Freeman Compression

Telestream Speeds Video Encoding

2009-11-08T13:41:00.002-05:00

Telestream announced that DnA Creative Services, a leading video production company in Louisiana has selected Episode® Encoder for Windows to address the company’s advanced encoding and content repurposing needs. DnA uses Episode Encoder for various applications such as convert video to MPEG for DVD, using QuickTime and Windows Media for emailing and uploading projects to clients, and Flash for embedding videos on client web sites. Episode Encoder makes it easy to import virtually any file format and encode media to Web, DVD, or mobile including portable device formats.

As a full-service media company that provides location filming, audio recording, and complete postproduction services, DnA needed a practical means of delivering TV commercials digitally to area television stations. Over the years, DnA has used several software encoders, including Sorenson Squeeze, but turned to Telestream’s Episode Encoder for Windows due to its flexibility to quickly encode a multitude of formats including high-quality broadcast formats.

One of DnA’s ongoing projects is a semi-annual modeling and talent competition. During the weeklong event, DnA does on-location editing and uses the Episode iPhone setting to quickly encode videos before showing them to event producers on the iPhone handset. With this flexibility, the producer can instantly provide approvals and comments before broadcasting on the large projection screen over the main stage, thus mitigating any additional costs for re-shoots. In addition to flexibility, DnA chose the Episode Encoder because it has the fastest encoding speeds available in a desktop video encoder, and its fine-tuning compression capabilities generate the highest-quality media files.

“Episode Encoder's impact is much greater than the dollar value we charge for encoding video. With Episode, we are totally comfortable that the encoded video will be the highest quality and the process will be very quick and simple as opposed to the worry and work-around we would have had to go through with other encoding solutions,” said David Cardwell, Owner of DnA Creative Services.

DnA also credits using Episode to encode DVD-compliant video files, which cuts the company’s time to produce a master DVD in half. Even more significant, videos on the resulting DVDs look noticeably better and in the long run the company expects to see this directly impact its bottom line.

“The Episode line continues to deliver an unprecedented customer encoding experience, and we are delighted to have customer success stories of this nature,” said Barbara DeHart, VP of Marketing at Telestream. “The innovative work DnA Creative Services is doing as the result of Episode truly changes the way the company does business. The quick encoding speeds actually allow companies such as DnA to focus on its core competencies and in this instance, I would say, the product has not only out-performed the competition, but helps deliver peace of mind.”

Free Video Streaming and Compression Tools Training in Atlanta

2009-11-07T23:29:00.007-05:00

There will be a Free Video Streaming and Compression Tools Training in Atlanta, Georgia at the Courtyard Atlanta Airport North/Virginia Avenue on Dec. 11, 2009. So If you're in or near Atlanta, Georgia and need to get familiar with video streaming and compression make sure you attend this Free Episode Encoder, Wirecast and Sawmill Professional Training in Atlanta. The training will get you up to speed with video encoding using Telestream's Episode Encoder and webcasting with Telestream's Wirecast. The training day also includes Instructor and Video Streaming and Compression Consultant, Derrick Freeman, teaching attendees how to perform log file analysis using Sawmill Professional. You can Click Here to Register for the Event in Atlanta.

Brightcove Cited as an Online Video Platform Leader

2009-11-06T15:01:00.000-05:00

Brightcove Inc., the leading online video platform, announced it was recognized as a leader by Forrester Research, Inc. in its report, The Forrester Wave: U.S. Online Video Platforms, Q4 2009. Brightcove was among the select companies that Forrester invited to participate in its Wave report, and the company received top scores across all of the major evaluation categories.

According to the report, “Brightcove’s offering is the most comprehensive video platform in this Forrester Wave evaluation; it consistently scores high marks with few, if any, gaps. The company’s customer base, video scale, and internal resources are unrivaled in the market today. Brightcove’s significant resources and road map position the company to stay ahead in the video platform race.”

“Brightcove is honored to be recognized by Forrester as a leading online video platform,” said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. “This is an exciting time for the online video industry, as video is becoming as pervasive as text on the Web and nearly every professional website is looking to publish video. We see an enormous global opportunity to establish Brightcove as the dominant platform for professional video publishing on the Web, and we believe this recognition from Forrester further validates our leadership position in the market.”

Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of six U.S. online video platform vendors against 37 criteria in three major categories – current offering, strategy and market presence. Platforms were evaluated against several features, including media management, user-generated video, player capabilities, publishing capabilities, distribution capabilities, monetization capabilities, reporting capabilities, internationalization, integration, scalability, and service offerings. Strategy was measured against the vendor’s ability to envision the future needs of the marketplace, the road map required to meet these needs, partner relationships and executive team experience. Customer base and financial strength were measured to determine market presence.

Setting the File Output Location in Sorenson Squeeze

2009-11-05T23:05:00.005-05:00

Setting the file output location in Sorenson Squeeze is done inside the Squeeze Preferences. This is valuable when you want to have all of your encoding output to a specific location. Here's how to define the Default Output Location in Squeeze.

Navigate to the Squeeze pull-down menu and select Preferences.

By default Same as Source is selected. To set another location for your output files

click the Radio button and the Browse button to navigate to the new destination.

Navigate to the folder that you want to save files to. In my case I'll select the Movies folder. Next click the Choose button.

Now the Movies folder appears as my Default Output Location. All files encoded will now go to this output destination.

Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced Gains More Than 1,000 Beta Customers

2009-11-04T16:12:00.006-05:00

Wowza Media Systems®, the media server software company, announced that more than 1,000 beta customers are using a preview release of its Wowza Media Server® 2 Advanced software, including numerous customers who have already deployed Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced servers in production networks.

Among the first production deployments was global CDN Mirror Image Internet, which launched a Wowza-powered multi-protocol video delivery service for Flash®, iPhone™ and other desktop and mobile clients. In addition to content delivery networks like Mirror Image, Wowza has seen a surge in adoption of its new server from online TV platforms and television broadcasters.

Early adopter Livestation, an online destination for global TV and radio news, is using Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced to offer live broadcasts from international channels like BBC World News, C-SPAN, Deutsche Welle, euronews and others to viewers on multiple screens – the iPhone, desktop and other devices.

“Wowza is changing the way the business of online video content delivery is conducted and is doing so in a way that generates value across the entire content delivery chain,” said Matteo Berlucchi, CEO, Livestation. “Whether you are an online TV platform like us or a content creator, the power and flexibility of the Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced cannot be ignored. And at the end of the day, that enables us to bring quality content to the everyday consumer on any device – a strong value proposition for our customers as well as our viewers.”

