IP Unity, a provider of carrier grade media server platforms for enhanced voice and video applications, today announced a partnership with Manystreams, a leading developer of solutions for intelligent media delivery over broadband networks. Combining the IP Unity Harmony 6000 Media Server with the Manystreams’ MCE-100, a multimedia engine, allows carriers to develop and deploy new video-based services for corporate and residential end users, including services such as video messaging, streaming video and video conferencing. Streaming wireless video may become increasingly common with phones like the Nokia 3650.
The MCE-100 is a media-aware content and communications engine optimized for the delivery of video applications over broadband networks to clients such as personal computers, PDAs, cell phones and IP based set-top boxes. Integrated into the IP Unity Media Application Environment, the MCE-100 supports video management capabilities including MPEG-4 rich media presentation packaging, media stream aggregation and delivery and bandwidth management.
EarthCam and PacketVideo can also provide live video for today’s video-enabled telephones.
PacketVideo uses a version of progressive download which they brand as ‘fast tracking’. This enables them to encode at 64 kbit/s for transmission at down to 9.6 kbit/s. They offer a Symbian media player which can be delivered OTA and re-branded by the operator or content provider.
Patrick Parodi at PacketVideo, claims that they cam provide 5-6 frames per second at 30 kbit/s falling to 2-3 frames per second at 9.6 kbit/s.
The Oplayo video streaming codec is designed for speeds from only 9.6 kbit/s. They use progressive download video which ensures that the first frame of video arrives almost immediately (before other frames are buffered), and the effects of bandwidth variation are minimized. The impact of this progressive download is significant for clips of below 60 seconds.
pvPlayer 3 is an MPEG-4 compliant video decoder that plays multimedia streamed over mobile networks for viewing on mobile devices at data rates ranging from as low as 9.6 kbps to more than 768 kbps. It’s optimized for embedding into phones, PDAs, Smartphones, laptops and other mobile devices with varied display sizes.
The pvAirStudio Mobilemedia Development Kit is composed of modular tools and utilities to enable compelling wireless multimedia applications based on the pv3 Mobilemedia System includes encoding, transmission and decoding products.
Major video codexs include:
- Real Media 9: Real’s MPEG-4 system includes Helix Producer and Mobile Producer powered by Envivio so you can format your video and audio to reach wireless devices. Their MPEG-4 SVP Video delivers video through streaming or download to cell phones or PDAs at bit rates from 10 kbps up to 384 kbps. Envivio’s MPEG-4 encoder has a H.264 live solution to deliver live broadcast-quality video over satellite, cable, and telecommunications networks. The RealOne Mobile Player works on Nokia 3650s.
- Windows Media 9: Windows Media Encoder 9 has performance enhancements and can encode both live broadcasting and file-based encoding. Unlike the older 7.1 that it replaces, it natively handles 2-pass and VBR mode encoding.
- Sorenson Squeeze: An encoding tool built around the Sorenson family of codecs — Sorenson Video 3 Pro, Sorenson Spark Pro, and Sorenson MPEG-4 Pro. It’s available in different configurations: one designed for Flash MX, one for MPEG-4, and the entire Sorenson codec family. If you’re running on the Windows platform, Sorenson Squeeze includes the ability to encode RealMedia and Windows Media content. Flash Player 6 plays back video as well as vector-based animation. Graphics, text, and video can be combined into one seamless viewing experience within Macromedia Flash MX.
- MPEG-4 on SourceForge includes an MPEG-4 AAC audio encoder, an MP3 encoder, two MPEG-4 video encoders, an MP4 file creator and hinter, an IETF standards-based streaming server, and an MPEG-4 player that can both stream and playback from local file. Their development is focused on the Linux platform, and has been ported to Windows, Solaris, FreeBSD, BSD/OS and Mac OS X.
Mobile video blogging may become increasingly popular. Streaming Magazine covers the scene.
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