Digital Rapid promotes Kayak platform, announces support for MPEG-DASH

Digital Rapids — a provider of innovative media transformation and workflow solutions for bringing content to wider audiences — announced accelerating industry support for the company’s new Kayak dynamic workflow platform, with the addition of over 20 new companies to the Kayak ecosystem since the platform’s public debut earlier this year.

The new alliances range from technology and solutions providers to systems integration specialists. Third-party companies with offerings spanning all critical workflow functions — from codec technologies to tools for quality control, audio loudness management, digital rights management, and more — are integrating their technologies directly into the Kayak platform. Meanwhile, systems integration partners stand ready to work with media organizations to deploy Kayak-powered workflows within their operations, including the development of custom Kayak components for proprietary functionality.

The most recent participants in the Kayak partner ecosystem include Automatic Sync Technologies; BuyDRM; Corpus Media Labs; Digimetrics; DSB Consulting; Empress Media Asset Management, LLC; EZDRM; Hitachi Solutions; Ignite Technologies, Inc.; Interra Systems; Irdeto; Manzanita Systems; Minnetonka Audio Software; National TeleConsultants; PixelTools; R Systems Inc.; Screen Subtitling Systems; Signiant; Solekai Systems; Tata Elxsi; Venera Technologies and VidCheck. These companies join over 35 additional industry leaders in Digital Rapids’ partner and alliance programs.

The company also announced plans to support the MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) specification in upcoming new offerings in the company’s comprehensive range of media transformation and workflow solutions.

MPEG-DASH support will be initially available in Digital Rapids’ upcoming new solutions powered by the Kayak workflow technology platform, including version 2.0 of the Digital Rapids Transcode Manager high-volume media processing software and the StreamZ Live Broadcast integrated broadcast/multi-screen live encoder. Now ratified as an ISO standard, MPEG-DASH was designed to provide a universal standard for adaptive bit rate (ABR) delivery while incorporating the best elements of existing proprietary ABR technologies.

“MPEG-DASH holds the potential to alleviate the current fragmentation of adaptive bit rate delivery protocols and to simplify multi-screen viewing for both consumers — who would no longer have to worry about compatibility between their preferred viewing devices and the available formats of the content they want to watch — and content providers, who should be able to reduce the number of formats and protocols they must deliver to reach their full potential audience,” said Tony Huang, Senior Product Manager at Digital Rapids. “We’re pleased to be incorporating MPEG-DASH support into our upcoming, new solutions.”

Digital Rapids’ MPEG-DASH encoding capabilities will include support for Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HDaudio technologies within the MPEG-DASH specification, enabling content providers to pair high-quality audio with superior video experiences across a broad range of viewing devices. Digital Rapids Transcode Manager 2.0’s MPEG-DASH encoding capabilities are also being featured at the IBC exhibition in the Dolby stand (2.A31) and in the DTS stand (2.B50) where an end-to-end demonstration will highlight adaptive streaming of MPEG-DASH content with DTS Express audio to a connected tablet.

Digital Rapids is a member of the DASH Industry Forum, a collection of over 50 industry leading companies supporting and promoting the MPEG-DASH specification.

The enterprise-class Digital Rapids Transcode Manager software combines outstanding quality, intelligent automation and exceptional workflow agility for high-volume transcoding applications from production and archive to revenue-expanding multi-screen distribution. StreamZ Live Broadcast combines Digital Rapids’ renowned multi-format output versatility and quality with simultaneous encoding for broadcast distribution and robust features for the unique demands of broadcast, cable, telco, and satellite television operations.