Inlet Technologies, the leader in innovative solutions for digital media preparation, announced today that Universal Sports has selected its Spinnaker™ and Armada™ solutions to power UniversalSports.com’s live and on-demand coverage of world-class sports.
Universal Sports serves as the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic and lifestyle sports programming, offering more than 1,000 live events and 7,000 hours of annual original event programming. UniversalSports.com delivers more than 100,000 hours of programming content with dedicated, sport-specific "channels," including Skiing, Rowing, Swimming, and Cycling, to give fans a centralized, convenient, consistent place to go for event video, video highlights, breaking news, and features. Universal Sports is following a growing trend in the sports industry by complementing traditional broadcasts with unprecedented online access.
"We're dedicated to delivering our fans and viewers at UniversalSports.com the highest quality video presentation of our world-class sporting events," said Carlos Silva, president and COO of Universal Sports. "Increasingly, fans are turning to the web to view their favorite sports, competitions and events. Our partners at Inlet Technologies allow us to deliver the online sports-viewing experience that brings our viewers back for more."
“Inlet’s Spinnaker and Armada solutions, along with Microsoft Smooth Streaming, will offer UniversalSports.com viewers the highest quality video and more personalized viewing options,” said John Bishop, senior vice president of strategy and business development, Inlet Technologies. “Following the recent Vancouver Winter Games announcement, we are excited and proud of this collaboration with UniversalSports.com, which further solidifies Inlet’s role as a strategic partner of NBC Sports, and as a leader in online sports video.”
Inlet’s Spinnaker family of encoding solutions is especially well-suited for live sports as it provides broadcast-quality streams over the Internet to multiple devices and screens. With its built-in support for adaptive streaming protocols, including iPhone streaming and Microsoft Smooth Streaming, Spinnaker delivers exceptional quality that enhances online viewing of live sports action. Spinnaker’s patent pending stream synchronization capability makes it ideal for adaptive bitrate delivery.
Inlet is also redefining the process of building and scaling a video-on-demand operation. Automation and software intelligence are the keys to building scale and quality while minimizing costs. Inlet's Armada is a revolutionary workflow management system that automates the entire file preparation process and adds encoding intelligence, not just simple node management.
About Universal Sports
Universal Sports, a partnership between NBC Sports and InterMedia Partners, serves as the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic-related and lifestyle sports programming available on television and online. Universal Sports, available in 56 million homes, is in nine of the top 10 DMAs including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Houston, Seattle and Denver. Major world championship and Olympic qualifying events found on Universal Sports range from track and field, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, marathons and cycling, to volleyball, rowing, triathlon, fencing, speed skating and martial arts. UniversalSports.com delivers an immersive experience via live and on-demand competition coverage, as well as interaction with top athletes through blogs and in-depth access to Olympic sports news and information year round. For more information on the availability of the Universal Sports 24-hour television channel, please visit UniversalSports.tv.
About Inlet Technologies
Inlet Technologies is redefining the broadband video experience with innovative solutions for media preparation that combine striking video quality with surprising simplicity and reliability, enabling content owners to expand their audience and realize greater value from their content. Industry leaders such as Major League Baseball, Microsoft, Yahoo!, France Télévisions and Home Shopping Network rely on Inlet for easy implementation, technical prowess and enterprise scale for their mission critical operations. For more information, please visit www.inlethd.com. Follow us on Twitter at InletTech.
