Why Freecaster

Freecaster is a boutique service provider, a high-end LIVE streaming partner.

• We work with your existing video production company or produce the video feed for you;
• We stream to our video platform and/or to the one(s) of your choice;
• We offer you a video player with features beyond any other competitive solution;
• We support your web and social media agencies in the integration and promotion of the LIVE or we do it for you;
• We encode on-site or from satellite downlinks at our teleport;
• We spare no energy to ensure your LIVE stream exceeds your expectations.

References

Launched in 2004, Freecaster won the Apple Design Award for Best Entertainment Solution for Quicktime a few weeks after launch. In 2006, Freecaster pioneered with LIVE streaming free to air and pay-per-view.

Our customers:

Sports

• Billabong Air & Style
• BMX World Cup and World Championships
• Motocross World Championships
• Nescafe Champs Open
• Oakley Air & Style
• O'Neill Evolution
• O'Neill Cold Water Classics
• Red Bull Air Race
• Red Bull X-Fighters
• Red Bull Playstreets
• Red Bull Sloepstyle
• Red Bull Rampage
• Red Bull District Ride
• Simpel Session
• Telekom Extreme Playgrounds
• TTR Snowboard World Tour
• UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and World Championships
• X Games (summer and winter)

Business

• Nissan
• Swatch
• TAG Heuer

Fashion

• DVF
• G-Star RAW
• Lacoste
• Louis Vuitton
• Rodarte

Music

• Franz Ferdinand
• Polarkreis 18
• Queens of the Stone Age
• Lady Gaga
• The Hives
• The Ting Tings

Conferences

• European Development Days
• European Job Fair

Video platforms powered by Freecaster

• Extreme Sports Channel
• MX-LIFE.TV
• O'Neill TV

About

Freecaster.tv is a high end LIVE streaming production company and a LIVE streaming video platform.

Launched in 2004, Freecaster won the Apple Design Award for Best Entertainment Solution for Quicktime a few weeks after launch. In 2006, Freecaster pioneered with LIVE streaming free to air and pay-per-view.

From on-site video production and stream encoding to satellite downlinks, Freecaster is renown for its very high streaming quality, tailor-made solutions, reactiveness, client servicing, competitive pricing.

As a video platform, Freecaster powers Extreme.com, O'Neill TV as well as MX-LIFE.TV.

LIVE Video Production

Freecaster's expertise in LIVE TV production is an additional set of skills our clients rely on. From the comfort of high-tech conference halls to -15°C in the mountain, from Singapore to New York, from sports to fashion, music concerts or conferences, Freecaster is often chosen as the partner to provide high quality HD video productions beyond managing a LIVE stream.

Freecaster pays particular attention to the selection of its crews to ensure that beyond technical expertise with technical video production equipments, the crew is also suited to perform at the highest level according to each specific production environment whether social or environmental. From a two camera to a full-fledged HD OB Van based production, contact us to discuss your needs.

On-site or Cloud Encoding

Encoding on-site is the ideal solution to ensure the highest quality but it is not always the most cost effective solution nor the most reliable one. The link to the Internet is the Achilles' tendon of a LIVE stream. The availability and quality of the Internet bandwidth on-site is often the limiting factor. Of course 3G/4G data networks are often offered by our competitors but that quality restrictions are simply not on par with Freecaster's expectations for a LIVE stream.

Therefore, Freecaster relies on Camfoo cloud encoding solution that allows all available on-site bandwidth to be dedicated to sending the highest possible stream and relying on the cloud encoders to encode lower qualities to offer the best possible multi-bit rate stream possible for each specific event.

Encoding Quality

No two live streams are equal. Freecaster focuses on quality and its dedicate technology offers superior encoding and thus picture quality.

Our LIVE streams are typically offered in 4 bit rates from low quality all the way to HD:

• 288p at 640 kbit/s
• 360p at 1152 kbit/s
• 480p at 1728 kbit/s
• 720p at 2728 kbit/s

The player will automatically adapt the streaming bit rate at the available bandwidth for each viewer (adaptive streaming). This automatic function can be overruled with a manual selection.

