Mar, 2009 : BitGravity Adds Live HD Streaming To CDN

📅 March 2, 2009 - March 2, 2009 -- Giving television a run for its money, content delivery network provider BitGravity (bitgravity.com -> tatacommunications.com -> bigrock.in) has launched "BG Live HD," the first standards-based, true high-definition, online solution for broadcasting live events in 1080p or 720p resolution.

According to BitGravity's Monday announcement, BG Live HD is a Flash-based streaming service backed by BitGravity's globally distributed network, which minimizes latency to create a superior viewing experience and low total cost of ownership.

"The notion of HD live broadcasting over the Internet is not earth shattering. Doing it in a way that enables wide adoption is," BitGravity co-founder and chief executive officer Perry Wu said in a statement. "Technology is not meaningful if we only deliver four out of five requirements that customers demand. TV-quality 720p and 1080p HD with only a few seconds delay off live, no client download, simple set-up, scalability, and affordability are the table stakes for being a player in this space."

BG Live HD is already being used for the March 1 to 3, 2009 DEMO conference in Palm Desert, California, an expo for emerging technologies from start-ups and established companies such as Google, VMWare and salesforce.com.

"BitGravity is a game changer in online video," DEMO 2009 executive producer Chris Shipley said in a statement. "The online live broadcast market has taken off and will ultimately deliver affordable, innovative HD services and BitGravity is a key company to watch. DEMO wanted to offer our global community the highest quality online viewing experience. While we may not have the budget of a major network, our ambitions are just as great. BitGravity let's us deliver our entire DEMO 2009 show online in the highest quality."

To stream a live HD camera feed, broadcasters must use an Apple Mac Pro running BitGravity transcoding software, a PCI expansion card, and an HDMI or HDSDI source to connect to BitGravity's network. BitGravity BG Live HD will be generally available in April, when it will initially offer HD H.264 live streaming software in 1080p or 720p at no extra cost over standard-definition H.264 delivery.