Anystream, an Internet infrastructure software company that specializes in enterprise-class streaming media encoding technology, announced that its Agility Enterprise encoding platform now enables simultaneous output of QuickTime along with Real and Microsoft’s streaming from a live Webcasting event. The proclamation was made at this week’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) expo in Las Vegas.
The Agility Enterprise encoding platform is, according to Anystream, the world’s first enterprise-class platform for streaming media production and distribution. It’s used to rapidly distribute the streaming media to some of the most popular sites on the Internet and includes live Webcasting. Fault-tolerant and scalable, the Enterprise platform is designed to deliver a single, constant view of streaming media production.
Anystream also announced dynamic bit rate control over live event QuickTime streams, which purportedly gives content producers precise control over their end users’ streaming experience by automatically adjusting QuickTime streaming output to match stream bandwidth and frame rates with those available during a live event. The company said this is a “technology breakthrough.” Since the stream can be adjusted remotely without interrupting the Webcast, viewers see the adjusted stream in real time without having to restart their QuickTime Player, according to Geoff Allen, president and CEO of Anystream.
“This new capability benefits the live Webcasting industry as content can now be dynamically encoded to perfectly match available bandwidth, resulting in an optimal viewing experience regardless of conditions,” Allen said in a press announcement. “As an enterprise-class software platform, Agility Enterprise has the flexibility to take full advantage of the QuickTime platform, and leverage the unique frame-level control capabilities of the QuickTime streaming architecture.”
The ability to include QuickTime streams in a live Webcasting environment is a welcome addition that can be deployed across Digital Island’s existing Agility Enterprise installations, said Adam Cohen, VP of streaming and live events at Digital Island. The company uses Agility Enterprise’s programmable content acquisition capabilities in tandem with the platform’s live Webcasting capabilities in support of Reuters News.
What’s more, Anystream also announced the latest version of its Agility Workgroup Encoder –which has broadcast-native features such as VTR emulation, multi-encoder configurations, MPEG-2 DVD, streams and Mac client support — and named over a dozen new clients. The Agility Workgroup product line provides an automated end-to-end solution for re-purposing content, regardless of source, to the Web in all major formats.