Streaming Media - October/November 2007 - (Page 34) the 2007 streaming media readers’ choice awards Copy Protection/DRM Solution ■ BUYDRM KEYOS PAY MEDIA PLATFORM First runner-up: Entriq MediaSphere Second runner-up: Widevine Cypher for the PC Bold and outspoken, BUYDRM founder Christopher Levy is a fixture on the digital media conference circuit, including the upcoming Streaming Media West, where he’ll lead the panel “Monetizing and Protecting Consumer-Facing Content.” And with good reason: Levy and BUYDRM have been at the forefront of digital rights management since its creation in 2001, and its KEYOS Pay Media Platform is one of the most frequently used in the biz. The platform gives customers tremendous flexibility in how they choose to deploy authorizations, security, and payments, and offers DRM in any color you like as long as it’s Windows Media. (But Levy doesn’t rule out the promise of other DRM technologies; see his “DRM Demystified,” pp. 48–56.) The proof is in BUYDRM’s past and present customer list: Microsoft, Intel, Network Live, NFL Films, Anheuser-Busch, Interscope Records . . . stop us when we get to one you’ve heard of. Entriq made a strong showing as first runner-up, despite the fact that the company appears to be in a state of transition, while second runner-up Widevine Cypher got a bump from the mid-year announcement that it’s now able to protect Flash Video. Copy Protection/DRM Solution - BUYDRM KEYOS PAY MEDIA PLATFORM Encoding Hardware - VIEWCAST OSPREY VIDEO CAPTURE CARDS Encoding Hardware ■ VIEWCAST OSPREY VIDEO CAPTURE CARDS First runner-up: Digital Rapids DRC-Stream Cards Second runner-up: Streambox Portable Video Transport, Rugged Version The words “video capture card” and “Osprey” are practically synonymous. That’s not to say that ViewCast doesn’t have plenty of competition—most notably runners-up Digital Rapids and Streambox— but Osprey’s been at the forefront since the first card hit the shelves in 1997. The company looked to be slipping a bit, lagging behind when it came to embracing high-definition video capture, but that all changed this year with the introduction of the Osprey 700-HD—demo’d at NAB and shipped around the time of IBC—which encodes both SD and HD, with resolutions of 1080p, 1080i, and 720p. Of course, the entire line of Osprey cards is what our readers honored, from the analog-only, videoblog/surveillance-level Osprey-100 to the Pro Series (aimed at webcasting and mobile streaming apps) and the Studio Series (which offer hardware decoding and broadcast-quality input/output). 34 STREAMING MEDIA October/November 2007
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