Today, we are announcing that we have been named the exclusive content delivery partner for VReel.net – a new user-generated content portal that is implementing the very popular DivX video codec.

VReel makes thousands of user-created videos available online, organizing them into 18 distinct channels. The portal offers high-definition streaming using the DivX codec, a 1GB filesize limit, and no time, dimension, or bitrate restrictions. VReel is streaming using the LimelightDELIVER service, and will store the videos within the Limelight Network CDN. This means that the majority of videos will be delivered directly from our media-grade optical platform to one of the over 850 last-mile networks we are directly connected to. Since those videos will never travel over the public Internet, we can eliminate almost all buffing and stuttering, helping the viewer to have a great HD-watching experience.

VReel CEO Eoghan Hayes says that he plans on “making VReel the greatest show on earth,” and will soon implement features such as user rewards, content competitions, and mobile connectivity.

“Right now, our open beta is about getting the functionality at 100%. We have already seen thousands of members sign up, and thousands of videos being submitted to the portal, but are planning on new functionality and a full face-lift to debut over the summer,” says Hayes.

“One of the unique differentiators is our use of the DivX codec and webplayer. This highly-regarded product produces video quality that we believe is unmatched, and throughout our beta we’ve had numerous testers comment on the superb picture quality. We are very pleased that DivX gave us the go-ahead to use their product,” adds Hayes.

Here’s an example - VReel content, DivX codec, delivered over the Limelight Networks CDN (Note that if you don’t have the DivX codec installed you will have to do so by clicking here):

(Content unavailable. Please visit www.vreel.net)

Originally, VReel planned to manage analytics and reporting internally, but the company’s rapid traffic growth during the beta test caused them to rethink their options.

“It’s a funny story, actually, how we came to use LimelightEXCHANGE Premium.  We had originally turned on statistic monitoring tools on our own servers, but after about 12 hours, we received so many unique visits that our mysql database almost locked up. In order to keep speeds high for the end user, we disabled our analytics tools and instead opted for the ones offered by Limelight,” explains Hayes.

Here are some initial stats on VReel:

Members signed up: 8200+
Videos online: 5700+
Total data transferred 22nd - 28th June: 764.31 TB
Peak speed: 20Gbps

We congratulate VReel on their launch, and look forward to helping them deliver brilliant experiences to their growing user base. If you would like to join the community, click here .

In the competitive field of TV advertising, each passing second means the difference between an effective or failed ad. One of the first hurdles an effective advertisement faces is flawless playback. If the commercial freezes, or stutters, or is not in its best fidelity, the chances are pretty good that the viewer is not going to stick around and watch.

Online, video advertisers face the same challenge – if your ad doesn’t play flawlessly, your potential audience is a mouse-click away from something more engaging. With every second a chance to win or lose the attention of your audience, content delivery matters – big time.

Today, we’ve announced that Smart AdServer, a large European provider of adserving and digital marketing services to media agencies, ad networks and publishers, has turned to Limelight Networks to help ensure the quality of their ad delivery service for their growing European and international business. Using the LimelightDELIVER service, we are also helping them manage peaks of online demand while decreasing the cost of bandwidth.

Since its founding in 2001, Smart Adserver has quickly become a key player in France and is growing its business rapidly throughout Europe. Serving international brands like XBOX, FedEx, Coca Cola and Lexus, Smart AdServer now has more than 110 clients and 1000 Web sites on four continents.

The Managing Director at Smart AdServer, Cyrille Geffray, notes, “Equipping our customers with better management tools means we’re able to help our customers gain a clear competitive advantage.”

Here’s a link to today’s press release.

We’re proud to be delivering live and on demand streams for UEFA Euro 2008 with our partner, Geißendörfer & Leschinsky GmbH (G&L). G&L holds the online broadcast rights for Germany, and through our partnership we are making available live online streams of every football match (or soccer, for you Americans) aired on the German TV channel, ‘Das Erste.’

G&L shared with us some of their most recent numbers: For the 9 June matches between Rumania and France and the Netherlands and Italy, 33,000 viewers watched them online. This is a very significant number in Germany, and it comes even with the TV broadcast getting over 50% market share for the same contests.

“This is an extraordinary live stream rating,”said Alexander Leschinsky, manager of the responsible system house at G&L.

For G&L, Limelight Networks is providing live streams in both Windows Media and Flash formats in three different quality settings. Using our optical network, we are bypassing the congestion of the Internet cloud within Germany, and delivering those streams directly to the last-mile networks we connect with in the country. This means the video bits almost never hit the public Internet.

We encourage you to check out these broadcasts by visiting G&L’s site, the ‘ARD,’ at http://sport.ard.de. There’s even an on-demand archive called mediathek that will serve up replays of the past games.

See you at the finals on 29 June!