Online video platform Brightcove is gearing up for Saturday's iPad launch, today announcing its Brightcove Experience for HTML5, its answer to Apple's decision to not include Flash on its new tablet device that rolls out (some actually may already be shipping) Saturday.
Brightcove said its long-term plans include development of features that will allow for interactive and advertising-supported Web video experiences for HTML5-compatible devices, like the iPad, and that "Brightcove Experience" will be free of charge to more than 1,000 Brightcove customers. The company--which has been supporting basic HTML5 since 2008, which is when it began supporting the H.264 video format and released its open Media APIs for accessing content stored in the Brightcove online video platform--said its broadened HTML5 solution provides support for intelligent device detection, playlist rendering, and playback of H.264 encoded video content, adding that some of its customers-including Time and Brightcove investor the New York Times--already are using the Brightcove Experience for HTML5 today to build iPad-ready websites. Over the course of this year, Brightcove will expand the Brightcove Experience for HTML5 to include full support for customization and branding of the player environment, advertising, analytics, social sharing, and other capabilities currently found in Brightcove experience solutions for other platforms.
Brightcove joins a number of other online media companies preparing for the onslaught of video expected with the introduction of the iPad which, some experts have projected, already has pre-sold several hundreds of thousands of units. Ooyala last week announced its plans to handle HTML5, and Sorenson Media, too, has said it's already been transcoding video into H.264. Last week, CBS appeared to be testing its own iPad-compatible video on its website.
"Our customers want to be able to deliver their video content to every screen without sacrificing the quality, interactivity and monetization capabilities they have come to expect from the Brightcove platform," said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. "The Brightcove Experience for HTML5 fills the gap between the current playback capabilities of the emerging standard and what our customers need to operate successful online video businesses."
"The Brightcove Experience for HTML5 gives us the opportunity to take all of the knowledge we've gained about real world success with online video and apply it to this new open standard," said Bob Mason, Brightcove's chief technology officer.
For more:
- see this release
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