Media Excel in the news
MedixExcel has been launched a Youtube channel .
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3y_XjCmZlPU5PJu4lK61Ig
LIVE WEBINAR
Subject : Multi Camera Synchronization and Ultra Low Latency streaming
We invite you to join us in our Webinar on Wednesday, January 11, 2023 at 11:00 AM CST or 7:00 PM CST.
We will be discussing Multi-source synchronization with arbitrary/variable delay between the sources.
The objective is simple - generate multiple versions of event scenes for expanded user experience.
For sports events like baseball, multiple cameras can be used to capture 3 bases, batter’s box, catcher’s box, pitcher’s mound, outfield, etc.
For musical performances, they can capture main stage, back stage, left/right, and every major performer, etc.
We will also discuss ultra-low latency delivery of content, live or recorded over the internet.
A Q&A session will follow our presentation.
We offer 2 sessions, 11:00 am CST and 7:00 PM CST. Please click the FULL ARTICLE button to register.
LIVE WEBINAR
Subject : Multi Camera Synchronization and Ultra Low Latency streaming
We invite you to join us in our Webinar on Wednesday, January 11, 2023 at 11:00 AM CST or 7:00 PM CST.
We will be discussing Multi-source synchronization with arbitrary/variable delay between the sources.
The objective is simple - generate multiple versions of event scenes for expanded user experience.
For sports events like baseball, multiple cameras can be used to capture 3 bases, batter’s box, catcher’s box, pitcher’s mound, outfield, etc.
For musical performances, they can capture main stage, back stage, left/right, and every major performer, etc.
We will also discuss ultra-low latency delivery of content, live or recorded over the internet.
A Q&A session will follow our presentation.
We offer 2 sessions, 11:00 am CST and 7:00 PM CST. Please click the FULL ARTICLE button to register.
Jay Geanken talks about Mediaexcel's place in the echosystem, chasing down latency and the roadmap for OTT.
Media Excel, a leading provider of multiscreen encoding solutions, and VUALTO, a prominent solution provider for video delivery & orchestration, expand their strategic partnership to include sales and support services for Media Excel's products in VUALTO's regions of operation.
The two companies have been collaborating closely for over 10 years already, as Media Excel's HERO Live and VOD encoding/transcoding product portfolio is tightly integrated within VUALTO's orchestration, video delivery and monitoring solution (VUALTO CONTROL HUB). The integration spans across all combinations of form factors (on premise, virtual and cloud) and video workflows (Live, VOD, Live2VOD, VOD2Live). Together the two companies have delivered several high-profile projects across EMEA, such European Parliament, Bowtie TV, VRT and many more.How the encoding/transcoding platform impacts the performance and value of ad-supported services.
Content creation has never been as in demand as it is today. Both professional and user-generated content has increased exponentially over the past years. This puts a lot of stress on media encoding and transcoding platforms. Add the upcoming 4K and even 8K to the mix and you need a platform that can scale with these variables. Azure Cloud compute offers a flexible way to grow with your needs. Microsoft offers various tools and products to fully support on-premises, hybrid, or native cloud workloads. Azure Stack offers support to a hybrid scenario for your computing needs and Azure ARC helps you to manage hybrid setups.
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Media Excel is an encoding and transcoding vendor offering physical appliance and software-based encoding solutions. Media Excel has been partnering with Microsoft for many years and engaging in Azure media customer projects. They are also listed as recommended and tested contribution encoder for Azure Media Services for fMP4. There has also work done by both Media Excel and Microsoft to integrate SCTE-35 timed metadata from Media Excel encoder to an Azure Media Services Origin supporting Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) workflows.
How the encoding/transcoding platform impacts the performance and value of ad-supported services
Multiscreen video content and service monetization
models revolve around two main pillars: subscriptions
and advertisements. Subscription-based services may
range from short-term/pay-per-view to longer-term monthly/
annual commitment for the viewer. Ad-supported services
may range from a spray-and-pray, mass targeting to a razorthin,
personalized approach. Those monetization models are
widely used today across live/linear as well as VOD services
and offerings.
Additionally, several operators (most prominently Hulu and
CBS All Access in the U.S.) now employ a hybrid “subscription
with limited adverts” monetization model in order to better
position their offerings across the consumer segments and
maximize their revenue potential. This also improves ad
targeting opportunities, as the viewer profile is better known/
tracked through the user’s subscription account.
Before pay TV operators and content providers can harvest
the full monetization potential of ad-supported services, they
need to put in place a complex ecosystem, from acquisition
to signaling to targeting to tracking. An essential component
of this value chain is multiscreen encoding/transcoding, and
that is the focus of this article.
Managing 180 terabyte archive and 40 terabyte current media, that's what Michel Visser and his colleague Roald Koger from Omrop Fryslân do all day long. The right media must be available in the right place for the right people, in the right format.
Michel Visser, media manager at Omrop Fryslân,
"Of course, we are talking with other regional
broadcasters about how they tackle certain
challenges. However, it seems to me that we at
Omrop Fryslân are quite at the forefront. We are
always interested in new solutions and are open
to new techniques. When Heynen approached
us with this high end video encoder, they
immediately had our undivided attention!"
