FastFilmz has teamed with V-Nova to launch a low bandwidth over-the-top (OTT) video service for India’s 2G and 3G mobile users.
Powered by V-Nova’s Perseus video compression technology, Fastfilmz – which has been available since the end of March 2016 – aims to reliably stream standard definition (SD) quality video at sub-audio bitrates (under 128 kbps) over congested and unreliable 2G networks.
“The deployment of the world’s highest performing video compression technology, V-Nova Perseus, has enabled FastFilmz to launch the first subscription video service built for consumers who are mobile bandwidth-constrained. At the same time, we are able to halve the data costs of streaming and downloading movies, which is a huge deal for our target market,” says Dominic Charles, joint-CEO and co-founder of FastFilmz.
Fastfilmz is focusing initially on providing video-on-demand (VOD) to India’s 120 million plus Tamil speakers, based in a region where over 70% of people use 2G mobile networks for Internet access.
Karam Malhotra, joint-CEO and co-founder of FastFilmz, added: “Without V-Nova Perseus, our streaming service could have only reached a maximum audience of the 30 million people having 3G access. With V-Nova Perseus advanced compression, we are able to reach both 2G and 3G users, increasing our potential customer base by four times to over 120 million subscribers.”
V-Nova Perseus redraws the traditional bitrate-quality curve, enabling operators and service providers to provide high quality video (both linear and non-linear) within their bandwidth constraints: UHD at HD bitrates on large screen TVs, HD at SD bitrates on legacy set-top-boxes and mobile devices, and SD at sub-audio bitrates over bandwidth-constrained mobile networks.
Eric Achtmann, V-Nova executive chairman and co-founder, said: “Over four billion people still lack access to mobile video. For the first time, with V-Nova Perseus, content businesses can launch viable OTT services, even in emerging markets and rural environments where consumers access the Internet over older, busy and highly-constrained mobile networks”.