Spanish national broadcast channel laSexta and a UK-based TVCatchup, an online TV platform delivering over 30 channels from broadcaster like BBC, Sky and Virgin, have deployed Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced for concurrent Flash and iPhone streaming.

“Wowza gave us a unified streaming platform that greatly simplified our infrastructure and gave us tremendous competitive and cost advantage,” commented Guillermo Revuelta, systems engineer, laSexta. “The combination of these capabilities along with Wowza’s incredible customer support is what makes all the difference. I can’t think of television streaming without it going forward.”

“The Wowza unified workflow architecture is a real breakthrough,” said Nick Parr, co-founder, TVCatchup. “The ability to serve multiple client technologies from one streaming platform has greatly improved our market reach. As demand for our service continues to soar, Wowza remains our first and indeed the only choice for media servers.”

Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced is the world’s first multi-protocol unified media streaming platform to provide media properties, service providers, enterprises and other organizations the ability to deliver video to the three most popular digital screens – computer, mobile phone, and IPTV set-top boxes – without the need for costly investments in separate client-specific technologies for the encoding, storage and delivery.

“Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced provides a dramatic shift towards a democratization of video that is focused on the needs of all involved in the content delivery value chain, from creators to consumers. Instead of locking the industry into special-interest media platforms, protocols and players, Wowza 2 Advanced provides a unified platform for content delivery to multiple players” said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and co-founder, Wowza Media Systems. “Built on the proven Wowza Media Server platform currently deployed by more than 30,000 licensees worldwide, Wowza 2 Advanced is the first media server software to truly unify streaming capabilities in a simple delivery workflow.”   

The Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced has been named a finalist in the category of Best Streaming Innovation by the readers of Streaming Media magazine. The winner will be announced on November 19 at the Readers' Choice Awards reception at the Streaming Media West/Online Video Platform event in San Jose, CA. A live demonstration of Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced will be conducted at Wowza Media booth number 527.

BlackArrow Provides VOD Ad Insertion Technology for Comcast On Demand Service

2009-11-03T23:24:00.006-05:00

BlackArrow, a leading worldwide provider of advanced advertising solutions for New Television platforms, announced that its video-on-demand (VOD) ad insertion platform has gone live in Jacksonville, Florida with Comcast Corporation, the nation’s leading provider of entertainment, information and communication products and services. Comcast has chosen BlackArrow’s Advanced Advertising System to lead its ad insertion technology for its On Demand programming.

BlackArrow’s Advanced Advertising System gives programmers and cable operators a real-time, multiplatform campaign management and decision system for offering more timely and relevant ads in their On Demand sessions. Traditionally, advertising campaigns in video-on-demand content have had limited effectiveness due to the static nature of the ads being encoded directly into the VOD stream. In the Jacksonville market, Comcast is inserting standard 15- and 30-second promotional spots as well as newly introduced 20-second spots designed to drive tune-in for upcoming shows and specials on PBS KIDS Sprout and FEARnet in a dynamic environment.

Diana Kerekes, vice president of Video Content for Comcast, said, “The ability to update VOD advertising will help us offer feature parity with traditional linear and Internet-based advertising systems. We’re pleased to be working with a technology leader like BlackArrow as we look for ways to offer our programming partners expanded opportunities to monetize their content offerings.”

“Comcast has led the industry in creating new opportunities to reach consumers in the on-demand marketplace, and we’re excited to be working with them,” said Dean Denhart, chief executive officer, BlackArrow. “By combining BlackArrow’s expertise in advanced VOD advertising platforms with Comcast’s VOD leadership, we hope to expand the business model significantly for on-demand advertising.”

StreamingMedia.com Announces the 2009 Streaming Media Reader's Choice Finalists

2009-11-02T19:50:00.008-05:00

StreamingMedia.com announces the 2009 Streaming Media Reader's Choice Finalists. The winners will be announced at the Readers' Choice Awards reception at the Streaming Media West/Online Video Platform event on November 19, 2009. If you're available make sure you attend the event. Winners will also be announced on the site on November 20, 2009.

Here are the finalists:

Best Online Video Startup Company – Content
EffinFunny, Legend of Neil
Invodo, Invodo Product Video Library
Purchase Brothers, Escape from City 17

Best Online Video Startup Company – Technology
Boinx, BoinxTV
Encoding.com
Livestream, Livestream

Best Streaming Innovation
Adobe Dynamic Streaming
Microsoft Smooth Streaming
Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced

Encoding Software (over $1000)
Inlet Technologies Fathom
Rhozet Carbon Coder
Telestream FlipFactory

Encoding Software (under $1000)
Adobe Media Encoder CS4
Microsoft Expression Encoder
Sorenson Squeeze

Enterprise Video Platform
Accordent Technologies Rich Media Communications Suite
Kontiki Delivery Management System
VBrick EtherneTV

Global CDN
Akamai
Highwinds
Level 3
Limelight

Hardware Encoder (HD)
Digital Rapids StreamZ HD
Telestream Pipeline HD Dual
ViewCast Niagara 7500

Hardware Encoder (SD)
Digital Rapids StreamZ/DRC-Stream
VBrick H.264 Appliance
ViewCast Niagara Pro II

Live Video Streaming Platform
Justin.tv
Livestream
Ustream

Online Video Platform (free)
Blip.tv
Vimeo
YouTube

Online Video Platform (Premium)
Brightcove
Kaltura
Sorenson 360

Portable Live Encoding Appliance
Digital Rapids TouchStream
NewTek TriCaster
ViewCast GoStream SURF

Regional (North American) Delivery Network
PowerStream
StreamGuys
Streaming Media Hosting

Reporting and Analytics Solution
Accordent Media Management System
Omniture Site Catalyst
Skytide Insight for Flash Video Players

Search and Indexing Platform
Digitalsmiths VideoSense 2.0
EveryZing MediaCloud
Gotuit VideoMarker Pro

Server Hardware/Software
Adobe Flash Media Server 3.5
Microsoft IIS7 Media Services 3.0
Wowza Media Server Pro

Streaming Music Solution
Last.fm
Live365
Pandora

Transcoding SaaS
Amazon Web Services EC2
mPOINT
Multicast Media Technologies Multicast Transcoding

Video Advertising Management Platform
Eyeblaster
Tremor Media Acudeo
YuMe ACE

Video Advertising Network
Broadband Enterprises Video Network
Tremor Media
YuMe

Webcasting/Presentations Solutions
Accordent Technologies Capture Station
ON24 Webcast Center
Sonic Foundry Mediasite 5.1

Streaming H.264 Videos with Wowza Media Server Pro

2009-11-01T23:02:00.011-05:00

Streaming H.264 Videos with Wowza Media Server Pro is common place and a great benefit of the Wowza Server. If you have a collection of H.264 real-time streaming videos you can movie the entire library to the Wowza Server since it supports real-time streaming of not only Flash videos but also H.264 videos as well. Now, it's important to note that the server doesn't support real-time streaming of MPEG-4 files but only the H.264 files. Remember in most streaming and compression applications MPEG-4 Part 2 is listed as MPEG-4 and MPEG-4 Part 10 is listed as H.264 or AVC. Why move all of your content to the Wowza Media Server Pro? Well, if you're moving the H.264 real-time content form a server such as the QuickTime Streaming Server, the move will give your content the cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility that Flash provides.

