Enterprise Encoding Solutions

Content providers are faced with the task of encoding their content in all the popular formats, at multiple bit-rates which is an expensive and time-consuming process. Anystream (www.anystream.com), an Internet infrastructure software company, presented a new model for content encoding at 流媒体 West on Tuesday. 在新闻发布会上, 杰夫•艾伦, Anystream首席执行官, 引入敏捷边缘, targeted at edge network service providers. Based on the model of current distribution networks for television, Anystream believes that encoding should occur at the last mile.

In the model Anystream laid out, content owners create a single high-quality version and then distribute it via satellite or terrestrial content delivery networks to the edge of the Internet. 敏捷的边缘, located at local broadband network points of presence (PoPs), then receives this interim stream and dynamically creates finished encoded streams in the optimal formats and at bit rates for that location.

The company believes that if broadband ISPs take on the encoding role, a significantly higher quality streaming experience can be delivered to a substantially broader range of consumers. The solution is not currently available, and no customers have been announced.

敏捷的边缘 is based on its existing product, 敏捷企业, an enterprise software platform for encoding, which was introduced in June 2000. The software is capable of taking a single stream and automatically encoding it into multiple formats (supporting all the major formats) and multiple bit rates with programmatic insertion of metadata and real-time pre-processing and pre-filtering. The solution is based on open standards and is entirely customizable and scalable. 主要内容提供商, 比如CNN互动, can integrate the system into its existing production workflow and reduce encoding costs.

本月初, 数字岛, a provider of managed Internet infrastructure for enterprises, announced that it was implementing the 敏捷企业 encoding platform. A spokesperson from 数字岛 indicated that after implementing Anystreams' solution in its New York office, it was able to reduce the encoding staff per project from 15 to 2; increasing efficiency and reducing margins.

A competitor has recently entered the scene in the form of Telestreams' Flipfactory. Flipfactory was introduced earlier this month and Tech TV announced it would use Flipfactory to automate the process of re-purposing its cable channel programming for its Web site, www.techtv.com.

"What used to take us hours with several desktop PCs running single-seat software is now done in a matter of minutes with more reliability and consistency,大卫·西德尔评论道, 副总统, 工程, TechTV, 在声明中. "FlipFactory allows us to set up the parameters for each streaming format once, and then feed media through it many times a day."

Both companies have deals with Virage to integrate its Internet Video Application Platform, which indexes and maintains video files for easy access, with its encoding software, to provide complete video storage, retrieval and encoding solutions.

相关新闻, Anystream and Excalibur Technologies Corporation, a provider of content management solutions for indexing and retrieving text, 视频和图像, announced a partnership to integrate the Anystream 敏捷企业 encoding platform into Excalibur's Screening Room technology.