January 26, 2010 -- Markham, Ontario: Digital Rapids -- the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences -- today announced that Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has chosen Digital Rapids' StreamZHD high-definition media encoding system to enable new live HD streaming capabilities from Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.
Lincoln Center is the world's leading performing arts center, located on 16.3 acres in New York City. The center's 12 resident organizations combine to present thousands of performances, educational programs, tours and other events each year on the Lincoln Center campus. StreamZHD is part of a complete HD production environment at the Center's Alice Tully Hall, which also features four robotic HD cameras linked over fiber to servers, routers and switchers in the facility's data center. The StreamZHD system, supplied by systems integrator HB Communications, encodes content in real time for external distribution as live streams or on-demand files.
Lincoln Center's live streaming capabilities recently supported the concurrent worldwide debut performances of "The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later", the epilogue to the acclaimed Tectonic Theater Project play. On-stage pre-show and post-performance events -- including an interactive question and answer session with questions submitted via Twitter -- were streamed through StreamZHD to audiences in over 150 theaters worldwide, supporting local live readings of the new play at each location. Three live streams and three on-demand archives at varying bit rates were created in the H.264 format for Web viewing through Adobe Flash technology, with StreamZHD producing all six outputs simultaneously in real time.
"It is important that our technology infrastructure is at a level of excellence commensurate with the caliber of events that we host, and the ability to stream at HD quality over the Internet is phenomenal," said Rob Tarleton, Chief Technology Officer, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. "Our HD production and streaming capabilities are key benefits for artists, performers and groups holding events at Alice Tully Hall in the Lincoln Center, and StreamZHD is an important part of making that happen."
"The Lincoln Center's use of StreamZHD is a tremendous example of how high-quality Internet streaming technology can be combined with the arts to create new performance dynamics and unparalleled audience reach," said Brent Ross, Director of Sales for the Americas at Digital Rapids. "StreamZHD's simultaneous multi-format output capabilities, outstanding quality and reliability make it the ideal solution to enable innovative streaming experiences, and we're thrilled that Lincoln Center for the Performance Arts selected us for their world-class space."
StreamZHD continues to raise the bar for high-definition encoding solutions, delivering multi-format video ingest, encoding, transcoding and live streaming in a versatile configuration that integrates easily into any media environment. Combining the quality and performance advantages of hardware-based preprocessing with a format-flexible and feature-rich software application, Digital Rapids systems seamlessly support live and on-demand multi-platform distribution opportunities and production workflows.
For more information about Digital Rapids, please visit www.digital-rapids.com.
About Digital Rapids Corporation – Digital Rapids provides the leading hardware and software solutions for transforming and delivering media, enabling the multi-platform experiences that are changing how audiences view content. Scaling from standalone appliances to global workflows, Digital Rapids solutions enable media professionals to maximize their productivity, quality, and the value of their content. Recipient of a coveted IBC Innovation Award and four prestigious Frost & Sullivan honors for encoding and transcoding leadership, Digital Rapids combines innovative technology with proven expertise to help our customers to expand their audiences, increase their media revenues and reduce their costs. 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.