To learn more about encoding and authoring H.264 real-time streaming videos for Flash using the Wowza Media Server Pro attend one of our 1-Day Wowza Media Server Pro Trainings. The class also covers many other topics and is available on-line, on-site or in-class.

Dreamweaver Great for Authoring Streaming Video

2009-10-31T23:43:00.009-04:00

Dreamweaver is great for authoring streaming video. So, if you need to start putting video content on-line then it's a tool you should have in your arsenal. The application is featured in our 2-Day Video Streaming and Compression Trainings. One of the benefits of Dreamweaver is that it doesn't insert a lot of unnecessary code. Also, if you're authoring Flash content the task becomes a breeze. The tool automatically inserts the proper code whenever you insert a .SWF or .FLV file. You can use Dreamweaver to also author Windows Media, Real Media, QuickTime, and MPEG-4 content. Attend one of our Video Streaming and Compression Trainings to find out how to use the Dreamweaver and how to author your streaming video.

Livestream Launches Livepack - The World's First Solution for Wireless Live Streaming at HD Quality

2009-10-30T23:09:00.005-04:00

Livestream announced the availability of Livepack, a turn-key hardware solution for wireless live streaming at HD quality to hundreds of thousands of viewers on the web.

Livepack is ideal for live broadcasting any events including concerts, interviews, sporting events, town hall meetings, paparazzi, university graduations, weddings, ceremonies, transmission from a moving car, and a variety of enterprise applications.

"Livepack is like having a satellite television truck in a backpack," said Max Haot, CEO and co-founder of Livestream. "If you want to live stream in high quality at an event where you don't have a reliable fixed Internet connection, broadcasting with a cell phone cannot yet deliver either the high video quality or network reliability you need. The only other solution available is a traditional broadcast truck and satellite signal which can cost up to $50,000 a day."

Livepack is an integrated solution using hardware provided by Livestream's partner, LiveU, that has been fully integrated with Livestream's streaming video platform and content delivery network (CDN). Livepack fits in a custom-designed backpack and includes everything required to stream live: a built-in wireless connection with six load-balanced 3G/EVDO modems over three carriers, encoding hardware, Firewire cable, and 30 hours of streaming uplink time per month.

Livepack product details and recordings of live videos can be viewed at www.livestream.com/livepack. Livepack was recently used for coverage of the MTV Video Music Awards, NY Fashion Week, Harry Potter movie premiere and Pixie Lott Live.

Livestream's groundbreaking Livepack redefines simplicity for live mobile HD quality video streaming. Once Livepack is powered up, and a DV camera is connected, all it takes is just one press of a button to start the live streaming, enabling broadcasters to deliver live, on the scene, video coverage at just a fraction of what a satellite truck costs to rent and operate.

Livepack quickly establishes a reliable Internet connection and is not tied to one wireless network, as it includes six 3G/EVDO modems for redundancy. Because it integrates with Livestream's streaming video platform, Livepack does not require any additional re-encoding or server in your offices to reach its destination. Once the video reaches the Livestream content delivery network the video is immediately streamed in your Livestream player, as well as being captured and securely archived.

Freeman Compression Inc. Looking for Trainers in Rome, Italy

2009-10-30T00:04:00.006-04:00

Freeman Compression Inc. is looking for Trainers in Rome, Italy that can teach video streaming and compression training classes.

Trainers with expertise in the following are needed:

Go Stream Surf
Sorenson Squeeze
Episode Encoder Pro
Wirecast
Video and Audio Podcasting
Video Streaming
Video Compression
Sawmill Professsional
Authoring Streaming Videos with Dreamweaver
Streaming Servers

We can be reached at 407.477.5837 or by email at info@freemancompression.com.

WNYC Radio Rolls Out Innovative Radio Program with ViewCast Streaming Solution

2009-10-28T22:40:00.009-04:00

ViewCast Corporation announced that WNYC, America’s most listened-to public radio station, has selected ViewCast’s Niagara GoStream SURF portable encoding system for the station’s newly-opened The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. The Greene Space is a state-of-the-art, multi-media performance space and broadcast studio that presents live broadcasts and tapings of WNYC’s signature programs. In addition, music concerts and festivals, audio theater, literary readings, art exhibits, political debates, symposia, town hall meetings and other exciting civic and cultural events are presented in the space. Most shows from The Greene Space are webcast live and archived in real time in Adobe Flash formats via the Niagara GoStream SURF. Many programs are also made available as video-on-demand (VOD) via the WNYC website.

“With the opening of The Greene Space, thousands of visitors each year are welcomed inside WNYC to experience great radio as it is created,” said Indira Etwaroo, Executive Producer of The Greene Space. “Technology allows millions more to connect to great content by stream, and in many cases download, audio and video of our live events. This is why it was so important to outfit the space with a cutting-edge digital audio and video production system.

“We tried to configure a PC-based encoder, but the machine time and labor for encoding via software, particularly for VOD, was both difficult and expensive,” said Bill Porter, President of Whitehorse Productions, Inc. and consultant to The Greene Space, who managed the ViewCast implementation for WNYC. “ViewCast’s Niagara GoStream SURF was a cost-effective, turnkey solution to provide reliable, real-time, live streaming of video programs and performances, plus VOD turnaround by next morning.“

“WNYC’s The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space is a model of innovation and a testament to the advanced capabilities that ViewCast’s streaming media technology can facilitate for today’s forward-looking content providers,” said David Stoner, President and CEO, ViewCast. “Our plug-and-play, professional-grade Niagara streaming media systems ensure exceptional ease of use, video quality and reliability for sophisticated broadcast applications such as WNYC’s The Greene Space, enabling high-performance video capture and streaming for both live and on-demand content.“

ViewCast’s Niagara 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. Plus they are powered by ViewCast’s award-winning Osprey technology, guaranteeing exceptional quality and reliability.

