Envivio, Inc., the technology provider of IP video convergence encoding solutions from mobile to HD, announced a new agreement which enables digital entertainment services company RealNetworks to resell the Envivio 4Caster Mobile Series hardware encoding platform. The platform includes the real-time M2 and M4 encoders and 4Manager redundancy system. The agreement enables RealNetworks to offer a complete carrier grade mobile streaming solution.

“Mobile TV streaming is moving to the next level. The continued uptake of mobile streaming services makes it clear that we now need to offer our customers an encoding solution that provides the very highest levels of compression, performance, and service availability,” said Scott MacKenzie, Director of Mobile Solutions at RealNetworks. “The 4Caster Mobile Series platform provides us with that solution. Ever since our collaboration began in 2002, Envivio has repeatedly demonstrated that it’s fully committed to supporting RealNetworks and our customers.”

Envivio and RealNetworks have a longstanding relationship in the mobile streaming market. RealNetworks provides video streaming infrastructure for over 100 leading mobile operators around the world including Vodafone, AT&T, TIM and Telefonica.

 “There is no doubt that mobile streaming is coming of age. Operators are no longer satisfied with non-redundant encoding platforms based on standard PCs and software,” said Rudi Polednik, Vice President Marketing and Global Alliances at Envivio. “They are now demanding more professional solutions that support reliable, high quality content delivery on which fee paying services can be justifiably based. Consequently, we are delighted to be expanding our relationship with RealNetworks in the Mobile TV market to help these operators gain access to the solutions they’ll need today and tomorrow.”

Award Winning Real-Time Envivio Mobile TV Encoders Now Available to RealNetworks Customers

The 4Caster M2 and M4 encoders support the full range of 3GPP and 3GPP2 video and audio codecs, as well as advanced encoding features for mobile streaming including live bit stream switching and the Envivio Network-Aware Rate Control feature for low bit rate bandwidth smoothing. The encoders offer levels of stability and reliability not easily achievable using software based encoding solutions. When combined with the 4Manager headend management system, the Envivio solutions provide a fully automated M:N redundant mobile TV encoding platform with the same quality of service capabilities as a Tier 1 satellite or cable TV video headend.