The DASH Handbook

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WP 64 streaming media June/July 2013

DASH: Time to AdoptBy now, you’ve probably read enough to understand what dasH is and why it’s important. But let’s boil it down to the most important points: dasH is an adaptive bitrate streaming technology for delivering multimedia—i.e., video. it’s a codec-agnostic technology designed to partition and deliver congruent pieces of a multimedia file to a client, using HttP. along with network conditions and other variables, the receiving device (such as a cellphone, tablet, set-top box, smart tV, or computer) dictates which “chunks”—each of which contains a different resolution and bitrate—to deliver to ensure uninterrupted play of the file as a whole. of course, adaptive bitrate (aBr) streaming has been around for a while. if you ever watched a cat playing a piano and it got fuzzy for a few seconds, you experienced a version of aBr. But was it dasH doing the heavy lifting? almost certainly not. that’s about to change.

What’s most compelling is that dasH isn’t a proprietary technology. most of us agree that our industry’s innovation advances have come about from companies leapfrogging each other with better solutions. this fragmentation had caused no end of expense and time of encoding and storing multiple file formats of the same assets. now, along comes dasH, promising a path of standardization, and in some cases, even levels of backward compatibility to Hds and smooth streaming. and it’s all been driven by vendors. it’s refreshing to see the big names in our space play together in the sandbox without a fight for a change. in fact, it may be the first collective vendor initiative to make the cover of streaming media magazine, where this dasH Handbook first appears.

now that dasH-aVc/264 has been established, it’s practical to move ahead. it won’t be long before all those vendors start competing again, each one saying it has the best solution. But, as always, buyer beware, especially when it comes to industry acronyms. almost every company at naB 2013 was pitching its dasH, HeVc, and 4K solutions. But while most of the people reading this aren’t anywhere near moving to HeVc or 4K this year, we should all be giving dasH a serious look. Yes, it’s still young, but it has its “diploma” in the form of the dasH-aVc/264 spec, and it’s now ready to join the workforce.

that said, we decided to create a “look no further” resource to help you—the content owner, content publisher, and carrier—find companies that are ready to do more than just talk about dasH … today. enter the dasH Handbook, driven 100% by vendors who have stepped up to say, “We are ready to do business with you with a dasH solution.” in this rapidly expanding multiscreen environment, we hope you’ll find the information in these pages invaluable.

Joel Unickow, [email protected]

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In April 2012, ISO—the international standards body which had already given us the core media foundations of MPEG-2, MP3 and MP4—finally ratified the version of its next-generation adaptive streaming standard: MPEG-DASH. In an industry besieged by three comparable (but incompatible) segmented formats many asked, “why another?” The participating companies in the MPEG-DASH standardization (including Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Samsung, and many others) saw a vision of interoperability and convergence required for large-scale market growth that trumped the proprietary and competing solutions. They replaced multiple corporation-controlled solutions with a single industry-defined open standard.

In the same spirit of cooperation in which MPEG-DASH was created, the leading streaming companies got together to form an industry forum to promote and catalyze the adoption of MPEG-DASH and help transition it from a specification into a real business. The DASH Industry Forum (DASH-IF) grew out of a grassroots DASH Promoters Group and was formally incorporated in September 2012. Today it has 67 members spread throughout the world. The DASH-IF is filled with member companies who are realists about the DASH deployment challenges. DASH by itself is no magic panacea for the fragmentation problems of media, devices, and markets. However, the DASH-IF

members share a common vision that the long-term benefits of convergence outweigh the costs of shorter-term efforts involved in achieving that goal. They are willing to take on the work of creating recommendations, filing bugs, and attending plug-fests and interop events, with the belief that their business and the internet streaming market in large will benefit a great deal with convergence around DASH. The DASH-IF, representing all sectors of the streaming media ecosystem, is proactively and deterministically shaping the future and success of MPEG-DASH.

The MPEG-DASH standard is attractive to many companies because of some key market benefits that it brings:

Independent stable international standard—Not owned by any single company, DASH is a finalized specification and not a moving target.

Multi-video and audio tracks—Deliver the complexity of a DVD or Blu-ray experience, with multiple synchronized video and audio options.

Mix of multiplexed and non-multiplexed video and audio tracks—Provide for dynamic bandwidth adaptation, support for multiple audio options such as language selection and surround sound, bandwidth efficiency (sending only the requested tracks), and reduced production, storage, maintenance, and delivery costs.

Common encryption—One-time encryption and packaging of content allowing simultaneous use of multiple DRM technologies.

Templated manifests—Compact manifest for fast start-up, as well as avoiding manifest download with every segment.

Non-segmented origin files—Files can optionally be stored contiguously on the server and the segments accessed via byte-range requests.

Efficient ad insertion—Server-based and client-based targeted ad-insertion through the use of periods.

Support for multiple CDNs/caches with the same manifest—Provide flexibility to define multiple base URLs in the manifest, thus improving scalability and fault tolerance

Accessibility, rating, and other content descriptions—Possible to signal content descriptions such as accessibility, rating, and audio channel configuration in the manifest.

Industry convergence for streaming delivery—Avoid having to provide multiple streaming solutions, each of which requires a separate ad insertion flow, content protection scheme, and a different closed captioning format.

Vibrant ecosystem—A strong community of encoders, content packagers, delivery platforms, and player builders already has been

DASHIndustry Forum:A Catalyst for DASH AdoptionBy Will Law, Secretary, DASH Industry Forum

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established, providing a wide range of DASH solutions.

Ease of integration—DASH will work on any HTTP server and most mainstream media servers, meaning service providers and broadcast operators are not required to buy into new vendor-specific ecosystems or invest in specialized DASH-specific infrastructure.

One of the main challenges facing DASH after its standardization was its own flexibility, expressed through the many features and options allowed by the core specification. Being codec agnostic, for example, is a plus when supporting new codec options, but poses a challenge for encoder or player builders: Which codec do you support in your DASH player? What segment encapsulation should the encoder generate? How should DRM be signaled? What closed captioning format do you support? The flexibility inherent in the standard made it more difficult to achieve interoperability between various initial implementations.

