Posted by Derrick on August 26, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | 
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.
Tags: Adobe Flash H.264, Apple HTTP Live, cropping, de-interlacing, HD, inverse telecine and closed-caption extraction, iPhone, MPEG-4, Niagara 4100, portable, streaming formats, Streaming Media Appliance, video for delivery to the web, ViewCast, webcasting, windows media
Posted by Derrick on July 30, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression |
ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over enterprise, broadband, and mobile networks, announced that venerable book and digital content publisher HarperCollins has selected advanced streaming media solutions from ViewCast and Adobe Systems Incorporated to power the company’s live streaming and video on demand (VOD) media programming. With ViewCast Niagara streaming media encoders and Adobe Flash Media Server software at the heart of HarperCollins’ new digital conference center, the company is equipped with a feature-rich, easy to use streaming media platform for real-time and pre-recorded corporate communication and events.
Constructed at HarperCollins’ corporate headquarters in New York, the company’s new digital conference center was designed to facilitate live and on-demand broadcasting of executive addresses, guest speaker presentations, company meetings and corporate training programs to company employees. To ensure optimal streaming performance, reliability and manageability, HarperCollins implemented ViewCast Niagara streaming media encoders – including the Niagara 2120 and a Niagara GoStream SURF – networked to two servers running Adobe Flash Media Server software.
“HarperCollins is at the forefront of leveraging online video to improve business communications and collaboration between their employees and stakeholders across the enterprise,” said Scott Wellwood, director of business development for Rich Media at Adobe. “It’s exciting to see the combination of the Adobe Flash Platform and ViewCast Niagara encoders, bringing cutting-edge technology that meets critical business needs. With the leading Web design and development platform, Adobe helps partners create expressive applications, content, and video that runs consistently across operating systems and devices, and reaches more than 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops in the Enterprise.”
“HarperCollins’ innovative implementation of ViewCast Niagara encoders and Adobe Flash Media Server underscores the value and operational agility that streaming media can bring to any business, and reaffirms the strength of ViewCast’s technology integration with the Adobe Flash Platform,” said ViewCast president and CEO Dave Stoner. “For corporate communication applications, emails and memos can never match the immediacy and impact enabled via online video streaming. Even for a centuries-old company born of the printing press, digital media has the power to transform the scope and effectiveness of key business initiatives.”
“With ViewCast, we were assured proven, professional-grade streaming media systems that were easy to deploy and intuitive to use, complemented with excellent service and support,” said Steve Leiterstein, Senior Director, Desktop Services, HarperCollins. “The Adobe Flash Platform provides a rich, bandwidth-optimized viewing experience across all of our supported operating systems.”
Tags: Adobe Flash Media Server, encoders, Live Streaming, mobile, Niagara, Niagara 2120, Niagara GoStream SURF, online video streaming, streaming media encoders, streaming media solutions, streaming media systems, Video, video on demand, ViewCast, ViewCast Niagara
Posted by Derrick on May 22, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression |
ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over IP and mobile networks, announced support of the WebM open web media project and the open sourcing of the VP8 video codec. Starting the third quarter of this year, Niagara SCX will enable users to capture and stream video utilizing VP8 – the high performance, open-source video codec that contributes to the WebM project under a royalty free license.
WebM gives developers the ability to innovate with and deploy high-quality video compression technology without the constraints of title-based royalty fees or other license fees. Device manufacturers can also integrate successive generations of video technology without additional royalties. End users will enjoy high-quality video and smooth video playback on all their web video devices, including low-power devices, such as netbooks and mobile phones. Mozilla, Opera, Google, YouTube, and many major software and hardware manufacturers have already expressed plans to support VP8 and WebM.
“Web-based video is the fastest-growing contributor to data usage over IP networks, and we applaud the introduction of a high-quality, open source video format option,” said ViewCast President and CEO Dave Stoner. “ViewCast always strives to enable our customers to achieve the best possible video experience on the Web. By offering support for both H.264 and WebM streaming formats, we reinforce our commitment to leverage new video technologies as they emerge, and keep pace with developments as the web continues to evolve.”
“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 ViewCast is joining a broad coalition of industry leaders supporting the WebM project to bring a new era of open innovation in web video.”
Niagara SCX software comes pre-installed on the Niagara Pro II, Niagara GoStream SURF and Niagara 7500 streaming media appliances. All ViewCast streaming media appliances are designed to deliver the quality, features and ease-of-use convenience that professional broadcasters demand. They are pre-configured, plug-and-play solutions that enable users to quickly capture and broadcast premium quality audio and video in multiple formats and at multiple bit rates – all simultaneously.
Tags: codec, h.264, media, Niagara SCX, open source, Project, software, streaming, Video, video compression, ViewCast, VP8, Web-based video, WebM
Posted by Derrick on April 28, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression |
ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over IP and mobile networks, announced the release of Niagara SCX 6.2 – an enhanced version of the company’s powerful streaming media management software that now supports HTTP-based adaptive streaming to Apple iPhone, iPad and iTouch mobile devices. New features include integrated segmenting, adaptive bit-rate encoding, support for CDN authentication protocols, and built-in AES-128 encryption. Niagara SCX software supports all of the most popular media formats, including Adobe Flash Dynamic Streaming, Windows Media, RealVideo, 3GPP and others.
“The adaptive and dynamic capabilities that we’ve brought to Niagara SCX 6.2 will markedly improve the live streaming delivery experience for both broadcasters and iPhone users,” said Dave Stoner, President and CEO of ViewCast. “By eliminating the need for an external stream segmenter, we have also simplified encoding workflows and reduced overall system costs. Adaptive HTTP streaming for Apple iPhone mobile devices is the first of many extended features that we have planned for Niagara SCX v6 software in 2010.”
Tags: 3GPP, adaptive, Adobe Flash, Apple, bit rate, Corporation, devices, Dynamic, encoding, HTTP-based, iPad, iPhone, iTouch, live, management, media, mobile, Niagara, RealVideo, SCX, streaming, ViewCast, windows media, workflows
Posted by Derrick on November 10, 2009 under Video Streaming and Compression |
ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over IP and mobile networks, announced that President and CEO David Stoner will be speaking at the Sports Video Group’s second-annual Venue Technology Summit in Dallas on November 11. This year’s event will take place in one of the most technologically advanced stadiums ever designed: the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Attendees will enjoy an in-depth technical overview of the new stadium’s groundbreaking video facility, as well as panel discussions and workshops covering some of the hottest topics facing venue technology professionals.
Stoner will participate in the afternoon panel (2:45 pm – 3:45 pm) on Understanding Fiber, IP, and Wireless Technology. The panel will discuss how next-generation technologies are transforming sports venues into massive communication hubs that can deliver content to fans more easily than ever. The discussion will lay out the basics of the technologies and help venue personnel and architects understand how they can change venue design and systems integration to better achieve their programming objectives.
“I have been involved in engineering and operations management of technology companies engaged in video and imaging technology and hardware and software development for more than 20 years, and I look forward to sharing my expertise with fellow participants in this year’s Venue Technology summit,” said Stoner. “ViewCast has been at the forefront of innovative solutions that are tailor-made for large venue broadcasting. By sharing knowledge about next-generation technologies, like our turnkey IP-based streaming media systems, we can enable venue technology professionals to deliver the professional-quality video programming they need to grow their market share beyond conventional coverage areas.“