"The trick is to work with equipment that is smarter than Roald and I put together. Then it's all pretty orderly", Michel laughs.
Net Insight today announces a 3 seconds end-to-end latency, one-click streaming workflow inclusive of transcoding together with Media Excel and Microsoft Azure.
Media Excel’s HERO Cloud is a proven virtual transcoding software solution that has found the sweet spot between quality and performance. Powered by Azure, integrated with Sye Streaming Service, HERO Cloud seamlessly spins up a transcoding service based on Sye’s customer demand. HERO Cloud, together with Sye Connect and Sye Streaming Service, enables a full end-to-end, one-click service ready to ingest, transcode and stream content from any location to viewers across the globe, all under 3 seconds.
“We are very pleased to see two of our partners combining their
services, and taking advantage of Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack and Azure
Kubernetes Services to offer a best-of-breed solution addressing the
live streaming market,” says Sudheer Sirivara, General Manager, Azure
Media & AI Platform at Microsoft.
At IBC 2018, Red Bee Media will be demonstrating how, in a unique way, can bring together the drama of live events, our broadcast grade MCR for remote production and our managed OTT platform with high quality 4K video encoding in an agile and efficient managed service.
“The 4K4 Charity event give us a unique opportunity to show how we can capture live 4K video in the field, then encode and deliver it to audiences via our state-of-the-art managed OTT services, in an efficient and streamlined way” says Kris Langbridge, Head of Transformation and Distribution, Red Bee Media.
“The HERO 4K OTT encoder product line enables operators to deploy services across different workflows (Live, VoD, Live2VoD, VoD2Live) and form factors (appliance, virtual, cloud). Media Excel has always advocated best-of-breed architectures; Red Bee Media’s end-to-end architecture embodies exactly that and delivers quality, reliability and flexibility in a modular and cost-effective value proposition.”, says Nikos Kyriopoulos, VP of Business Development, Media Excel.
Multichoice delivers media and entertainment services to 49 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. Its DStv offering provides Live and VoD services to over 12 million subscribers.
MultiChoice Connected Video CTO Muhammad Khan summarizing the experience said:
“This was the first UHD live stream in Africa, and doing this at 50 frames per second utilizing a new codec was a big win for us and sets us up well for future tests and the eventual deployment of UHD as a new standard for streaming.”
Microsoft’s Account Executive for Media, Alkis Flemetakis:
“In online content delivery, user experience is everything. Microsoft Azure Media Services with a built in Content Delivery Network (CDN) provides an enterprise grade inherently fast, scalable, and economical solution to deliver content to users globally, whether you’re developing or managing websites or mobile apps, or encoding and distributing streaming media, gaming software, firmware updates, or IoT endpoints.”
LG U+ became the first telecom operator in South Korea to introduce a real-time omni-view experience to its valued subscribers for Professional Baseball League matches. The new service offers real-time video from different angles―home base, first base, third base and the outfield―to show users players' movements which are not available on a typical TV coverage. Users can watch all videos simultaneously with their smartphones or mirror the high-quality feed to their big-screen TVs. Targeting over 2 million subscribers, LG U+ is able to leverage Media Excel's expertise with HEVC encoding and high profile services worldwide in order to deliver pristine video quality and quality of experience.
During the kickoff last weekend, the service was utilized by over 100,000 concurrent subscribers who consumed over 3.6 GBs of data per user for the entire game. LG U+ 4.5G/LTE network is able to sustain such data traffic due to HEVC compression efficiency delivered by Media Excel HERO encoders. The launch of the service came a month after the firm rolled out a new flat-rate subscription option with unlimited data and uncompromised speed for 88,000 Korean won ($82) per month, providing a catalytic monetization opportunity for the new service.
A video demonstration for the features of the new service is available here: https://youtu.be/dBVMKm8lfB0 (in Korean language).
With the heightened publicity for Cloud-based services, operators worldwide are re-evaluating their end-to-end architecture and associated cost structure looking for efficiencies, opportunities and competitive edges. Turnkey appliances, COTS-based virtualization (private Cloud) and 3rd-party commercial-Cloud based SaaS are the three form-factors that are being considered. [Hereon, we will use turnkey, virtual and cloud to refer to the three form factors.] As encoding/transcoding extends to over 80% of the processing power requirements of the entire multiscreen video delivery value chain, inevitably the focus is put on multiscreen encoders/transcoders.
This white paper introduces a framework to guide the stakeholders in identifying the most appropriate encoding/transcoding form factor for their particular operations. A multitude of dimensions are presented and analyzed here—each operator expected to weigh each dimension based on its own priorities and decide accordingly.
Media Excel, leader in multiscreen encoding/transcoding solutions, has joined forces with Unified Streaming, a leading provider of cross-platform video streaming technologies, to offer customers a next-generation solution for content delivery based on timed metadata. The collaboration substantially enhances the user experience by enabling frame-accurate interactivity and added-value services for Live, VoD and DVR workflows.
Timed Metadata can be used to distribute events from encoders (or upstream) to origins and eventually, players. Examples include ID3 tags for program information, DASH events (emsg) and ad signaling tags (SCTE-35) for dynamic ad insertion.[...]