Recognizing full interoperability is the key for rapid MPEG-DASH market adoption, the DASH-IF decided to take the raw DASH standard, marry it with a codec, apply tight profiles and other restrictions, and create a baseline recommendation that everyone could use to build interoperable products and services without painful integration. Interoperability is the key to adoption because if a format “works everywhere” then its growth will accelerate. The name of this recommendation is “DASH-AVC/264 Implementation Guidelines” and you can download it from http://dashif.org. It is significant because Adobe, Akamai, Ericsson, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony and 61 other members of the DASH-IF agreed on a set of recommendations that they will support. They also strive for compatibility with consortia standards, such as HbbTV, DECE, DTG, HD-Forum, and DLNA. The DASH-IF believes that DASH-AVC/264 supports the Internet streaming main use cases better than any existing proprietary solution. Furthermore, the DASH-IF provides conformance software, a set of test

vectors, and an open source reference client implementation for DASH-AVC/264. If you are considering a DASH deployment, then a DASH-AVC/264 compatible solution is the best place for you to start. For the technically inclined, here are some of the high level key constraints that DASH-AVC/264 sets in place:

• The required video codecs are AVC/H.264 Main and High profiles. Video tracks using other codecs can be included.

• The required audio codec is HE-ACC v2. Audio tracks using other codecs can be included, including multi-channel audio.

• Segment formats are based on fragmented ISOBMFF (MP4).

• MPEG-DASH’s “on-demand” and “live” profiles are supported.

• Segments are keyframe-aligned across representations, start with a random access point, and do not vary too dramatically in duration. Therefore, players can switch easily between representations without having to download overlapping segments.

• Common Encryption is used when the content is DRM-protected.

• Closed captioning is supported using TTML-based SMPTE-TT format.

The advantage of an ISO standard is the openness with which it can be evolved and improved by industry consensus. The DASH-IF is the best vector, outside of joining MPEG directly, to propose additional features to the core MPEG-DASH standard. Participation in DASH-IF also provides the opportunity to collaborate with other industry leaders in developing new deployment scenarios and corresponding implementation guidelines for MPEG-DASH. In addition to the work done already around DASH-AVC/264, the DASH-IF has established task forces that are actively addressing other challenging areas of streaming:

Advertising Insertion—creating guidelines and interoperability points for more efficient server-side ad insertion

and making interoperable client-side ad insertion viable.

DRM—best DASH and CENC practices and recommendations for signaling and transmitting DRM related information in an interoperable manner.

Live Streaming—provides guidelines, test cases, test vectors, test service offerings and conformance software to test interoperability for live services. Additionally defines techniques to improve end-user experience through lower latency, improved audiovisual quality and trick modes.

HEVC—prototypes of HEVC encoding in the combination with MPEG-DASH delivery have shown astonishing quality-differentiating OTT delivery. The HEVC task force addresses interoperability and best practices aspects for HEVC delivered through DASH.

Backend Interfaces—focused on the interface between an encoder and the DRM platform to facilitate and standardize the exchange of keys and DRM metadata signals.

Players—there are already many companies providing DASH players for desktop/iOS/Android use. In addition, DASH-IF manages an open source JavaScript player that uses the MSE and EME W3C specifications to create a cross-platform browser-based player. Look for dash.js on Github and give the player a try today using Google Chrome.

We strongly believe that there is a common benefit to the entire streaming ecosystem, from studios and operators to vendors to infrastructure providers, in adopting DASH. We also believe that collaboration accelerates adoption. We encourage your organization to use the DASH-IF outputs and join the DASH-IF (the membership links can be found at http://dashif.org.) Take an active part in defining, tuning, adapting and growing MPEG-DASH and leverage its extended features to enable new applications and business use cases. Make the streaming format of the future today’s format of choice.

This article sponsored by Akamai.

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A Brief Description of the castLabs Adaptive Streaming Library• Portable C++ SDK (currently available on Android, iOS, PC and Mac)• Implements all adaptive HTTP streaming protocols. Namely: MPEG-DASH, SmoothStreaming, HLS and F4M/HDS• Live and on-demand playback support• Supporting the various MPD variants (Template, List, Single-Segment, Multiple SIDX)• Validated by various DASH-AVC/264 test vectors and our partners: Dolby, DTS, Fraunhofer IIS, Unified Streaming

Platform and Wowza.• Supports and enables DRM protected content with any CENC compatible DRM scheme

The castLabs Android & iOS Players and Adaptive Streaming SDKs

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Special features• Dynamic adaptation heuristic for optimal bandwidth

utilization (measurement & filtering based)

• Optimal buffering utilization (min/max constraints parameters)

• Manual on-the-fly representation selection (audio and video)

• Dolby, DTS, and Fraunhofer multi-channel 5.1 codec support (castLabs additionally offers Android and iOS player SDKs fully supporting these codecs) (Seen @NAB Show)

• Officially supporting DTS Lyra (Layered Audio) codec (Seen @ NAB Show) and thus support for inter-representation dependencies for layered codecs like DTS Lyra

• Implements UltraViolet Common Streaming Format

• SMPTE-TT and CFF-TT subtitle support

• DRM support based on Common Encryption (ISO 23001-7), can be integrated with any compatible DRM

• Zero-copy architecture to enable highest possible performance on mobile devices

• Ad-insertion (available soon)

Player and DRM integration• Currently integrated in our Android and iOS Player SDKs

as well as VLC (VideoLAN.org)

• Pre-integrated with CMLA-OMA DRM, PlayReady on request

• Can be integrated with any other DRM via APIs

About our Player SDKs• Our Player SDK supports the novel UltraViolet (UVU)

Common File Format (CFF) for local playback. We are compatible to UltraViolet streaming based on Common Streaming Format (CSF) as a subset of MPEG-DASH using our CMLA-OMA DRM agent along with Common Encryption (CENC).

• We support Android devices (minimum requirement OS version is 4.0 ICS), including x86-based devices (as shown @ MWC) and latest devices with 4K video playback and 7.1 surround sound capabilities (demonstrated together with Qualcomm at MWC) as well as HDMI output.

• We are partnering with Dolby, DTS, and Fraunhofer for built-in support of multichannel audio codecs with our player core. We aim to deliver an immersive surround sound experience on Android via HDMI output, or via holophonic post-processing to headphones.

• We are using hardware secured media decryption when available to provide the highest possible level of security.

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The online world is rapidly embracing HTTP as the streaming protocol of choice. For the past several decades, the internet has been developing infrastructure that optimizes performance of HTTP delivery. It only makes sense for video streaming to embrace that infrastructure. To that end, there have been several different formats proposed and implemented by vendors for HTTP delivery:

HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS): Adobe introduced HDS to provide HTTP delivery of rich media from the Adobe Media Server to the Flash Player.

HTTP Live Streaming (HLS): Apple’s HTTP delivery mechanism, HLS works natively in QuickTime players and iOS Devices.