Encoding H.264 Downloadable Streaming Video with Episode Encoder Pro

2009-10-27T22:34:00.020-04:00

Encoding H.264 downloadable streaming video with Episode Encoder Pro is simple to do. For this tutorial we’ll take a DV.mov source file that is 720 x 480 and 29.97 frames per second captured from an analog source. The source file has the DV/DVCPro Codec for video with PCM for audio.

To get started with encoding this file for downloadable streaming for high broadband users in Episode Encoder Pro, we first need to select our source file.

Next, drag it to the Batch area where Drag Source is displayed

Now your source file can been seen in the batch. You can also drag the video file directly to the Batch from a folder or the desktop. Let me talk a little about our source before we move forward. If you select the source and click the Enter button on your keyboard a preview of the video appears.

As my preview appears I want to point out that this source has black banding around the edges. As we encode our video we want to make sure we crop this black out of the video. It will make our output file look so much better. Now we’ll move forward to create a compression preset for our encoding. Keep in mind that these settings will be a good starting point as every source file is different and the encoder will respond differently to each source file you encode.

Open up the Templates and twirl down to the All File Formats Templates.

Once the All File Formats Templates are open navigate to the H.264 Download templates and select the H264_480x360 preset. With the preset selected Control-click and choose Duplicate from the Contextual Menu to make a copy.

You now have a copy of the preset you duplicated. Click where the H264_480x360 copy text appears to rename your preset.

Let’s call your preset H264_600k_DL and select Enter. Notice that we don’t have any spaces the preset name. This is because the preset will be used in the file naming and it’s better to take out all spaces in the encoding process. When you author video content for the web you don’t want to have spaces in your video name.

Once you rename your compression template Double-click the preset to open the setting for customizing.

When your setting is open the Output tab will appear. Since we are encoding a downloadable streaming H.264 file notice that your file extension will be .mp4 and the H.264 codec is used for the video and AAC is used for the audio. You can see that the Hint Prepare for Streaming check box is not selected. Hinting isn’t necessary to use because we’re not targeting this video file for a streaming server.

Next move on to the Video Tab. Twirl down where H.264 is displayed to adjust the settings for the H.264 codec.

For the datarate type in 600 kbps and you can continue to use VBR using VBV. For the buffer, since this is a downloadable video, you can increase your buffer to 10 seconds. This will allow the codec to vary the bit rate more. For the Keyframe distance you can use a value of 90 frames which will provide a keyframe at least every 6 seconds.

Click on the Profile and Quality tab. Notice that 2-pass encoding is selected. Adjust the quality slider to the highest quality of 100 and twirl up the codec setting.

Go to the Frame Rate Filter and twirl down. For the filter mode choose Fixed framerate.

For the Framerate preset you can use Automatic and select 15 fps. Now twirl up the Frame Rate filter.

Twirl down the Deinterlace filter and choose Automatic Detection for the Field Order. This fact that this setting is available is great because with compression it’s always good to know you field order. Choosing the Automatic Detection value takes the guess work out and the codec will determine the field order for you. Go ahead and twirl up the Deinterlace filter.

Now twirl down the Resize filter.

For the output size you can leave it at 480 x 360. You can choose Cut for Maintain proportion with.

For the cropping values we’ll multiply the 4:3 aspect ratio by 8 and crop 32 x 24 pixels. So crop 12 pixels off the top, 12 pixels off the bottom, 16 pixels off the left and 16 pixels off the right.

Since we’re dealing with video from an analog source we need to apply a Noise Reduction filter. Navigate to the Noise Reduction filter and click the check box to make it active.

Now, twirl down the Noise Reduction filter to adjust the values. Check Median and Only Filter Chroma to apply the filter only on the Chroma channel. Leave the other values at the default. Twirl up the Noise Reduction filter.

Let’s move to the Audio tab.

Click on the Bit Rate Pop-up Menu and choose 32 kbps.

You can leave Stereo selected for Channels and 44.1 kHz selected for the sample rate.

Now that were are finished making our adjustments click the Save Setting button to the top right on the Episode Encoder Pro interface.

Click the Close Setting button.

Next, select the H264_600k_DL setting that you created

and drag it onto your DV.mov video source.

You can see that your compression preset appears right below the video source. Before we start encoding let’s look at something. Select the H264_600kDL preset and click the Enter key.

A preview of your video output appears with the cropping values applied under the Resize filter. Our black edges no longer appear. Time to encode your video file.

At the bottom right of the Episode Encoder Pro interface click the Start Encoding button.

You can watch your progress under status. This will show you how much time you have left.

Once your video has finished encoding your status will switch to Done. You have now encoded an H.264 downloadable streaming video using Episode Encoder Pro.

New Streambox Live IP-Based Contribution Service Receives STAR Awar

2009-10-26T22:29:00.005-04:00

Streambox, Inc. announced that its newly launched Streambox Live IP-based video contribution service was honored with a 2009 STAR (Superior Technology Award Recipient) Award by the editorial staff of TV Technology Europe, at the recent IBC2009 show in Amsterdam. In addition, Streambox Live “caught the eye” of IBC staffers, who featured the product in a special conference session entitled “What Caught My Eye.”

Based on Streambox’s award-winning ACT-L3 technology, the Streambox Live service enables remote broadcasters and citizen reporters to upload compressed live video streams to broadcast studios through Internet-based Streambox Live Data Centers. The Streambox Live service interoperates seamlessly with Streambox's industry-leading platform of SD and HD broadcast-quality video encoders and decoders, as well as its complete line of broadcast and distribution servers.

The STAR Award (Superior Technology Award Recipient) is designed to celebrate and showcase the preeminent technological innovations available to the broadcast industry. TV Technology Europe's editor reviewed a variety of products, examined the technical applications and their overall contribution to the industry, and then chose Streambox Live as one of 25 winners. For the “What Caught My Eye” designation, the Streambox Live demonstration was captured by a roving IBC film crew and the footage was featured the next day in a presentation shown to conference delegates.

“We believe Streambox Live has tremendous potential to revolutionize news programming by enabling broadcasters to add citizen reporters and ad hoc contributors to the newsgathering team in an easy-to-use and cost-effective manner,” said Bob Hildeman, chairman and CEO of Streambox. “It’s truly an honor to be among only 25 solutions at IBC to receive a STAR Award, and it’s a real validation of Streambox Live's potential in the industry. And the fact that the ‘What Caught My Eye’ team picked up right away on the solution’s value and benefits really shows its instant appeal to broadcasters.”

