Oracle Corp. has announced the open publication of a non-proprietary Video Encoding Standard (VES) API, making "near-live" streaming of video over the Internet possible. Leading video encoders including elemedia, Heuris/NEL, Iterated Systems, Lucent Technologies, NUKO Information Systems, Inc., Optibase, Optivision, Inc. and Zapex Technologies, Inc., have endorsed the standard, as have Starlight Networks. Many of the leading hardware vendors supporting video solutions are also endorsing the standard including Compaq Corp., Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, NCI, nCUBE, Samsung Data Systems America, Silicon Graphics, Inc. and Sun Microsystems.

Real-time encoding transforms live broadcast video into encoded video, allowing a viewer to access the digital video stream just seconds after the live event took place. When the encoded video is stored on the Oracle Video Server, users then have immediate, full VCR-like control such as pause, rewind, fast forward of the stored video stream. Oracle Video Server is an end-to-end software solution that enables customers to store, manage and deliver full-motion, full-screen video and high fidelity audio to PCs, network computers, workstations and set top boxes over a variety of networks.

Real-time encoding technology saves video producers time when converting analog media into digital content, and enables the development of innovative applications incorporating access to news, sports and other broadcast feeds with full interactive control of the video feed, with the ease-of-use of the desktop PC or Web environment. For example, telephone and cable companies can provide a "VCR-in-the-network" by storing all of their live broadcast channels in a rolling buffer on the Oracle Video Server, providing a "virtual VCR" on every channel they offer to every consumer on their network.

The Video Encoding Standard enables commercially available encoding systems to communicate directly with video servers, such as the Oracle Video Server. Through adopting the standard, video encoders can store digital video directly into a video server while users simultaneously view this same content from their client device.

"Standards are a key element missing from the streaming video market today," said Mark Porter, vice president of Media Server Development at Oracle Corp. "Oracle and our partners are pleased to provide a standard way for encoder vendors to integrate with video servers, using the Video Encoding Standard API. True multimedia information management is much more than just streaming video files, and Oracle's end-to-end offering includes all the services needed for the commercial deployment of video-enhanced solutions, both on the networks of today and on the coming broadband networks." The standard also allows encoders to write into other video servers such as Starlight Networks' StarWorks.

Version 1.0 of the Video Encoding Standard API is freely available as part of the Oracle Video Server SDK for partners and developers to develop applications, or to enable their products to support this new API. The standard and specifications are also available on Oracle's Web site (URL) http://www.oracle.com/st/collateral/carts/ves.html.

Oracle Video Server is available for a wide variety of Unix platforms as well as the Windows NT Operating System. Unix hardware platforms include Digital Equipment Corp., HP, nCUBE, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems.

The Oracle Video Server enables the creation of direct to consumer applications- video-on-demand, music-on-demand, home shopping and home banking, and information on-demand applications such as news-on-demand and interactive education - that can be delivered to any client device over a wide variety of networks. Oracle Video Server is available for many popular computing platforms, and includes plug-and-play support for Web browsers to allow easy creation of Web pages with embedded video content.

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Hardware partners and other third parties endorsing the video encoding standard include:

Compaq Computer Corp. -

"Compaq and Oracle continually look for new and exciting opportunities to focus our collective strengths and drive innovation in every facet of the industry," said F.G. Seeberger, director, Emerging Markets & Advanced Technology, Compaq Computer Corporation. "As the reference platform for the NT Oracle Video Server, Compaq platforms are ideally suited to deploy this new industry standard which will offer our customers real-time video encoding and bring new excitement to video solutions." Compaq Computer Corp.

Digital Equipment Corp. -

"Digital supports Oracle's leadership in developing an industry standard for real-time encoding interfaces," said Jim O'Gara, vice president for the Oracle Alliance at Digital Equipment Corp. "The Video Encoding Standard (VES) will make it even easier for the combination of Oracle's Video Server technology and Digital's high-performance Alpha platforms to deliver more powerful and flexible video-on-demand applications. The Video Encoding Standard expands our ongoing efforts with Oracle to provide exceptional value to our customers requiring superior performance and scalability and allow our customers a wide choice of compliant encoder vendors."

Hewlett-Packard Company -

"Until now, there has been no open, standards-based encoding solution to make it easy for service providers to offer consumers conventional broadcast television and interactive digital services over a single, digital network," said Carol G. Mills, general manager of HP's Enterprise Systems Division. "Using the Video Encoding Standard, Oracle, HP and our partners can easily create and deliver interactive video services to our mutual customers on our powerful, scalable HP 9000 Enterprise Parallel Servers."

NCI -

"Delivering video to network computers is a cost-effective and reliable way for corporations to train and communicate with their employees," said Jerry Baker, CEO of NCI. "By combining Video Encoding Standard (VES) based encoding and video server solutions with open technologies from NCI, corporations now have a powerful tool to deploy interactive video services for corporate training and education applications."

nCUBE -

"The Video Encoding Standard enhances nCUBE's position as a world-leader in the delivery of digitized, broadcast-quality video services," said Ian Johnstone, vice president of Development for nCUBE. "The MediaCUBE's scalable architecture provides our customers an affordable expansion solution as consumer demand for broadcast-quality video content grows. With real-time encoding, time-critical analog video, such as news and sporting events, can be instantaneously encoded into the digital library and available on-demand. The program can be paused, stopped, rewound or fast-forwarded in real time, giving thousands of end-users complete event control."

Samsung Data Systems America -

"Samsung SDS supports the publication of Oracle's Video Encoding Standard interface. The specifications, coherently integrated with SmartStudio (VOD authoring tool), provides flexible, easy-to-use encoding technologies for an array of mutual customers from small businesses to global enterprises," said Y.H. Kim, general manager, Samsung Data Systems America.

Silicon Graphics -

"As a leading supplier of high-performance video server systems, Silicon Graphics welcomes Oracle's introduction of an open API for real-time encoding into the Oracle Video Server," said Ron Bernal, senior vice president of the Scalable Networked Servers Business Unit at Silicon Graphics, Inc. "When coupled with the Silicon Graphics Origin Server product line, a whole new level of scalability is now available to video server customers."

Starlight Networks -

"A standard encoding API will help grow the digital video market as it reduces integration costs for vendors and customers alike," said Jim Long, CEO, Starlight Networks. "Our support of Oracle's efforts comes at a time when the MPEG1 and MPEG2 standards are accelerating their dominance of the digital video world and industry collaboration such as this will allow more value-added solutions and help grow the market".

Sun Microsystems -

"By simplifying the incorporation of digital video into databases, Oracle is helping to make video a mainstream data format for global business," said Neil Knox, vice president and general manager of the Network Products Group at Sun Microsystems. "At Sun, we have advocated the use of standards to help meet the evolving needs of customers, and this new standard helps drive new, rich content into the world of network-centric computing."