On the heels of an exciting IBC show in Amsterdam, we're interested to note the results of a recent report from comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, that shows that the consumption of mobile video is increasing substantially in Europe. According to the data, the number of people viewing video on mobile devices has increased 66 percent in the past year to 12.1 million mobile consumers across the EU5 countries (U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy).

On-demand video/TV programming in particular experienced substantial growth in the past year, up 99 percent since July 2009, with 5.2 million mobile owners across Europe viewing such content. Viewing of broadcast TV programming on mobile devices is also on the rise, up 70 percent to 3.5 million subscribers.

This data meshes with what we’ve experienced in our deployments with customers around the world—in Europe mobile video is taking the lead in the three screen delivery model, while North America is seeing more early PC trials and deployments.

At IBC, Brendon Mills, the GM of RGB’s mobile division, had the opportunity to discuss mobile video deployment with Olivier Dhotel, Director of Mobile TV at Orange Group in France. Both agreed that mobile video is a ‘churn-buster,’ helping operators to differentiate themselves, however it’s critical that they deliver an integrated, high-quality experience. Take a look at the video to see the entire discussion.

What are you seeing you in your area? Mobile first or desktop? Is on-demand the hot area? What do you think are the most important features to keep operators ‘in the game?’ Please share your experiences.

Andy Salo, RGB’s new Director of Product Marketing, responsible for the TransAct product line acquired from RipCode, offers his perspective on last week’s IBC show.

From the perspective of a new kid on the block at RGB Networks, this year’s IBC was an outstanding event. So much is going on in the industry right now it’s hard to catch your breath. The official attendance topped out at over 48,000 people – the second highest ever. If you missed the show, here are some quick highlights:

1) 3D was everywhere. Clearly there is a lot of interest in 3D content development and delivery. RGB Networks did our part to show our wares with an amazing 3D video transcoding demo. We even managed not to lose our two pairs of expensive 3D glasses, which the accounting department is happy about.

2) We won a top award. Our VMG transcoding product was bestowed the ‘Best Digital Video Processing Technology’ award at the CSI Awards 2010. The runner’s up included Harmonic and Cisco. Not bad company to keep, much less beat. Marketing tells me this is actually the fourth first place award in a row for the VMG, so our customers must be on to something.

3) Over The Top (OTT) is buzzing. Everywhere you turned, there was new product, service, client player, set-top box, DRM provider, or partner integration that made delivering OTT and IPTV solutions easier. To that end, we had a lot of interest in our three screen delivery to mobile devices, where we demonstrated real-time video transcoding and adaptive streaming to iPads, iPhones, laptops and more. It was great to hear all of the questions and positive comments from customers.

What became clear among the big boys, and will be very interesting to watch over the next twelve months, is what is happening in the adaptive streaming space. Between Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe adaptive HTTP streaming protocols, it’s going to be a battle for mindshare and market share. Ease of DRM integration will likely play a huge role in who dominates. Microsoft appears to believe that. At IBC Microsoft demonstrated their PlayReady integration with IIS Media Server, which will be shipping soon and offered free of charge.

I’ll cover adaptive streaming more in later posts as there is a lot going on with that part of the industry.

We’re not surprised that our crowd-pleasing Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG) has won its third award in less than a year (fourth overall!). As we meet with customers around the world, their interest is continually peaked by our unique offering. The VMG is the only multi-screen solution that offers the capacity, scalability and reliability of a carrier-class chassis with software flexibility. This powerful combination allows for simple and cost-effective deployment of three screen services from a single video processing platform. And the clincher—with integrated transcoding and ad insertion capabilities—the VMG enables operators to monetize their video services across all devices—TVs, PCs and mobile. With competitive offerings requiring racks of equipment to do the same job, it’s no wonder that service providers are clamoring to get the VMG into their labs and into the field.

See us this week at IBC to learn more or catch us at Cable-Tec or TelcoTV, coming up soon.

It has been a very busy summer as everyone at RGB has been working hard to integrate all aspects of recently acquired RipCode into our product line and day-to-day business.

Today we are excited to announce RGB’s Application Media Server (AMS), which is a multi-purpose transcoding server based on the RipCode V6 product.

The AMS is a transcoding and transport packaging appliance ideal for the delivery of live and on-demand programming to mobile devices. It supports file-based on-demand transcoding (ODT), live-stream processing and file-to-file transcoding, which are key to processing programs into the codecs required for mobile, Internet and IPTV video. Complementing its comprehensive transcoding capabilities, the AMS uniquely supports integrated adaptive streaming and progressive download, and leading smart phone delivery protocols, which are critical for delivering programming to mobile devices. The compact, one rack unit form factor of the AMS makes it easy to deploy anywhere within a service provider’s network.

