Video networking vendor VBrick Systems on Nov. 17 will help enterprises deliver live and video on demand to even small, remote offices with a new appliance that can overcome low-bandwidth WAN restrictions.
The new VBrick WM Appliance, which supports the widely used Windows Media format, provides a reflecting capability that allows a single video stream to be transmitted across slow-speed WAN links.
Although that capability already exists in the market, VBrick officials claim they are the first to deliver it in a simple to deploy appliance form factor that reduces the burden on IT, according to Rich Mavrogeanes, CTO and founder of the Wallingford, CT company.
“This is the first appliance reflector in the industry. It allows an inexperienced administrator to stick one of these appliances where they need to go and be successful without installing a server. That level of simplicity makes video scaleable and deployable where it was not before this,” he said.
The new appliance addresses another inhibitor to further multimedia deployments for large enterprises: the worry over the impact of video traffic on mission critical applications traffic, according to Steve Vonder Haar, research director at Interactive Media Strategies in Arlington, Texas.
“Its always a challenge for vendors like VBrick and others to convey the true value proposition of multimedia. Thats because in many cases IT folks will throw up the veto to deployment because theyre worried about the unknown. How much will people use it? How much traffic will this put on my network? Are you going to bring my system to its knees? With reflector VBrick can work as a partner to help to address that issue,” he said.
The VBrick WM Appliance Reflector allows users to stream, store and replay digital video presentations.
A single video presentation can be transmitted from a central site to multiple remote offices across a WAN.
A VBrick appliance at each remote office can then retransmit the video on the remote office LAN.
“Without this, enterprises needed to limit the number of live events due to logistics issues, or they did not deliver [the events] to remote locations that didnt have good connectivity. That limits the ability for a company to delivery one vision to the whole organization,” said Andy Howard, director of marketing at VBrick Systems.
The appliance also includes an encoding function that allows videos to be transmitted from remote offices to a central location.
“So if you want to do a live presentation back to headquarters, you can do that. Or you can use that appliance to see whats going on in a [retail] store from a central location,” said Howard.
The VBrick WM Appliance also includes an optional hard drive to allow remote offices to record and replay video presentations on demand.
It is due by years end.