Microsoft Smooth Streaming (MSS): MSS was introduced by Microsoft to allow for HTTP streaming from their Internet Information Server (IIS) to clients including XBox and Silverlight.

We have been building video players for these formats, as well as many other non-HTTP formats, for the past several years. However, what excites us most at Digital Primates is the new open standard for HTTP streaming from the MPEG committee—MPEG-DASH (DASH stands for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP).

A constant challenge we have faced as consultants in the video player

market is the wide range of formats we need to support in order to get our clients’ content playing on many different platforms. When we learned that Adobe, Microsoft, Google, and many other major players in the industry were publicly supporting MPEG-DASH, it was a dream come true for us.

It is now possible for us to build solutions for the web, mobile devices, connected TVs, set top boxes, and more against a single set of video assets. We are no longer required to build separate mechanisms to handle all the permutations of HTTP and non-HTTP streaming technologies, as well as progressive download, pseudo-streaming, and many other formats. As more of these platforms support DASH, we can increasingly lead our clients in that direction.

Two other exciting innovations in this field are the Media Source Extensions (MSE) and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) proposals to the W3C specification for the HTML Working Group. As the MSE is implemented in browsers, it allows for us to build DASH clients directly in HTML, without the need for additional plugins. Currently MSE is supported in Google Chrome, which is the current platform of choice for our DASH.js open source project. We have assurances that many other browser manufacturers will also

release versions that support MSE in the very near future.

DASH.js was commissioned by the DASH Industry Forum (dashif.org) as a reference client. We built out the initial version of DASH.js, released it under an open source license, and are now continuing to support and manage the project as more committers come online.

Currently EME is only supported in ChromeOS, although there is hope that it will soon be available for many more browser and OS combinations.

Digital Primates is committed to providing the best possible solutions for their customers. Increasingly, when customers demand video that will play on many platforms, MPEG-DASH is the solution we recommend.

AbouT DigiTAl PrimATeS:Digital Primates is an elite consultancy focused on high performance client-side applications. With specialties in video, mobile and enterprise development, Digital Primates has built video players for some of the world’s most watched live events, and often provides solutions for the world’s biggest brands. Digital Primates has offices in Chicago and New York City and can be reached at [email protected].

MPEG-DASH: A Client-Side Developers’ Dream Come True By Jeff Tapper, Senior Consultant Digital Primates

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Broadcasters and online service providers have seen a tremendous increase in the complexity of their workflows as the ecosystem for online entertainment delivery has evolved. Initiatives such as DASH and UltraViolet are designed to increase the ubiquity and break through the vertical ecosystems that exist in the market today and lead to this market fragmentation and operational complexity.

Dolby believes that DASH is an idea whose time has come and was one of the first companies to join the DASH Promoters Group. Dolby is working with its partners to promote the adoption of MPEG-DASH standard in the market. As a charter member of the DASH Industry Forum (DASH-IF), Dolby wants to make sure that premium audio is available to consumers as DASH is rolled out.

MPEG-DASH, ratified by MPEG in November 2011, has been gaining traction as a mainstream delivery format for streaming content over the internet. MPEG-DASH is targeted to be a single standard that could resolve the fragmentation in streaming protocols that exists in the market today. However, it will take time before MPEG-DASH is ubiquitously and consistently supported across the multiscreen ecosystem. The commercial

deployment of MPEG-DASH has started to move forward, and the first mass market live public trial, presented by Belgian public broadcaster VRT, was run last summer in support of the 2012 London Olympics. This commercial demonstration featured a live video stream encoded using the MPEG-DASH ISO Base Media File Format Live Profile, delivered through Belgacom’s content delivery network to a range of device categories, including tablets, smartphones, and PCs running iOS, Android, and Windows operating systems.

Using MPEG-DASH they were able to reap the benefits of adaptive bit rate technology to automatically adapt the video playout to the available bandwidth. This trial was focused on video and did not provide multiple profiles for audio. Needing to support a minimum audio bitrate of 64Kbps and wanting to ensure seamless switching across different profiles, a 64Kbps bitrate was use across all profiles. By using a single audio bitrate they were not able to highlight the benefits of ABR for audio. Pairing 64Kbps audio with full 720p HD video diminishes the QoE for end users that are used to traditional broadcast services that provide full high quality 5.1 surround sound with their HD channels. This did not have to be the case if Dolby® Digital Plus had been

used. Dolby® Digital Plus in this scenario could maintain the QoE across all bit rates by enabling seamless bit rate switching for all channel configurations.

Dolby is closely collaborating with its partners to provide Dolby® Digital Plus and DASH-AVC/264 video at different bit rates while supporting seamless adaptive switching, seamless channel switching, and seamless ad insertion, thereby enabling service providers to deliver high-quality multichannel audio entertainment to consumers on any compatible device while lowering their operational costs. Doing so will help the DASH standard become more universally adopted and allow even more service providers to be able to leverage these technologies.

Dolby is currently demonstrating how this can be done with DASH. Specifically, Dolby has been working to show this in conjunction with Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) initiative. This initiative aims to bring about the harmonization of the delivery of both broadcast and broadband services to the viewer through connected TVs and set top boxes. MPEG-DASH has been incorporated into version 1.5 of the HbbTV. HbbTV 1.5 will be widely used by European broadcasters for interactive services on connected televisions and includes Dolby®

Delivering High-Quality Audio in DASH

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Digital Plus as a mandatory requirement whenever the decoder implemented in a device supports it. This requirement addresses some of the concerns that broadcasters had regarding the support for end-to-end multichannel audio across their networks.

The following diagram outlines the demo that Dolby and some of its partners are providing to show how Dolby® Digital Pluss augments the value of DASH in HbbTV.

As noted earlier, HbbTV mandates Dolby® Digital Plus (DD+). Dolby® Digital Plus is the only codec in HbbTV that ensures 5.1 where physically possible and as such it enables simple and reliable audio encoding workflows. It ensures that the service will work end-to-end and provide seamless bitrate and channel configuration switching. With this seamless switching, service providers will be able to use a single stream for audio that allows them to match the quality of the audio with that of the video as the available bandwidth changes.

Dolby® Digital Plus will also address loudness issues from broadcast and VoD service providers due to broadband content from/to metadata-incapable encoders or decoders further assisting service providers in delivering a high quality of experience. With 5.1 channel Dolby®

Digital Plus, DASH, and DRM, broadcasters will be able to deliver more valuable content (e.g. VoD) using HbbTV.

