New Streaming Server Debuts at Comdex

Vingage (www.vingage.com), a new privately held technology company funded in part by Sony Corporation of America, made its debut at Comdex with the release of Vingage Video Server and Vingage DVD Fulfillment Server.

The Vingage Video Server 4.0 is available for purchase; pricing varies depending on the customer environment, raging from $30,000 to $100,000. The Vingage Server purports two capabilities that differentiate it from the crowd.

Using a java-applet developed by Vingage, the server identifies a visitor's environment, discerning the appropriate streaming player, device platform and connection speed. The transaction is transparent to the end user and eliminates the need for the user to choose a player and connection speed by hand.

According to Dan Schiappa, president and CEO of Vingage, the Vingage Video Server is the first and only video server that streams all major formats through real-time transcoding and delivery from a single file. The media file is stored on the server as one file (MPEG 2 for example). When an end user selects a streaming video, the server calls up the file and transcodes into the correct player format on the fly. The media is then streamed through the appropriate streaming engine.

Schiappa stated that the transcoding occurs faster than real-time and therefore does not affect the streaming speed. The server also takes advantage of caching techniques that allow frequently accessed media to remain in the previously streamed format.

The Vingage Server currently supports all major streaming media formats including Windows Media, RealPlayer and Quicktime. As new video formats are updated and introduced, the stored video files are automatically updated to take advantage of these formats, eliminating the need to re-encode the video.

Sony Image Station will be integrating version 4.0 on its site following the close of Comdex. It is currently running version 3.0.

Vingage also debuted the Vingage DVD Fulfillment Server that allows content providers to offer its customers the ability to pick and choose online video content. Once confirmed, the DVD server automatically authors and records DVDs. The process is fully automatic, from order tracking, thumbnail and chapter creation, DVD authoring, recording and labeling, to sleeve insert printing and preparation for shipping.