Satellite Downlinks

Freecaster relies on Camcast's brand new teleport in Berlin, Germany to ensure that it relies on the latest available technology to downlink MPEG4 HD satellite feeds prior offering the best available LIVE streaming encoding. Beyond a clear high-end technical expertise we also offer the most competitive prices with 24/7 downlink availability at the price of 4 EUR / min for an SD feed 8 EUR / minute for an HD feed with a minimum of 120 minutes (2 hours).

Video Editing

Whether on-site or remote, clients often request that Freecaster edits video clips and video highlights for use on the web or distribution to TV stations. Freecaster offers a full resolution clip download services for TV stations to source broadcast quality content.

LIVE Streaming Delivery

In order to provide maximum efficiency on delivery its LIVE streams and VOD content Freecaster relies on two CDN partners:

The Akamai HD Network is a cloud based technology platform for live and on-demand streaming that has been proven to support the largest online events by managing millions of simultaneous streams in a single event, and deliver true 1080p on-demand premium content.

Level 3’s CDN combines the advantages of an industry-leading Internet backbone with a sophisticated, proven content delivery platform.

Chaptering & Schedule

Freecaster's content management system allows to publish an event schedule and to link segments of a LIVE webcast to that schedule to allow direct access to sections of a LIVE webcast for the instant-on replays.

Social Media & Chats

Beyond having a player compatible with all social media web sites, Freecaster can assist in the creation of Facebook apps as well as in the integration of Facebook and Twitter chats.

Pay per View

Pay per view LIVE webcasts allow to monetise the audience. Freecaster will link to the client's PayPal account for direct assignments of the pay-per-view subscriptions. Freecaster can also generation of free codes for promotional or PR purposes.

Free Codes with Facebook App

Freecaster has developed a Facebook app allowing clients to offer their Facebook fans access to free codes to unlock a pay-per-view stream.

Analytics

Our analytics report provides the following data:

• Name of event
• Date of event
• Views
• Unique views
• LIVE unique views
• LIVE average play time
• Replay unique views
• Replay average play time
• LIVE duration
• Unique viewers per country
• Unique viewers per website that embedded the player
• Operating system and mobile devices breakdown

Reports are generated in PDF format.

Countdown and Trailer

Freecaster has developed a countdown to LIVE that will display the time of the webcast based on the viewer's timezone to ensure that viewers around the world know when to expect a LIVE. Once the countdown is over the LIVE stream starts automatically.

Trailer to Countdown

In some cases, events like to present a trailer. The trailer will then play with the countdown information prior to presenting the event poster.

Instant-on Replay + VCR

Using HTTP streaming technology, our streams are not blocked by firewalls and the player offers a LIVE VCR function allowing the viewer to scroll back during the LIVE. The same technology allows us to offer replays immediately after a LIVE and that in all bit-rates and all languages.

Multi-Language

Successfully launched for the European Development Days conference 2010, Freecaster offers the choice of multiple languages in the player. The viewer can switch seamlessly from one LIVE commentary to the next within the same video player.

Multi-Camera

Developed with music concerts in mind, the Freecaster multi-camera player allows selection between the director's cut and individual cameras that focus on specifics e.g. one camera per musician. The same player can be used to offer an overview and selection between various location e.g. multiple tennis courts.

3D

The Freecaster player is 3D-compatible. Not just for VOD but also for LIVE streams. All known 3D viewing technologies are supported up to 1080p HD LIVE 3D streams for a stunning full-screen result on e.g. a Samsung 46" monitor with passive glasses.

Custom Interface

The interface of the Freecaster player can be adapted to be conform with the client's CI. The client's watermark can be added to strengthen the player identity.

Slides

A coveted feature for keynotes and conferences is the ability to show Powerpoint slides side by side and synchronised with the LIVE video feed. The slide presenter has an independent navigation to allow the user to return to a slide at will.