Archive for the 'Transcoding' Category

RipCode Introduces China to Transactional Transcoding: A field report from BIRTV 2009 in Beijing

Published by
Greg Lowitz
at September 12, 2009 in Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

The Great Wall. The Summer Palace.  The Bird’s Nest. What do these monuments have in common? They’re all architectural marvels on the “must see” list next time you’re in Beijing for the BIRTV show – one of Asia’s largest broadcast exhibitions held annually at the China International Exhibition Center.

This year was special for RipCode – marking our company’s entry into the high growth Chinese market – where media mania is visible at every turn. Home to nearly 1.4 billion people, China’s tech-savvy youths are avid consumers of online video content. With mobile devices proliferating daily, and 3G services imminent, China will drive one of the largest market expansions in wireless history.  And transcoding will figure prominently in the mix.  According to IE Research and Markets Corp, mobile subscribers in China will exceed 1.2 billion by 2013, double that of 2008.

Thanks to RipCode’s broadcast partner Century Sage Scientific (CSS Group), Transactional Transcoding created quite a buzz at BIRTV. Home to some 400-plus exhibitors and 50,000 attendees, “New Media” was all the rage, and RipCode was no exception. Rows-deep, people waited turns to hear the Transaction Transcoding story and why RipCode’s solution is about more than just the transcoder, but about the total solution – from ingest to optimized encode to streaming to monetization. On any device. Anytime. Anywhere.

Featured during a 30-minute segment on CCTV.com (Mandarin only), CSS VP of Marketing Alex So described the three-screen transformation and how broadcasters must adapt to the changing market while a new wave of devices mark a fundamental shift in media consumption. Popular sites like Todou and Youku are fast becoming the ‘YouTubes’ of China – driving video into the mainstream. And while China’s CMMB standard for linear broadcast transmission to mobile is struggling to gain traction, ‘on demand’ content is growing rapidly, giving consumers the content they want when they want it.

Bottom line, no matter whether you’re in Asia, EMEA, or the Americas, RipCode’s Transactional transcoding message is gaining traction – and BIRTV affirmed that using RipCode for video transcoding and delivery creates an opportunity to quickly and cost-effectively expand your content across the three screen domain, and keep subscribers loyal to your brand.

RipCode would like to thank the CSS Group for the opportunity to partner in this exciting market. Expect exciting things to come.

Scenes from the show…

 RipCode TransAct Transcoders powering live broadcast and video-on-demand with dynamic ad insertion to mobile devices…

 

 Prospects line up to view Transactional Transcoding in action (see related video)…

Transactional Transcoding in Mandarin…

In good company, RipCode shares the spotlight with some of the top names in broadcast…

Greg Lowitz
EVP Sales & Business Development
RipCode, Inc.

Video Content Dictates Distribution and Monetization Strategy

Published by
Brendon Mills
at May 18, 2009 in transactional transcoding, TransAct Platform, IPTV, Mobile Video, Transcoding, Internet Video and Uncategorized. 0 Comments    Email This Post

The unprecedented growth of mobile, Internet and IPTV content is taxing legacy video delivery models:

• Commercial Internet video traffic will increase 5X by 2012
• User-generated video content will increase 3X by 2012
• 2/3 of all mobile traffic will be video by 2013
• 14.3 billion online videos were viewed by U.S. Internet users during December, 2008 alone

The fascination with being able to view both professional and user-generated entertainment content on Internet and mobile devices will not taper any time soon, but there is equal if not higher demand for instant access to a staggering volume of educational video, instructional video, enterprise sales and marketing video and surveillance video – by public, private and government constituents.

In the video below, we take a look at the different levels of video content - premium, amateur and reference - and how they impact distribution and monetization strategies.

New IDC Whitepaper: Transactional Transcoding

Published by
Neal Hartsell
at April 28, 2009 in transactional transcoding, IDC, Transcoding and Uncategorized. 0 Comments    Email This Post

As fast as the online and mobile video markets are evolving, we felt it was time to help educate members of the video delivery value chain on changes taking place in the underlying transcoding technology which is enabling the rapid evolution of video distribution, consumption and monetization.

Transactional Transcoding, a new whitepaper from IDC, examines how transcoding is becoming the linchpin in the delivery of evolving video services for a multitude of video-enabled viewing platforms.  As an enabler of increasingly complex content distribution, transcoding is moving beyond legacy file-to-file approaches to become real-time, transactional and network-aware. In addressing the emergence of next generation transcoding, the IDC whitepaper explains how the technology is evolving to support burgeoning demand for online and mobile video - especially in light of content explosion, device expansion, network strain and the need for effective monetization.

IDC believes that transcoding must evolve to include transaction-based platforms that can tailor video content and video advertising for a particular device, delivery channel and business model as well as an  individual viewer — all on-the-fly — to accelerate, simplify, scale and reduce the costs of delivering ‘any content, anytime, to anyplace’.

