General Communication will use the TransAct Transcoder from RGB Networks to stream live coverage of the annual Iditarod race to its subscribers' PCs with the same quality it delivers to TVs. The Iditarod is Alaska's most popular sporting event and this year's race begins on Saturday, March 5.

"For us Alaskans, the Iditarod is a weeklong Super Bowl and delivering this year's race to the TV and PC is a key step in eventually offering a full 'TV Everywhere' service with live and on demand programming available for our subscribers on their TVs, PCs and mobile devices," said Greg Pearce, Vice President and General Manager of GCI's Business Services. "The impressive transcoding performance of RGB's TransAct Transcoder gives us what we need for this year's Iditarod and provides the capabilities and confidence to move to a full three screen offering in the future."

At its central headend in Anchorage GCI is using RGB's TransAct to transcode video of the Iditarod in real-time from the MPEG-2 format used by cable networks to the MPEG-4/H.264 format that's better suited to streaming to PCs over the Internet. GCI is also using the TransAct Transcoder to create multiple individual streams at different screen resolutions and bit rates to accommodate the wide variety of PCs and broadband speeds used by GCI's subscribers. Finally, GCI takes advantage of TransAct's advanced packaging capabilities to package the individual streams into the Microsoft Smooth Streaming video delivery application.

"Consumers are increasingly demanding their TV experience be available to them on their PCs and mobile devices and we are working with forward-thinking service providers like GCI to make TV Everywhere a reality," said Ramin Farassat, RGB Networks' Vice President of Product Marketing. "Our TransAct product line, along with our carrier-class Video Multiprocessing Gateway, gives us the industry's broadest portfolio of multi-screen solutions for delivering TV Everywhere. Our solutions can cost-effectively meet the needs of small service providers and scale to deliver multi-screen services for cable operators with millions of subscribers."

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is an annual sled dog race across more than 1,000 miles of Alaska and which takes as many as 15 days to complete. The race has been held since 1973 and its popularity has grown beyond Alaska and the U.S., with race teams from foreign nations increasingly joining the competition.