“Given the track record in innovation for both companies, and our mutual success in high profile sports, music and 24x7 streaming services, we are pleased to enable solutions that are fully in-line with current and future customer and consumer demand”, says Simon Westbroek, VP Global Sales at Unified Streaming. "Building on our existing collaboration with Unified Streaming for the delivery of hybrid HEVC/AVC workflows, we are excited to further enhance the monetization options for our customers and the user experience for their audience with the introduction of this new set of features", says Nikos Kyriopoulos, Product Director of Media Excel.
Fiber-optics telecommunications company Deutsche Glasfaser is expanding its IPTV service offerings across Germany, with a particular focus on ensuring rural areas have access to best in class fiber-to-the-home (FttH) services. The company has chosen to include Media Excel encoders as an integral part of achieving these expansion plans. [...]
“HERO offers unique features that we knew could be of benefit to Deutsche Glasfaser in their expansion plans,” says Lorna Garrett, Commercial Director at Garland. “One benefit is the ability to convert in real-time from DVBSubs to ISMT providing text-based player-switchable subtitles. Users can take advantage of an upgrade path to HEVC and SMPTE-2022 support. HERO’s powerful management and redundancy systems, provides flexibility, density and high-quality transcoding.”
“We’re very pleased with the options the Media Excel encoders provide and the support we received from Garland,” says Niels Jonkman, Business Manager at Deutsche Glasfaser. “Ultimately, this is about continuing to provide our customers with the best service, including quality and choice, that we can. We are pleased that we are able to maintain the high standard we have set.”
[...]
Media Excel’s product line has been developed in line with the needs of Simplestream’s customers and their own white label live, on demand and catch-up offering. Earlier this year, Garland supplied Simplestream with Media Excel HERO 1RU platforms with the HERO Management System running in the cloud. Each HERO is running five services that are encoded in adaptive bitrates and in multiple formats.
In turn, Simplestream was able to assist urban music and entertainment company, Trace, in building its new subscription video-on-demand (SVOD), live TV and radio offering called TracePlay. In less than 12 week, Simplestream had completed the project, which includes content ingest, transcoding and service management.
Trace, based in Paris, offers direct and live access to 10 music and sports TV channels, 31 FM and digital urban music radio stations, and a selection of urban TV series, films and documentaries. Its audience spawns across 80 countries — from Africa to Europe, the United States, the Caribbean and Indian Ocean — and is scheduled to expand to 200 countries.
“We saw many advantages to this encoding platform,” says Lorna Garrett, Commercial Director at Garland. “Not only does it offer a wide set of features, but it is an excellent means to future proof through the use of HEVC encoding and 4K/UHD.”
“TracePlay is a great example of a truly global offering: it is multi-device, multi-lingual and it appeals to a huge audience in more than 200 countries,” says Dan Finch, Chief Commercial Officer of Simplestream. “By working together with Garland, Media Excel and our customer on such a highly complex project, we were able to provide the needed solution fast, as well as the support needed. In turn, we all were able to grow our offerings and our expertise.”
The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) is the leading agency for management, funding and conduct of research in Turkey. TUBITAK BILGEM was commissioned to modernize Turkey’s Digital Record, Achieve and Analysis System (SKAAS) for RTUK. The goal of the SKAAS-III Project is to receive DVB-compliant digital broadcast transport streams from operators across Turkey and analyze them in both real-time and off-line workflows. Enisa Group is Media Excel’s local partner that has closely collaborated with TUBITAK’s team on this project.
With a diverse range of inputs (SD, HD, UHD and radio) and extremely high-reliability expectations (over 5 nines), TUBITAK has been looking for a versatile, yet proven solution to accommodate their project requirements. In fact, due to the volume of services (over 700 channels), a dense and centrally managed platform was necessary.
After an extensive search throughout various competitive offerings, Media Excel’s HERO LIVE platform—provided through Enisa Group—proved to be the best-fitting solution.
“We have been extremely pleased with Media Excel’s HERO platform for achieving high quality and reliable transcoding, streaming and real-time recording at an incredible density per transcoder. It has been wonderful to work with such responsive, professional teams as the Media Excel and Enisa Group.” said Mr. Erol Kahraman, Project Manager of TUBITAK.
Media Excel, a leading supplier of software solutions for real time multiscreen video delivery, today announced support for VP9/DASH publishing of live streams to YouTube within the HERO™ Encoder product line. Media Excel HERO is the first carrier-grade product to enable support for WebM live encoding and publishing for YouTube, enabling broadcasters and content providers to deliver pristine-quality linear video in a reliable way to the industry’s largest online platform.
"Google and WebM are committed to open standards for video compression. As the most recent WebM open video standard, VP9 allows higher quality streaming at lower bit rates,” said Matt Frost, Head of Partnerships and Strategy at Google Chrome Media. “We are pleased with the adoption of VP9 by Media Excel, as it will allow higher quality live streaming on the web to over two billion VP9-enabled endpoints."
