Media Metastasis have teamed with Layer8 Technology to provide streaming video compressed with ZyGoVideo to the US Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) ongoing anti-ballistic missile test program.
ZyGoVideo was chosen for this project because the codec supports the MDA’s currently constrained long-haul bandwidth by producing low data rate video at larger frame sizes, according to Rod Sheffield, president and CEO of Media Metastasis. A custom player, based on the QuickTime Applications Programming Interface, has also been created so that video and audio displayed in control rooms can be switched as simply as changing a channel selector.
ZyGoVideo Pro, a QuickTime 5 downloadable component, is being used to compress the video in real-time, Sheffield said. ZyGoVideo is a codec for QuickTime and QuickTime Pro that compresses and decompresses video files to deliver broadcast-quality video at lower transmission speeds. It can compress smooth running video at 28.8kbps and 56kbps in real-time. ZyGoVideo also plays all of the compressed frames so that the video appears to play smoothly, even at less than full NTSC frame rates, Sheffield said.
The MDA program will require multiple video and audio streams over bandwidth limited long-haul circuits to support live remote monitoring of globally distributed test activities, George Koepplinger, president of Layer8 Technology. In addition, the video will be projected on wall-sized displays, which call for clean, smooth playing video at the client site, he added.
“We have created a real-time video compression solution using ZyGoVideo under QuickTime 5 using the latest dual G4 processors,” Sheffield said. “This is an important step towards a full, economical and efficient QuickTime streaming solution for the Web, wireless PDAs and 3G phones. We also provided a customized player so that the video streams can be displayed selectively and with additional text overlays, such as time codes.”
While they’re using dual processor G4s now, he told MacCentral that they will ship the new server versions just as soon as they arrive. ZyGoVideo Pro is sold separately, and bundled with popular QuickTime compression applications online.
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