Posted by Derrick on January 30, 2011 under Video Streaming and Compression | 
Telestream, a leading provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, announced that its Wirecast live webcasting software was selected by Pixel Corps, a guild of digital media content creators, for use at two major events last week in San Francisco. Wirecast was used to stream live broadcasts from the floor at Macworld 2011 Expo, as well as from the Final Cut Pro User Group (FCPUG) Supermeet on Friday evening, January 28.
“Wirecast is the easiest way to switch multiple cameras and stream live to multiple destinations at multiple compression rates and resolutions,” said Alex Lindsay, Chief Architect at Pixel Corps. “I do not know of any other software system that is as flexible as Wirecast, in terms of being able to do all of this from one consumer computer. It’s a great live streaming production tool.”
At Macworld and the Supermeet, Lindsay used Wirecast to create lower third graphics and transitions, and streamed video broadcasts live to Pixel Corp’s website and to the Supermeet website. Lindsay also roamed the Macworld show floor with a live video backpack. These feeds, along with green screen 3D video and stereo broadcasting being were composited in Pixel Corps booth and submitted directly to Wirecast for live streaming and recording to disk.
Wirecast is live video production software for laptop and desktop computers that is available for a fraction of the cost of broadcast hardware equipment. Wirecast works just like a video switcher, controlling real-time switching between multiple cameras while mixing in other media such as pre-recorded video, audio, and graphics. With features such as chroma key, transitions, 3D graphics, and built-in titles, Wirecast offers high production value for the creation of professional webcasts.
More information about Wirecast and Telestream can be found at www.telestream.net. More information about Pixel Corps can be found at www.pixelcorps.com.
Tags: Compression, live broadcasts, Live Streaming, live streaming production tool, live video production software, live webcasting software, multiple cameras, multiple compression rates, real-time switching, stream, streaming production tool, Telestream, webcasts, Wirecast
Posted by Derrick on December 25, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression |
Telestream gives the gift of Wirecast for Live Streaming. When Wirecast came on the scene two years ago it was truly a present for those looking to launch into the Webcasting space. Since bursting on the scene after the acquisition of Vara Software, Wirecast has satisfied the appetite of many content providers, churches, television stations and educational institutions desiring to delivery Live Streaming with PowerPoint, PDFs, screen displays, videos, commercials, lower thirds, and multiple cameras. This year’s newest gift of Wirecast 4 actually came before Christmas and instead of just one gift it was two. Telestream’s early gift this year was Wirecast 4 along with big brother Wirecast Pro 4. To learn more about the newest gifts given by Telestream, in the form of Wirecast 4 and Wirecast Pro 4, visit the Telestream website for more details. There’s just too much information about these two products to list in one blog post. Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy the gift of Wirecast 4 or Wirecast Pro 4 by purchasing one of these Live Streaming tools.
Tags: .PDFs, Commercials, Live Streaming, Live Streaming tools, Live Streaming with PowerPoint, Lower Thirds, multiple cameras, screen displays, Telestream, videos, webcasting, Wirecast, wirecast 4, Wirecast Pro 4
Posted by Derrick on November 12, 2010 under Industry News |
Telestream, a leading provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, announced immediate availability of Wirecast 4 live webcasting production software. Wirecast offers an affordable software alternative to costly hardware broadcasting solutions for producing compelling video broadcasts for the web. Wirecast 4 features a new Pro version along with a new intuitive user interface and integrated support for Blackmagic capture cards plus improved high-quality Main Concept H.264 and On2 VP6 Flash video formats. Wirecast Pro builds on existing advanced video production capabilities to add more rich graphic content, including 3D virtual sets and scoreboards. Wirecast Pro also includes input support for IP and HDV cameras and Telestream’s Pipeline video capture system, providing greater flexibility in professional broadcast, entertainment, and sports environments.
The Seattle Seahawks put Wirecast 4 to the test. “We used Wirecast 4 in the production of our live streaming press conferences and web shows, and the overall experience was flawless,” said Kenton Olson, Director of Digital & Emerging Media for the Seattle Seahawks and Sounders FC.
“You don’t have to be a television broadcaster with a television budget to produce live shows anymore,” adds Benjamin Higginbotham, owner of Spacevidcast. “Using Wirecast 4 with its support for Blackmagic capture cards and Main Concept H.264 format, I can create a professional-looking show in seconds for a fraction of the price and stream high-quality video to just about anywhere in the world. This is the start of something amazing.”
Wirecast 4 is now available in two product configurations for Mac and PC users: Wirecast (US$449) and Wirecast Pro (US$995). The new user interface – with enhanced shot editor, user-definable layers and source-settings editor – makes Wirecast even easier to use. New features include refreshed title templates (lower-thirds) and new input support for Blackmagic Intensity Pro, Decklink SDI and Decklink Duo capture cards. New, integrated destination support includes Brightcove, a leading online video platform, and Sermon.net, a major sermon network. In addition to 3D virtual sets and scoreboards, Wirecast Pro adds HDV and IP camera support plus enhanced audio controls with sync delay as standard features.
“Wirecast 4 is an amazing upgrade that raises the bar in live webcasting. New features and re-vamped user interface allow both the novice and seasoned professional to produce high-quality HD video content for streaming over a choice of live video publishing and distribution sites. With new Pro features like virtual studio sets, audio mixing and output to external monitors, Wirecast 4 offers price/performance and features that just can’t be found in other products,” said Jeff Zajas, video blogger at RVTravelTV.com.
