NAB 2017: Haivision’s KB H.264/HEVC Encoders Are Qualified for Akamai Media Services Live
Haivision (Renaissance Deluxe – B), a pioneer in high-performance video streaming, has announced that its award-winning KB Series H.264/HEVC live-video encoders are qualified for use with the new Akamai Media Services Live capabilities for low-latency live and linear online video delivery.
KB Series encoders are used by event producers to deliver adaptive-bitrate HEVC or H.264 cascades to the cloud for live distribution to broad audiences watching over the public internet. The latest release of the KB Mini features an even more lightweight and compact form factor and enhanced CPU/GPU adaptive-bitrate encoding of H.264 and HEVC, making it ideal for live event streaming. Through the powerful combination of the KB series of encoders and Akamai Media Services Live, producers have a solution that is suitable for low-latency, broadcast-quality live-streaming experiences to viewers wherever they may be watching.
“Reducing the delay between online live internet streaming and live/linear broadcast has challenges that differ from traditional broadcasting. To be successful, you have to deliver streams with flawless reliability and a broadcast-level quality to viewers while maintaining low latency,” says Michael Fay, VP, media product and operations, Akamai. “We’re extremely pleased that Haivision’s KB Mini encoder is simplifying first-mile live origin contribution workflows and taking advantage of our liveOrigin capabilities, making it easier than ever for event producers to reliably stream to the Akamai Media Services Live solution.”
For years, broadcasters have been challenged to deliver video-streaming experiences that match the delay inherent to broadcast TV: typically in the vicinity of 6 seconds from source to eyeballs. With the combination of Haivision’s KB Mini and Akamai Media Services Live, end-to-end delivery is now possible with a 10-second latency threshold, opening up new possibilities for using secure, high-quality live video streaming for the most demanding applications, including live event streaming, second-screen experiences, broadcast contribution, gaming, and more.
Today’s low-latency deployments involve ingesting content at the source, securely live-streaming contribution to the cloud, intelligently transporting over the internet, and distributing to player devices. The KB Mini accelerates the first-mile contribution to ensure that live video streaming from the source to the cloud is reliably and securely delivered at the highest quality possible even when local internet performance is unpredictable.
“Haivision customers have been successfully leveraging KB encoders and transcoders for their live event streaming with best-in-class low-latency first-mile contribution,” says Sylvio Jelovcich, VP, global alliances, Haivision. “By leveraging the Akamai Media Services Live liveOrigin delivery capabilities, we are working together to improve video streaming and opening up new opportunities for those who need low-latency video delivered live to broadest audiences.”
As a pioneer in high-performance streaming solutions, Haivision innovates in the areas of live hardware and software encoding/decoding and video-stream transport and management. The company is dedicated to pushing the technology envelope and fostering partnerships and collaboration within the industry to expand the ecosystems of performance video that its customers depend on.