MEDFORD, MA - mBlaze Multimedia Design (www.mblaze.com) has employed a new encoding service to help clients with the compressing of video for Web streaming and CD-ROM playback. The encoding services mBlaze offers can be used for final delivery or for approval purposes.
The studio is using Anystream's Agility Workgroup SE system for encoding and recently completed work on a multi-language CD-ROM for Avid that the NLE maker is using as a marketing tool. The disc contains nearly an hour of video content, compressed using the new Flash video format and also MPE-1.
"For many post production companies, video compression is an afterthought," explains Ed Jose, president of mBlaze. "They focus on high-end tools for content creation but rely on low-end tools for encoding and delivery. As a result, encoding video clips for the web or CD-ROM took a long time and we were never pleased with the final quality."
For the Web, mBlaze is capable of creating multiple compressed video formats. Approval videos for clients are often encoded to Windows Media, Real Media and QuickTime formats to allow for viewing flexibility. Each of those is usually encoded to 56-, 100- and 300 kilobit streams. That makes nine versions every time a file is encoded for the Web.
"Before we had Agility, we never would have considered posting nine versions of each clip; it just took too long to encode all of them," explains Ed Jose, president and creative director of mBlaze. "Now it's painless."