Live Streaming to All Devices Now Available Via LiveTranscoding.com
LiveTranscoding.com’s new service is the missing link in the live streaming value chain. Co-founder and CTO Thomas Vander Stichele has been invited to give the first public demo at industry conference Streaming Media East in New York City.
San Francisco, California(09 May 2011)
Live streaming is an effective way to engage audiences, but when users find they can't access a video on their device, it casts a negative light on the content provider. What is considered a basic requirement from the users' point of view has been a technological and financial challenge for content providers and event organizers. The missing link in live streaming to multiple devices is the creation of different streams for each device in realtime. This process is referred to as ‘encoding' or ‘transcoding' and until now has required content providers to make long-term investments in expensive hardware and maintenance. The new service of LiveTranscoding.com democratizes professional live encoding for all devices, thanks to its flexible monthly service at a fraction of the cost.
"Competing video standards have made live streaming costly and complex", explains LiveTranscoding.com Co-founder and CTO Thomas Vander Stichele. "Our objective is to enable companies to reach 100% of their viewers on any device and to provide the best possible user experience." Thomas has been invited to present LiveTranscoding.com to industry leaders during the Streaming Media East show in New York City on May 10-11. The annual conference gathers the movers and shakers of online video. LiveTranscoding.com will be joined by top speakers from HBO, Fox, Adobe, Samsung and Microsoft, among others. LiveTranscoding.com's speech and demo "New Products for Encoding and Delivering HTML5-Compatible Video" takes place on May 11 at 1:45 pm.
24/7 live and live events
LiveTranscoding.com is the only cloud-based service in the market to transcode live streams around the clock - 24/7, 365 days a year. This new SaaS solution (Software-as-a-Service) is set to save content providers thousands of dollars in hardware, manpower and maintenance. For example, if a company needs to transcode live content for iPhone and iPad users, an in-house solution would require a hardware encoder worth $18,000 and approximately 500 maintenance man hours per year worth $23,000. In comparison, LiveTranscoding.com's iOS Plan costs $499 per month and can be upgraded, downgraded or cancelled at the end of each month. The flexible payment model and instant technical set-up also addresses the needs of event organizers, who require a solution that is always up-to-date and adapts to their budget and time constraints.
Every week, new codecs, formats, devices and delivery protocols are launched, as well as updates for existing ones. With a hardware solution, each change requires a modification, so keeping an in-house solution updated is extremely time-consuming. The expert development team of LiveTranscoding.com integrates all new standards in record time, while also providing pre-configured settings optimized for each combination of format, codec and device. These settings can be modified online by each client, if needed.
User experience adapted to each user and device
The key to providing a great live viewing experience on all devices is adapting streams to each user's network connection and device. This technology is called Adaptive Bitrate Streaming and selects the appropriate stream quality to provide the best possible user experience without buffering. It requires the provision of different quality streams for each format, which significantly increases the needed transcoding hardware. Previously, only large content providers could afford this technology, but now companies of any size can.
The beta program is launched on May 16 and the public launch is on June 6. LiveTranscoding.com offers a free 24-hour trial, which can be reserved starting May 9.
About LiveTranscoding.com
LiveTranscoding.com is the missing link in the live streaming value chain and makes professional live streaming accessible for anyone. The cloud-based encoding service converts a single live stream into multiple output streams in realtime, which enables content providers to reach all devices and eliminates long-term investments in hardware, software, upgrades and maintenance.
The Software-as-a-Service model provides great flexibility at a fraction of the cost, as the service can be contracted, upgraded or cancelled on a monthly basis. LiveTranscoding.com is a highly scalable solution for 24/7 live streaming and live events that integrates new devices and formats in record time. The online portal gives clients realtime control over all live streams, while providing optimized settings for each combination of format, device and codec.
More info at LiveTranscoding.com