ON24 Announces Full Windows 7 Support

2009-10-24T21:20:00.005-04:00

ON24, Inc., the global leader in webcasting and virtual event solutions, announced that it will be providing full support for webcasts and virtual shows on Windows 7. The launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system has been one of the most anticipated technology introductions of the year.

In addition, ON24 is announcing a beta program for select customers to execute online webcasts using Silverlight, Microsoft’s plug-in for creating rich interactive Web applications. "ON24 already offers Flash webcasts," explained ON24 Chief Technology Officer Jayesh Sahasi. "With the introduction of Silverlight, we will be able to supplement the use of proprietary media players like RealPlayer and Windows Media Player with next-generation technology—for even greater reach and functionality."

ON24 product development and support efforts are designed to maximize virtual event accessibility. "As our Windows 7 and Silverlight support demonstrates, providing ubiquitous access to virtual events is our priority," said ON24 Chief Marketing Officer Denise Persson. "We are committed to providing to our customers the industry’s greatest reach."

RipCode and CSS Strike China Distribution Partnership for Transactional Transcoding

2009-10-23T17:45:00.005-04:00

RipCode, Inc., the leader in transactional video transcoding, announced a distribution alliance with Century Sage Scientific (CSS), a premier reseller and systems integrator of broadcast, Internet, and streaming technologies to the Chinese media and telecommunications markets.

As a certified systems integrator to some of the world’s largest broadcast and telecom equipment manufacturers and operators, CSS has a proven track record of delivering fully integrated, turnkey systems for IPTV, Web, and communications applications. Recent CSS projects include large-scale deployments for CCTV, Shenzen Media Group, and the upcoming master-control build-out for the 11th National Games in the People’s Republic of China. RipCode’s transactional transcoding technology expands the CSS portfolio for broadcast, broadband and 3G mobile services, while also providing cost-effective options for Internet delivery of educational and other entertainment content.

China’s broadcast and mobile communications market has unique requirements and regulations relative to other geographical regions. The number of mobile users is expected to surpass 1.2 billion within four years, leading to a growing appetite for quality content over broadband and wireless connections. “Given the sheer number and model variance of devices, optimizing transmission and encoding recipes for local browsers and mobile handsets is both a significant undertaking and opportunity for a value-added service,” says Alex So, CSS vice president of marketing. “In order to best serve the local market, CSS and RipCode have already begun joint testing and development to ensure smooth adoption of RipCode transcoding technology in China. RipCode’s solution portfolio provides leading transcoding technology – but goes beyond what we’ve seen from traditional vendors by also addressing on-demand ad insertion, client detection, and policy-based bandwidth optimization – key factors in our selection of RipCode for the China market.”

“We are seeing increasing interest and demand in China – not only for three-screen content delivery – but also in the innovation RipCode delivers through its end-to-end transactional transcoding solution approach,” says Greg Lowitz, RipCode executive vice president of sales. “CSS represents the top brands in the broadcast and communications business, and we’re thrilled to be part of their solution portfolio for the Chinese media and telecommunication markets.”

Telestream and Flowerfire Sponsor Episode Encoder, Wirecast and Sawmill Professional Training in Six U.S. Cities

2009-10-21T11:59:00.010-04:00

Orlando, Florida - October 21, 2009 - Freeman Compression Inc. today announced that it will be providing Episode Encoder, Wirecast and Sawmill Professional Training in six U.S. cities from December 2009 through May 2010. The Episode Encoder and Wirecast portion of the training is sponsored by Telestream and the Sawmill Professional portion is sponsored by Flowerfire. The full day training sessions will take place in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Orlando. Free instruction will be provided on video compression using Telestream Episode Encoder Pro, live streaming media production using Telestream Wirecast and log files analytics for streaming servers and other devices using Flowerfire Sawmill Professional.

The training sessions will be led by Derrick Freeman, Instructor and Video Streaming Consultant for Freeman Compression, Inc. Freeman provides instruction for Episode Encoder, Wirecast and Sawmill Professional classes at Freeman Compression Inc.

"Training is geared at familiarizing class attendees with the use of Episode Encoder, Wirecast and Sawmill Professional, along with helping them realize the powerful features found in each of these tools,” said Derrick Freeman, Instructor. “These classes will be exciting because we'll get the chance to show students encoding techniques, how to set-up live streaming, and many of the endless possibilities when users analyze their log files."

The cost of the training is free, but a registration fee of $25 will be required for each attendee. A schedule of dates, times and locations is available at www.freemancompression.com/html/trainingevents.html. Those who would like to register or receive more information can contact Freeman Compression Inc. at 407.477.5837 or send email to info@freemancompression.com.

About Flowerfire, Inc.
Flowerfire, Inc., founded in 1996 and based in Santa Cruz, California, is a software company which provides log analysis and reporting solutions. Flowerfire's primary product is Sawmill, a universal log analysis tool which can analyze and generate reports from over 800 log formats, including log files from all popular web servers, media servers, security applications, mail servers, spam filters, firewalls, proxies, gateways, and FTP servers. In addition to Sawmill, Flowerfire also provides consulting services for log analysis and reporting solutions. Flowerfire is privately held, family-friendly, and employee owned and controlled. (www.sawmill.net)

About Telestream
Telestream products make it possible to get video content to any audience regardless of how it is created, distributed or viewed. Throughout the entire digital media lifecycle, from capture to viewing, for consumers through high-end professionals, Telestream products include components, cross-platform encoding and live video streaming applications, plus fully-automated workflow systems. Telestream enables users in a broad range of business environments to leverage the value of their video content. Telestream corporate headquarters are located in Nevada City, California, and its team of video experts is located in France, Germany, Sweden, UK and US. (www.telestream.net)

About Freeman Compression Inc.
Located in Orlando, Florida Freeman Compression Inc. provides consulting for video streaming and compression. The company also offers video streaming training and compression training. The classes provided are: 1-Day Wowza Media Server Pro, 1-Day Episode Pro, 1-Day Wirecast, 1-Day Sawmill Professional and 2-Day Video Streaming and Compression. (www.freemancompression.com)

STV Launches High Definition With Brightcove

2009-10-20T14:34:00.002-04:00

Brightcove Inc., the leading online video platform, announced that leading Scottish broadcaster, STV, has launched a series of new HD-quality, long-form video initiatives for catch-up viewing purposes using the Brightcove platform. “Scotland Revealed” a landmark, three-part documentary series filmed in HD is now available on STV’s online TV on Demand service, STV Player, for 90 days to viewers around the world.

