Columbus Communications Selects Elemental to Drive Multiscreen Video Strategy

FREEPORT, THE BAHAMAS--(Marketwire - May 14, 2012) - Elemental Technologies, the leading supplier of video solutions for multiscreen content delivery, and Columbus Communications Inc., a retail and wholesale telecommunications company in the Caribbean and Latin America, today announced that Columbus is the latest service provider to use Elemental^® Live to power the encoding of content for its new multiscreen video services. The expanded services, slated for rollout in September, will provide the region's cable subscribers with unparalleled access to live television and on-demand video on a variety of connected viewing devices. The win is the most recent for Elemental as it expands its business into the service provider market and follows last year's announcements with Comcast and Avail-TVN.

Columbus Communications selected Elemental Live to encode more than 250 linear broadcast channels simultaneously, allowing subscribers to view live television broadcasts from internet-connected devices such as hybrid set-top boxes, PCs, tablets and smartphones. In addition, the company is using Elemental Server to prepare thousands of hours of on-demand video content that authenticated users can access anytime and anywhere through a unified application interface.

"Transcoding is a critical component of the architecture supporting our new multiscreen video services and Elemental is strategic to the deployment," said Darren Richer, chief technology officer at Columbus Communications. "The key differentiators that influenced our decision to work with Elemental versus competitors include overall video quality, high-performance software, system scalability, significant reduction in power consumption, a smaller hardware footprint, lower maintenance costs."

In the initial deployment, Elemental Live is used to create adaptive bit rate streams for both Apple Live Streaming (HLS) and Microsoft Smooth Streaming. Cable customers in the greater Caribbean and Latin American region, including Jamaica, Trinidad‚ Curacao and Grenada, will initially have access to live broadcast output streams and an on-demand video library on PC, iPhone and iPad platforms. In subsequent phases, support for hybrid set-top boxes and larger screen viewing will be available.

"We are very excited to work with Columbus Communications to provide cable subscribers throughout the greater Caribbean and Latin American region with a high quality viewing experience across multiple screens," said Dan Marshall, SVP worldwide sales and service at Elemental Technologies. "The linear multiscreen experience Columbus has created, providing live television streaming along with integrated services accessible across multiple devices, is truly a first within the industry and we're pleased to be part of it."

Elemental will exhibit its solutions for multiscreen video delivery in booth 109 at Streaming Media East May 15-16. The conference and exhibition takes place in New York City at the Hilton New York.

About Columbus Communications

Columbus is a privately held Barbados-based company that provides digital cable television, broadband internet, digital landline telephony and corporate data services in Trinidad, Jamaica, Grenada and Curacao all of which operate under the brand name, FLOW. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Columbus Networks, the Company provides capacity & IP services, corporate data solutions and data center hosting throughout 22 countries in the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean region.

About Elemental

Elemental Technologies is the leading supplier of video solutions for multiscreen content delivery. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the company pioneered the use of graphics processors to power adaptive video streaming over IP networks. Providing unmatched solutions for top media and entertainment companies worldwide, including Comcast, Disney and HBO, Elemental helps content programmers and service providers bring video to any screen, anytime -- all at once. The company has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. To learn more, please visit www.elementaltechnologies.com and follow @elementaltech on Twitter.