Running throughout BVE, the live-demo will reveal how the Simplestream Media Manager platform has been adopted by leading entertainment broadcasters including QVC, Box Plus Network, Scripps, Turner and Discovery Networks to deliver streamlined simulcasting, real-time editing and live-to-VOD publishing of multiple channels, to any platform and device within a single unified workflow. The Media Manager solution, which delivers an industry-leading live-to-VOD turnaround time of less than a minute, helps providers deliver more of the content consumers want, faster and across any device. Media Manager now uniquely provides a one-stop shop for broadcasters to provide catch-up services across platforms such as BT TV, Freesat, Freeview, Virgin, in addition to mobiles, tablets, Amazon Fire, AppleTV, SmartTV’s and other connected devices.
Dan Finch, Commercial Director for Simplestream commented: “By removing cost and time barriers, Simplestream’s Media Manager helps media owners and content creators of any size deliver premium live-streaming, catch-up and automated live-to-VOD services. Using Media Excel from Garland Partners as our preferred encoder manufacturer and supplier, we are able to extend these benefits further, ensuring the highest quality performance for multi-channel and multi-territory content delivery.”
Nikos Kyriopoulos, Product Director at Media Excel commented: “Our robust encoding and transcoding solutions are designed to ensure the highest quality with the greatest efficiency in content delivery for Simplestream’s OTT and broadcast customers. BVE provides an ideal opportunity for providers to see first-hand how our HERO transcoders can help them deliver premium television content online through a scalable and future-proofed delivery model.”
Turksat, Turkey’s leading communications satellite operator, has selected Media Excel’s 4K Ultra HD HEVC Encoder to help deliver the country’s first 4K live broadcasting channel. Based in Ankara, the new Turksat 4K Ultra TV Channel will use the Media Excel Hero 4K, deployed by LG Electronics (LGE), to enhance the quality of experience for viewers across the region.
“Media Excel leads the field in Ultra HD, from our perspective. While there are many encoder vendors in the marketplace, we placed our confidence in Media Excel as its product was clearly 4K-ready,” said Husamettin Demirel, the Teleport and TV Broadcasting Director, Turksat. “We are delighted with the results of our 4K trials with Media Excel and LGE, and subsequent broadcasts to our viewers have demonstrated the highest level of video quality along with the reliability of a broadcast-level service.”
Communications infrastructure company Arqiva has selected Media Excel’s HERO encoders, through Garland Partners, to support its IP streaming solution.
Forming part of the Arqiva IP streaming solution, the Media Excel HERO encoders provide high-quality encoding and transcoding with superior density, and management features. The Media Excel HERO encoders will encode a variety of TV sources and output them as Microsoft Smooth Streaming video, while embedding time-sensitive data into all output streams. The data can then be used downstream on the player side, to reference the streams against an EPG or Live to VoD workflow, via unified streaming services. Media Excel also helped Arqiva to develop customer interfaces (APIs) to ease the integration of the encoder with the different elements of the IP streaming solution.
Achieving the best possible picture quality on SmartTVs whilst managing the huge variance in Internet data rates is challenging. It is even a greater challenge to add support for internet-based accessibility of services such as subtitles. This is where the novel features and applications of HbbTV 2.0 provide solutions. IRT shows the potential of these new technologies and presents first HbbTV 2.0 showcases at IFA 2015 in Berlin at the ARD booth “Digitale Welt“ in hall 2.2, and at IBC 2015 in Amsterdam at IRT’s booth 10.F51 in hall 10.
It combines live streaming using MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) and subtitles based on the EBU-TT-D specification.
TVPlayer Plus will launch this month from TVPlayer, an OTT live streaming provider for broadcast TV channels. At the core of the live-streaming and catch-up-TV service is Media Excel’s HERO platform provided by Garland.
It offers viewers an additional 25 channels (offering over 80 in total) from broadcasters including UKTV, Discovery Networks, A+E Networks UK, Turner Broadcasting, National Geographic Channel Europe, and Sony Pictures Television Networks. “TVPlayer has seen significant success to date, with over half a million people now watching TV over-the-top each week on our service,” said Adam Smith, founder and CEO of TVPlayer. “Similar to what Netflix has done for movies and Spotify for music, TVPlayer Plus aims to offer a simplified viewing experience of traditional and premium television content — one that works with the devices people already have.”. TVPlayer selected the HERO encoding platform from Media Excel to power its TVPlayer and TVPlayer Plus service. The HERO DS9 is a 1RU, eight x HD-SDI channel, adaptive bitrate, multi-format encoder.
MediaMelon, the smart streaming company, and Media Excel, a leading supplier of OTT multiscreen transcoding solutions, today announced product integration designed to improve streaming video quality and bandwidth efficiency. Service providers deploying Media Excel HERO encoders with MediaMelon QBR streaming optimization technology can reduce bitrates by 35%, paving the way to 4K delivery. Additional benefits include consistent video quality, elimination of video artifacts and reduced storage at origin servers.
“Media Excel is known in the industry for three aspects: video quality, service reliability and ecosystem-wide flexibility. MediaMelon QBR technology fits perfectly into this framework, as it delivers significant improvements in streaming video quality while ensuring service reliability at reduced bandwidth for both live and VoD workflows. Those are always top concerns for pay TV service providers and operators worldwide. We are seeing the ability to stream content in HD and 4K with current networks when the two products are used together, without adding any complexity in deployment or ongoing management,” said Nikos Kyriopoulos, Product Director at Media Excel.