Dolby technology has been selected by leading online video services including Netflix, HBO Go®, Vudu™, Best Buy® CinemaNow®, Samsung™ Acetrax™, Dixons KnowHow™ Movies, Voddler®, Apple® iTunes®, and Amazon® Instant Video. Dolby® Digital Plus is the end-to-end solution for delivering premium multichannel

audio and has the broadest reach across consumer devices, Dolby® Digital Plus is deployed in over 1.3 billion devices worldwide. By leveraging this reach across services and devices and by working with the DASH-IF and with international standards bodies, Dolby hopes to accelerate the deployment of MPEG-DASH across all applications—mobile, broadcast, and internet—and to enable interoperability between all MPEG-DASH content and connected devices to the greatest degree possible.

At last year’s NAB, Dolby announced the availability of a development kit to bring the full power of Dolby® Digital Plus premium-quality multichannel audio to partners that leverage the MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) standard. This development kit enables Dolby’s current and future partners, such as encoder vendors

and digital rights management (DRM) vendors, to easily implement and test Dolby® Digital Plus for products and services in the online video ecosystem. The development kit includes test vectors as well as specifications that describe how Dolby® Digital Plus can be signaled and transported within MPEG-DASH as well as Microsoft® Smooth Streaming, and Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS).

Key service providers and device manufacturers recognize that consumers care about great sound. While people are increasingly using their tablets and smart phones for watching online videos, listening to music, playing games and video chatting, the fact is that the primary consumption of entertainment content is through peoples existing TVs and home theater systems, where they are used to getting a high quality sound experience delivered in 5.1 surround sound. As more consumers enjoy streaming content on multiple screens, it’s increasingly important that the entertainment experiences are the best quality, regardless of delivery medium and playback devices.

Dolby® Digital Plus enables the delivery of high-quality audio to any compatible device and any distribution workflow, including broadcast, over-the-top (OTT), online, and on demand. It includes scalable, adaptive, and bandwidth-efficient multichannel coding designed for bandwidth-constrained delivery networks, as well as technologies such as loudness control and device-playback sound optimization. Widely supported within the digital entertainment ecosystem, Dolby® Digital Plus enables service providers to deliver high-quality multichannel audio entertainment to consumers on any compatible device while lowering their operational costs, making it the preferred audio solution for artists, operators, carriers, and device makers worldwide.

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Delivering superior audio quality, seamless switching capabilities, and flexibility for adaptive streaming environments. Video services delivered to mobile devices are highly popular today, and thanks to the increased bandwidth capacity of LTE networks and modern adaptive streaming standards such as MPEG-DASH, the quality of such mobile video services is rapidly improving and approaching a quality of experience consumers know from HDTV broadcasts, DVD, or Blu-ray. An integral component of the improved consumer experience is the ability to deliver surround sound.

HE-AAC Multichannel is the only native surround audio codec in Android and enables the playback of high-quality 5.1 surround content on Android 4.1 phones and tablets connected via HDMI to a home theater system. In combination with adaptive HTTP streaming technologies such as MPEG-DASH, Android devices become true delivery platforms that allow service providers to offer their content using the most efficient, highest-quality MPEG standards available today. HE-AAC’s ability to dynamically adapt audio bitrates to changing network conditions makes it the ideal solution for adaptive streaming environments.

HE-AAC offers the flexibility to encode up to 48 audio channels in various configurations including mono, stereo, 5.1, and 7.1. Data rates as low as 64Kbps for 5.1 surround sound, allow multichannel audio to be streamed without the need to switch to stereo when bandwidth gets constrained. When more bandwidth becomes available, HE-AAC Multichannel delivers 5.1 audio at 160Kbps or above with premium HDTV broadcast quality. Therefore it can ensure a truly seamless adaptive streaming experience. In audio-only services, such as

internet radio, HE-AAC can improve the quality of experience for listeners and enable a more efficient large-scale deployment of internet-delivered content.

The native, mandatory inclusion of Fraunhofer’s audio technologies enables consumer electronics manufacturers with devices based on the widely popular Android operating system, to provide an immersive surround sound experience on consumer’s Android phones and tablets. Connecting an HDMI cable from a home theater system to the MHL/HDMI connector of Android devices delivers foolproof surround sound. In addition, audio post-processing technologies can enable a mobile surround experience over headphones or stereo loudspeakers.

Service providers can make use of the operating system’s built-in HE-AAC decoder in their video player apps for free and, in contrast to other codecs, don’t need to pay content distribution fees either. This allows them to offer compelling streaming services on the Android platform that sound better, with lower bandwidth costs to providers and consumers. Since HE-AAC Multichannel is also natively supported in Apple iOS devices, Mac OS, Windows 7 & 8, and the leading HTML5 browsers including Safari, Chrome, and IE9, service providers can deliver the same encoded assets to the vast majority of mobile devices, PCs, and Macs which reduces storage costs and asset management complexity. HE-AAC has emerged as the global standard for broadcasting and streaming multimedia content, including internet radio, IPTV, digital radio and digital television. The BBC and TV Globo from Brazil are two examples of broadcasters that use HE-AAC

Multichannel with metadata to deliver HDTV broadcast content. HE-AAC has been deployed in more than 5 billion consumer electronic devices worldwide.

As demonstrated at various industry events over the past months, Fraunhofer and its industry partners are continuing to expand the HE-AAC end-to-end ecosystem for DASH streaming. We are working with DASH client implementers such as BuyDRM and castLabs that enable service providers to stream DASH content to Android apps in a secure fashion with HE-AAC Multichannel surround sound. Fraunhofer is a member of the DASH Industry Forum (DASH-IF), a consortium of industry leaders who promote the adoption of the new adaptive streaming standard. DASH-IF recently published the DASH-AVC/264 Implementation Guidelines (www.dashif.org) which make HE-AACv2 the mandatory stereo and one of the optional surround codecs for DASH streaming. As an active member of MPEG and through continuous involvement in all AAC-related standardization activities, Fraunhofer IIS is able to offer high-quality, product-ready HE-AAC encoder and decoder implementations incorporating latest features such as 7.1, DASH fragmentation, and full MPEG/DVB metadata support. HE-AAC multichannel and AAC-ELD encoding and decoding are part of the new Fraunhofer FDK AAC codec library for Android and replaces the previous AAC and HE-AAC software. It has been included in Android since version 4.1 and delivers open source Fraunhofer implementations of the ISO MPEG audio codecs AAC, HE-AAC, HE-AACv2, and AAC-ELD to the Android community.

