Akamai Announces Variable Bit Rate Streaming

Akamai Technologies, Inc., the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, today announced variable bit rate streaming support for live and high quality video content on the iPhone and iPod touch. Variable bit rate streaming was a key feature delivered in the recent iPhone 3.0 update and this new capability expands Akamai’s ability to provide consumers with the highest quality video streaming experience on their iPhone or iPod touch. Akamai HTTP Streaming for the iPhone is available as part of Akamai’s Media Delivery solution.

Akamai is also announcing the launch of the iPhone 3.0Video Showcase - iphone.akamai.com - to demonstrate this new solution. Content owners and publishers including Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Discovery, FOX News, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, MTV, NPR, Turner Sports and USA TODAY are participating in the showcase site. Inlet Technologies’ Armada and Spinnaker solutions are being used to encode the VOD and live experiences on the showcase site. Akamai has also developed a whitepaper, entitled “Streaming to the iPhone 3.0 - Best Practices” that can be accessed here: http://www.akamai.com/dl/whitepapers/iphone_wp.pdf


“Apple’s extensive support for new web standards like HTML 5 and HTTP streaming of live and on-demand video to the iPhone and iPod touch has transformed the quality of video content that consumers can now view while mobile,” said Tim Napoleon, Chief Strategist Digital Media at Akamai. “To be able to watch video anytime, anywhere at a quality this high is nothing short of amazing.”

Variable bit rate streaming over HTTP benefits the consumer by enabling a high fidelity viewing experience at any bit rate, faster video start up times and reduced video buffering. Studies have shown that content owners and publishers see the strategic business opportunity to maximize consumer access to their content by delivering video to iPhone and iPod touch. Content owners can now use Akamai’s Media Delivery solution to deliver live and on-demand content while leveraging a highly-available and fault tolerant infrastructure of tens of thousands of HTTP servers.

“CBC is pleased to be taking part in this initiative with our valued partners at Akamai,” said Bob Kerr, director, Business & Product Development, CBC Digital Programming and Business Development. “We are excited to be able to offer Canadians both live and on-demand programming from the CBC in remarkable quality on the iPhone and iPod touch.”