Brightcove leverages Zencoder for ‘instant playback’ and cloud encoding

Online video specialist Brightcove has launched a new service that enables on-demand video playback to start within seconds of the file upload process. The company has also announced the commercial availability of Widevine DRM technology for multiscreen content delivery.

Brightcove ‘s new Zencoder Instant Play solution leverages assets from Zencoder, the cloud-based transcoding company it acquired in August. The solution starts transcoding a file during the upload process, meaning playback of the video asset can start while the file is being uploaded.

“Whether it’s an hour long video or a ten minute video, they will both take the same amount of time to get to the point where you can start watching them,” Steve Heffernan, Brightcove’s director of player ubiquity, told DTVE. “This solution means you can stop looking at the file as a whole and instead think about bits of the file; you can start piping those bits straight away.”

Heffernan said Instant Play would particularly benefit organistions with large video file backlogs that, rather than transcoding the entire library, could offer files within seconds of someone requesting them. Companies like news organisations that need to get video content online immediately following a live broadcast could also benefit from Instant Play, he said.

Brightcove has also announced the launch of Zencoder Cloud Transcoding, a solution that converts a single live video stream source into multi-bitrate HLS and RTMP live streams. The solution enables content providers to encode a single live stream from an event and publish the stream to the Zencoder cloud transcoding service, where the stream is transcoded and packaged for adaptive bitrate HLS or multiple RTMP streams.

Brightcove also announced the commercial availability of Google’s Widevine multi-platform DRM technology for its Video Cloud online video platform. Brightcove Video Cloud customers are now able to leverage Widevine for secure delivery and playback on more than 539 million Widevine-enabled consumer electronics devices worldwide, according to Widevine, 284 million of which are televisions, Blu-ray players, set-top boxes and game consoles.

“Brightcove Video Cloud was the first online video platform to become a certifies Widevine distribution platform. We are also the first to make Widevine DRM commercially available,” said Jeff Whatcott, Brightcove chief marketing officer.