OTTAWA, Oct. 2, 2012 /CNW/ - Espial, a leader in on-demand TV software and solutions, today announced that the company's Espial MediaBase on-demand video platform now supports MPEG-DASH, a new adaptive streaming protocol that is being rapidly adopted across the pay-TV industry. Espial has also confirmed its affiliation with the DASH Industry Forum, an organization that encourages mass adoption of the MPEG-DASH standard, through a formal membership.

"Pay-TV service providers are challenged to choose among different protocols for streaming HTTP video," said Kirk Edwardson, director of marketing at Espial. "We believe the MPEG-DASH standard will continue to gather momentum with its support for on-demand, time-shift and live TV applications, multiple DRM formats, and selectable streams. By adding support for MPEG-DASH to our Espial MediaBase solution, we're enabling service providers to provide a richer user experience for live and VOD content on any screen."

Espial MediaBase is a high-performance multimedia delivery system that leverages commercial-off-the-shelf hardware for industry-leading streaming density for the management and distribution of video content to any screen, including Smart TVs, PCs, tablets, and smartphones. By supporting a universal HTTP delivery format, Espial MediaBase enables cable, IPTV, and satellite providers to deliver a wide range of on-demand services more efficiently, including VOD, time-shift TV, network PVR, and live TV, while maximizing network resources.

As one of the newest members of the DASH Industry Forum, Espial will partner with many of the industry's leading technology providers and media organizations to accelerate the acceptance and deployment of MPEG-DASH. The DASH Industry Forum members believe that using an open international standard for multimedia delivery over the Internet will accelerate market growth; enable interoperability between content preparation tools, servers, CDNs, and end devices; and reduce the cost of video delivery.

More information about Espial MediaBase and the company's other products is available at www.espial.com. More information about the DASH Industry Forum is available at http://dashif.org.

About DASH Industry Forum
The DASH Industry Forum is a group of interested parties collaborating on promotion of MPEG's DASH specification (ISO/IEC 23009) in the industry and other standards organizations and consortia. DASH Industry Forum is not a standardization group and will not develop any specific technical output that can be referenced by industry. To learn more about the DASH Industry Forum, visit dashif.org.

About Espial (www.espial.com)
Espial is a leading supplier of digital TV and IPTV software and solutions to cable MSOs and telecommunications operators as well as consumer electronics manufacturers. Espial's middleware, video-on-demand, and browser products power a diverse range of pay-TV and Internet TV business models. Over 10 million licenses of its patented software are in use across the world. Espial is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada and has offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Visit www.espial.com or contact via phone at +1 613 230 4770.

SOURCE ESPIAL GROUP