“With Wirecast, anyone can create powerful live webcasts and stream them to audiences on the web,” said Barbara DeHart, Vice President of Marketing at Telestream. “All that is needed is a camera, a laptop and Wirecast to make affordable production and streaming a reality. Wirecast is used to create user-generated content for sites like YouTube and Ustream, stream live event keynotes like CES and entertainment like Live Earth, in addition to government, house of worship and education venues.”
Wirecast is video streaming software that can be loaded on a laptop to broadcast live events and create professional webcasts from any location with only a computer and an Internet connection. Users can stream multiple live cameras while dynamically mixing in other media such as prerecorded video, audio and graphics. Advanced production capabilities include 3D graphics, transitions and built-in titles which merge seamlessly with Wirecast’s layering system, allowing users to easily create live and on-demand broadcasts for the web. When ready to go live, broadcasts can be streamed directly to live broadcasting websites using Flash, QuickTime or Windows Media.
Wirecast 4 is now available as a free update for existing customers and as an upgrade to Wirecast Pro for US$546. Wirecast and Wirecast Pro are available for immediate purchase and free trial download at www.telestream.net/wirecast. More information is available at www.telestream.net.
Posted by Derrick on September 29, 2010 under Industry News |
Telestream, a leading provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, announced release of Episode 6, the only cross-platform, multiformat software encoder on the market that offers scalability from the desktop to a workgroup or server cluster. Episode Version 6 brings industry-first One Click Clustering with integrated file sharing to content owners, professional videographers, and post-production facilities. This powerful new feature allows users to easily pool resources and share encoding tasks across multiple computers in a mixed environment of PC and Mac computers. A new, intuitive user interface with graphical workflow builder simplifies the encoding process. New deployment capabilities in version 6, including automatic uploading to YouTube, enable greater audience reach.
“Setting up a cluster couldn’t be easier,” reports Brent Kirsten, Owner and Creative Director at digitalcore, a San Francisco video production and post facility. ” With Episode’s simple clustering features, it’s effortless to maximize our horsepower when we need it. We’ve been waiting for a solution like this for our SAN; it will save us hours of time.”
Dylan Armajani, System Administrator at New York-based 24-hour lifestyle network, Plum TV concurs, “We love Episode 6 and plan to deploy it in all nine of our locations. It is an incredibly feature-rich and robust program with a straight-forward user interface that even novice users can operate with very little training. Within 10 minutes of receiving the product, I had our watch folders delivering numerous different encodes: to our CDN for web playback, to our video playout servers for broadcast, and another straight to YouTube. From one watch folder I could push a single video to all of our various destinations.”
New video format support includes WebM, the web media format, based on the VP8 open source video codec, as well as high-quality Main Concept H.264 and MPEG formats. Because of Episode’s high-quality 10-bit processing, Telestream has been licensed to distribute the Apple ProRes codec, which enables native decoding and encoding in the Mac version of Episode 6 right out of the box.
New deployment capabilities allow users to automatically deliver completed content using standard network delivery protocols, and upload content to popular video sharing websites like YouTube. All these new capabilities are easily accessible through the new user interface and graphical workflow builder, which allows users to visually create and view the steps in their encoding process. Video compressionist Jan Ozer describes the new user interface as “brilliant” in his Episode 6 video tour which can be found on StreamingMedia.com.
Episode is an all-in-one video encoder that provides extensive format support for post-production, new media, web and mobile encoding environments. Best-in-class video processing, full 10-bit support and hands-on control with frame-by-frame video preview allow users to generate excellent picture quality. For time-critical workflows, parallel encoding and unique Split-and-Stitch technology allow users to distribute files across a cluster of Mac or PC servers or saturate the processing power of a single machine to achieve remarkable encoding speeds.
Posted by Derrick on August 13, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression |
Telestream, the leading provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, announced the execution of a definitive agreement to acquire the business operations of the Anystream division of Grab Networks. The combination will further extend Telestream’s position in the software video transcoding market and significantly enhance the company’s ability to provide enterprise-class, file-based and live encoding solutions across the globe.
Founded ten years ago, Anystream pioneered a solution for media companies looking to produce and transcode video to publish on the web with the introduction of their Agility products. The company grew to become a leading provider of automated multi-platform media publishing solutions, and its solutions are used by over 600 of the leading media companies in 38 countries around the world.
Once completed, the transaction will add a world-class engineering and support team, an East Coast office, and a key account sales team to Telestream’s worldwide business. The addition of Anystream’s seasoned team of professionals grows a dedicated, world-class group focused on automated multi-platform media publishing solutions within the Telestream family.
“This is a great opportunity for Telestream to accelerate its momentum helping media and entertainment companies unleash the promise of their media assets through next-generation enterprise-class solutions designed for complex multi-format workflows. Anystream’s customer base will benefit not only from Telestream’s broad end-to-end digital media tools and workflow solutions, but also from its strategic focus on transcoding,” said Dan Castles, CEO of Telestream. “This transaction is very synergistic and truly a win-win for customers, employees, and partners alike.”
“This transaction further helps the company leverage a growing market,” remarked Michelle Abraham, principal analyst with In-Stat. In-Stat expects the worldwide multiformat transcoding market to grow from $117 million to $297 million in 2014, according to the report “Worldwide Market for Enterprise-Class Multiformat Transcoders” issued August 3, 2010. The transaction is subject to various closing conditions, and the terms of the deal were not disclosed as both companies are closely-held private entities.
