Kaltura (www.kaltura.com), provider of the leading video technology platform, has launched the industry’s first open source video library for HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) playback on Android devices.

The new video library, available here, streamlines and simplifies video playback on any Android device. Kaltura is complementing this with the launch of an open source Flash HLS library.

Until now, the fragmented nature of the Android ecosystem has made it difficult to ensure reliable, smooth HLS video delivery. The issue is exacerbated by Android users’ expectations that more advanced playback options - such as adaptive streaming, DVR during live streaming, captions, and multi-track audio work seamlessly.

Kaltura’s open source library overcomes these problems by ensuring a consistent experience using HLS features across a broad range of legacy and current Android devices/platforms. This brings Android playback in line with the high quality consistent HLS playback experience available on iOS devices. More detail on the technical components of the library is available here.

Kaltura’s open source Android and Flash HLS components, in addition to operating on a stand-alone basis, are fully integrated into the Kaltura Video Player Toolkit. This makes it possible to deliver a smooth HLS experience across the entire Kaltura video player feature set including analytics, monetization, and user engagement.

“Market fragmentation has meant that smooth Android HLS playback has been fraught with challenges. Just as we did with HTML5, VP8, MPEG-DASH and others, Kaltura continues to democratize video and ensure that our customers need not worry about the complexities of delivering video across any device. As the first company to deliver a dedicated open source HLS library for Android, we are helping to bring parity with Apple to the Android developer and user communities for live streaming,” said Ron Yekutiel, Chairman and CEO, Kaltura.

Kaltura’s mission is to power any video experience.  A recognized leader in the OTT TV (Over the Top TV), OVP (Online Video Platform), EdVP (Education Video Platform) and EVP (Enterprise Video Platform) markets, Kaltura has emerged as the fastest growing video platform, and as the one with the widest use-case and appeal. Kaltura is deployed globally in thousands of enterprises, media companies, service providers and educational institutions and engages hundreds of millions of viewers at home, in work, and at school.  The company is committed to its core values of openness, flexibility, and collaboration, and is the initiator and backer of the world's leading open-source video-management project, which is home to more than 100,000 community members.  For more information visit www.kaltura.com, www.kaltura.org, or www.html5video.org.