May 21, 2009 -- Markham, Ontario: Digital Rapids -- the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences -- announced today that Mandarin Chinese broadcaster Phoenix Television has deployed 40 Digital Rapids encoding and streaming systems as part of a new infrastructure for the monitoring of live feeds by reporters, editors and other internal personnel.
40 Digital Rapids hardware and software systems take live inputs from downlink satellite feeds and in-house studios, creating low-resolution and high-resolution streams from each in the Microsoft Windows Media (also known as VC-1) compression format. The resulting streams are multicast over Phoenix TV's internal network to PC-based clients and set-top boxes (STBs). Low-resolution streams are viewed through customisable, multi-channel, mosaic-style displays on PC clients. The high-resolution streams are viewed full-screen on PCs or through set-top boxes for viewing on large-screen LCD monitors.
"The Digital Rapids solutions provided the flexibility we needed to support our requirements and to integrate with our third-party middleware from SyQic," said Mr. Wicky Law, Engineering Manager at Phoenix Television. "The move to IP-based streaming from the RF-based system we had at our previous building also brings our users additional flexibility, allowing customisable monitoring selections and layouts on their PCs. We look forward to continuing to work with Digital Rapids as we plan future expansion with additional internal channels."
Based in Hong Kong, Phoenix Television has five television channels, and aims to promote a free flow of information and entertainment within the Greater China region. Being on good terms with the People's Republic of China government, it is one of the few non-government related television broadcasters available to mainland Chinese audience and has been able to broadcast information about events not covered by the government media.
"We are very pleased that our encoding and streaming solutions have been chosen by Phoenix Television, whose programming is known not only in China, but also internationally," said Nick Fitzgerald, VP, Asia Pacific for Digital Rapids. "The quality, versatility and broad integration capabilities of our encoding solutions make them ideal for both internal and audience-targeted broadcast applications, and enable organisations like Phoenix TV to take advantage of the flexibility offered by IP-based video delivery."
Digital Rapids encoding solutions combine powerful hardware for video and audio capture and pre-processing with the intuitive Stream software interface, delivering high-quality, multi-format media encoding and streaming for professional applications such as high-end Internet TV and IPTV.
For more information about Digital Rapids, please visit www.digital-rapids.com.
About Phoenix Television – Phoenix Chinese Channel was launched on 31 March, 1996, with the aim of offering quality content to Chinese communities around the world. The dynamism of this massive market, combined with successful expansion strategies, has allowed Phoenix to develop a comprehensive multi-channel platform. Today, Phoenix Chinese, Phoenix Movies, Phoenix InfoNews, Phoenix Chinese News and Entertainment and Phoenix North America Chinese channels together broadcast to audiences in the Asia Pacific, as well as in Europe, America and Africa, covering more than 150 countries and regions. The mission of the group is to offer varied, high-quality content to the global Chinese population. Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings Limited was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited in 2000 and transferred to the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on 5 December 2008.
About Digital Rapids Corporation – Digital Rapids develops market-leading hardware and software solutions for transforming and delivering media, enabling the multi-platform experiences that are defining the future of digital video. Scaling from individual applications to enterprise and global operations, Digital Rapids systems span the critical points in today's complex media workflows. Recipient of two prestigious Frost & Sullivan awards in the World Video Encoders and Transcoders market, Digital Rapids combines innovative technology with proven expertise to help our customers maximize their productivity, quality, and the value of their content in the evolving digital media market. Digital Rapids Corporation (www.digital-rapids.com) is headquartered in Ontario, Canada with offices in the United States, the UK, Australia, Argentina and Hong Kong.