If you’re interested in learning more about Transactional Transcoding, you can download the new IDC whitepaper from the RipCode website or send us an email.

Introducing the RipCode TransAct Platform

Published by
Brendon Mills
at March 31, 2009 in TransAct Platform, transactional transcoding, Real-Time Stream Transcoding, On Demand Transcoding and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

In my last post, I talked a bit about the growing challenges in the video delivery market and I introduced a new transcoding terminology called ‘transactional transcoding’.  Essentially, this is transcoding as a real-time transactional model and is what I consider to be the evolutionary next step to providing a scalable transcoding solution for managing all video delivery components in a seamless, transparent manner.

Here at RipCode, we continue to evolve and improve our technology and solutions to stay ahead of our customer’s video delivery needs.  So it shouldn’t come as a big surprise then when I tell you that this transactional transcoding model I’ve talked about is now available from RipCode.  Tomorrow at CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas, we’ll be introducing the RipCode TransAct Platform.

The TransAct Platform enables key video delivery elements to occur as a transparent, real-time transaction including:
-    Video device and capability discovery
-    Selection of optimal transcode workflows
-    Dynamic, relevant ad insertion
-    Network-aware resource availability
-    Open interoperability with billing, content management systems and ad networks

In the video below I go into more detail about the benefits of the RipCode TransAct Platform. Or for an industry perspective on the transactional transcoding model, a new whitepaper from IDC is available from the RipCode website, I hope you’ll check it out.

We understand that considering transcoding as a real-time transaction will require a shift in the way you normally think about transcoding, so if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reply to this post or send us an email.

Transcoding as a Transaction

Published by
Brendon Mills
at March 30, 2009 in transactional transcoding, Real-Time Stream Transcoding, On Demand Transcoding and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Since introducing the on-demand transcoding methodology 2 years ago, I’ve seen transcoding evolve in a relatively short time to become a fundamental component of both on-demand and real-time video delivery.

And in this time, video delivery obstacles that our customers are contending with have become more magnified. Content owners, video delivery platforms, ad networks, mobile operators – everyone in the video delivery value chain are facing increasing video distribution challenges including:
-    How to distribute an overwhelming amount of video content…
-    Over an increasing number of video viewing devices…
-    While monetizing video assets…
-    Preserving high quality user experience…
-    And account for constrained and fluctuating network bandwidth.

Here at RipCode, we realize that our customers require more than just a box to move files from one format to another.  They need a big picture solution to help them deal with all of the components of video delivery.  We understand that in order for video delivery to scale, transcoding can no longer be an independent process performed in an offline environment.  Transcoding must evolve to a real-time transaction.

In the video below, I talk in more detail about today’s video delivery challenges and why at RipCode, we believe that transactional-based video transcoding will play a vital role in the market evolution of video delivery.

RipCode Talks Transcoding at CableLabs Technology Conference

Published by
Neal Hartsell
at February 3, 2009 in Internet TV, Mobile Video, Internet Video and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Hi everyone -

I’m Neal Hartsell, vice president of Marketing for RipCode, and a new voice on the RipCode blog.  I’m a fairly recent addition to the RipCode team and my first chance to tell the RipCode story in front of a large group came last month when RipCode had the prestigious opportunity to present to cable industry executives as part of the Innovation Showcase at the 2009 CableLabs Conference in Colorado Springs. For those that may not know, the focus of CableLabs is to showcase the latest in content and services that operators may employ to serve cable customers. As I talked with industry executives at the show, it became clear to me that broadband service providers are paying close attention to the growing number of consumers watching TV shows online.  As consumer’s desire for ‘time shifted’ video content increases, cable and broadband operators are looking for ways to retain control of their customer base by extending their brand to Web and mobile domains, while increasing revenue opportunities in the new Internet and mobile media markets.  The RipCode transcoding story seemed to resonate with the cable operators that I talked to as a viable solution for:

  • extending broadcast content to desktop and mobile devices
  • extending the cable brand to alternative viewing models
  • capitalizing on Internet and mobile advertising revenue

To learn more, check out the video from RipCode’s Innovation Showcase presentation.

RipCode On-Demand Transcoding Powers MySpace Mobile Video

Published by
Brendon Mills
at December 2, 2008 in MySpace, On Demand Transcoding, Mobile Video and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Many people that regularly follow the RipCode blog know that we’ve been working with MySpace – though on what, we’ve had to be a bit vague.  However, I’m excited today to finally be able to tell you about the project and I hope that you’ll quickly catch on and be as excited as we are at RipCode. 

Available today, MySpace has launched their MySpace Mobile video service.  Using RipCode’s On-Demand Transcoding technology, MySpace Mobile users across the globe will now be able to enjoy MySpace video content from their video enabled mobile devices.

