Swimming up stream: This part of the industry took a hit along with the stock market and dot.coms, and these makers of streaming products are looking at corporations to re-gain acceptance

Post, March, 2002 by Christine Bunish

The Dutch national public broadcaster NOS, which uses 20 Origin 200 servers for its large Internet site, has acquired an Origin 300 as a portal server. The addition of the single Origin 300 is expected to double the performance of NOS's Internet streaming capabilities for its TV programming. Spain's Telefonica Servicios Audiovisuales, which has been employing Origin 200s, plans to release its interactive VOD application targeted to hotels and hospitals running on an Origin 300 server.

The Origin 300 will be joined at NAB by software partners Thirdspace and Kasenna, both of which have new releases for the VOD market. Thirdspace, whose Open Video Server product suite of scalable, software enables high-quality video streaming over DSL, cable, fiber and satellite networks, will announce increased distributed architecture capabilities, according to Nolte. Kasenna, makers of MediaBase infrastructure software for the management, distribution and delivery of streaming media for enterprise/service providers, will demonstrate MPEG-4 and automated content distribution.

JVC offers camcorder that streams to Internet

WAYNE, NJ -- In a different take on streaming, JVC Professional Products Company (www.jvc.com/pro) has unveiled Streamcorder, a new handheld broadcast-quality camera with the ability to record to tape as well to digital memory or simultaneously stream to the Internet.

The GY-DV300 camcorder and its companion KA-DV300 network package represent "a new paradigm for JVC," says national products marketing manager Juan Martinez. Users stand to see ROI from new revenue streams for events, broadcast news, corporate communications and education.

Martinez emphasizes that the cost-effective GY-DV300 is a professional DV camera: its 2-bit A/D converter is usually found on cameras typically costing in excess of $25,000. The camera has control over image including an optical image stabilizer, zoom through a wide-angle adapter and is manually controllable with a 14:1 power zoom lens. It is priced at $3,495.

The KA-DV300 network package, priced at $1,299, attaches to the camcorder with connection for a LAN or CF card permitting full end user control over all camera functions from a remote location. The package has a microprocessor running Linux, enabling communications with a computer running JVC's Stream Producer software, a companion live camera switcher/streaming server. The network also includes a fully-functional Web server that gives the end user full control over the camera, lens and VCR, as well as the ability to stream live to a distant location with a standard Web browser.