Niagara 4100, the next evolution in ViewCast’s portfolio of portable, high-performance streaming media appliances. Ruggedized and compact for on-the-go mobility and featuring ViewCast’s easy-to-use system controls, the Niagara 4100 enables the ingest and transformation of high-definition (HD) video for delivery to the web, from virtually any location.

“Once the exclusive domain of professional studios and broadcasters, high-definition programming is now within reach for any organization with the desire to capture and stream live action wherever it happens,” said ViewCast President and CEO Dave Stoner. “With the Niagara 4100, we’ve synthesized our best-in-class streaming capabilities and rich system design expertise to elevate the state-of-the-art for on-location streaming. Portable, pro-caliber streaming has never been more accessible, more cost-effective, or more intuitive.”

The Niagara 4100 is ideally suited for live sports, news and event coverage, webcasting, or any other streaming application that requires ultra-reliable mobile flexibility. Organizations spanning broadcasting, athletics, corporate enterprise, government, higher education, and worship can quickly and easily equip for on-location streaming in even the most demanding environments, yielding new opportunities to expand viewership and associated marketing and sponsorship revenue.

With the ability to simultaneously stream in multiple resolutions at multiple data rates in multiple streaming formats – including MPEG-4, Adobe Flash H.264, Windows Media (Silverlight compatible) and Apple HTTP Live (iPhone) – Niagara 4100 users are afforded the broadest possible range of streaming options to reach the broadest possible audience. The Niagara 4100 can ingest standard-definition (SD) or HD video sources through its SDI input, and can accommodate a variety of audio input formats, including embedded SDI, AES/EBU, and balanced or unbalanced stereo.

With a portable, streamlined chassis, an easy-to-use web interface, and intuitive front panel controls, setup and operation is quick and easy. The Niagara 4100 comes standard with front panel A, B, C buttons that can be pre-configured independently to activate different streaming profiles to meet the needs of any streaming application. Users can control all key functions from the front-panel controls, or the unit can be accessed remotely anywhere on the network through its built-in web interface.

The Niagara 4100 is compact and self-contained in an impact-resistant shell, precluding the need for a keyboard, monitor or mouse. All rear-panel connections are recessed for maximum protection, and the built-in handle ensures on-the-go portability.

Time-saving pre-processing features provided standard with the Niagara 4100 include scaling, cropping, de-interlacing, inverse telecine and closed-caption extraction and rendering capabilities. Users can also customize streams with bitmap overlays that accommodate logos and/or graphics to ensure prominent, consistent branding.

2 Day Training covers H.264 vs MPEG-4

Posted by Derrick on July 10, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

Our 2 Day Training covers H.264 vs MPEG-4.  This is one of the benefits of our 2-Day Video Streaming and Compression Training.   Besides learning how to encode to Windows Media, Real Media, QuickTime, H.264 and Flash students learn about MPEG-4’s and H.264’s role in the MPEG-4 standard.  Our 2-Day Video Streaming and Compression class also provides students with fully functional web authoring templates for streaming video. Check our Video Streaming Training Schedule to participate in the next 2-Day Video Streaming and Compression Training. You can also call us at 407.477.5837 or E-mail us at info@freemancompression.com to get more details.

TVTI Selects ViewCast Osprey 700e HD Video Capture Cards

Posted by Derrick on January 24, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over IP and mobile networks, announced that TVTI Video Technologies Inc. has selected ViewCast’s award-winning Osprey 700e HD video capture cards to underpin the company’s video analytics solutions and services for professional sports teams. With high performance Osprey 700e HD cards at the heart of TVTI’s HD video infrastructure, coaches and scouts are afforded a high resolution view of player and team performance mechanics.

“TVTI clients such as the New York Yankees rely on our video analytics technology to help them improve team performance and assess competitors’ weaknesses,” said Mark Watson, founder of TVTI. “Ultimately, the value that we provide to our clients begins at the video capture stage. Osprey 700e cards equip us with the performance and reliability that we need to satisfy our world champion clientele, while providing the configuration and management flexibility that we need to drive cost and resource efficiencies across our systems.“

“The professional athletics market is yielding some of the most exciting, innovative applications of video capture and streaming technology in the industry, and TVTI and its clients are at the forefront of this trend,” said ViewCast President and CEO Dave Stoner. “ViewCast’s advanced HD capture and streaming solutions are the ideal fit for any athletics organization seeking a high performance, high throughput video platform to efficiently deliver content to coaches, players, and fans.“

TVTI has deployed numerous Osprey 700e-equipped video/data capture systems into the field for use onsite at clients’ home games, with great results. The New York Yankees are using a TVTI system to record and archive four angles of every pitch in HD. Using four Dell Precision workstations equipped with Osprey 700e HD cards, the Yankees’ video production team records approximately 300 pitches per game, yielding 1200 raw HD AVI files for each home game. The video files are later compressed, organized, and archived for rapid retrieval.

Back at TVTI headquarters, racks of Osprey 700e-equipped Dell Precision workstations are employed to record MLB and NHL game feeds throughout the day. TVTI software tools are used to segment these feeds into individual ‘event’ files and synchronize these files with player-specific statistical data provided by third-party partners. The video is then distributed to clients, who will use it to analyze their competitors in the days preceding a game.

Renowned for their performance, reliability and management versatility, Osprey 700e HD cards enable advanced capabilities such as dual SD/HD support with seamless on-the-fly signal switching, and the ability to feed multiple encoders (RealVideo, Windows Media, Adobe Flash and MPEG-4) at the same time in any combination. The Osprey 700e HD card provides TVTI with the bandwidth required to deliver up to 1080i video resolution via a high-speed PCI Express bus, and also features configurable archiving capabilities that help simplify post-processing workflows for TVTI’s video scouting service.

Adding Video MIME types to Windows 2003 Server for Downloadable Streaming

Posted by Derrick217 on October 8, 2009 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

For those that are using the Windows 2003 Server and you desire to use the formats such as Flash (.FLV), and MPEG-4 and H.264 (.mp4) for download streaming you’ll need to add these MIME types to your server before you can stream your content.

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to do it:

Option #1 for Adding MIME types- at the Global Level

If you need to add a MIME type for a Web Server that uses IIS such as Windows 2003 Server first go to Administrative Tools and choose Internet Information Services (IIS). Once you get in the IIS Window you can add your MIME type by selecting the local computer and choosing the Action pull-down menu and selecting Properties.

Next go in and add your MIME type by clicking the MIME Types button.

Once in the MIME types dialog you can add your MIME type by clicking the New button and adding the format extension plus the MIME type. For example, for Flash Video you would type in .FLV for the extension and video/x-flv for the MIME type.

Option #2 for Adding MIME types – At the Web Directory level

For adding a MIME type at the Web Directory Level you go to Administrative Tools and choose Internet Information Services (IIS).

Select the Web Sites Folder in the IIS Manager and choose the Action Pull-down menu and select Properties.

Click the HTTP Headers Tab and go in and select the MIME Types button on the bottom of the dialog.

Now you can click the New button and add you MIME type. Use the same process you used for adding a MIME at the Global level.