Telestream and Wowza partner to offer live video production and universal streaming to iPhone, web and TV screens

Friday, 04 September 2009 10:35

Affordable video production and industry-first single-encode streaming to multiple screens to be demonstrated at IBC Show in Amsterdam. Telestream® and Wowza Media Systems® today announced an affordable solution for the creation and distribution of live video to multiple screens. Telestream's Wirecast^TM live video production software works in conjunction with the soon-to-be released Wowza Media Server® 2 Advanced, the world's first multi-protocol platform to provide simultaneous media streaming to iPhone^TM, iPod^TM touch, Flash®, Silverlight^TM and QuickTime^TM web players, plus IPTV set-top boxes from a single server.

The combined offering simplifies high-quality streaming of live entertainment, news, press or sports events, and business or university presentations to mobile, desktop and TV screens, and lets consumers view video on the screen of their choice. Wowza and Telestream will demonstrate this solution at the International Broadcasters Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam September 11-15.

"Wowza's innovative approach to video streaming and Wirecast's live production capabilities offer the ability to easily get beautifully-produced content to any screen," said Barbara DeHart, VP of Marketing at Telestream. "Wirecast provides a practical and affordable solution that is easy to carry on a laptop for field production. When combined with Wowza, all users need is an internet connection to send live broadcasts directly to audiences for viewing on iPhone, the web and TV."

Video consumption on mobile handsets and the web is experiencing significant growth. According to ABI Research, the value of the total online-video market will be worth $15.6 billion by 2012. Apple's iPhone holds a majority share of all mobile browser use and is the most sought-after screen by content owners seeking to expand audience reach. On the desktop side, Adobe Flash Player reaches the majority of Internet-enabled desktops.

"Together, Wowza and Telestream enable content owners, producers and delivery networks to realize the vision of true three-screen streaming in a very practical, yet extremely powerful way," said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and co-founder, Wowza Media Systems. "We have great expectations for our two technologies as we continue to work together to empower customers looking to bring streaming video to consumers anywhere, anytime, on any screen."

Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced takes the proven Wowza Pro platform and moves beyond Flash by adding H.264 streaming to Apple iPhone and iPod touch, Microsoft Silverlight, Apple QuickTime and IPTV set-top boxes. The Wowza 2 Advanced platform represents Wowza's vision of unified infrastructure media streaming software that enables delivery over any protocol to any player or device, served from any operating system. Wowza Media Server 2 is set for widespread availability in Q4 of 2009.

"The combination of Wirecast and Wowza servers gives us the most cost-effective and reliable way to deliver streaming to multiple screens," commented Wayne Colleman, General Partner, Netbroadcasting.tv. "In fact, just last month, the technology enabled us to deliver a continuous 150-hour live stream of a large convention to 20,000 Flash-connected participants and 500 iPhone viewers. Together, the Wirecast and Wowza solution not only saved us time and money by enabling us to reach both screens from a single encode, but it was easy to manage and performed flawlessly."

Michael Basset, Senior Stream Systems Engineer, Mirror Image Internet added, "Wirecast is a great complement to our multi-protocol delivery network powered by Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced technology. Wirecast offers our customers a robust and inexpensive way to get their content through our network to the iPhone, Flash and other clients with a single encoding workflow."

Wirecast is TV studio production software for live streaming that is available for a fraction of the cost of traditional broadcast hardware equipment. Wirecast works just like a video switcher, controlling real-time switching between multiple live video cameras, while dynamically mixing in other source media, such as QuickTime movies, music, audio and slides. Features such as chroma key, 3D graphics, and built-in titles merge seamlessly with Wirecast's layering system, allowing users to easily create live and on-demand broadcasts for anyone who wants to stream to multiple screens.

Customers can purchase Wirecast production software for under $500 and get a Wowza Media Server Software Subscription for $65/month or less per server.

Live video production and streaming demonstrations to iPhone, web and TV screens using Wirecast and Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced will be demonstrated at the IBC Show in Telestream stand 7.C19 and Wowza stand IP331.