Telestream, a maker of content repurposing and workflow automation products, has completed the acquisition of European-based Vara Software, a privately held company. The move, designed to target the growing worldwide broadband subscriber base, expands Telestream's reach beyond encoding-based media workflow solutions for broadcast, media and entertainment companies to include tools for real-time creation and distribution of video content over the Web for a broad range of businesses.
Vara Software provides real-time production tools, including webcasting, screencasting and rich media presentation products for entertainment, corporate communications, education and training. Screencasting combines screen captures, video recordings and audio narration to provide cost-effective software training and sharing of computer desktop activity over the Internet.
Telestream thinks Vara Software products are an ideal fit for the millions of Flip4Mac Windows Media component and Episode desktop encoder users. The company plans to leverage its existing technologies to add greater value to Vara Software products.
Vara Software adds three new products to Telestream’s portfolio: Wirecast; ScreenFlow; and the Videocue tool kit. Telestream will officially introduce the new offerings at the IBC convention (stand 7.C19).
Wirecast is a live webcasting application for Mac or Windows that combines multiple video cameras, movies, desktop output, audio tracks, images and titles to produce programs that can be streamed live or archived for later broadcast. Wirecast powered Live Earth, which delivered on-demand footage to more than 10 million simultaneous viewers on MSN.com in July 2007.
ScreenFlow is a professional screencasting application for Mac users that simultaneously captures desktop screens, video camera, microphone and computer audio elements, and then allows users to add and edit recordings and publish finished videos to Web sites or Web blogs.
The Videocue toolkit allows Mac users to write and record speeches that include video capture of the presenter, on-screen viewing of the script, plus the ability to add movies, images and titles for rich media presentations. This enables users to quickly and easily prerecord presentations for publishing to Web sites.
Vara Software products are available for immediate purchase at www.flip4mac.com. For more information, visit www.telestream.net.
