Europe’s largest Broadcaster ZDF selects the dicas2020 multi-format encoder for versatile H.264 live Flash® streaming

Berlin, Germany (26 June 2009) – German public broadcaster ZDF sets on MPEG-4 and H.264 specialist dicas again to relaunch its popular VOD and live streaming platform Mediathek. Europe’s largest broadcaster adopts Adobe® Flash® technology for the online distribution of its television programs. The production of Adobe® Flash® and non-Flash compliant H.264 video streams is realised with the dicas2020 multi-format encoder.

Jochen Schmidt, senior project leader Technology at ZDF

One year and a half after the start of ZDF’s internet video portal Mediathek, the German public broadcaster adopts the open-standard codec H.264 as the only format for its online video services. “Due to the unrivalled compression efficiency delivering the highest picture quality H.264 today is established not only as professional video standard within the broadcast industry, but also as the de-facto standard on the internet”, says Jochen Schmidt, senior project leader Technology at ZDF.

The pervasiveness H.264 has gained in recent years finally became the winning argument for ZDF to switch over to the open-standard codec. “As a public broadcaster we are legally bound to ensure for all of our services the broadest technical coverage possible”, Schmidt explains. With the migration to H.264, ZDF successfully reduced the encoding complexity without comprising the format diversity necessary to feed any internet connected desktop or mobile device.

The production of the video streams is realised with the dicas2020 multi-format encoder. This 1-RU machine encodes a single input channel into up to six parallel output formats. For each service the data rate, resolution, frame rate and transport protocol can be selected completely independently and played out in H.264, MPEG-4 or H.263/ 3GPP for mobile devices. “The dicas2020 multi-format encoder helps broadcasters and content providers to drastically reduce their operating expenses and energy costs”, says Sebastian Moeritz, CEO at dicas. “With a single encoder broadcast-quality content can be delivered simultaneously to TV set-top boxes, PC software players and mobile phones.”

A special feature is the Flash compatibility of the dicas2020. Being an official Adobe Solution Partner dicas provides the encapsulation of H.264 video into RTMP packets, which makes dicas encoders fully interoperable with the Adobe® Flash® Media Server 3. “The Flash Player 9 is installed on more than 98 per cent of all PCs and mobile end devices worldwide”, explains Moeritz. “In other words: there is a global infrastructure professional video content providers just have to feed with live video content encoded with the most powerful video codec of today: H.264.”

This combination of great economics, high quality and an overall availability made H.264 streaming over Flash a force public broadcaster ZDF had to reckon with. In addition to the switch-over to H.264 the relaunch of the Mediathek therefore brings about the adoption of Adobe Flash technology. “The distribution via Flash is a major advancement not only in technical and economical terms,” continues Schmidt. “Because of Flash the Mediathek is much more comfortable to use.” Since the Flash Player can be integrated directly into web pages there is no need for an extra pop-up window when watching H.264 video streams on the internet. “Moving pictures in highest H.264 quality can be integrated not only into the Mediathek but into all of our web pages. The whole ZDF online portal can be developed further towards a modern multimedia platform matching with our audience’s viewing habits.”