Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) continues to enable next-generation television services in the People’s Republic of China, providing advanced content management and protection solutions to YOU On Demand (OTCBB: CBBD), China’s first national Pay-Per-View and Video On Demand platform. Ericsson and YOU On Demand are deploying the first secure Internet protocol delivery system of digital content to cable operators throughout China. The system ensures that content owners can be confident that their digital assets are protected at every stage of the delivery process and that cable operators have access to the premium Hollywood and domestic content their subscribers want. Content is packaged, processed and delivered by Ericsson content management systems. YOU On Demand expects that its VOD and PPV services will be available to 3 million subscribers by the end of the year. YOU On Demand will use Ericsson’s MediaPath® secure content delivery system and Xport® Producer comprehensive storage encoding solution to implement its VOD and PPV platform. The platform is the first comprehensive end-to-end system of its kind for the largest television market in the world.
Fujitsu Frontech North America Inc. (FFNA) and Broadcast International (BCST.OB) have jointly announced the NuVola Private Cloud Platform™ Appliance – CodecSys™, powered by Fujitsu. The CodecSys powered by Fujitsu appliance combines Broadcast International’s patented multi-codec video transcoding software platform with Fujitsu’s server hardware. CodecSys powered by Fujitsu is the industry’s most powerful software based transcoder and is more flexible, more scalable, and delivers a lower cost of ownership than traditional hardware-based, proprietary encoders by embracing the private cloud strategy of NuVola. CodecSys powered by Fujitsu encodes and transcodes live and file-based video streams and assets. It is easily tuned to deliver higher quality at current bandwidth rates or maintain current quality at much lower bandwidth requirements. Its Services-Oriented-Architecture enables modular components to be easily integrated or extended to other applications or processes, while dynamic codec swapping ensures optimal treatment of each video scene or segment. As well, its workflow orientation integrates seamlessly with video management components across the network and allows users to deliver video streams to multiple devices, with multiple profiles and formats, all from a single ingested video stream. The CodecSys powered by Fujitsu appliance, as part of the NuVola Private Cloud Platform solution, will be showcased during the Super Computing 2011 tradeshow, Seattle, Washington, from November 14-18, Fujitsu Booth #815.
Haivision Network Video’s Peter Forman, the company’s vice president of Internet media, will present “Transcoding in the Cloud: New Business Opportunities for Broadcasters” on Tuesday, November 8th, at 1:40 p.m. in the VIP Demo Room at Streaming Media West 2011. “The emergence of live cloud transcoding technology is offering a powerful alternative to traditional satellite transmission for live events — paving the way for new workflows that enable multi-bitrate Web and mobile distribution from any remote location,” said Forman. “In this presentation, I’ll describe how cloud-based transcoding can enable broadcasters to expand live webcasting to offer meaningful content to broader viewing audiences and to reduce the cost of global content distribution.” In Booth 43, Haivision will be demonstrating several of its Internet streaming and cloud transcoding products for over-the-top multiscreen media delivery. Products on display will include Haivision’s KulaByte encoder, which allows users to deliver live content to multiple sites, and the HyperStream transcoding solution, capable of transforming live video source streams into all of the many formats and data rates required to distribute live video via the Internet. Also showcased will be the Makito™ encoder for efficient and affordable distribution, capture, and rebroadcast of HD video.
Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT) has announced that a full range of its IP-based stream processing, transcoding, media server, and storage solutions has been selected by SCOLA, a non-profit, global educational TV broadcaster based in McClelland, Iowa, to power its satellite distribution and Internet service expansion. The new solution, supplied by local reseller and integrator partners Foundation Telecommunications Inc. (FTI) and TBC Integration, will improve SCOLA‘s broadcast video quality, decrease satellite bandwidth usage up to 50 percent, and triple the amount of VOD formats supported on SCOLA’s website. To enhance the picture quality, workflow, and multiview channel capabilities for SCOLA, FTI and TBC Integration will deploy an array of integrated Harmonic video infrastructure solutions including Electra® 8000 encoders, ProStream™ stream processors and real-time multiscreen transcoders, Omneon Spectrum™ MediaCenter media servers, and a file-based ProMedia™ Carbon automated transcoding farm. Electra 8000 encoders provide SCOLA with SD/HD MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC encoding, as well as integrated statistical multiplexing. The unique architecture of the Electra 8000 features up to four channels in a single rack unit (1 RU), significantly reducing operational costs for SCOLA with its high density and power efficiency. SCOLA will use the ProStream 1000 stream processing platform for bulk scrambling and the multichannel Spectrum MediaCenter for media server and content storage functions. The carrier-grade ProStream 4000 real-time multiscreen transcoder is optimized for adaptive streaming applications, enabling SCOLA to meet growing demand for OTT and mobile TV services. File-based transcoding is provided by the Rhozet™-powered ProMedia Carbon, which is being deployed in an enterprise-class, automated transcoding farm controlled by the Harmonic Workflow System (WFS). SCOLA will also use IRIS™ software for quality of service monitoring and NMX Digital Service Manager™ for easy configuration, control, and monitoring of Harmonic and third-party video network elements.
Wohler Technologies has supplied three SoundField UPM-1 stereo-to-5.1 audio upmix processors to All Mobile Video (AMV), an outside broadcast, uplink, and sound stage facilities company. The sale is Wohler‘s first in its capacity as a new U.S. distributor for SoundField. The UPM-1 systems will be used among AMV’s various OB vehicles to upmix videotape and archive material for 5.1 transmission, in AMV’s uplink truck, and at its Gateway teleport station in New Jersey to upmix audio for opera simulcasts from the Met in New York. AMV covers large-scale outside broadcast events including the MTV Video Music Awards and international sports fixtures such as the U.S. Open golf tournament and IAAF World Championships in athletics. It also handles the OB and uplink requirements of the Metropolitan Opera’s regular international simulcasts to cinemas in Europe and Asia. For live-to-theater events, AMV transmissions typically play in theaters equipped with surround sound systems. As many edit houses and production companies can’t handle 5.1, and because recorded audio content coming off of tape is stereo, upmixing stereo to 5.1 is a common requirement in delivering such transmissions. AMV will use its new UPM-1 systems from SoundField to replace a variety of older upmixing boxes and to improve the overall audio quality of the 5.1 output, particularly for musical performances.