In choosing RipCode, MySpace made a clear choice about the future direction of their transcoding environment.  Rather than adopting legacy pre-transcoding methods, their decision to utilize RipCode’s On-Demand Transcoding technology helps them achieve a more efficient, effective and eco-friendly method for extending video to the MySpace mobile community.

We’ve talked about this in the past, but it’s worth mentioning again. As the volume of video grows and the number of mobile devices supporting video continues to expand, companies have to find alternative solutions to deliver content to their customers across multiple screens. MySpace’s decision is proof that market leaders are embracing change in traditional transcoding methodologies and looking for smarter, more scalable solutions to manage mobile video growth.

If you have a MySpace account and have a mobile device that supports streaming video, check out the new MySpace Mobile video service and let us know what you think:

1. From your mobile device, go to m.myspace.com
2. Login to your MySpace profile
3. If you have videos loaded to your online profile, you will see a My Videos link on the user homepage.  Click on the My Videos link
4. On the Videos page, select Uploaded or Favorite videos
5. Select video by clicking on View
6. On Video Details page, click Play Video

Or, for a quick tour of the new MySpace mobile video service, check out this short video.

My Videos on MySpace Mobile website

RipCode Gives the Gift of On-Demand Transcoding for this Season’s Hottest Mobile Devices

Published by
Brendon Mills
at November 21, 2008 in T-Mobile G1, BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Storm, Apple iPhone, Google, Mobile Video, On Demand Transcoding and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

As most people know, today the much anticipated RIM BlackBerry Storm makes its debut in stores.  And with next week marking the start of the traditional holiday shopping season, this year’s must-have devices like the iPhone, G1, Bold and Storm will be topping many holdiay wish lists. 

Many of RipCode’s blog readers are familiar with our On-Demand Transcoding solution.  But what you may not know is that in addition to supporting RTSP streaming of on-demand content for the most popular video-enabled devices — like the Storm, Bold and Android – we also support progressive download of on-demand video content for the Apple iPhone.  All without the need for special client-side players or applications, and without pre-transcoding content.

For aggregators and operators looking to extend their video libraries to these popular devices, our sales team will be conducting onsite, on-demand transcoding demos for this season’s must-have mobile devices.  If you’re interested in learning about demos in your area, let us know.

RipCode Talks with Dave Graveline on ‘Into Tomorrow’

Published by
Brendon Mills
at September 22, 2008 in On Demand Transcoding, Transcoding and Uncategorized. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Brendon MillsLast week I attended the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show in San Francisco.  I had the opportunity to speak briefly with Dave Graveline, host of Into Tomorrow, a radio network program covering the latest in consumer electronics and technology.  We talked about transcoding’s role in giving consumers access to a wider variety of video across multiple screens, particularly mobile.

You can listen to Dave’s CTIA ShowStoppers broadcast which includes my interview as well as interviews with other technology companies.  The entire broadcast is about 39 minutes. Skip ahead to minute 27 for my conversation with Dave.

http://www.graveline.com/shows2008/09-19-2008-2.mp3

RipCode and Millennial Media Partner to Offer Best in Class Mobile Video Ad Delivery Soltuion

Published by
Brendon Mills
at August 5, 2008 in Advertising, On Demand Transcoding, Mobile Video and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Today I’d like to introduce RipCode blog readers to a new RipCode partner, Millennial Media, one of the leading mobile advertising companies in the US.  Together we are working to provide advertisers and mobile content publishers with an integrated service featuring Millennial Media’s ad targeting and distribution system with RipCode’s On-Demand Video Transcoding and delivery technology.

Most of our frequent blog readers are familiar with On-Demand Transcoding and how this technology works.  Now we’re extending VOD transcoding to the mobile ad space, enabling Millennial Media’s ad clients to easily integrate video into their mobile campaigns delivered across their premium ad network. RipCode clients will benefit through seamless inclusion of video advertising from top brands and the best possible user experience, ensuring a profitable model for providing engaging mobile video content to consumers.

Creating a compelling mobile user experience is especially important when monetizing content. Advertisers are paying for screen real estate and want to maximize their investment.  With RipCode, video files are optimized for delivery on-demand based on the unique capabilities of a customer’s mobile handset including screen resolution, codecs and network delivery protocols; a critical feature for ensuring the best user experience. Combined with Millennial Media’s intelligent ad targeting, video ads are paired with contextually relevant video content then seamlessly delivered as a single stream with no re-buffering between the ad and the requested content; decreasing the abandonment rate and boosting an advertisers ROI.

Millennial Media’s senior vice president of products & marketing, Eric Eller, will be presenting at the ad:tech show in Chicago this week on a panel entitled “Making Mobile Work”.  A fitting venue to launch our partnership.  Best of luck to Eric this week at the show; we hope he’s seeing lots of interest in the joint solution!