“Media Excel is at the forefront of transcoding technology for both real-time and on-demand video streaming for Fortune 500 companies,” said Kumar Subramanian, MediaMelon CEO. “Powering their video services with MediaMelon QBR technology, streaming companies using Media Excel solutions can now seamlessly achieve better streaming quality, reduce network and storage utilization, and improve video streaming economics.”
For the past 15 years, Media Excel has powered the most high-profile video encoding and transcoding deployments worldwide for Fortune 500 operators; from mission-critical U.S. Department of Defense operations to Verizon’s Super Bowl and from LGU+ Google TV to AT&T U-verse’s 300-channel 24x7 services. While most legacy architectures struggle to provide 3 nines of uptime (10 minutes downtime per week), Media Excel’s architecture’s highly-available characteristics have proven delivery of 5 nines of uptime in an N+1 configuration (5 minutes downtime per year), and 7 nines of uptime in an 1+1 configuration (3 seconds downtime per year).
Based on the experience and feedback accumulated, we can solidly present 4 key aspects that operators need to evaluate for a live video encoding solution with highly available services.
NTT Electronics, a leading supplier of codec solutions, today announced that our most robust and reliable 4K contribution codec solution will be on display at the Media Excel, a leading supplier of OTT multiscreen transcoding solutions based in Texas, USA and a long standing technology partner of NEL, at IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) this year.
This joint display of an end-to-end 4K/UHD live workflow solution is designed to show how ultra-high quality contribution feeds can be produced and utilized not only by 4K live distribution but also by an OTT multiscreen distribution chain in real time, catering for 4K/UHD smart TVs down to QVGA resolution for mobile phones from a single source.
“We are very excited to be able to announce our partnership with Media Excel.” said Hisashi Kasahara, General Manager of the Digital Video & Systems Business Group of NTT Electronics. “Media Excel has a great reputation in the OTT industry and is known for their commitment to quality and reliability, values we share with great interest. I'm confident that the proposed solution will benefit not only the OTT industry but also broadcasters and IPTV operators who wish to maximize the opportunity to monetize their valuable content.”
Please do not take our word for it, see for yourself at Media Excel's stand at Hall 14.D27 as well as NEL's own booth at Hall 2.C50.
The French Tennis Federation and France Télévisions are joining with Orange to inaugurate 4G multicast, the best of 4G technology, for Roland Garros 2014
4G networks will optimise multi-media, high definition content broadcasts on mobile. Broadcasting content using 4G multicast technology makes it possible to offer the perfect video experience to all customers, even at crowded venues like Roland Garros.
Orange is making its technology available to the French Tennis Federation and France Télévisions for this full scale test, which will be a first in France. Throughout the tournament, visitors to the France Télévisions Innovation Stand, located at the RG Lab, will be able to enjoy top quality delayed coverage of Roland Garros by France Télévisions on compatible smartphones and tablets, thanks to 4G multicast technology and the network deployed by Orange for the occasion.
This test, to be carried out during the fortnight of the tournament with the technical assistance of Alcatel-Lucent, Expway, Media Excel, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and Sequans, will make Orange the first to demonstrate that the technology works and is relevant.
Media Excel will introduce its real-time HEVC (H.265) encoder and transcoder at NAB in Las Vegas, April 7 - 10, 2014. Demonstration highlights in Media Excel booth SU7824 include:
● Real-time HEVC encoder, decoder and transcoder, powered by HERO product lines (1RU)
● 4K/UHDTV HEVC encoding/transcoding solutions
● Real-time HEVC contribution encoder and decoder
● HERO VS (Virtualized Software) in the cloud for Live and VOD
● Integrations with leading industry partners (DRM, Ad-insertion, MPEG-DASH, LTE/eMBMS)
● Advanced features - native playout support (playlist, clipcasting) and enhanced preprocessing
● Fault-tolerant management system for 24x7 operations achieving five 9s proven reliability
"Vidmind has partnered with Media Excel to deliver time-and-place shifting of linear TV channels as part of its turnkey hybrid OTT/DTT solution. Virtual operators can now utilize existing free-to air content and offer it to their audience to view at any time and across multiple connected devices - as part of a Prime TV experience.
The solution transforms live DVB-T TV to linear OTT TV, with the permission of the content owners, and makes it available on a multitude of connected devices in real time as well as at different time through the Catch-Up service. The solution is deployed at the operator's head-end or the Cloud and combines Vidmind's platform flexibility and control with Media Excel's HERO superior video quality and versatility.
HERO HEVC Live Encoder delivers bitrates 50 percent lower than AVC, while maintaining exceptional video quality.
"Media Excel’s HEVC Live encoder and MPEG-DASH delivery solution further enhances the commercial potential of LTE Broadcast for wireless operators,” said Raj Talluri, senior vice president of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. ”Coupled with Qualcomm Technologies’ leadership and advancements in eMBMS middleware, operators today have a technologically-proven and commercially-promising end-to-end LTE Broadcast workflow to satisfy the increasing consumer demand.”
