A New Way To Catch, Organize, Review Multiple Video Feeds

A new, single-solution program to capture, organize, search, and review multiple live video feeds has been announced by Telestream, which plans to present the technology formally at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas April 7. The program is expected to roll out commercially in July.

Called MAPreview, the program is Telestream's "first product offering based on their next-generation Media Application Platform," the company said March 31. Integrating several Microsoft technologies including Windows Media 9 and .NET, MAPreview was designed in large part based on broadcasters' immediate interest, but Telestream said they're aiming for a broader audience - including government agencies and corporations who need fast, simple live content access.

"We are extremely excited to introduce this new product offering as well as the new MAP platform," said Telestream president and chief executive officer Dan Castles in a statement. "The capturing of live feeds helps us address a segment of the market we've not been involved with previously.

"We see the capabilities in MAPreview being valuable not only in the broadcast facility, where we have an extremely strong presence already, but also in a range of other markets," he continued. "The MAP platform provides us with an incredible base for building new workflow applications, as well as a next generation framework for our current and new developer partners."

The program automatically records multiple video feeds and captures important metadata while doing so, the company said. These are encoded and stored in Windows Media 9, offering broadcast quality video in about a third the size of MPEG2 capacity, which Telestream said means greater, more efficient storage. And, MAPreview extends Windows Explorer navigation toolkits to meet "the complexities of video and audio files with drag-and-drop simplicity," the company added, with users able to access, organize, search, review, and even share such media "across the facility from the convenience of their desktops."

Microsoft Windows Digital Media Division general manager Dave Fester said in his own statement that MAPreview is a solution for how Windows PC and IP-based systems change the broadcast production process. "Telestream's new MAP platform and MAPreview reflect their deep understanding of the broadcast community," Fester said, "and builds on the dramatic compression innovations of Windows Media Audio and Video 9, together with .NET framework, to create a state of the art solution for broadcasters."

Telestream said MAPreview offers a sensible alternative to "cumbersome" tape handling and expensive video servers, as broadcasters can catch and simultaneously review live broadcasts alongside competitors, "tuning into the specific audio track they wish to hear. This multipurpose tool also simplifies conversions for the Web, ad-run verification and FCC compliance logging."

And outside a broadcast facility? The program can be used several ways, from digital surveillance, military events, even sports analysis...any application, Telestream said, which needs the capture, organization, review, and sharing of live video feeds.

"Utilizing a number of (our) technologies, MAP automates media transcoding, metadata extraction and content exchange between digital systems," the company continued. "MAP associates media attributes such as format, bit rate, and frame size with each folder in the MAP directory. As content arrives or as files are drag-and-dropped between folders, media are reformatted, metadata are extracted or inserted, and other systems are automatically notified."

And, users can use standard Windows searches to find content based on anything from file names and metadata to date and time, Telestream said. The program also comes with complete developer kits which, combined with .NET framework and related Web services support, offers a platform for third parties "to develop next-generation media workflow and media management solutions."

For more information, visit Telestream on the Web. Or, if you're planning to be there, give Telestream and MAPreview a visit at the NAB Convention in Las Vegas.