V-Nova video compression enables FastFilmz low-bandwidth OTT in India

V-Nova: FastFilmz launches PERSEUS-powered OTT mobile video service for low-bandwidth consumers in India

LONDON — V-Nova Ltd., a leading provider of video compression solutions, today announced that FastFilmz, India’s innovative new OTT service provider, has deployed V-Nova’s ground-breaking PERSEUS™ software. With V-Nova PERSEUS, FastFilmz is able to launch commercially and technically viable OTT services, delivering quality streamed video to both 2G and 3G mobile phone users.

“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 & Co-Founder of FastFilmz.

FastFilmz’s service launched on March 29, 2016 and focuses initially on the ca. 120 million Tamil speakers in India. By uniquely enabling SD quality video distribution at sub-audio bit-rates (i.e., < 128 kbps), V-Nova PERSEUS allows FastFilmz to provide quality video streaming over the 2G networks that 70% of the region’s consumers use for Internet access. Award-winning PERSEUS video compression has been deployed seamlessly on the FastFilmz mobile OTT infrastructure and workflows using the PERSEUS Software Development Kit (SDK).

Karam Malhotra, joint-CEO & 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 4x to over 120 million subscribers.”

FastFilmz’ mobile first service has the following key highlights:

• The most comprehensive regional OTT offering based on deals with top regional top content owners
• An intuitive, highly graphical user interface designed specifically for international markets, as opposed to menu-based legacy VOD interfaces
• Simple, low-cost packages through leading local operators, such as Aircel.

Guido Meardi, V-Nova CEO & Co-Founder, added: “V-Nova PERSEUS enables FastFilmz to deliver quality video over congested and unreliable 2G networks, in this case quadrupling potential subscribers, and creating a sustainable competitive advantage. While potential competitors must stand by, watch and wait for 3G networks to reach mass market penetration, FastFilmz is securing market share and a loyal customer base today.”

V-Nova PERSEUS is a video processing technology that addresses today’s video delivery challenges, closing the capacity gap for quality delivery to connected devices over existing networks. V-Nova PERSEUS redraws the traditional bitrate-quality curve, enabling operators and service providers to provide high quality video (i.e., 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.

“Over 4 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,” concluded Eric Achtmann, V-Nova Executive Chairman & Co-Founder. “With respect to this massive, untapped global customer base, FastFilmz is a perfect case study showing how V-Nova PERSEUS makes ‘The Impossible’ possible, and ‘The Possible’ more profitable.”