HE-AAC Audio Codec: Mandatory in DASH-AVC/264 & Google’s Choice for Surround Audio in Android

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Windows Azure Media Services allows you to build complete, scalable, cost effective, end-to-end media distribution solutions that can stream multiple formats to Windows, iOS, Android, and other devices and platforms. With the addition of MPEG-DASH streaming support to Media Services, you can now enable your business to expand and reach a global audience by leveraging the international standard along with the global footprint of Windows Azure.

The MPEG-DASH standard enables video distribution over the Internet to every connected video device, and has potential to enable interoperability while providing functionalities as good as, or better than, existing proprietary solutions. DASH provides interoperability through the use of a standardized manifest format and profiles from MPEG-DASH. Those profiles describe media segments in XML so that any device can select segments that are compatible with their network, decoders, language, display resolution, audio system, etc., and use network protocols such as HTTP, multicast, and peer to peer, to deliver those segments just in time for synchronized multimedia playback.

The use of HTTP network protocol provides ubiquitous reach to networked devices today because of

the popularity of the web on devices capable of video display. The DASH Industry Forum’s DASH-AVC/246 Implementation Guidelines adds the additional layers of video and audio codecs, a closed caption format and the MPEG Common Encryption with multiple digital rights management (DRM), completing the picture of a standard DASH application format (protocol and media format) to enable delivery of premium content such as movies and TV.

Challenges to DASH DeliveryWindows Azure Media Services provides the scalable back-end solution to encode once to a single set of MP4 files and deliver securely to multiple protocols including DASH, HLS, and Smooth Streaming.

In order to complete the end-to-end workflow for businesses to move quickly to cloud delivery of DASH, however, there are some required components still needed:

• A seamless transition from existing content to DASH content.

• DASH players on every device and support for script clients in HTML5 browsers.

• A rich DASH user experience that publishers can provide on every device

• Interoperable support for necessary business enablers such as profiles, content protection, advertising, player authentication and authorization.

The DASH Transition StrategyThe installed base of DASH players today is a very small share of the

installed base, and DASH content availability isn’t much better. It’s a classic chicken/egg problem, because video providers can’t afford to re-encode libraries of movies, TV shows, user-generated content, etc., for a small percentage of users who can already play one of the several proprietary formats content owners already encoded. Player manufacturers and consumers won’t invest in DASH playback until the content is available. Any publisher who wants to reach the installed base of “legacy” devices and their various media and manifest formats while introducing the new and improved DASH format needs a multi-format delivery strategy. Content distributors are demanding the industry simplify the transition to DASH and allow them to encode once to a single set of multi-bitrate files they can deliver to all adaptive streaming formats, including multiple DASH profiles and proprietary formats.

Dynamic Packaging to DASHWindows Azure Media Services simplifies this transition problem through a new feature called “Dynamic Packaging.” When a client requests a video to be streamed from Azure, the service will reformat each manifest and segment on the fly from one copy of multi-bitrate elementary streams in ISO MP4 files. This significantly reduces storage costs in the cloud and also allows the flexibility to output multiple formats from the same set of content. Once an origin server in Azure responds to a client request, the HTTP segments can be cached and replicated in multiple CDNs and geographically localized edge servers.

The Roadto DASH: Video Everywhere, Delivered from the CloudBy Kilroy Hughes, Digital Media Architect, Microsoft

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The Dynamic Packaging service responds whenever a request for a DASH manifest or segment is made, so adding multi-protocol DASH support to video stored in Windows Azure Media Services is simple. The DASH output will automatically scale as DASH clients scale.

DASH Client Ubiquity and HTML5HTML5-compliant browsers will very soon be present on nearly every device targeted for DASH playback. With browser support for new W3C Media Source Extensions (MSE) and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), devices with updated HTML5 browsers will be able to play DASH from script embedded in a web page. Open frameworks such as the DASH.js player framework being developed by the DASH Industry Forum (DASH IF) are critical to the success of DASH playback in HTML 5.

HTML5 web pages provide the means for publishers, broadcasters, and services to create rich user experiences that incorporate DASH streaming and enhance the discovery, playback, and control of the video in an interactive user experience.

A Content Publisher’s DreamThe widespread support for the latest HTML5 extensions in browsers may be the single most important driver of DASH adoption. Content publishers will be able to delivery DASH content and control the user experience with the delivery of each web page and without any need for proprietary binary plugins or apps that have to be compiled,

tested, and installed on each device. It is becoming impractical to build installed apps for every new device to achieve “video everywhere.” For example, a well-known commercial video service claims to be supporting more than 400 different players in production. The prospect of “write

once” and “encode once” makes DASH in a web page a content publisher’s dream come true.

The Business Need for Protected DASH DASH has to make business sense for publishers whose business

depends on creating unique web and video experiences that will add customers to their services and money through purchase, rental, subscription, advertising, etc. Technical features such as DRM, authorization, and video ad insertion are necessary to make high-quality DASH video services economically viable.

Common Encryption, specified by MPEG (ISO/IEC 23001-7 CENC), and the Encrypted Media Extension APIs in development in W3C enable a service to use whatever DRM system is built in a device from a script application using the standard APIs to pass key requests, licenses, etc., between the proprietary DRM (for security reasons) and a compatible license server. The interface is standardized, but the license format, DRM key and trust management, implementer’s agreement, robustness rules, revocation, and breach response, are DRM-specific, and enforced by contract to provide the publisher a level of trust.

EME also supports “clear key” encryption, which does not rely on a DRM key and trust management system in the device, and is used with envelope encryption that is removed on arrival to allow processing the media. Content protection is reduced compared to DRM

and elementary stream encryption, because clear content is processed in generally accessible system resources (i.e. CPU and memory), but key delivery can be part of a client authentication and authorization process to enable “conditional access” to media segments by clients that will display advertising as signaled in media, manifest, or web page, or are authorized by subscription or other means.

Playback of clear key encryption and Common Encryption with DRM can be implemented by native applications, but widespread browser support for EME will make them ubiquitously available to publishers.

The Windows Azure Media Services platform addresses this business need through support for Common Encryption or envelope encryption to each DASH media segment at the time it is requested. This “dynamic” encryption support, along with AES-256 encryption of the content at rest, provides a secure solution for delivering premium content from a public cloud infrastructure using standards that will be supported by modern HTML 5 browsers.

Any screen, Anywhere, with Windows Azure Media ServicesThe combination of standards-based DASH streaming, ubiquitous HTML5 playback support in browsers, and content protection enables publishers and businesses to quickly deliver valuable new services. Combined with the scale and backwards-compatible format support of Windows Azure Media Services, you can quickly grow and manage your library of DASH-based media to any screen, anywhere.

For more information on Windows Azure Media Services, please visit http://www.windowsazure.com/media or contact [email protected]

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This is not an article about how to predict the adoption rate of DASH or speculate on what the adoption rate will be in the coming years. Sorry to all the readers expecting this. I believe there are many publications in this direction, and it would be of questionable value to add more. This article is just about common sense, about what you currently can do with a DASH-supporting solution like Unified Streaming. Unified Streaming supports—amongst other all formats—DASH since Q2 2011 and we have had several showcases where we showed the value of one standard for all. But we strongly believe (and we practice what we believe) that in the meantime there is even more value in providing one unified approach to all formats, including DASH.

So the promise of DASH is basically, and I apologize if I repeat what others have written here, that it reduces complexity in the chain and solves for shortcomings of other formats. DASH will make your life easier, because you’ll use only one encode for all devices, reduce the infrastructure requirements, reduce the DRM complexity by using only one DRM scheme, and use one subtitle file.

But lets forget about DASH for a minute. We at Unified Streaming strongly believe in the paradigm that your content delivery engine should reduce the complexity while allowing

you to scale and reach more viewers on more devices with less effort. That is exactly what we have been doing since we started in 2008.

Unified Streaming uses one encode and dynamically repackages on the fly to all formats and clients out there (HLS, HDS, ISS, MPEG-DASH, progressive). When needed, DRM can be added, whether based on pre-encrypted content or content encryption on the fly.

The key to keep things simple is that Unified Streaming uses a mezzanine manifest file, which includes all information about the streamed content. One encode, one workflow, and one mezzanine manifest file for all formats. The same applies to subtitles and advanced audio features. This significantly reduces the complexity of supporting many formats from a delivery perspective.

From a deployment side, our software is a plugin for industry standard web servers, one that’s lightweight and with minimal consumption of resources. You decide where you would like to do dynamic repackaging and install Unified Streaming Platform on the origin and/or edge.

Going back to DASH, to give you a brief impression of what we can do: Last year we showed PlayReady-protected DASH streaming for the VRT 2012 Olympics demo. At IBC

2012 we showed DASH live streaming

to HbbTV, iPad, and desktop, which

was one of the attractions of the EBU

stand. We support DASH live and

on-demand profiles, but also DASH-

AVC/264; for DRM, PlayReady, Marlin,

and Verimatrix are available. As for

audio, next to AAC both DTS Express

and Dolby Digital+ are supported

as well as Fraunhofer’s HE-AAC

multichannel audio codec. Finally, we

recently added HEVC/H.265 streaming

with DASH.

Sounds too advanced? Well for us,

at Unified Streaming—a member of

the DASH Industry Forum—it is a

no –brainer: We should support as

many industry standards as possible,

including DASH. This is what we do,

but without adding more complexity.

Supporting more formats and making

things difficult doesn’t provide value.

Sounds good? Yes, Unified Streaming

Platform delivers on the same

“complexity reducing” promise as

that of DASH, but does so for all

current formats. So you don’t have to

choose now but rather can say to your

customers, “DASH? Whenever you are

ready, we have it. Tick in the box!”

Would you like to discuss? Please contact

us at: [email protected]

For a DASH demo:

http://demo.unified-streaming.com/players/show

Lets Forget About DASH…For a MinuteBy: Simon Westbroek, Unified Streaming.

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Streaming video producers today are plagued by incompatible streaming formats and fragmented device specifications that make accessing and viewing their content increasingly difficult across the growing range of mobile devices and playback screens. Proprietary client-side technologies have become a major hurdle, forcing producers to deliver content compatible with multiple, constantly changing, vendor-specific technologies, or risk alienating portions of their audience.

To resolve these challenges, the Moving Picture Experts Group Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP standard, better known as MPEG-DASH, promises to dramatically simplify streaming by standardizing content delivery on both the server and client sides. This is great news for producers, who are clamoring for a way to overcome the vendor-specific silos and provide a reliable, cross-platform viewing experience on every device—from mobile phones and tablets to connected TVs and even HTML5 endpoints.

For its potential to dramatically simplify IP video delivery, MPEG-DASH has been hailed as the long-awaited unifying standard that will revolutionize HTTP-based adaptive streaming for both producers and consumers. The standard was ratified more than 18 months ago, however, and adoption has been slow. So will 2013 be the year that MPEG-DASH finally goes mainstream? If so, here’s what you need to know to be prepared.

MPEG-DASH is vendor- and platform- agnostic by design. Fragmentation of devices and formats is a major challenge for content and service providers: it’s no longer enough to create a video asset in one or two proprietary formats. By design, MPEG-DASH is not tied to any one vendor or proprietary format, eliminating the risk that a single vendor can disrupt your content strategy and unifying video content streaming and delivery. The standard draws upon best practices from the vendor-centric adaptive streaming formats, including the use of segmented media files and a media presentation description file that

describes key information necessary for a player to request and play back audio and video segments from a server. In addition, DASH enables a common encryption scheme for content protection and allows more advanced features, such as multi-language audio.

MPEG-DASH is great for consumers and producers. Because MPEG-DASH simplifies and converges IP video delivery and consumption onto a single standard, consumers will be able to count on enjoying the same rich, vibrant user experience across every viewing device, instead of feeling neglected by content producers because of their device choices. In turn, producers who adopt MPEG-DASH can reduce the number of formats they must produce, support, and deliver down to just one, which will drive down production and delivery costs substantially. This will enable producers to invest in building better and broader content catalogs for consumers, rather than paying for multi-format production and delivery.

MPEG-DASH is a work in progress. While the DASH standard has been

Ready? Set. Go! 5 Things You Need to Know about MPEG-DASH

By Chris Knowlton, VP, Product Management, Wowza Media Systems

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formally adopted with input and cooperation from dozens of broadcast, video, software, hardware, and service

organizations in the DASH Industry Forum (http://dashif.org), it is far from “final.” No codecs or encoding profiles are specified by the standard itself, making it still difficult for producers to ensure interoperability across devices. Fortunately, the recently published “DASH-AVC/264 Implementation Guidelines” create an interoperability point for industry adoption, defining specific profiles, codecs, and other key attributes needed to deliver both on-demand and live streaming services. This will eventually allow vendors across the ecosystem to offer fully interoperable products to broadcasters.

