BDL was founded in 2004 by Dave Engelke, who is now one of
SSL's principals. Among the products at IBC was MediaWAN Gravity, a complete,
scalable broadcast production system that uses proprietary software running on
standard high-performance PCs and servers. Geared to the fast-moving,
multi-format nature of today's media operations, the software provides encoders
to import video from a variety of sources including HD, a preview and job
allocation interface for production co-ordinators, editing software for
journalists and management tools for news producers. An asset management
database and user interface also provide for seamless information lifecycle
management in the video domain.
The MediaWAN Backhaul product allows media networks to
install encoders at remote locations and automatically ingest video and audio
content to central servers where it is available for use. The system operates
over a private MPLS network that provides a very high QoS and highly efficient
use of the bandwidth enabling broadcast-resolution video to be delivered at a
fraction of the cost of traditional satellite transmission.