“Scotland Revealed is one of STV's key landmark programmes for 2009, and I'm delighted that viewers across the world can watch this stunning series in all its HD glory on the STV Player,” said Alistair Brown, head of new media at STV. “The world class quality of the STV Player and Brightcove’s online video platform ensures that we can offer an unrivalled viewing experience of this breathtaking, high definition programme, which I hope viewers in Scotland and beyond will enjoy.”

Scotland Revealed is a visually stunning series that offers a spectacular look at the country, including some of its most iconic landmarks, landscapes and cityscapes, to provide viewers with fascinating insight into what has shaped Scotland. STV is employing the full range of capabilities provided by the Brightcove online video platform to support its new video initiatives. Brightcove’s long-form delivery capabilities enable STV to deliver HD-quality, full episodes of the Scotland Revealed series.

“STV was one of our first major broadcast customers in Europe, so it’s been particularly gratifying to witness the evolution and expansion of the organization’s online video initiatives,” said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. “We’re proud that STV has chosen the Brightcove platform to support its groundbreaking Scotland Revealed series and look forward to contributing to the success of its future catch-up TV offerings.”

STV, a long-time Brightcove customer, rolled out its first catch-up TV offerings with the Brightcove platform in July 2008 and more recently through the re-launched STV Player site. The site ensures quick access to important and popular content and showcases programs in the context of STV’s other listings, all while ensuring the best possible viewing experience for the end user. STV also took advantage of Brightcove’s wide range of Media and Player APIs to provide more flexibility around its content workflow.

Downloadable Streaming with Sorenson Squeeze and Dreamweaver

2009-10-19T16:20:00.027-04:00

Downloadable Streaming with Sorenson Squeeze and Dreamweaver is very common. Today we'll show you how to encode a Real Media video with Sorenson Squeeze and then author that video in Dreamweaver with a RAM file. RAM files are beneficial to use because you can hide the absolute path to the video file on your Server. Let's begin.

Open up Sorenson Squeeze and click the Import File button to bring your source files into Squeeze.

When you click the Import File button you'll see a dialog window open up. Select you file and click the open button. For this tutorial I'll select the Step10DraggingaPreset.mov file and click the Open button.

Now you'll can see you source file in Squeeze. Notice that the Batch Tree display the file Step10DraggingaPreset.mov video ready for encoding in the Batch Tree. You can also see a still frame of the video in the Squeeze Preview Window.

Let me take a moment to talk about the source and explain our approach for encoding this video. The source is a 720 x 480 video with Animation for the video codec and IMA for the audio codec. This is a video tutorial that has edited screen captures. Our delivery will be for downloadable streaming with Real Media. OK, now let's move forward with out tutorial.

Now, that we have our source ready for encoding we need to create our compression preset.

Navigate to the Audience presets. Switch to Format view by adjusting the pull-down and open up the Real Media presets (Real Media presets are only available for PC users). Once you open the presets click the Lg setting. Once selected click the Copy a Preset button which is the second button from the left.

When the Audio/Video Compression Settings dialog opens your preset will be labled Lg copy.

By highlighting your text in the Name text box you can change the name. For this tutorial change the name of your preset to 1000k_DL.

Now it's time to custom your Real Media downloadable streaming preset. For the video codec we want to make sure RealVideo 10. This is the latest codec for Real Media and it'll give you the best quality. Since we're doing downloadable streaming we want to use 2-Pass VBR for our compression method. We definitely want to vary our bit rate to achieve the highest quality for our output. For our the Video datarate you can type in 1000 kbps. For Frame select 640 x 480 and select Maintain Aspect Ratio. For the frame rate you can use 10 frames per second since this video is screen captures with very little motion.

For our Key Frame Every value we'll use 300 frames. This will produce a key frame at least every 300 frames. A higher keyframe value or a longer period before new key frames is better with this type of content since many of the frames are similar. Since our Frame Rate is 10 frames per second. This Key Frame Every interval produces a key frame a least every 30 seconds. If the codec feels that it needs to insert a key frame it will do it automatically. You can need the Video Mode at Normal with the default Startup Latency of 4 Secs.

Moving on to the Audio settings you can select 64 kbps for the audio datarate leaving 16 for the Sample Size, 44.1 kHz for the Sample Rate with Stereo audio.

Once you've made all of the adjustments to your Audio/Video Compression Settings you can click the OK button. Now you have a Real Media preset called 1000k_DL inside your Audiences.

Now that your setting is created you need to apply it to your video source. Select the Real Media 1000k_DL setting and drag it over top of your source.

You can now see the compression setting applied to the video in the image above. Once applied it appears below the source video.

Before we encode the video we need to create a filter preset for this encode. Under the Filters select the Generic Web filter setting. Once selected click the Copy a Preset button.

You can now see the new copy of the Filter preset labled Generic Web Copy in the Name Text Box.

Select the text and rename the Filter preset Deinterlace_Blend. This gives our filter a good description just in case we want to use it for other projects in the future.

In the filter preset there are checked boxes that a enabled which shows the values being used in this setting. For your setting you should have the Deinterlace, Contrast, Brightness and Audio Volume filters checked.

Let's adjust the Deinterlace filter first. Generally, when performing encodes with screen captured tutorials content it's better to Deinterlace by using a Blend where the 2 fields are blended together. This works better than totally discarding one of your fields.

Adding a Contrast and Brightness boost is good for delivering web content so we'll leave our Contrast value at 15

and you can leave your Brightness value at 10.

For the Audio Volume select Normalize from the pull-down and input a value of 90. This will increase the lower audio levels to match the higher audio levels. There's also an option to do a volume adjust by selecting Adjust from the pull-down menu.

Once all of your adjustments are made click the OK button to save and close your filter.

To apply your filter select Deinterlace_Blend filter and drag onto your Real Media 1000k_DL preset that you have applied.

Notice the Deinterlace_Blend filter appears on the bottom of your applied preset.

To start encoding click the Squeeze It button.

When you video has finished encoding you will see Complete displayed in the Progress section of the Batch Tree. By default the file will output to the same folder as your source file.

Once your Real Media file is encoded you can author it for your website. When you are authoring web pages it's important that you have a folder on your desktop that has the same folder structure as your website. For example, if you have a folder called html, images and movies in the root directory of your website then you should have folder on your website with the same folder names similar to the image above. In this example we have a folder for the website on the desktop called training_website.

Before you start authoring it's best to movie your encoded Real Media video to its destination on the web. Navigate to the output location of your video file and copy it to the movies folder which should be inside the training_website folder that you are using for this tutorial.

