ViewCast now supports the WebM open Web media project and the open sourcing of the VP8 video codec. Beginning in Q3 2010, the company’s Niagara SCX will enable users to capture and stream video using VP8, the open-source video codec that contributes to the WebM project under a royalty-free license. Niagara SCX software is preinstalled on the Niagara Pro II, Niagara GoStream SURF and Niagara 7500 streaming media appliances. A key feature of Niagara SCX 6.2 is the iPhone Live Media Publisher, which includes built-in MPEG-2 transport stream file segmenting and HTTP-based upload capabilities. The iPhone Live Media Publisher multiplexes encoded audio and video packets into multiple GOP-aligned, simultaneously output, MPEG-2 transport stream (M2TS) files, including one audio-only M2TS file.
The benefit of WebM is that it allows developers to innovate with and deploy video compression technology without title-based royalty fees or other license fees. Device manufacturers can also integrate successive generations of video technology without additional royalties, for smooth video playback on Web video devices, including netbooks and mobile phones. Mozilla, Opera, Google, YouTube and other manufacturers have already expressed plans to support VP8 and WebM.