The addition of the AMS to the RGB product line-up, in conjunction with RGB’s carrier-class Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG), enables the first-ever distributed HTTP adaptive streaming architecture with core transcoding and edge packaging.

The new AMS can be seen live at IBC this week, on both the RGB stand—#4.B91—as well as on the SeaChange stand—#1.C27—performing edge packaging for three screen delivery and ad insertion. Read more about our three screen ad insertion demo and come see us to learn about all of the new applications that this versatile combo enables.

With our recent acquisition of RipCode, RGB has gained significant expertise in small screen video delivery technology. Brendon Mills, the former CEO of RipCode, and now RGB’s VP and GM for Mobile, answers some questions about the quickly changing video transcoding market.

How has the video transcoding market changed in the last few years?

RipCode was started in 2006 to address the convergence of web video technologies with the traditional broadcasting industry. As I review the past four years, there are three technology developments that have really surprised me. The first technology surprise is how quickly the screen resolution of mobile video devices has grown in just a few years. When RipCode started, we were seeing the cutting-edge of mobile delivery at QCIF resolution, 177×144. Now, with the iPhone 4G and other comparable smartphones, we routinely see screen resolutions of just under 720p (960×640 on the iPhone 4G). This fast jump in screen resolutions is a primary driver of why mobile video data bandwidth is increasing so dramatically.

The second surprising video development in the past four years has been the rapid adoption of adaptive streaming and delivery protocols. In 2006, we were concerned about sustaining RTSP video data rates to desktops and mobile devices but we thought that SVC (scalable video codecs) would eventually be the technology to solve the problem. With the rapid adoption of HTTP progressive download and adaptive video delivery from Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe, the market has decided to solve this problem using IP technology in conjunction with the most popular client technologies.

The biggest surprise for me has been the overall progress of video and audio quality (VQ) across the video codec marketplace. With the market focused on H.264 video standards, developers have made large gains in closing the gap between variations of individual codec implementations. Open-source developments such as X.264 have led the way for the industry to rapidly benchmark codec implementations against each other and the result is that the differences between implementations has narrowed dramatically. At the end on the day, this translates to a better consumer experience for everyone who watches online video.

So what has four years of surprising video technology taught us? It has taught us that rapid adoption of multi-screen video is happening as we speak. The increasingly large video resolutions and network bandwidth are enabling options for consumers that are truly exciting.

What trends prompted the recent acquisition of RipCode by RGB?

There are many interesting applications for video transcoding, but the big fish are the video service providers around the world who are looking to maintain or grow their subscriber base by expanding their video offering to all three screens. Their challenge is how to bring TV, PC and mobile technology together into a single delivery network.

The management teams at both RGB and RipCode recognized that we were each missing a piece of the puzzle that would allow us to quickly serve this growing market. RGB required the flexible, software-based small screen technology that RipCode had to offer and RipCode needed RGB’s high-density, scalable delivery platform. The merging of the strengths of both companies provides a unique solution that is truly greater than the sum of its parts. With a fully integrated chassis-based platform, we can now help all operators to make their transition to a three screen delivery environment without the headaches and complexities that they would face with legacy solutions that can’t adapt to the rapid changes in the marketplace.

Three screen delivery is obviously a big focus for providers at the moment—what are the major stumbling blocks to adoption?

The largest issue for three screen adoption is the integration of the overall service through CDN delivery infrastructure. With new technologies such as Apple HLS (HTTP Live Streaming), Microsoft Smooth Steaming, and Adobe Zeri, there is a lack of scalable HTTP packaging, fragmentation, and segmentation technologies to properly prepare high-volume desktop and mobile video traffic for delivery through CDN infrastructures. This pain is being felt very acutely by cable and telco service providers today. Later this year, RGB Networks will be showcasing new technologies to these customers to solve this problem.

What’s the next big trend in the industry, or do you think the scene has been set for the near future?

Looking past the near term trends such as adaptive delivery and HTTP packaging/fragmentation, in the next few years, the industry will be looking at the next jump in screen resolutions such as 4K (4096 x 3112) and 8K (7680 × 4320) also known as 4320p. In fact, there are already consumer televisions that claim support for 4K even in the absence of available video content. These new resolutions will continue to push the boundaries of Layer 2 networks and keep vendors like ourselves busy for some time to come. This highlights the need for a very flexible three screen solution.

If you’re attending IBC this year, please stop by the RGB stand—#4.B91—and speak with Brendon and the team about RGB’s current transcoding solutions and what you can expect in the near future.