Digital Rapids Encoding Solutions Power Multi-Screen Australian Open Coverage for unas media productions

PASSFIELD, England, Feb. 15, 2012  /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Rapids announced today that unas media productions – the Austria-based video production company within the sportsman media holding group – used an array of Digital Rapids' multi-format encoding solutions to produce high-quality live streams of the Australian Open tennis tournament for the official Australian Open streaming website, mobile devices and online betting providers. 

unas media productions deployed a customized flight case incorporating five dual-channel, high-definition Digital Rapids encoders on-location in Melbourne, Australia. The encoders provided live streams from all seven courts as the world's top tennis players competed in the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year, January 16th to 29th. The live streams were available on the Internet via 'Australian Open TV' and on Apple® iOS devices such as the iPhone®, allowing the live action to be enjoyed by tennis fans around the world.

"Ever since discovering Digital Rapids solutions, we have been impressed by their robust, reliable and high-quality live streaming capabilities," said David Schartner, Director of Television & Production at unas media productions. "The systems' ability to run the many profiles per input channel that we needed for simultaneous Web and Apple iOS streaming, all without straining CPU usage, was a key factor in choosing them for this project. And as we also use Digital Rapids solutions at our headquarters, we were well aware of the quality they could provide, and confident they would perform well on-site."

"Today's viewers have high expectations for the quality and multi-screen availability of live streams of major sporting events, and media organizations worldwide trust our solutions to exceed these expectations while providing the reliability required for on-location live coverage," said Clive Vickery, Managing Director, EMEA and Asia at Digital Rapids. "We're very pleased that unas media productions chose our solutions for this event, and we look forward to continuing to work with them on future projects."

unas media productions offers personalised media solutions for customers in mobile, Internet and broadcasting industries. A mixture of top-of-the-range newsroom facilities, production software and hardware, downlink facilities and years of experience in video production ensure the highest quality and the most creative solutions to any challenges. unas media productions worked closely with its sister company, Munich-based sports rights and marketing agency sportsman media group, who have purchased the event's live streaming rights from Tennis Australia for two years. The sportsman media group has been providing online betting partners with live streams from world-renowned sporting events for more than six years and their portfolio currently consists of more than 25,000 live events per year.

Digital Rapids encoding solutions provide superior quality, outstanding reliability and flexible, multi-screen output format support for audience-expanding live and on-demand streaming applications. Powering services from online and mobile video to IPTV, over-the-top (OTT) services and 'traditional' television, Digital Rapids encoders' rich output capabilities are ideal for capitalising on today's lucrative multi-screen content distribution opportunities, allowing customers to reach viewers on devices from tablets and mobile phones to game consoles, PCs and 'smart' TVs.

The complete range of Digital Rapids solutions will be showcased in booth number SL5624 at the 2012 NAB Show, April 16-19 in Las Vegas. For more information about Digital Rapids, please visit www.digitalrapids.com.

About Digital Rapids Corporation– Digital Rapids provides the leading hardware and software solutions for transforming and delivering media, enabling the multi-platform experiences that are changing how audiences view content. Scaling from standalone appliances to global workflows, Digital Rapids solutions enable media professionals to maximize their productivity, quality, and the value of their content. Recipient of a coveted IBC Innovation Award and four prestigious Frost & Sullivan honors for encoding and transcoding leadership, Digital Rapids combines innovative technology with proven expertise to help our customers expand their audiences, increase their media revenues and reduce their costs. Digital Rapids Corporation (www.digitalrapids.com) is headquartered in Ontario, Canada with offices in the United States, the UK, Australia, Argentina and Hong Kong.

Copyright 2012 Digital Rapids Corporation. All rights reserved.  Digital Rapids and the Digital Rapids logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Digital Rapids Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.

SOURCE Digital Rapids Corporation