24 June 2009

Matches featuring the Italian football team in the current Confederations Cup tournament are being broadcast live in high definition on the Web using Microsoft technology.

RAI.IT, the Internet operation of the Italian national broadcaster, is partnering with Microsoft, Inlet Technologies and Level 3 Communications to offer the coverage on its sites.

For the matches, RAI.IT is offering the same high-definition streams broadcast on TV to Web users, thanks to Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) Live Smooth Streaming and Microsoft Silverlight technologies. IIS7 Smooth Streaming is an HTTP-based adaptive streaming technology that delivers the highest quality, reliable online video experience. By using standards-based HTTP to take advantage of massive existing HTTP caching resources, IIS7 Smooth Streaming takes advantage of the scale of HTTP to provide true HDTV experiences to Silverlight-based media players. The same group of companies recently deployed this technology for France Télévisions’ live HD webcast of the French Open tennis from Roland Garros in Paris.

The Confederations Cup simulcasts are encoded by Inlet’s Spinnaker 7000 live streaming appliances. Inlet is the first encoding technology provider to support Microsoft IIS7 Smooth Streaming technology for live streaming and video-on-demand applications. The event will demonstrate the HDTV-quality of IIS7 Smooth Streaming, through several optimized streams generated by Spinnaker 7000 HD encoders.

For viewers who cannot receive full HD quality due to limited Internet connections, the Silverlight application is capable of detecting what quality levels are available and can switch between them without breaks or stutters. This means users who have broadband connections can enjoy HD images, while users with low-rate connections or less powerful computers receive the quality optimised for their connection.

“Thanks to the collaboration with RAI.IT, we once again demonstrate that Microsoft technologies such as IIS7 Live Smooth Streaming and Silverlight can provide great and innovative experiences to end users,” said Anders Nilsson, director of developer and platform evangelism for Microsoft Italy. “Beyond the higher quality of the service, users can enjoy instant replay whenever they want, switching between what’s going live and what happened earlier in the same match, or other innovative features that will be implemented by RAI in future release of the player. Level 3’s early support for IIS7 Live Smooth Streaming in its CDN has made this happen on the large scale that a football match involving the Italian team requires.”

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