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Industry newcomer Recast Digital has developed an affordable Flash-based compression technology capable of delivering low-bandwidth, high-definition content via the web. Aaron Greenwood spoke to Recast Digital director Luke Wheeler about the technology and the company's ambitions in the Middle East.

The simplicity and efficiency of Recast Digital's Adobe Flash-based high-resolution video delivery platform belies the company's unconventional approach to re-engineering a technology initially conceived to deliver low-resolution multimedia content.

While the company is understandably reluctant to divulge technical details, the proprietary Flash-based technology employed by its eponymously titled digital video player delivers crisp visuals at connection speeds ranging from 860kb/s to 3.2Mb/s.

At the upper-end of the scale, Recast claims the quality of the digital source files is virtually indistinguishable from high definition video.

Having sampled source files at half that speed via the company's demonstration website, located at www.thisisvideo.tv, this claim stands to reason.

According to Luke Wheeler, co-founder and director of Recast Digital, the technology is "less computer-intensive, requires less bandwidth and doesn't require any special software download" to work.

"Basically, we have re-engineered the manner in which Flash handles media, and we've combined that with some special encoding techniques," he explains.

"We've also established a global content delivery network to stream media reliably and efficiently to mass audiences that includes significant security measures so clients can be assured that the high bit-rate, high-resolution digital media we develop on their behalf remains secure and commercially viable."

Wheeler says Recast Digital is pitching its encoding service to online media businesses as "an end-to-end managed live and on-demand video solution for high quality content - which includes encoding, storage, security, and high bandwidth global delivery".

He explains that the technology enables video to be delivered as a true stream or as a progressive download. Integration and design can be heavily customised to complement client requirements, branding and websites, he adds.

"We are currently talking to a number of ad agencies which are looking to distribute high-resolution content online," he explains. "Separately, our player also supports all other forms of Flash media, so third-parties that are encoding Flash video and distributing it across advertising networks can use our technology to develop intelligent targeting services.

The technology supports any combination of video or audio or flash-enabled banners, for example. The inherent flexibility at the core of Flash is still there, as is the interactivity."

While Recast Digital is initially pitching the technology at ad agencies, premium brands and media content owners, the company also harbours ambitions to secure partnerships with broadcasters in key markets where there is a demand for video-on-demand and other interactive technologies. This factor, in addition to the rapid spread of IPTV networks across the region, makes the Middle East a key market in the company's plans.

"In regards to the trend towards IPTV, the Middle East and particularly the Gulf region provides many commercial opportunities, given the involvement of du and Etisalat in the sector," he says. "We're very keen to work with Middle East-based content owners, providing them with encoding facilities and an opportunity to develop new revenue streams.

Our preferred partner for global content delivery is Level 3 Communications, which also supplies rest-of-the-world IP connectivity to Gulf-based telcos.

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