Barix will introduce the next phase of its popular Instreamer and Exstreamer audio encoding and decoding products at IBC 2006 (Booth 202, Hall 3).

Barix will introduce the next phase of its popular Instreamer and Exstreamer audio encoding and decoding products at IBC 2006 (Booth 202, Hall 3). The new Instreamer-100 and Exstreamer-100 builds on the flexibility of previous-generation products to further improve performance for both commercial and professional applications. Barix Instreamer and Exstreamer systems offer unparalleled scalability and cost-effectiveness for IP audio decoding, distribution, encoding and monitoring compared with many competing systems by using IP links and standard protocols for audio streaming and delivery.

'The Barix Instreamer and Exstreamer hardware platforms offer an inexpensive, reliable and proven way of distributing real-time and on-demand audio over standard IP network infrastructure for a variety of audio applications', said Johannes Rietschel, CEO of Barix.

'From live broadcasting to in-store streaming to audio distribution through large building, hotels and airports, a growing number of professionals are leveraging mature IP technologies to achieve inexpensive, reliable audio transmission over an existing IP infrastructure'.

'This allows businesses to vastly reduce costs incurred using satellite or leased-line based technologies, and offers far better control and monitoring'.

The Instreamer-100 will receive its worldwide debut at IBC and be displayed in an end-to-end audio over IP streaming with the Exstreamer-100.

Like previous Instreamer products, the Instreamer-100 encodes audio from analogue and digital devices into the MP3 format in real-time for point-to-point or multipoint delivery over the Internet or IP-based systems.

The serial port in the Instreamer-100 allows the operator to remotely control additional devices over the same network connection from any location.

The Exstreamer-100 decodes the audio at the receiving address.

Like previous Exstreamer models, the Exstreamer-100 is an intelligent, network based audio decoder that pulls digital audio from an IP network and converts it to music or voice.

Unlike previous Exstreamer models, the Exstreamer-100 offers redundancy through automatic switchover to backup streams or USB playback if the main stream is unavailable.

The flexibility of the end-to-end Instreamer/Exstreamer platform means that any number of commercial businesses can benefit from this at a fraction of the cost compared with competitive alternatives.

Professional radio broadcast groups can cost-effectively encode, monitor, and decode audio for on-air operations at multiple stations, or prepare podcasts to reach new audiences.

The Instreamer-100 and Exstreamer-100 are extremely valuable in both point-to-point and multi-room applications at a single location, such as a hotel, restaurant, cruiseship or airplane, or point-to-multipoint situations for a large chain of stores.

For the latter, store chains can use the end-to-end platform to broadcast audio and advertisements from a central location to the entire chain, without PC infrastructure in the stores or studio.

Since every store can receive its own real-time audio feed, the performance and function of the system can be easily monitored - features not possible with the less flexible and more expensive satellite-based streaming.

Barix also offers fully customer programmable software versions of the Instreamer-100 and Exstreamer-100.

This allows system integrators and OEMs to develop their own applications in a network-, audio- or USB-Flash environment such as scheduling announcers, call sign generators, or network or I/O triggered alarming devices with supervision.

Barix products feature open standards and integrate well with other software and equipment such as distribution servers, media players and IP phone systems for paging and background music applications.