Adaptive Streaming for Mobile and Internet Applications
Delivery of premium and personal video content over IP networks has evolved into a number of unique application segments. Some of the more popular applications include Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, iTunes and many more. The delivery of such content can be segmented by the receiving (or playback) devices.
Playback of such content on PC is dominated by video streaming technologies like Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Apple QuickTime (HTTP Streaming) and a few others.
Playback on Mobile devices is segmented by device types. Apple iPhones and iPad typically plays Apple HTTP Streaming formats encapsulated in QuickTime. Android based devices do not use any Android specific format but mostly can play Flash or other H.264 based video. Older phones have formats like 3GGP and more.
Playback on home video appliances, which is typically called OTT (over the top) Video , has a variety of device manufacturers and video service providers. Here are some of them:
- Devices: Apple TV, Roku XDS, Microsoft Xbox 360, Boxee, Logitech Revue, Seagate GoFlexTV, Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, Sony SMP-N100, TiVo Premiere, ViewSonic NexTV, WD TV Live and Live Hub, OnLive and more.
- Content Platforms: iTunes, Netflix, Blockbuster, VUDU, MLB.TV, HBO GO, Hulu Plus, Google TV, Zune Video, Amazon, ESPN, EPIXHD and others.
- Connected Blu-ray players: from Vizio, Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sharp, Phillips, Toshiba, Magnavox and Sylvania.
- Tablets: Apple iPad 2, Motorola XOOM, BlackBerry PlayBook, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Dell Streak and others.
While many of them use proprietary protocols and encapsulations, the one area in common is the Video Compression format.
It is h.264 AVC.
The VOD Solution
All these video applications including PC, Mobile and OTT, hunger for the same thing – video content. H.264/AVC video is by far the dominant video codec needed for these applications. VSS has introduced the most sophisticated, yet easy to use AVC, MVC and SVC Encoding Tool for generating VOD content. It offers the best video quality at lowest possible bitrates, adaptive bitrate file sets required by Silverlight, Flash, Apple HTTP and WOWZA servers. For more technical details and to download an evaluation version please go to vCompress Pro product page.
The Live Video Solution
Many of the video service providers as well as online business venues like to offer Live video in addition to their VOD content. For example, sporting events, music concerts, vacation resorts with live cameras and many others. Some News agencies like CNN have started to have a live video channel which streams 24/7. Other video service operators are re-broadcasting content from one part of the globe to another via IP, instead of Satellite.
The more popular streaming servers which offer this live distribution capabilities are Microsoft IIS (Silverlight), Adobe Flash and WOWZA Media. VSS has developed a new real-time encoding product called ParalllelStreamer which is used in conjunction with such streaming servers. More details on ParallelStreamer product pages: