Akamai Adopts Open Approach to Transcoding

Akamai has worked closely with Telestream, Origin Digital and Multicast Media Technologies to integrate their solutions with Akamai's Media Delivery and Stream OS solutions to speed the distribution workflow and ensure that business rules and metadata are passed on during each phase of the media distribution process. Taking into account the complexity and heterogeneous nature of publishing and broadcast systems, Akamai has embraced a structured, standards-based solution for content and metadata submission enabling customers and solution providers to easily integrate the various systems involved in their distribution workflows with Akamai's Media Delivery and Stream OS solutions.

"Akamai has the technical team in place that allows us to deliver a leading workflow solution that meets the scale and performance levels leading media companies require," said Tim Napoleon, Chief Strategist, Media & Entertainment. "The transcoding certification program removes the need for customers to piece together solutions that may or may not be compatible. With these partners, Akamai addresses a major need for our customers, while solving a critical piece of the overall workflow puzzle in a simplified, standardized way."

To meet the unique requirements of different content owners, Akamai offers the following transcoding options through its partners:

• Hosted Solution: a managed, server-side solution with a flexible and highly-automated workflow for transforming almost any media type into one or more digital media formats, creating thumbnails, preserving metadata and managing assets
• Installed Solution: a comprehensive feature set including support for almost any media format (both input and output), thumbnail generation, metadata transformation, automated workflows, and delivery of content to any network-accessible location
• User-Generated Content (UGC) Solution: a browser-based upload form to upload a file, apply metadata, automatically transcode into various formats and bit rates, as well as provide automated delivery of assets, thumbnails, and associated metadata. A review and approval process enables publishers to check content before releasing it to their Web properties and distribution channels

Telestream FlipFactory is a quick, powerful and scalable way to transcode media between virtually any video/audio format and automate digital media workflows. FlipFactory extends existing broadcast workflows, creating a seamless eco-system across many systems, and it leverages existing FlipFactory workflows to seamlessly integrate with Stream OS.

"Telestream is pleased to be working with content distribution leader, Akamai, to proactively help mutual existing broadcast customers create more value with their media," said Dan Castles, CEO of Telestream. "Direct integration between our products also extends this value to a greater number of video professionals in a broad range of business environments."

Origin Digital provides comprehensive transcoding services within its flexible, Web-based Odaptor suite of digital media capture and transformation solutions. This application service can accommodate a wide variety of customer workflows and syndication scenarios, independent of device or medium. Through its highly experienced team of encoding engineers and 24x7 support staff, Origin Digital is dedicated to addressing custom workflow requirements and providing customers with automated, monitored directory, and browser-based upload solutions. In all cases, Origin Digital offers full support for Stream OS metadata.

"The consumption of digital media and services continue to increase across platforms and mediums, creating new opportunities for a variety of businesses including traditional media, service providers, brands and agencies," said Darcy Lorincz, CEO of Origin Digital. "Together, Origin Digital and Akamai are minimizing the complexities and risk of delivering digital media across a range of distribution channels and devices with a unique SAAS platform."

Multicast Media Technologies, as part of its full suite of digital media products and services,provides a highly scalable, enterprise-class, and cost-effective hosted transcoding solution to a wide range of companies, including small and medium-sized businesses, non-profit organizations, production studios and Fortune 500 companies. Leveraging proven digital media transformation technologies and automated workflows, Multicast's ASP transcoding solution offers seamless integration with Akamai's Media Delivery and Stream OS solutions, including meta-data preservation.

"Businesses are demanding that their media be easily portable and available on multiple devices," said Jason Simpson, EVP Business Development at Multicast. "Combined with Akamai's world-class digital asset management solution and content delivery infrastructure, Multicast's transcoding-as-a-service solution satisfies this demand and delivers on the promise of simplified digital media transformation and one-step publishing"