ViewCast Unveils Enhanced Niagara SCX Streaming Software

ViewCast has released an enhanced version of the company’s Niagara SCX streaming media management software. The new Niagara SCX 6.4 includes a number of advanced features, including support for adaptive live encoding via Microsoft Live IIS Smooth Streaming and PlayReady DRM support, updates to Akamai HD iPhone and iPad streaming, improved MPEG-4 streaming, and presentation and security enhancements for the entire adaptive streaming portfolio. Full software functionality will be available on ViewCast’s professional-grade Niagara Pro II, Niagara 7750 and Niagara 4100 streaming media systems, with upgrades available to existing owners of ViewCast streaming systems.

“The world of media is changing at lightning speed, and our broadcast customers continually need to deliver content in an ever expanding variety of formats,” says John Hammock, President and Chief Operating Officer of ViewCast. “The advanced feature set of our latest SCX 6.4 streaming media management software, along with the flexibility that adaptive streaming provides, delivers a winning combination of functionality, performance and reliability to satisfy today’s wide spectrum of viewers.”

At the heart of Niagara SCX 6.4 is the Adaptive Live Media Publisher component, which simultaneously creates multiple H.264 video streams that are time-aligned to support delivery in adaptive formats. Improved adaptive streaming presentation features dramatically improve the viewer experience by allowing the media player to select the appropriate bit rate, frame rate, and scaling for each viewer’s available bandwidth, eliminating re-buffering delays. Other added features that are new with SCX 6.4 include the capability for audio-only streams and a toggle for on-screen display statistics.

Version 6.4 now supports live encoding on more of the most popular media formats, including Microsoft Live IIS Smooth Streaming as used for Set-top Boxes (STBs), PCs with Silverlight, Xbox, and Windows mobile devices; Akamai HD iPhone and iPad streaming; Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod mobile devices; Adobe Flash Dynamic Streaming; 3GPP mobile and others. According to ViewCast, by eliminating the need for an external iPhone stream segmenter, the company has simplified encoding workflows and reduced overall system costs.

Other new features of SCX 6.4 include improved MPEG-4 streaming start-up, which enhances the user experience by encoding MPEG-4 streams for file segmenting, transmission and storage, and the introduction of a passive FTP option for companies using firewalls that impede adaptive streaming deployment.

Standard features include integrated segmenting, support for multiple CDN authentication protocols, built-in AES-128 encryption, support for WM format SDK 11 with added support for Windows Media DRM Client Extended APIs, profile grouping, multiple stream redundancy (MSR), and automatic stream reconnect (ASR).