As IBC 2012 kicks off today in Amsterdam, we are very excited to announce two significant new services that will accelerate and streamline the video encoding workflow for both on-demand and live video content. While in the past, video professionals have been conditioned to accept transcoding delays for on-demand content publishing and costly on-premise infrastructure investments for high quality live streaming, the new services announced today use the cloud to nearly eliminate the transcoding-to-play delay and make it possible to cost-effectively deliver high quality, multi-screen live streaming.
The first new service is Zencoder Instant Play, which enables on-demand video playback to start just seconds after the file upload process begins, greatly accelerating the video publishing process. Additionally, Zencoder Live Cloud Transcoding converts a single live video stream source into multi-bitrate HLS and RTMP live streams for high quality live experiences across desktops and devices.
Zencoder Instant Play applies live streaming methodology to file-based transcoding and takes advantage of parallel processing in the cloud to enable media playback within seconds of commencing transcoding. This enables publishers of breaking news content, sports highlights, political commentary and other types of time-sensitive content to immediately publish video and get a head start on breaking news cycles to capture viewer interest.
Zencoder Live Cloud Transcoding eliminates the complexity and cost associated with encoding and streaming live events to multiple screens, which currently requires costly hardware or software encoders. With Live Cloud Transcoding, content providers encode a single live stream from an event and publish the stream to the Zencoder cloud transcoding service. The stream is transcoded and packaged for adaptive bitrate HLS and/or multiple RTMP streams. This results in reduced operational complexity, eliminates bandwidth bottlenecks and provides viewers with a high quality user experience on their device of choice.
Instant Play is now available in public beta, enabling anyone with a Zencoder account to take advantage of this new approach to content publishing. You can sign up for a free Zencoder account at http://zencoder.com/pricing.
Live Cloud Transcoding is available in limited beta. If you are interested in gaining early access, you can apply here to join the limited beta program.
Following successful conclusion of the beta program, Instant Play and Live Cloud Transcoding will be available as standalone API services at the Zencoder website. Live Cloud Transcoding beta participants may use the service in conjunction with the Brightcove Video Cloud player, but Video Cloud does not yet support Instant Play.
These exciting new services come on the heels of Brightcove's acquisition of Zencoder, a leading cloud-based video encoding service. Zencoder is used by more than 1,000 organizations worldwide. Zencoder also provides Video.js, an open source HTML5 video player used on more than 24,000 websites. Brightcove plans to continue to develop, operate, support and promote the Zencoder services in their current form as distinct product offerings.
If you are attending IBC this week, make sure you swing by our booth in Hall 5 (booth 5.C20) where we'll be demonstrating both Zencoder Instant Play and Zencoder Live Cloud Transcoding.
