Panvidea Partners with Softel to Add Caption & Subtitle Capabilities to Video Processing in the Cloud

NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Panvidea, the only enterprise-ready cloud-based solution for connecting any content with any platform and device, has today announced comprehensive support for Softel's industry-standard Swift vTX caption and subtitle transcoding software. Swift vTX enables the automatic insertion, extraction, and transcoding of subtitles, captions and other ancillary data. By adding this tool to its already extensive list of professional codecs and post-production tools, Panvidea announced that it now provides leading broadcasters and advertisers with a high speed, instantly scalable method for inserting captions and subtitles into broadcast video. In the longer run, the partnership also provides a solution for broadcasters seeking to prepare their content to meet emerging federal standards for mandatory closed captioning of web videos.

The solution also allows customers to extract captions from an existing source file and re-encode them into the new, transcoded output file for distribution. The entire workflow is conducted as an automated process in the cloud using the Panvidea::Distribute solution, which combines a lightning fast post-production and video encoding engine with an integrated online dashboard to manage the entire digital media publishing and ad distribution workflow from digitization through delivery.

The need for a fast and scalable captioning solution for broadcast video has never been greater. Captions are mandated for broadcast content and are an extremely time sensitive part of any broadcast workflow. In the United States, the recent 21st Century Communications & Video Accessibility Act will soon extend this mandate to caption the majority of previously broadcasted online videos. Panvidea's partnership with Softel delivers a pioneering and world first solution that provides instant and scalable caption insertion for both traditional broadcast and online video.

Softel is a global supplier of leading edge subtitling & captioning solutions. With blue-chip captioning houses using Softel's solutions, more captions are created on Softel's Swift Create workstation than all others combined. Softel's Swift vTX software delivers faster-than-real-time, automated, file-based processing with seamless integration into today's video provisioning workflows and 'at a glance' management.

According to Chris Cali, CEO and co-founder of Panvidea: "This is a very important deal for us. It allows us to provide our major broadcast and advertising clients with immediate access to the same industry-standard captioning technology currently used by some of the world's leading content companies including the BBC, Comcast Entertainment Networks, ESPN, Fox, HBO and Turner. Our partnership with Softel ensures that content can be enjoyed by all audiences anywhere in the world on the widest range of media including broadcast and DVD, as well as emerging web and mobile standards."

"This partnership demonstrates just how flexible and future proof Softel's Swift vTX transcoding system really is," explained Sam Pemberton, Softel's CEO. "We are proud to partner with Panvidea to support broadcasters across the world in reducing their time to market to deliver cost effective "TV anywhere," regardless of the target platform, and in a multitude of formats. We envision the cloud-based approach to grow over time and are delighted to work with Panvidea who have a profound understanding of this exciting emerging space."

This move enhances Panvidea's industry leading video processing and distribution tools for the professional content community and builds on the enhanced broadcast-ready feature set that is already used by major media clients including A&E Television Networks, Fox Broadcasting Company and Getty Images.  Panvidea eliminates the need for professional content companies to incur significant capital expenditures or pay exorbitant hourly fees to prepare their content for both internal use and external digital distribution.

For more information, please contact Panvidea at 212-967-9613.

About Panvidea:

Panvidea is the only enterprise-ready cloud-based solution for connecting any content with any platform and device. Originally founded as mPOINT in November 2007, the company re-branded in spring 2010 with co-founder Chris Cali as CEO, to become Panvidea. Panvidea provides the only instantly scalable, on-demand solution to encode digital media elements, manage relevant metadata, edit and transform media for multiple audiences, and supply content as digital products to any platform or device. Panvidea's secure software service eliminates the need for professional content companies to incur significant capital expenditures or pay exorbitant hourly fees to prepare their content for internal use or external digital distribution. For more information visit http://www.panvidea.com/

About Softel:

Softel is a global leader in key TV and video technologies including subtitling and captioning, interactive TV, MPEG stream processing and multiplexing, opt and ad insertion cuing, and Teletext, delivered through a full range of products, professional services and bespoke development. Based in Pangbourne, near Reading in Berkshire, England, Softel also owns Softel-USA LLC, which focuses entirely on the Americas from its metro New York location. The company also has an impressive network of partners worldwide. With almost three decades of broadcast experience, Softel has built a customer list that encompasses prestigious 'blue chip' broadcasters and major post production facilities, as well as freelancers and smaller facilities. For more information, please visit: http://www.softelgroup.com/

SOURCE Panvidea