Media Excel (stand 14.150) will demonstrate the company's HERO multiscreen transcoding platform at IBC 2013, held at the RAI in Amsterdam, September 13-17. Media Excel's scalable transcoding solutions power more than 100 million OTT/multiscreen subscribers worldwide. A newly added benefit of the HERO platform to operators is its enhanced ad-insertion capabilities.
Media Excel will also demonstrate:
● Future-proof solutions, with 4K/UHD encoding/transcoding in HEVC/H.265
● 4G/LTE broadcast, with HERO’s proven leadership in MPEG-DASH and eMBMS
● Centrally controlled scalability, where Live and VoD workflows are seamlessly managed across datacenter and cloud locations
● HContribution solutions, with high quality & low-latency encoding for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint distribution over IP and ASI networks, for newsgathering, content aggregation, teleport services, regional distribution, and more.
Media Excel has been chosen by QuickPlay Media as a video transcoding solution partner for its global multiscreen services. Hundreds of channels will be transcoded on the HERO 5000 series platform for the first phase of their partnership. Using Media Excel solutions, QuickPlay will provide turnkey MPEG-DASH and HEVC-centric solutions to their customers. This creates additional value and shortens time to market for multiscreen, OTT, and other IP-connected video services.
"As a managed service provider, QuickPlay works with a number of market leading technologies in order to deliver the best end-to-end solution for our clients," said Wayne Purboo, CEO of QuickPlay Media. "We selected Media Excel for its exceptional video quality, its ease of deployment, and extensive feature set, combined with their partnership approach."
Media Excel will be highlighting its multiscreen MPEG-4 AVC encoding and transcoding solutions during BroadcastAsia2013 at stand 5K2-01 at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from June 18-21. The company will also present its new low-latency HERO contribution encoding platform specifically designed for point-to-point delivery over IP and ASI networks. The well-established HERO product line addresses the need to deliver the highest picture quality over limited-bandwidth networks across all screens, with live and VoD adaptive delivery over HLS, Smooth, Flash, and MPEG-DASH to consumer devices.
Worldwide deployments of the HERO platform have given Media Excel an expanded presence in the Asia-Pacific region with recent wins at the three largest telcos in South Korea—SK Telecom, Korea Telecom, and LGU+. Media Excel's HERO platform was selected by all three to power each company's large-scale multiscreen transcoding projects. These deployments in Asia-Pacific join Australia's Telstra, which has been using Media Excel solutions for high-quality mobile video distribution to 10.5 million mobile subscribers, including 8.2 million 3G subscribers.
Media Excel announced the release of its HERO Contribution Encoder (HERO 5000E) and Decoder (HERO 5000D). This extends the product line of the company's leading edge HERO 5000 Series and is aimed specifically for point-to-point transmission of audio and video over ASI and IP networks by broadcasters and cable companies.
HERO 5000E is a new field-upgradeable encoder platform that can deliver up to two independent channels in MPEG-2 or MPEG-4/AVC (H.264) from SD to HD and in 4:2:0 and 4:2:2. HERO 5000E relies on a fully redundant 1RU chassis and Media Excel’s state-of-the-art video processing technologies to deliver highly available services for mission-critical, low-delay applications.
Media Excel today announced that its HERO video transcoder solutions have received Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) certification—a U.S. government designation that guarantees interoperability of fielded systems, and ensures products comply with U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) standards for encoding Full Motion Video (FMV) for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) applications.
Multiple ISR and UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) HD streams with embedded MISM/KLV metadata are ingested by HERO for dissemination to the entire spectrum of analysis and monitoring devices utilized by DoD sites and personnel. In parallel, HERO produces multiple adaptive delivery bouquets to accommodate delivery across any wired/wireless network and to all players (iOS, Android, PC/Notebook, TVs, etc.).
Media Excel today announced a deal for supporting the entire transcoding infrastructure of Dogan TV's new OTT platform, netD. Dogan TV is part of the largest media corporation in Turkey and owns leading Turkish TV channels Kanal-D, CNN-Turk, and Dream TV. Leading entertainment channel Kanal D introduced many new format television programs including various television series, foreign movies, talk shows, game shows, children’s, women’s, sports, health, news, and magazine programs. Kanal D is positioned at the top in the sector due to its successful serials, educational and entertaining children’s shows, ethical news programs, and talk shows presented by the most popular television stars. Kanal D has also earned a great success as a content provider to different areas. After the success of the Turkish serials, first in the Middle Asia, and later on in the Middle East, Kanal D has expanded to new territories such as the Balkans and the Far East and has played an important role in the popularity of the Turkish Serials in the world. With HERO, Dogan TV is delivering both live and thousands of hours of VOD content that has been previously broadcast on Kanal D since the 1990’s, along with premium content from studios as free-to-air or premium service over its own OTT platform—netD (www.netd.com)—to PC, tablets, and smartphones. Media Excel’s HERO product transcodes its video assets and packages them in HLS and Google/Widevine-compatible formats to reach the maximum number of devices while keeping the operational complexity and overhead at a minimum
"At Dogan TV we are constantly looking for ways to monetize our content by enhancing the overall user experience across all screens," said Hasan Kiragi, Director of Broadcast Operations at Dogan TV Holding. "We chose Media Excel’s HERO transcoding solution after an extensive evaluation of encoder offerings. Media Excel delivered a high-quality, full-featured solution for transcoding and packaging for a wide range of adaptive delivery technologies types, including MPEG-DASH which we are ready to implement in the near future. Their dense and flexible solution fits perfectly with our objective to seamlessly deliver protected live and VOD content across all connected devices.”