MPEG-DASH adoption has been slow, but it’s growing. Partly because of the lack of common implementation guidelines, DASH has been slow to catch on, but it is gaining momentum, particularly in Europe where the French government, several connected TV standards, and many cable

providers have recently mandated its use. The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) has also included support for DASH in its early work

on HTML5.1 via the new Media Source Extensions, which would finally bring standards-based adaptive streaming and content protection to web browsers without the need for a proprietary player or plug-in. At the same time, RTMP and other vendor-created or streaming-specific protocols are expected to become less appealing as more producers look to HTTP-based adaptive streaming to reach more connected devices.

MPEG-DASH has yet to worm its way into Apple. Although the Cupertino-based company contributed to the DASH standard, Apple has not yet indicated whether it will adopt the standard or continue refining its own adaptive streaming format, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), which could lead us down a split path of two de facto adaptive streaming standards. Either way, it will likely be possible to convert DASH content to HLS, so producers will still be able to use a simplified

unified streaming workflow model based on MPEG-DASH.

With the promise of DASH to greatly reduce the complexity and cost of streaming media delivery, it’s safe to assume adoption of the new standard will accelerate rapidly, greatly expanding reach and quality to users on any device while simplifying infrastructure for producers. We may finally have a win-win for producers and consumers that satisfies both the technical and user experience expectations on both ends of the streaming spectrum.

ABOUT WOWZA® MEDIA SySTEMS

Wowza® Media Systems provides next-generation media streaming software

that simplifies live and on-demand video streaming. Wowza’s core product, Wowza Media Server® software, delivers superior features, benefits and functionality through a single extensible foundation designed to create engaging viewer experiences that reach larger audiences. The latest release of Wowza Media Server software includes support for MPEG-DASH, keeping the software platform-agnostic and multi-format. To learn more about Wowza and MPEG-DASH, visit Wowza.com/MPEG-DASH.

With the promise of DASH to greatly reduce the complexity and cost of streaming media delivery, it’s safe to assume adoption of the new standard will accelerate rapidly

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WP 82 Streaming media June/July 2013

Adobe® Primetime lets content programmers and operators profit from video on every connected screen. It eliminates the complexity of reaching, monetizing, and activating global audiences across devices by providing a modular platform for video publishing, advertising, and analytics. The results? Greater revenue from ad sales and subscriptions, lower operating costs, and audiences that are more engaged.

To learn more about how Adobe Primetime can drive more digital video revenue:

[email protected]/digitalmedia

@AdobePrimetime

Akamai is the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere. Our Intelligent Platform removes the complexities of connecting the increasingly mobile world, supporting 24/7 consumer demand, and enabling enterprises to securely leverage the cloud, accelerating innovation in our hyperconnected world. Akamai is a founding member of the DASH Industry Forum, the leading industry consortium focused on promoting market adoption of MPEG-DASH, and DASH support on our Sola Media Solutions platform is helping to deliver on the promise of simplifying streaming media delivery to the ever-expanding array of viewing devices.

Contact:Akamai Technologies8 Cambridge Center

Cambridge, MA 02142Phone +1.617.444.3000http://www.akamai.com

Specialty: Standards-based digital video delivery

castLabs provides pioneering software, technologies and services for digital video distribution systems all over the world. The company markets their cloud-based Video Service Delivery Platform (VSDP), containing the first end-to-end UltraVioletTM solution for retailers, worldwide.

castLabs’ solutions are based on industry standards and offer the highest level of device interoperability and content security.

Contact: castLabs Inc.

2600 West Olive Ave Burbank, CA 91505, USA

www.castlabs.com [email protected]

Digital Primates is an elite consultancy focused on high performance client-side applications. With specialties in video and application development for both mobile and desktop environments, Digital Primates builds video players for some of the world’s most-watched live events and for the world’s best known brands. Digital Primates has offices in Chicago and New York City and can be found online at www.digitalprimates.net.

Contact: Digital Primates

8420 W. Bryn Mawr Ave Suite 750

Chicago IL, 60631 773-693-7800

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Digital Rapids provides innovative solutions, technology and expertise that enable media enterprises to bring live and on-demand video to wider audiences more efficiently, more effectively and more profitably. Our software and hardware solutions span the critical points in professional media operations including ingest, encoding, transcoding, multiscreen streaming, broadcast and workflow automation.

As a member of the DASH Industry Forum, we’re pleased to be bringing support for the MPEG-DASH specification to our media transformation and workflow solutions, including the Digital Rapids Transcode Manager® 2.0 high-volume media processing software and the StreamZ Live™ 8000EX integrated broadcast and multiscreen live/linear encoder.

Contact:Digital Rapids

90 Allstate Parkway, Suite 700Markham, Ontario L3R 6H3 • Canada

Phone: 905-946-9666 ext. 212 • Fax: 416-352-0716E-mail: [email protected]

www.digitalrapids.com

Dolby Laboratories (NYSE: DLB) is the global leader in technologies that are essential elements in the best entertainment experiences. Founded in 1965 and best known for high-quality audio and surround sound, Dolby creates innovations that enrich entertainment at the movies, in the home, or on the go.

Contact:Dolby Laboratories, Inc.

100 Potrero AvenueSan Francisco, CA 94103 USA

Phone: 415-558-0200Ellis Reid

Sr. Industry Marketing ManagerProfessional Solutions and Products

[email protected] Laboratories, Inc.

Learn Morewww.dolby.com

Specialty: HE-AAC 7.1 Audio Codec

The Fraunhofer IIS Audio and Multimedia division, based in Germany, has been working in compressed audio technology for more than 20 years and remains a leading innovator of technologies for cutting-edge multimedia systems. Fraunhofer IIS is universally credited with the development of mp3 and co-development of AAC. Fraunhofer IIS was deeply involved in the MPEG-DASH standard process and is a member of DASH-IF. HE-AAC is the mandatory audio codec in DASH-AVC/264, the only native multichannel codec in Android and has been deployed in over 5 Billion CE devices. Fraunhofer IIS has licensed its audio codec software to over 1,000 companies.

Contact:Jan Nordmann

Director of Marketing & Business developmentFraunhofer USA Digital Media Technologies

[email protected]+1-408-573-9900

In collaboration with Fraunhofer IIS:www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm

As a proud member of the DASH Industry Forum, DTS is dedicated to delivering tools and technologies for the creation and delivery of DASH content. As a pioneer in high-definition multi-channel audio, DTS’ broad range of audio solutions, from low bit-rate lossy to lossless quality, are increasingly relied upon for the digital delivery of content to connected consumer devices.

