Telestream Revolutionizes Video Encoding with Episode 6

Industry-first, cross-platform encoding solution scalable from desktop to workgroup clusters adds new graphical UI, One-Click Clustering and publishing to YouTube

Telestream®, a leading provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, takes video encoding to the next level with its announcement today of Episode 6. For the first time, users can pool resources to share encoding work across multiple computers in a mixed environment of Macs and PCs. Episode also brings cross-platform scalability from the desktop to the server, another industry-first. Combining exclusive One-Click Clustering™ and integrated file sharing allows users to easily share work across multiple machines seamlessly for faster and more efficient video encoding. A new, intuitive user interface with graphical workflow builder simplifies the encoding process. As part of its new deployment capabilities, Episode 6 automates uploading of completed videos to YouTube for greater audience reach. These groundbreaking features allow professional videographers, post-production houses and content owners to streamline operations and increase productivity, while reaching a broader audience.

"Episode 6 offers an impressive combination of powerful new features that will help workgroups such as ours realize our vision of turning around high-quality encoding jobs more quickly for our clients," said Kenji Hayashi, producer at San Francisco-based Phoenix Editorial and Bonfire. "The depth of control that Episode allows us to achieve, combined with top-quality Main Concept H.264 and MPEG codecs, is unrivaled in the industry."

Episode 6 exclusive One-Click Clustering adds flexibility to processor-intensive encoding tasks by sharing the workload across permanent or ad hoc clusters as computers become available. With One-Click Clustering, users can easily join or setup a cluster of mixed Mac and PC computers to get the work done more quickly, maximizing productivity and equipment investment. Because of Episode's unique, built-in file sharing and ease of configuration, clusters can be set up without the need for IT assistance. Permissions-based clustering allows users to join a cluster, name clusters, view machines on the cluster, as well as the workload and determine status of each.

For time-critical workflows, unique Split-and-Stitch^® technology and parallel encoding, allow users to saturate the processing power of a single machine or distribute files across a cluster of Mac or PC servers to achieve remarkable encoding speeds. In addition, Episode 6 adds format support for high-quality Main Concept H.264 and MPEG video formats.

"Major consumer brands have seen the success of Hulu.com and YouTube, and are now funding professional webisodes that market products out to online users and follow them onto their mobile devices. This requires the ability to encode for multiple display formats while keeping costs low," said Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst with market research firm In-Stat. "Telestream's customers can follow this trend, and benefit from the new clustering and file sharing capabilities built into Episode 6 to achieve faster time-to-market and more efficient use of existing network computing resources."

Episode 6 also adds new deployment capabilities that allow users to automatically deliver their completed content using standard network delivery protocols, and upload content to popular video sharing websites like YouTube. All these new capabilities are easily accessible through the new graphical workflow builder that allows users to visually create and view the steps in their encoding process.

Episode is an all-in-one encoder that includes extensive presets and filters plus the ability to add bumpers, trailers and watermarks to enhance and protect video content. Combined best-in-class video processing, full 10-bit support and hands-on control with frame-by-frame video preview allow users to generate excellent picture quality. Episode provides extensive format support for post-production, new media, web and mobile encoding environments.

"We're seeing explosive growth in the distribution of video to the web and wireless devices," said Barbara DeHart, VP of Marketing at Telestream. "Episode 6 is a game changer that combines quality and encoding speed together with never-before-seen scalability and ease of use. This is a major step towards our goal of helping individuals, workgroups and large-scale businesses meet the growing demand of web and mobile video distribution."

Pricing and Availability

Episode 6 will be available Q2 2010. All Episode purchases from Videoguys.com placed after April 1 are eligible for a free upgrade to Episode 6. So you can buy Episode 5.2 today! You will also have the option to upgrade your Episode purchase to Episode1 for $149, and from Episode Pro to Episode2 is $299.

Episode version 6 will be available in two editions: Episode1 (v6) priced at $495 includes support for Flash 8 & 9, H.264, Windows Media, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1, DV, 3GPP and much more, plus One-Click Clustering and file sharing, processing of one job at a time, and unlimited batch processing. Episode2 (v6) priced at $995 adds support for high-end professional formats plus parallel encoding of two jobs at a time.