Open Dreamweaver and select the Site that you want to access. In my case I'm using Freeman for Classes. Make sure you click the connect button to the far left right under you site. Next, click on Expand button to expand your view. You should be able to see your Remote Files and your Local Files. Above is view on the Local Files. This are the files sitting on your desktop. They are located on the right inside Dreamweaver in the Files view.

The Remote Files are located on the left. Notice that there is a movies, images and html file in both locations.

If you open up the movies folder you can see your Real Media Downloadable Streaming video that you moved to the movies folder earlier. Let's upload it to your website. Select the Real Media video and drag it to the movies folder on your Web Server. This is where the Remote File are located.

When the file starts transferring or uploading to your website you'll see a Background File Activity dialog appear. This dialog provides you with a status on your upload.

Moving on, let's author the Real Media video for the web. First, let me talk about what we're doing here in this step. We're going to create a web page with a link that when clicked will open up our Real Media downloadable streaming video. However, we want to hide the location of where the file is stored on our server along with any IP address information. To do this we'll use a RAM file which is a text file with a .ram extension that holds the absolute path to the Real Media Download video. This file will sit on our server in the same folder as our video file.

OK. Open Notepad

and type in the following information highlighted in the image above.

Type in http://www.yourwebsite.com/movies/youvideoname.rmvb?title="My Video". Make sure you put the URL to the Real Media video on your own website here. This is where your video is located. It you followed the tutorial correctly your Real Media download streaming video should be located in your movies folder.

Next, choose Save from the File Pull-down menu and call the file RM1000DL.ram.

Place the RM1000DL.ram file in your movies folder. Next upload the 1000DL.RAM file you created to the Movies folder on your web server.

Once your Real Media RAM file is on-line you can create your web page. In Dreamweaver select New from the File Pull-down menu.

When the Dialog Window opens choose HTML

and then choose Create.

Now Save your HTML page and call it RM1000DL.html. Make sure you save the RM1000DL.html page in your html folder inside your training_website folder.

Next, move you cursor to the top of the page in the Design View similar to the image above.

Navigate to the Insert Pull-down menu and select Hyperlink to add a link to our RAM file.

Remember, our RAM file holds the absolute path to our Real Media Downloadable Streaming file. When we create our link to the video we don't have to reference the video, we can simply reference the RAM file. When viewers click on the link if Real Media Player is installed the video will be automatically open in the player.

Let's continue. For Text type in My Real Media Video. For Link you need to put the path to your RAM file. This can be a relative path by typing in ../movies/RM1000DL.ram. The reason why we can use this relative path is because the html folder is parallel to the movies folder in this tutorial. It's best to always use relative paths. One benefit is that you can view all of your pages from your desktop. A greater benefit is that it'll make your website portable to another Web Server with a different Domain Name. Select _parent for the Target.

This is what you new link looks like.

We're almost finished. Save your file by selecting Save from the File Pull-down menu.

In the File View in Dreamweaver open the html folder and click on the RM1000DL.html web page. Drag it to the html folder under Remote Files on the left of the File View.

If you see a dialog that asks you if you want to Put dependent files? you can click No.

Now that your new wep page is created and is on your website . Type in the URL to your new page. This should be http://www.yourwebsite.com/html.RM1000DL.html. You should then see the your page appear. Click on the link that displays My Real Media Video.

With Real Media Player installed you should see you video open up in the Real Media Player similar to the image shown here. Congratulations on encodiing a Real Media Downloadable Streaming video in Squeeze and authoring it in Dreaweaver!

Sorenson Squeeze 5 Enabling First Seamless Editing, Encoding and Publishing Workflow

2009-10-18T15:33:00.006-04:00

Sorenson Media announced that the latest versions of Avid video editing solutions – Media Composer(4.0), Symphony (4.0) and NewsCutter (8.0) – integrate Sorenson Squeeze 5, providing users a seamless process for editing and encoding the highest quality video content in the most popular formats. Through Sorenson Squeeze’s unique integration with the Sorenson 360 online video platform, Avid customers may further benefit from a workflow solution that enables users to seamlessly edit, encode and publish the highest quality video online.

This most recent product offering is the latest in a six-year relationship Sorenson Media has maintained as the encoding tool integrated with Avid software. As the gold-standard video encoding application, Sorenson Squeeze enables editors, producers and filmmakers who use Avid video editing software to easily deliver video in all of the most popular video formats, with advanced encoding options and superior results.

Avid is dedicated to providing customers the highest quality video solutions that help them achieve their creative vision. By integrating our industry-leading editing software with the newest versions of third-party applications like Sorenson Squeeze, we help deliver the ultimate creative toolset.” said Mark Overington, vice president of product management at Avid. “Our customers have asked for a seamless all-in-one workflow and we continue to work with industry partners to extend the existing capabilities of our editor solutions for added functionality throughout the post-production process.”

Through the Avid software interface, video editors are able to send their video files directly to Sorenson Squeeze for encoding without adding any additional steps. Using Sorenson Squeeze’s simple workflow, users can output content in a wide variety of formats, including Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, for online, DVD or mobile delivery. The software also encodes in HD for MPEG-2, Flash, VC-1, and H.264 formats. Video professionals can compress and encode multiple files simultaneously and apply advanced pre-processing filters to produce higher quality video.

Additionally, the latest version of Sorenson Squeeze integrates seamlessly with the Sorenson 360 online video platform. This unique process creates an all-in-one editing-to-publishing solution for Avid customers, enabling them to efficiently publish videos of the highest-quality to the Web without adding any additional steps to their workflow. Once uploaded to Sorenson 360, users can easily deliver their video content to any Web site by cutting and pasting an automatically generated embed code and gain access to powerful analytics and other video management tools.

“We are thrilled that Sorenson Media continues to enjoy a strong relationship with Avid as the encoding tool of choice for their exceptional editing applications,” said Peter Csathy, CEO of Sorenson Media. “With the integration of Sorenson Squeeze – and, in turn, the additional Sorenson 360 platform – Avid customers are able to edit, encode and publish their videos efficiently on the Web or prepare the best quality videos for mobile media playback, DVD and other uses.”

Installing Episode Plug-in for Compressor 3

2009-10-17T23:07:00.005-04:00

If you have a license of Telestream's Episode Encoder and you are using Compressor 3 you can have access to the Episode Encoder encoding templates right from within Compressor. Here's how to install the Episode Encoder Plug-in for Compressor to get access to the templates.

On the install disk image for Episode there's a folder called Plug-ins.

Inside the folder there's a package called Episode Plug-in for Compressor. Double click on the package to install it. Restart your computer and the Episode presets will be an option in Compressor 3 encoder.

