Streambox Live

Streambox Live is an innovative broadband video contribution service that enables video journalists, stringers, and other contributors such as citizen reporters, to send video over wired and wireless IP networks to the Streambox Live server. This service will also allow video broadcasters to search and preview large volumes of incoming video, select the video they want, and route it to their decoders. Broadcasters will only pay for what they use.

Detailed Specification (PDF 870kb)

User Manual (PDF 1.44mb)

Key Features

DRM

Streambox Live includes a new meta-data field referred to as "DRM". This field gives contributors the ability to control which video broadcasters can access their video streams. Any aggregator specified in the audience metadata field will be able to see that contributor's live or archived video and have rights to it, while others will not. All users will have access to any "Public" video streams or archives.

Ad-Hoc Decoding

There is a great new feature in Streambox Live for decoders. You can continue using existing decoders by manually routing video to them. However, a new upgraded version of the decoder and Streambox Media Player will enable the decoder to conditionally "pull" video from the Streambox Live Server based on the live stream's metadata. This is also password-protected, so only your decoders can access your streams.

Easy-to-use interface

In order to make the Streambox Encoder software more accessible to citizen reporters, the entire interface has been simplified with a focus on ease of use. After opening the software, users will enter metadata, pick a preset and they're done!

Automatic Video Archiving

All live streams that reach the Streambox Live server are automatically archived for later download. Files can be located by searching for relevant metadata terms. Each archived file has its own page with an in browser preview.

Auto-Bandwidth Negotiation v1

The Live encoders have a new technology built in called auto-bandwidth negotiation (ABN). This will automatically set the target bit rate of the available bit rate between the encoder and the live server.

USB Camera Support

We have enabled the Windows Live Encoder to support many USB cameras and cameras built in to the laptop. Support for the Apple iSight camera was already available.

Streambox Encoder for Windows Mobile

Another new technology being released as part of the Streambox Live platform is the Encoder for Windows Mobile. Streambox Encoder for Windows Mobile is powered by the ACT-L3 codec, but has been modified to run on a Windows Mobile device. The software lets you send metadata, and comes preconfigured with 3 presets. Common resolutions are: 160x128, 174x144 and 320x240. Maximum frame rate is 15 FPS.