European Cultural Channel ARTE Selects ViewCast® Media Server to Manage Growing Media Assets
European Cultural Channel ARTE Selects ViewCast® Media Server to Manage Growing Media Assets
PLANO, Texas — December 16, 2009
ViewCast Corporation (OTCBB: VCST), a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of professional-quality video over IP and mobile networks, today announced that French-German cultural channel ARTE (Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne) has purchased ViewCast’s unified, end-to-end digital asset management solution, ViewCast Media Server (VMS). VMS is based on the technology assets acquired from Ancept in March of this year. ARTE’s New-Technology/Multimedia sector, which manages the back office of various ARTE Internet sites, will use VMS to manage all of the department’s video and media assets. VMS will also support ARTE’s future video portal, which will ultimately serve as the entrance point to all of ARTE’s existing online media offerings, such as the award-winning ARTE+7 service.
“We currently enjoy an excellent professional relationship with ViewCast and are successfully using several Niagara Pro encoders to deliver high quality content via our ARTE+7 website,” said Mathias Weiler, leader of the New Technology/Multimedia sector at ARTE. “After evaluating a number of digital asset management solutions, we determined that VMS offers the advanced technical features that are critical for our unique and highly automated environment. These capabilities, together with the future possibility of seamless integration with our existing Niagara Pro encoders, distinguished VMS as the best, long-term investment option. ViewCast’s innovative technology will enable us to manage our growing media asset repository with greater efficiency and flexibility, and elevate our Internet presence to the next level.“
ViewCast President and CEO Dave Stoner said, “Companies like ARTE are experiencing a rapid proliferation of rich media assets that need to be managed effectively and intelligently across the organization so as to maximize productivity. Our Niagara Pro encoders have already proven their value by enabling ARTE to simplify its broadcast processes for the ARTE+7 site. The integration of our VMS digital asset management solution will further streamline ARTE’s workflows and provide them with the end-to-end infrastructure they need to successfully bring their new web portal to fruition.“
With the flexibility to transcode between all common media formats and automate content delivery across heterogeneous production systems and distribution mediums, VMS equips ARTE to manage key business processes with minimal complexity. Seamless integration with ARTE’s existing production infrastructure further extends the value of VMS, helping ARTE save time and resources that might otherwise have been devoted to labor intensive system integration efforts and unnecessary technology expenditures.
ViewCast VMS provides a unified, end-to-end digital asset management platform that offers the power and scalability to manage the entire media lifecycle; it can ingest, manage and deliver video and other digital assets anywhere over the network. VMS utilizes IBM Content Manager as its middleware and repository and includes plug-ins that integrate with leading products, such as Telestream FlipFactory™, to provide a closed-loop and managed process for ingesting, transcoding and indexing audio and video content. It also provides sophisticated content distribution functionality, including the ability to schedule the delivery of content for a specific date and time. Users can also edit content directly through the web interface using browser-based editors, eliminating the need to download assets to the desktop and allowing quick and easy repurposing of video content through multiple platforms, i.e., broadband, mobile, traditional broadcast, etc.