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Inlet Technologies Ships Semaphore 2.0 with Fast and Efficient Quality Control for Advanced Format Digital Media: Windows Media 9, SMPTE VC-1 and AVC (H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10) (25/7/2006)

Inlet Technologies, a leading provider of advanced encoding solutions for digital media, announced today that it has released Semaphore(TM) 2.0, a significant upgrade of its software solution for automating the quality review process. This latest product release extends the unique analysis capabilities of Semaphore to all of the major formats for advanced media encoding: AVC (MPEG-4/H.264), VC-1 and Windows Media 9. Semaphore's advanced new features streamline Quality Control, so media professionals can meet their standards for the highest quality output without wasting resources on the tedious, time-consuming task of visually evaluating their video frame by frame.

"There's nothing else like this on the market," said Ben Rolling, Founder, Incited Media. "Not only has it substantially reduced the amount of time we spend reviewing content, it also provides valuable information about how our content is encoded, from compression settings to encoding errors."

Incited Media is currently working with large content holding companies to encode their libraries for web download. This content is created for the wide variety of movie download stores that are gaining popularity with the online audience. "Semaphore has proven to be a valuable tool in determining what settings to adjust when we are trying to meet the demanding quality requirements of our clients," Rolling explained. "Semaphore 2.0 gives us the flexibility to work with either MPEG-4 or VC-1 material and provides in-depth data on the content, in only a matter of minutes."

New features in Semaphore 2.0 include Watch Folders and Enhanced Reporting, which continue to improve the efficiency of the QC process, increasing throughput by a 5 to 10x factor over "manual" QC processes. Semaphore "watches" for source files within a central directory and then moves them automatically through QC, applying the user's customized, job-specific parameters for metrics such as maximum bit rate, dropped frames or quantization level. Semaphore then generates reports and sends them via email to the user's pre-designated recipient list. The reports are available in a variety of formats, including HTML, for easy comprehension and legibility. Beta customers for Semaphore 2.0 also highlight the benefits of Semaphore's automated alerts, which pinpoint encoding errors or trouble spots, for quick, frame-accurate corrections.

"Consumer's growing expectations for digital media clearly indicate the need for multiple format support," said John Bishop, Inlet's Senior Vice President of Business Development and Strategy. "Semaphore is the first Inlet product to accommodate all the major advanced formats, and underscores the commitment we made at NAB to support AVC throughout our product line. No two customers have identical needs or workflows, so we have designed Inlet's solutions to be inherently flexible in order to provide production efficiencies for a broad spectrum of digital media applications."

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