Microsoft Silverlight news for IBC 2008 - 12-16 Sep, Amsterdam
At IBC2008 (https://www.ibc.org), Microsoft will demonstrate an important new capability for Silverlight: H.264 video playback. Attendees will be able to see how customers in Europe are adopting Silverlight as momentum continues to build worldwide. Microsoft will also be talking about the recent investment in Move Networks, and how the companies continue to work together to deliver high-quality, programming over HTTP-based networks. Microsoft will be highlighting these items at IBC2008:
H.264 video and AAC audio support in future version of Silverlight
- Silverlight's support of H.264 and AAC will offer content owners greater flexibility and choice to deliver video and audio via Web and devices.
- Technology preview of Silverlight H.264 playback, Expression Encoder authoring and Windows Server 2008 delivery
Silverlight 2 Building Broad Customer Momentum, Building on Olympics success
- New customer deployments offering advanced SL2 experiences
- Examples include innovative live and video-on-demand (VOD) offerings from France Television, iTV, L'EquipeTV, MSN UK, NRK, RAI, RTL, SBS, Setanta and TF1.
Microsoft investment in Move Networks
- Microsoft annouced in August that it took an equity stake in Move Networks, a leader in HTTP-based video delivery. Move has developed an adaptive streaming technology that seamlessly adjusts image quality to fit available bandwidth on each viewer’s Internet connection, creating a high-quality Internet television viewing experience. See https://www.movenetworks.com/news-releases/move-networks-announces-microsoft-as-strategic-investor
Many do not realize that not only did Microsoft adopt H.264 in products like Xbox, Zune, and Mediaroom long before it was available in other products like Flash, but was a key participant in the standardization of H.264. Microsoft is an essential patent owner in the H.264 patent pool and was a key contributor to the H.264 standard along with companies like Sony, Philips, Toshiba and Fraunhofer, among others (see list at: https://www.mpegla.com/avc/avc-licensors.cfm).
Microsoft recently received recognition for the important role it played in the H.264/MPEG AVC Joint Video Standards Committee which was recently awarded the EMMY.
(see https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-04MSSonyEmmyPR.mspx)