Haivision Network Video has received a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its "zero footprint" InStream soft player. The patent covers the company’s methodology for delivering digital content as well as for viewing audio/video clips.
InStream is a platform-independent soft player interface for Haivision's Furnace IP video system. It’s used to send live and on-demand video content, related data and control interfaces to desktops and set-top boxes. It provides an easy-to-deploy, secure and controlled user experience for all types of content providers.
The InStream patent relates to recognizing the platform of any content request over the network and the on-demand provisioning of a platform-specific application to that device. With InStream, when a user requests to view media through a simple Web link, instantaneous communication is triggered with the client informing the server what platform the user has, and if conditional access is implemented, who the user is. After this simple communication, the player is sent to the user's computer and is then launched according to user-specific content authorizations and player behavior. The player then provides straightforward and secure access to live channels, playback channels originating from disk, and video on demand.
Once the user closes the session, the player is removed completely from the end user's machine. This on-demand provisioning of InStream eliminates the need for any specialized software to be preinstalled, managed, or updated on target platforms. Deploying InStream throughout a facility or an organization is as simple as providing a single Web link.
The player is used at educational campuses, corporate enterprises, and by clinicians in hospitals and healthcare facilities for viewing secure live and on-demand media. Critical to InStream's broad acceptance is the fact that it is easy to deploy, works across all major platforms equally, and delivers video securely and according to user-authentication schema. Its features enable precise control of the video experience and provide detailed reporting on all user accesses and activities.
Coupled with Haivision's Makito HD H.264 encoders or Barracuda SD H.264 encoders, the Furnace and InStream provide an end-to-end, secure IP video solution. InStream works on virtually any computer platform, including Windows PC, Mac and Linux. It is also the interface for Haivision's Stingray high-definition set-top box.
