Digital Rapids Revolutionizes the Look and Feel of Portable Media Streaming with TouchStream

New appliance combines unparalleled portable streaming quality with the most intuitive human interface -- touch

September 12, 2008 -- IBC 2008, Amsterdam, Stand 7.G41: Digital Rapids -- a leading developer of solutions for bringing television, video and movie content to the latest generation of viewing devices -- today unveiled a technology preview of TouchStream, a revolutionary new live video and audio streaming appliance.

TouchStream appliances deliver Digital Rapids' renowned live streaming quality and reliability in a fully self-contained, easy-to-deploy portable form factor. Leveraging the most intuitive of human interfaces -- touch -- TouchStream appliances offer unparalleled ease of use. Streamlined software controls are accessed through a touch-screen interface with integrated live video monitoring and VU meters for audio validation, eliminating the need for laptops, keyboards, mice and separate monitors.

TouchStream appliances are ideal for on-location live streaming of events such as concerts and sporting matches; remote news coverage; courtroom proceedings; PEG (public, education and government) applications; corporate communications and more. A choice of formats -- including AVC/H.264 (including Adobe(R) Flash(R) Player 9), VC-1 (Windows Media), On2 VP6 (Adobe Flash 8), 3GPP and MPEG-2 -- lets users target audiences and platforms from Internet TV to mobile phones.

"The exponential growth of multi-platform video consumption is accompanied by increasing demand for on-location streaming for live online and mobile coverage. The challenges often encountered with live environments, from physical space limitations to minimal setup time, have created a need for compact, portable streaming solutions that are simple to deploy, provision and operate in the field," said Wesley Thiessen, Product Manager, Digital Rapids Corporation. "TouchStream appliances meet these needs while still delivering the quality, performance and reliability of full-sized, fixed-installation systems."

Though easy enough for use by novice operators, TouchStream portable systems are powerful enough to meet the demanding expectations of experienced streaming media users. TouchStream units feature the same sophisticated video and audio pre-processing features as Digital Rapids' StreamZ and StreamZ Live studio encoding and streaming systems, delivering the exceptional full-resolution output quality and efficient bandwidth utilization that have made them the preferred choice of leading studios, networks and service providers. Graphic overlay capabilities allow users to add branding such as a logo to the outgoing stream.

TouchStream appliances will be available in Q4 2008 through Digital Rapids and our extensive worldwide network of authorized resellers and systems integrators.

The complete line of Digital Rapids products is being showcased at the IBC Conference and Exhibition in stand number 7.G41. For more information, please visit us at IBC, or our website at www.digital-rapids.com.

About Digital Rapids Corporation – Digital Rapids develops market-leading hardware and software solutions for transforming and delivering media, enabling the multi-platform experiences that are defining the future of digital video. Scaling from individual applications to enterprise and global operations, Digital Rapids systems span the critical points in today's complex media workflows. Recipient of two prestigious Frost & Sullivan awards in the World Video Encoders and Transcoders market, Digital Rapids combines innovative technology with proven expertise to help our customers maximize their productivity, quality, and the value of their content in the evolving digital media market. Digital Rapids Corporation (www.digital-rapids.com) is headquartered in Ontario, Canada with offices in the United States, the UK, Australia, Argentina and Hong Kong.