Media Excel today announced it will demonstrate its H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoder at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas, Nev. from April 8-11. Media Excel's HEVC encoder—designed for broadcasters, telecoms, and content aggregators, and powered by Intel® processors—will allow users to maintain the same quality as H.264 AVC encoding, while achieving 50 percent lower bitrates.
"With Intel-processor based H.265 HEVC encoding, Media Excel has changed the way that organizations will have to think about bandwidth allocation, costs, and how they can service their customers," said Bill Rollender, Director of Product Marketing Communications and Storage Infrastructure Group of Intel. "With the ability to save on bandwidth costs, provide more video, or both, the landscape of multi-screen video delivery and consumption will quickly change, all to the benefit of today's media-hungry consumers."
Vidmind, a pioneering End-to-end Cloud TV technology provider for operators, broadcasters and retailers, announced today its partnership with Media Excel, an innovator of adaptive bitrate, multi-device transcoding for multiscreen video delivery. The joint transcoding management component, Vidmind SnowCannon, is in field trials by a number of operators, including a leading East European household brand - a newcomer to the lucrative TV market place. Vidmind’s 1st ever fully managed Cloud TV service will bring a comprehensive home entertainment experience, including live HD-TV, VoD, catch up TV, social features and a TV app market, to the brand’s multimillion customer base.
Media Excel was chosen by Vidmind not only because of its powerful transcoding solution which produces superior quality video in multiple formats but also because of the adaptability of the Media Excel platform. Media Excel’s HERO product can be operated as a local service or on a Cloud service. This allows Vidmind to run the encoding process at the customer’s headend but manage all services through the Cloud.
At TV Connect 2013, the international trade show for broadcasters, telcos, content providers, and over-the-top (OTT) players, Media Excel — the worldwide innovator of adaptive bitrate, multi-device transcoding for multiscreen video delivery — will show how organization with video assets in multiple locations, that want to utilize the cost benefits of Cloud services, and that need to effectively monetize their assets for distribution to iPads, tablets, and other mobile devices will be able to efficiently manage transcoding functions from one central web-based control platform.
With adaptive bitrate streaming protocols—such as HLS, Smooth, and MPEG-DASH — combined with cloud transcoding and centralized management with a detailed API, Media Excel leverages its more than 12 years of transcoding expertise to bring practical solutions to meet organizations' operational and business goals.
Verizon Wireless utilizes Media Excel HERO to showcase MPEG-DASH over LTE broadcast at CES 2013. LTE Broadcast is based on evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) standards, the technology allows for a very efficient use of LTE spectrum and network, delivering the highest quality, always-on video for everyone without buffering.
LTE Broadcast could allow students on satellite campuses to see a lecture from a star professor, transforming higher education and making it available to more people. Sports leagues could provide additional or exclusive content to their fans who attend live events, enriching their experience at the venue. Municipal governments could reach all their citizens in a specific geographic area with messages important to them.
Media Excel sweeps the South Korean Telco industry by winning the large-scale multiscreen transcoding projects of the three largest Telcos in South Korea. Combined, SK Telecom, Korea Telecom, and LGU+ serve more than 20 million paid subscribers, compared to more than 18 million paid subscribers for Media Excel’s US customers.
The three Korean operators utilize Media Excel’s HERO platform to prepare, package and deliver more than 120 HD live channels over wired and 4G/LTE-wireless networks to all connected devices, ranging from smartphones and tablets to PCs and connected TVs.
Over the last nine months, SK Telecom, Korea Telecom and LGU+ individually performed extensive evaluation tests comparing solutions from all major encoding vendors. Each chose Media Excel’s HERO multi-screen encoding solution based on its reliability, scalability and extensive feature set.
Throughout the past few years, the advancements in multiscreen video delivery have trained consumers to expect a unified experience across all their screens. Features such as content mobility, service availability, instant gratification and even interactivity are becoming more and more prominent in the streaming video arena.
However, as HD and multiscreen content becomes more pervasive, service providers and operators are even more challenged by constantly trying to balance between the bandwidth-demanding video streams and their promising revenue streams. Even though those two types of streams are quite different, they continue to be closely tied together as both represent the number one priority for most operators.
BuyDRM, a pioneer in DRM technologies for pay-media operators, announced today that the company has partnered with Media Excel to launch a PlayReady integrated content encoding and encryption platform, the HERO nS multi-screen transcoder which supports the KeyOS Key Management API for content encryption.
Media Excel customers can now benefit from having one automated content transcoding workflow where Microsoft’s PlayReady DRM is an integrated component of the process. Prior to transcoding, the HERO nS securely acquires content encryption keys from the KeyOS Key Management API. Once content is prepared via the HERO nS it is then published to a CDN or hosting environment where users can view it. KeyOS provides the license key clearinghouse to enable each viewer to securely consume the content using the rights provided by the content owner through the KeyOS Licensing API.