Contact:

Ronny KatzSenior Director

Streaming & Media SolutionsPh:1.818.436.1101

[email protected]

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Haivision is a global leader in delivering solutions for streaming, recording, managing, and distributing secure IP video and interactive media within the sports/entertainment, enterprise, education, medical/healthcare, and federal/military markets.

As a member of the DASH Industry Forum (dashpromotersgroup.com), Haivision video solutions will be adopting MPEG-DASH across its video streaming, management and playback product portfolio. The MPEG-DASH standard will allow broadcasters to prepare a single format distributed to all devices while simplifying the content preparation workflow. Additionally, MPEG-DASH will reduce storage requirements and simplify testing so audiences can receive a consistent, high quality video experience. Haivision will support MPEG-DASH ISOBFF on-demand and live profiles that are recommended in DASH-264.

Contact:1-877-224-5445

[email protected]

Media Excel defines the adaptive bitrate transcoding standard for multiscreen video delivery. The HERO transcoder product line powers more than 18 million live mobile/tablet TV viewers daily in the US alone. Across the headend, cloud, or edge, the company’s solutions are used in a variety of high-end markets including broadcast, government, telecom, MSO and CDN.

Media Excel is driving the MPEG-DASH initiative from the very beginning, both in the evolution/promotion of the standard and also in proof-of-concept (London 2012 Olympic Games with EBU, CES-2013 with Verizon), commercial trials (eMBMS/LTE in US and Asia), and upcoming production rollouts (DoganTV in Turkey).

Contact:http://www.mediaexcel.com

[email protected]+1 512 502 0034

Harmonic is the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure for emerging television and video services. The company’s production-ready innovation enables content and service providers to efficiently create, prepare, and deliver differentiated services for television and new media video platforms. Harmonic solutions power everything from emerging HD encoding schemes to cutting-edge multiscreen environments, simplifying workflows and making every type of media accessible on every type of screen. From blazing transcoding performance to MPEG-DASH for over-thetop (OTT) delivery, Harmonic’s technology portfolio offers solutions for an increasingly complex video world.

Contact:Harmonic Inc

4300 North First StreetSan Jose, CA 95134

Phone: [email protected]

+1.800.828.5521www.harmonicinc.com

Windows Azure Media Services provides a complete solution for creating, protecting, delivering, and consuming videos across a variety of devices and platforms. From simple, on-demand training to premium live events, Movies, and TV, it supports an impressive range of business models and user experiences. Focused on ease-of-use, scalability, and quality, components of the platform include:

• Encode - Use a range of standard codecs, including popular adaptive bitrate formats to encode assets.

• Protect - Store and deliver your content securely using Common Encryption Microsoft PlayReady DRM or Apple AES Encryption.

• Deliver - Provide a fast, smooth, and adaptive experience for live and on-demand users while using format conversion on the fly, including DASH.

• Consume - Build custom, rich clients and playback experiences on all major devices and platforms including Windows, Xbox, iOS, and Android, among others.

Learn More at www.windowsazure.com/media

Contact:[email protected]

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Helix Media Delivery Platform from RealNetworks

Simplify media streaming with the one platform that lets you encode, manage and deliver media across players, platforms and devices. Now announcing Helix Broadcaster, designed for broadcasters and enterprises to encode and deliver high-quality media with outstanding performance. See how streaming is made simple at realnetworks.com/helix.

Contact:[email protected]

800-444-8011

RGB Networks was the first video processing pioneer to support MPEG DASH alongside HLS, HDS and Smooth Streaming in both live and on-demand environments. As a member of the MPEG-IF, RGB is committed to furthering the development and adoption of MPEG DASH throughout the industry, enhancing the ability of video service providers to deliver the latest IP video services to their subscribers, regardless of their viewing device or media player.

For more information about RGB’s award-winning TransAct Packager and other multiscreen IP video solutions, please visit:www.rgbnetworks.com

Contact:www.rgbnetworks.com

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Wowza® Media Systems provides next-generation media streaming software that simplifies live and on-demand video streaming. Wowza Media Server®, the world’s leading media streaming software, engages hundreds of millions of viewers by delivering the highest quality streaming media to any screen. Wowza Media Server is completely customizable and gives organizations the content control and security needed to stream with confidence. Across the globe, more than 150,000 customers trust Wowza to deliver. Experience the power, reliability and performance of Wowza Media Server today at Wowza.com.

Contact: www.wowza.com

[email protected]

Verimatrix specializes in securing and enhancing revenue for multi-network, multi-screen digital TV services around the globe. The award-winning and independently audited Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) and ViewRight® solutions enable cable, satellite, terrestrial, IPTV and OTT operators to cost-effectively extend their networks and enable new business models.

Verimatrix is committed to being a prominent security vendor for MPEG-DASH multi-screen deployments worldwide and is a member of the DASH Industry Forum. The company’s DASH compliant solution, VCAS™ for DASH, incorporates pay-TV grade security technology otherwise only found in managed DVB and IPTV deployments. Verimatrix enables premium content services and security for DASH.

Contact:www.verimatrix.com

Specialty: High performance streaming server software for all formats including DASH

Unified Streaming is a leading provider of cross-platform video-streaming technologies. Starting with the h264 module, Unified Streaming products are in operation around the world, with customers ranging from broadcast networks and online content distributors to small companies and webcasters.

Unified Streaming Platform fits into existing frameworks (Apache, IIS, Lighttpd, Nginx), thus allowing for greater return on existing investment. Unified Streaming provides streaming from one encode simultaneously to HLS, HDS, Smooth, progressive and DASH. In combination with various DRM technologies, Unified Streaming customers significantly reduce delivery cost and boost time to market in order to address a broader audience.

Contact:Simon Westbroek, Director of Sales

Unified Streaming+31652690709

[email protected]://www.unified-streaming.com

Sorenson Media is an award-winning provider of the highest quality, differentiated video encoding solutions. With highly scalable cloud- and server-based encoding applications, Sorenson Media empowers enterprise and video professionals to easily and cost-effectively encode, transcode, manage and deliver the highest-quality video online and to mobile devices. Sorenson has developed several unique codecs that have been used by many note-worthy companies, such as YouTube, Avid and Apple. They have also integrated MPEG4, HTML5 and DASH into their software, and continue to stay ahead of the curve with new industry standards. Sorenson products include their award-winning Squeeze Desktop and Squeeze Server compression software, as well as Sorenson 360 – it’s state of the art video player.

Please e-mail [email protected] or call1.888.767.3676 for more information.

www.sorensonmedia.com

Documents

The DASH Handbook