BBC begins open-source streaming challenge
Posted by Sachin Garg on 21st June 2005 | Permanent Link
The BBC is quietly preparing a challenge to Microsoft and other companies jostling to reap revenues from video streams. It is developing code-decode (codec) software called Dirac in an open-source project aimed at providing a royalty-free way to distribute video.
Dirac is a video codec that provides general-purpose video compression and decompression tools comparable with state-of-the-art systems. Dirac is available for distribution under the MPL version 1.1 software license.
The sums at stake are potentially huge because the software industry insists on payment per viewer, per hour of encoded content. This contrasts with TV technology, for which viewers and broadcasters alike make a one-off royalties payment when they buy their equipment.
Borer’s team is trying to make project more accessible to open-source developers; lead Dirac programmer Anuradha Suraparaju is developing an interface to facilitate use of the module by C coders. ‘They can simply bolt on a software library to their existing application,’ said Borer, who hopes the developer community will write Dirac plug-ins for players such as Windows Media Player 9.
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