iVAST, a leading worldwide provider of MPEG-4 software has announced a cooperative partnership with Oracle Japan and Sun Microsystems K.K. to deliver MPEG-4 based interactive multimedia solutions to Japan's broadband, cable, satellite, wireless, enterprise and digital broadcast networks.

The world-class technology partnership offers an extensive set of products and services to develop, integrate and deploy highly scalable, carrier class, interactive MPEG-4 digital media experiences across all networks. Together, they will provide the most comprehensive suite of services to enable MPEG-4 content creation for broadcast, education, consumer and entertainment platforms.

An official release informs that iVAST will provide their world-leading MPEG-4 software, which supports the creation, distribution and interactive viewing of high-quality digital audio and video. On their part, Oracle Japan will contribute its world-class knowledge of database architectures and content distribution networks to provide turnkey solutions for carrier-class projects in the communications and broadcast markets. Sun Microsystems K.K. will provide the server system and technical support to ensure performance and Quality of Service delivery for the content creation and delivery demands of Japan's enterprise and carrier-class clients.

As part of the partnership, iVAST will integrate its MPEG-4 solutions into Oracle's content distribution network and database architecture, the release says. MPEG-4 is the latest international standard developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), the organisation that introduced MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. These earlier compression standards serve as the underlying delivery technology for high definition television, digital video broadcasting, direct broadcast by satellite, digital cable television systems, DVDs and interactive CD-ROMs. MPEG-4 goes beyond improved audio/video compression and further enables integrated, interactive, targeted multimedia delivery across any network - whether broadcast or broadband, wireless or wireline - and via electronic or physical distribution to any device, from set-top boxes to PCs and personal digital assistants.

iVAST has also announced the full commercial release of the iVAST MPEG-4 Platform version 2.0, a comprehensive suite of tools and software for the creation, delivery and playback of fully-interactive, rich media MPEG-4 content over carrier-class networks.


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