Digital Rapids Announces Support for WebM Initiative and VP8 Codec in Highly Acclaimed Media Encoding Solutions

Monday, 24 May 2010 10:28

Digital Rapids – the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences –has announced that the company is supporting the new WebM open web media project with upcoming support for VP8 compression and the WebM format in future versions of Digital Rapids’ award-winning encoding, transcoding and live streaming systems.

The WebM project and the open sourcing of the VP8 codec were announced today by Google and its partners during the annual Google I/O conference.

WebM is intended to provide an open video format option for content publishers and web developers. Google is open sourcing VP8, a high performance video codec optimized for the web, and contributing it to the project under a royalty free license. The VP8 codec is based on the extensive video compression experience of On2 Technologies, acquired by Google earlier this year. Mozilla, Opera, Google, YouTube, and many major software and hardware manufacturers have expressed their support of this effort and intentions to support VP8 and WebM.

“A key factor in the web’s success is that its core technologies are open and freely implementable. Video is fundamental to the web experience, and developers and content publishers need an open video format option,” said Mike Jazayeri, Group Product Manager at Google. “We are excited Digital Rapids is joining a broad coalition of industry leaders supporting the WebM project to bring a new era of open innovation in web video.”

Digital Rapids solutions for transforming media for web distribution include the versatile StreamZ™ and StreamZHD™ multi-format on-demand and live encoding systems; the Digital Rapids Transcode Manager® automated, distributed, high-volume transcoding software; the StreamZ Live™ family of live encoders; and TouchStream® portable encoding and streaming appliances. Digital Rapids solutions feature an unparalleled combination of superior visual quality, extensive format support, versatile functionality and exceptional workflow efficiency. Support for VP8 and the WebM format will be integrated into future versions of Digital Rapids solutions, with existing systems upgradable through easily deployable software updates.

“Support for the broadest range of leading web video formats has always been a hallmark of Digital Rapids solutions,” said Darren Gallipeau, Product Manager at Digital Rapids. “VP8 and WebM will provide our customers with a powerful open format option, and we’re pleased to be working with Google and the WebM community to incorporate support for VP8 and WebM into our products.”

For more information about Digital Rapids, please visit www.digital-rapids.com

About Digital Rapids Corporation – Digital Rapids provides the leading hardware and software solutions for transforming and delivering media, enabling the multi-platform experiences that are changing how audiences view content. Scaling from standalone appliances to global workflows, Digital Rapids solutions enable media professionals to maximize their productivity, quality, and the value of their content. Recipient of a coveted IBC Innovation Award and four prestigious Frost & Sullivan honors for encoding and transcoding leadership, Digital Rapids combines innovative technology with proven expertise to help our customers expand their audiences, increase their media revenues and reduce their costs. Digital Rapids Corporation (www.digital-rapids.com) is headquartered in Ontario, Canada with offices in the United States, the UK, Australia, Argentina and Hong Kong.