iStreamPlanet To Offer Live, VoD Encoding Services on Windows Azure Media Services

iStreamPlanet will provide live and on-demand encoding-workflow services as part of Windows Azure Media Services, Microsoft’s cloud-based media-services platform. iStreamPlanet’s workflow services are intended to bring dynamic scaling, high reliability, and elasticity to meet growing consumer demand for online video.

iStreamPlanet’s video-workflow services are currently used by such content providers as NBC Sports, Comcast, Turner Broadcasting, and AT&T for acquiring, digitizing, and publishing live and on-demand video to a variety of IP-connected devices around the world.

“iStreamPlanet has a long history of driving innovation in digital media,” says Robin Cole, VP, marketing, at iStreamPlanet. “It is very exciting to be working with Microsoft to scale critical live and on-demand video workflows to rapidly increase the availability of online video.”

Also, the company has announced the hiring of Nick Vicars-Harris as VP of software engineering, overseeing the development of several new products and services in the company’s expanding video-workflow portfolio. Vicars-Harris has more than a decade of experience in bringing digital-media solutions to market, having held senior positions at Microsoft, Comcast’s The Platform, and, most recently, Harmonic Inc.

Vicars-Harris drove the engineering and development of video-workflow products at Harmonic and led The Platform as senior architect for its VoD services, ultimately leading to a Comcast acquisition.