We Have Seen the Future and It Is Text!

Smooth and reliable video streaming is a difficult thing to accomplish. A streaming solution has to take into consideration bandwidth issues, legacy devices, and format compatibility to be successful in streaming to the widest possible audience.

We, at Wowza, are always thinking of innovative ways for our customers to reach a larger global audience… and we believe we have solved the problem! Watch the video for an introduction to the future of streaming.

Introducing…

With Wowza ASCII Streaming, you can now deliver video to any device that supports basic text. Let’s take a look at how Wowza ASCII Streaming breaks boundaries and increases your customer base.

Legacy Devices

Your customers no longer need to ask if you support this tablet or that phone. You can now say “Yes!” with confidence.

Wowza ASCII Streaming supports pretty much anything that has a text display, including watches, microwaves, calculators, flip phones, pagers, and more.

Format Compatibility

Wowza ASCII Streaming outputs videos in pure text. Instead of H.264 or H.265, we wrap the videos in an H.ABC container using our new WOWSCII codec, and deliver via the tried-and-true Z-MODEM and KERMIT protocols. All this fancy tech talk really means your videos are no longer made up of key frames and chunks… it is now made up of the following:

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYySz1234567890~!@#$%^&*()_+.,/<>?;’:”

The Future is Almost Here

Wowza ASCII Streaming is coming soon, so don’t worry… you will be kicking ASCII in no time!

An expert in letters and numbers, Mike Talvensaari has more than 20 years of experience in developing engaging, intuitive text-based interfaces for some of the leading media products in the industry. As Director of Text at PrevTel, Mike oversaw the teletype-based communications experience, but was ousted when he pushed for text-based video streaming before it was even a thing. Prior to that, Mike read a lot and became an expert on fonts of both serif and sans serif varieties. He earned a BS in Literacy from University of California, San Diego and an MS in Extended Characters from San Jose State University.