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March 2010

Digital Rapids' StreamZHD and TouchStream Encoders Enable Live and On-Demand HD Video for Innovative Dental Education Portal

The success of DentalEDU.tv and 1MediaProduction's satisfaction with StreamZHD led to their recent purchase of a second Digital Rapids solution, a TouchStream live encoding and streaming appliance with HD-SDI input. In addition to providing a second live HD streaming channel to allow users to switch between multiple streams, the portability of TouchStream gives 1MediaProduction increased flexibility in live production at remote sites.

While the exceptional, high-definition video quality alone differentiates DentalEDU.tv, the site's surrounding architecture and capabilities make it even more innovative and effective as an educational platform. The site’s embedded custom video player, developed by Gunter H Schubert, Ph.D., automatically detects the viewer's bandwidth and selects the HD or lower-resolution version accordingly, with the user also able to toggle modes manually. For on-demand content, the delivery mode can be toggled between progressive download and true streaming, the latter of which enables instant seeking forward or back to any point in the video but is more quality-susceptible to significant drop-offs in the viewer’s network bandwidth or playback conditions.

The player tracks the minutes of each chapter – or of the entire production in the case of a live event – that are watched by the user. Such tracking is crucial to ensure that the user is meeting the minimum requirements for certification of completion of the course. Successful course credit also requires passing an interactive test, which is linked below the player. The video can be viewed full-screen or in a window on the site, with patent-pending "site within a site" platform technology enabling continued operation of the player’s course tracking system even while in full-screen viewing mode.