Media Excel today announced general availability of its latest transcoder, encoder solution, the HERO nS appliance. HERO nS was first showcased at NAB; since then key customers and partners of Media Excel have been extensively testing the HERO nS with great enthusiasm.
Patrick Mechali, Business Development EMEA, Media Excel, commented, "The multi-purpose aspect of the HERO nS of accommodating both Live and File multi-screen transcoding in one unified appliance, along with its modularity and scalability is attracting great attention from SIs and regional partners".
Advantech continues its recent spree of DSP product announcements with the introduction of its latest generation DSP blade in ATCA form factor based on Texas Instruments Incorporated’s (TI’s) TMS320C66x digital signal processor (DSP) generation. Advantech’s ATCA node blade, DSPA-8901E with its twenty onboard TMS320C6678 DSPs running at 1.25 GHz core frequency provides 160 cores of processing power to reach the higher levels of performance density needed to build the highest capacity media gateways in the network. The blade significantly reduces overall system cost and frees up valuable slots in gateway elements for additional subscriber capacity and throughput.
"We are excited to see products such as Advantech’s DSPA-8901E blade entering the market," said Nikos Kyriopoulos, Product Director at Media Excel. "The new Advantech blade gives us the DSP density and performance we need to future-proof our product portfolio. Over the next 6-24 months we are launching some truly innovative products. Advantech’s experience in NEBS-compliant ATCA form factors and their ongoing success in service provider and telecom markets aligns with our commitment to supply high-quality, carrier-grade transcoding solutions to those same markets."
Media Excel, the leading provider of live and file based encoding and adaptive bitrate transcoding for Mobile TV, Web TV and IPTV, today announced its impressive company and financial achievements for 2010. Media Excel achieved record revenue and continued a three-year trend of 70% annual revenue growth while remaining profitable. "Our commitment and unique embedded DSP software approach for high-quality, high-capacity transcoding solutions has resulted in a series of key new wins, as well as substantial recurring revenue from current customers." said Media Excel’s President, Jongil Kim. Media Excel has sales and support teams in the United States, Asia and Europe, and will expand its presence in each market through direct sales and key channel partners. The company grew its internal team by 35% last year and will continue to hire engineers and senior level executives.
Media Excel today announced that it is expanding its HERA 4000 product line by offering the most advanced suite of WebTV technologies designed for Operators, Web Portals and Media Content owners that plan to broadcast "Over the Top" live TV or Video on Demand content to multiple TV, PC, notebook and tablet devices through multiple networks. Nikos Kyriopoulos, Product Director at Media Excel said, "We are responding to our customer requirements for an integrated video solution that addresses the needs of Mobile TV and WebTV markets for multiple screens and networks, all out of one appliance. We expect the launch of new smartphones and tablet products to accelerate the need for "Over The Top: and Mobile video services as an integrated offering. Media Excel customers can effectively accommodate multiple delivery mechanisms with the maximum encoding density and without the need for an additional relay/proxy appliance."
Media Excel today announced that it is expanding its longstanding relationship with Texas Instruments (TI) and collaborating on a number of initiatives designed to bring high-density, scalable video over IP compression solution for network-based transcoding to market. The collaboration will build on TI’s expanding portfolio of next-generation multicore DSPs and Media Excel’s expertise for designing high-density, high quality video compression solutions based on TI’s DaVinci chipset. With its forthcoming new line of low power, high density solutions Media Excel will continue to target the growing MobileTV, WebTV and IPTV markets and address the expanding needs of telcos, wireless operators and cable and satellite operators in their pursuit to offer cost-effective network video solutions for multiple screens while reducing energy consumption.
Media Excel Inc., the world’s leading provider of next-generation transcoding solutions for MobileTV, WebTV & IPTV, today introduced general availability of iPhone live streaming support for its award-winning HERA 4000 encoder/transcoder product line. This powerful enhancement is released after a round of successful trials with select mobile operators around the world and enables seamless, high quality live video delivery to the iPhone via a streaming server (RTSP) or through a web server (HTTP).
Media Excel Inc., the world’s only provider of next-generation transcoding solutions for MobileTV, WebTV & IPTV, announced today that its Hera 4000™ Mobile TV solutions have been selected by YouSee for its 3G Mobile TV technology refresh.
Media Excel Inc., the world’s only provider of next-generation transcoding solutions for MobileTV, WebTV & IPTV, introduced today the Hera EMSTM Mobile TV solution designed for the needs of Emerging Market mobile TV operators.
Media Excel, a leading provider of advanced real-time video encoding and transcoding solutions, will demonstrate the industry's first compression product that can stream two real-time, simultaneous HD streams in a single product at HD World.
MobiTV has integrated Media Excel's encoding and transcodoing solutions into their end-to-end headend management network service platform.
MTV Networks is currently using HERA platform domestically, with plans to extend its use globally, for digital media transcoding of video content for any device over any network.
Proven interoperability will bring greater flexibility and expand choices for DVB-H Mobile TV service providers
Media Excel developed in-house embedded software and DSP hardware components, resulting in a highly scalable system that provides multi-codec broadcast-level video quality, an order of magnitude performance improvement, simplified pricing structure, plus unmatched flexibility to meet individual customer needs.