AEG Digital Media and Conviva Offer Online Audiences a Front-Row Seat to a Flawless Viewing Experience for Live Events

LOS ANGELES and SAN MATEO, Calif., May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- AEG Digital Media, the leading provider of complete webcast management, production and media services, and Conviva, Inc., a provider of advanced streaming solutions, have collaborated to deliver the best possible user experience during numerous high-profile live events. The combination of AEG Digital Media's live event production expertise with the intelligence of Conviva's streaming technology allows media companies to offer clear, crisp and reliable high-definition (HD) video.

Media companies benefit by leveraging AEG's best-in-class production and technology in concert with Conviva's continuous, real-time insights that "watch" each viewer, every second, and use inference algorithms to predict when a quality incident is about to occur.  Conviva then balances two sophisticated services--mid-stream switching and multi-bitrate policy control--to pre-empt potential problems. Furthermore, Conviva offers visibility into every aspect of the online video delivery ecosystem, and can resolve issues with content delivery networks (CDNs), signal acquisition, encoding, publishers, players or local browsers.  The result is a better fan experience and longer viewing times.

As the Internet becomes the venue of choice for more and more live events, fans expect video quality to be free of buffering, stuttering and interruptions. In fact, TubeMogul reported that one out of 25 streams experience a rebuffer, and more than 80 percent of viewers click away rather than wait for the video to reload(1). To that end, Conviva and AEG Digital Media set out to deliver an online experience that has the same reliable, HD quality as traditional television, but offers the flexibility to be viewed from any device.

"Quality takes center stage for online fans, especially during live events, and video that is choppy, grainy or buffers will not be tolerated," said John Petrocelli, SVP business development and sales for AEG Digital Media. "Conviva's ability to tap into what each and every viewer is watching as it happens, coupled with quick decisioning tools to pre-empt and correct issues has been invaluable in delivering the best experience to the vast number of people that have watched AEG Digital Media events online."

Conviva and AEG Digital Media worked together on the following events:

• Alicia Keys Concert: On Dec. 1, 2009, a multi-camera live concert in full HD was streamed on Sony Music's Alicia Keys channel on YouTube from AEG's Nokia Theatre in New York.

• People's Choice Awards:  This annual awards show that recognizes the people and the work of popular culture was broadcast on CBS on Jan. 6

• "If I Can Dream": Created by Simon Fuller and debuted by 19 Entertainment on March 2, this Internet-only show equipped with 56 cameras follows six housemates looking to launch their creative arts, sport or fashion careers.

• Coke Zero™ Countdown Free Concert: Streamed live on Facebook and hosted by Ryan Seacrest this 2010 NCAA® Men's Final Four® live concert was held on April 3 and featured Daughtry and Country Music Association New Artist of the Year, Darius Rucker.

"With multiple high-profile projects behind us, we have seen first-hand why it makes perfect sense to combine the sophistication and real-time nature of Conviva's technology with AEG Digital Media's turnkey, no-fail multimedia solutions," said Keith Zubchevich, vice president of market development and operations, Conviva.  "Without question, the better the experience, the longer a viewer watches, the more a content company stands to make a profit.  Together, we put the control to drive increased viewer engagement in the hands of our customers, so they can truly realize the revenue potential of their online video businesses."

(1) "Online Video Delivery Still Nowhere Near TV-Quality," Dec. 11, 2009, TubeMogul

About AEG Digital

AEG Digital Media is the leading provider of complete webcast management, production and media services in the digital media industry.  We take a broadcast approach to streaming/digital media and enable the world's largest, innovative webcasts and live events.  AEG Digital Media is regarded as the definitive turn key service provider in the market today with a nine year track record of empowering the defining moments in internet broadcasting and live streaming media. For more information, visit www.aegdigitalmedia.com.

About Conviva

Conviva is transforming the online video experience by eliminating the causes of choppy, unpredictable viewing.  Starting with real-time audience instrumentation, Conviva's intelligent video platform empowers content publishers by automating both dynamic bit rate adjustment and the management of multiple distribution networks to optimize the experience and cost of large scale video businesses.  Great content brands rely on Conviva to deliver the best quality video without impacting their profit margins.  For more information on Conviva, please visit www.conviva.com.

SOURCE Conviva, Inc.