ViewCast Selects Rahul Commerce as Master Distributor

2009-10-16T16:14:00.006-04:00

ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over IP and mobile networks, today announced that it has expanded its business relationship with Rahul Commerce, a leading distributor of multimedia technology in India. Previously a ViewCast reseller, Rahul Commerce has been designated a master distributor of ViewCast solutions, servicing India via offices in Mumbai and Pune and further extending ViewCast’s presence among Indian technology dealers, system integrators and broadcasting outlets.

“The new designation gives Rahul Commerce the opportunity to leverage its industry expertise and rich experience with ViewCast’s streaming media product portfolio in India, a country emerging as a significant market for streaming video in public and private enterprises,” said ViewCast Senior Vice President of Sales Gary J. Klembara.

“India’s rapidly developing Internet infrastructure represents a tremendous opportunity for its public institutions and private enterprises to leverage web streaming, video conferencing, IPTV and other rich media technologies to reach a larger audience within the country and around the world,” Klembara said. “Our alliance with Rahul Commerce promises to put ViewCast at the forefront of this technology movement, and positions us for accelerated business growth in the Indian market.” The market for streaming media technology in India has been driven in large part by the expansion of tele-education and tele-medicine programs across the government and education sectors. Broadcasting companies are proliferating in parallel, and are exploring Internet programming opportunities to extend the reach and revenue potential of the country’s 500+ television channels. With the roll-out of 3G and WiMax wireless communication services fueling the adoption of mobile streaming technology, and rising consumer demand for high definition (HD) programming, the market for ViewCast’s analog and HD streaming media product portfolio in India is primed for extraordinary growth.

“ViewCast’s Osprey video capture cards and Niagara streaming media encoders have been integral to Rahul Commerce’s success in the streaming media technology market, enabling us to provide our clients with reliable, high-performance streaming media platforms, backed by ViewCast’s reputation for quality service and support,” said Dhiren Shah, director, Rahul Commerce in Pune. “Working together with ViewCast in our elevated role as master distributor, we can capitalize on India’s rapidly growing demand for Internet streaming technology and services, as well as its nascent demand for mobile streaming capabilities and HD programming.”

Rahul’s capabilities in India are exemplified by the company’s work with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which has implemented ViewCast’s Osprey 230 analog video capture cards in schools and hospitals in remote locations around the country to help facilitate the organization’s expansive distance learning and tele-medicine programs. Utilizing its EDUSAT satellite system to aggregate and disseminate interactive programming from/to geographically dispersed educational and healthcare facilities, the ISRO counts on Osprey 230 cards to enable reliable, high-performance streaming of live and on-demand video content across a large network of facilities.

ViewCast Osprey video capture cards and Niagara streaming media encoders are designed to deliver the quality, features and ease-of-use 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.

Tool for Encoding to MP3 audio files on the Mac

2009-10-15T22:54:00.008-04:00

If you need to encode MP3 audio files on the Mac then using tools such as Episode and Sorenson Squeeze are obviously good choices for this. There are MP3 encoding presets already built into both applications. If you're trying to save money a free tool that you can use is called Audacity. This tool was first recommended to me by Brian Alves, one of the world's leading podcasters and host of The DV Show. If you have AIFF source files Audacity can encode them. To use Audacity for encoding MP3 files you'll need to download and install the Audacity application and the LAME mp3 encoder available on the Audacity website under downloads.

Digital Rapids Connects Top-Tier Content Owners to YouTube

2009-10-14T16:50:00.007-04:00

Digital Rapids-the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences -- announced that the company is working with YouTube to integrate support for Content ID, YouTube's content identification and management system, directly into Digital Rapids' award-winning range of media production and repurposing systems.

Digital Rapids’ encoding and transcoding systems are used by leading media organizations to transform live, tape and file-based video and audio content into the formats required for viewing on multiple platforms including broadcast, cable and satellite television; IPTV; the Web; mobile phones and personal media players.

The integration of YouTube Content ID support with Digital Rapids' systems enables users to generate Content ID reference files -- often referred to as "fingerprints" -- immediately from the content during the encoding or transcoding process. These digital fingerprints are then uploaded to YouTube's Content ID system. YouTube's content identification tools compare existing and incoming user-uploaded videos against the reference file, identifying the ownership of such content and taking the action specified by the owner's usage policies. Content owners can choose to block user-uploaded content, permit it on YouTube while simply tracking usage data, or monetize the uploaded media by running advertising against it.

The creation of Content ID reference files directly within existing encoding and transcoding workflows increases productivity and reduces operational costs by eliminating the need for separate steps to create the fingerprints. By generating the Content ID reference files during production, content owners also need only upload the much smaller ID file to YouTube for tracking and protection, rather than the actual content itself -- increasing security and significantly shortening the time before YouTube can begin blocking, tracking or monetizing uploaded copies of the content.

"We're excited to be working with YouTube to streamline their interactions with content owners. Content identification technologies are often thought of strictly in terms of protection against piracy, but they also enable new monetization opportunities," said Brick Eksten, President of Digital Rapids Corporation. "The automatic identification of content and its ownership gives content owners the option of capitalizing on additional revenue opportunities wherever the content appears. The integration of YouTube's Content ID technology into our systems makes it easy for media organizations to take advantage of these capabilities within efficient, automated media production workflows."

"We're pleased to be working with Digital Rapids to integrate our Content ID technology with their solutions, which are used by leading broadcasters, motion picture studies and content providers worldwide," said George Salem, Content ID Product Manager at YouTube. "Easing content owners' ability to identify their content on YouTube is critical to how they work with us to both control and monetize their assets. Support for Content ID directly within Digital Rapids powered live ingest, encoding and file-based transcoding workflows lets their customers easily provide us with ID files at almost the exact same time the content is produced, without changing how they currently do business."

Media Console Makes Life Simple for Authoring Streaming Content

2009-10-13T22:02:00.007-04:00

For all those individuals in media organizations, public affairs and media departments that need to start delivering video to the web, there is an amazing tool to help you out. Internap's Media Console is amazing and makes life simple for authoring streaming content. The Media Console tool takes the hard work out of authoring your streaming videos for your website. The only item that you have to focus on is encoding your videos. Once you encode your content all you have to do is upload your videos to the Internap CDN. The Media Console comes as part of the package for using the Internap Content Delivery Network (CDN).

There is a nice user interface that allows you to upload your videos. You can also FTP video to the content delivery network as well. The Media Console includes pre-made Flash Media player templates, generated embed and object tags, support for live and on-demand streaming, live streaming statistics and many other features. If you are serious about moving forward with streaming content on-line, you owe it to yourself to give Internap's CDN and their Media Console tool a try.