Fluendo funds Xiph.org for Vorbis and Theora RTP specifications

GNU/Linux multimedia specialist Fluendo announces funding of Xiph.org to complete RTP specifications for the Vorbis and Theora codec formats

Fluendo is taking another step towards being able to offer the world high-quality streaming using standard royalty-free formats. By giving content producers and software makers the opportunity to use the popular Vorbis and Theora formats together with the IETF-standardized Real Time Protocol, reach and use of these formats will be increased even further.

It’s fantastic to see Fluendo continuing to fill in pieces of media technology still missing in the Open Source world. By implementing Xiph’s Ogg codecs over RTP, Fluendo is not only enhancing their own business, they’re giving, truly giving, powerful media technologies to all the peoples of the world - says Christopher Montgomery, Executive Director of the Xiph.org Foundation.

RTP support has been missing from our technology suite for a long time, and we’re very happy to have Fluendo’s support in remedy - said Ralph Giles, lead Theora developer for the Xiph.org Foundation.

RTP is becoming increasingly important for desktop conferencing and we are especially excited by the prospect of consumer multicast distribution.

We are very happy to collaborate with the Xiph.org Foundation on enabling the high-quality Vorbis and Theora codecs for use with the standardized RTP protocol, Fluendo Business Manager Christian Schaller says.

Looking forward, we feel that combining our own streaming server Flumotion with RTP-enabled Vorbis and Theora will be an unbeatable combination for a very wide range of streaming audio and video content providers.

Phil Kerr of Xiph.org will be in charge of the development of the specifications, including the creation of reference implementations and working with the Internet Engineering Task Force and other stakeholders. The development will be conducted in an open fashion in the long-standing tradition of the Open Source community.

With the support of Fluendo, the Xiph.Org Foundation is able to provide a complete set of streaming technologies to the wider Internet community, says Phil Kerr.

The RTP profiles for Vorbis audio and Theora video allow for real-time streaming of high-quality, multi-channel, audio and video.

Vorbis and Theora

The Vorbis and Theora are open and royalty-free multimedia formats for audio and video. Both of them are growing in popularity quickly. More and more portable music players from leading producers such as iRiver and iAudio have had support added for the Ogg/Vorbis format. It is being used in popular games such as Unreal Tournament, Doom 3 and Harry Potter 2. It is also experiencing growing popularity for web radio with adopters such as UK Virgin Radio and Canadian CBC.

Since the recent release of Theora’s finalized format specification, it too is being implemented by more and more products, among which Fluendo’s own Flumotion Streaming Server.