According to the folks at Sorenson, Squeeze 6 provides the first total workflow solution for video professionals, enabling customers to employ innovative tools -- such as email and text notifications and a secure review and approval process -- that simplify the overall workflow and allow them to more easily encode and publish their video files on the Internet. Optimized video codecs and new filters have also been added, improving video quality and encoding speed, they add.

Working in tandem with the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network (Sorenson Media’s re-imagined online video publishing platform), Sorenson Squeeze 6 includes a variety of new features designed to make encoding and publishing videos online easier:

° E-mail and text notifications. Sorenson Squeeze 6 can now send automatic notifications to clients, colleagues, supervisors, friends or the users themselves via e-mail and text message (SMS) when encoding jobs are completed.

° Review and approval workflow. Video professionals can now add their clients’ and supervisors’ contact information to Sorenson Squeeze, which will automatically send them secure, password protected videos for review and approval after encoding jobs are completed. This automated workflow is accessible from desktop computer web browsers as well as the iPhone, enabling busy professionals to review and approve content on the go. After viewing a video, reviewer feedback and comments are immediately sent back to the Squeeze user.

° Direct publishing and syndication. In addition to publishing to the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network, Sorenson Squeeze 6 users can upload encoded files directly to popular social media sites, such as YouTube and Twitter, as well as to content delivery networks, including Akamai and Limelight.

° An enhanced user interface. The Sorenson Squeeze 6 interface has been re-designed to simplify the video compression workflow and provide access to the software’s features, including: encoding presets; high-quality audio and video filters; DVD burning tools; and the new review, approval and notification functions.

° A complimentary Sorenson 360 review and approval account. Every purchase of Squeeze 6 includes a complimentary one-year Review & Approval account to the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network.

The folks at Sorenson say that Squeeze 6 surpasses previous versions of the software in both speed and quality by incorporating and optimizing the latest On2 VP6 and MainConcept H.264 codecs. Internal benchmark tests have shown Sorenson Squeeze 6 is up to 250% faster than Sorenson Squeeze 5 when encoding in the H.264 and VP6 formats, both of which are standard formats included with every copy of Squeeze 6. New video filters, including blur, RGB, tint, white balance and timecode, have also been added.

Plus, new input and output formats have been added to Sorenson Squeeze 6, including: AVC-Intra and WMV with VC-1 for use in Blu-ray and Microsoft Silverlight - New Output Formats: AVI, AIFF, DV Stream, Image Sequence, Wave, and WMV with VC-1. To coincide with the release of Squeeze 6, Sorenson Media has also launched a new Preset Exchange, an online repository of professional “video encoding recipes” or presets. Because the Preset Exchange is integrated with Squeeze 6, users can import new presets into Squeeze by clicking “Install” on the Preset Exchange web site.

Along with previous integration with Avid’s suite of editing applications, Sorenson Squeeze 6 also now works with Apple’s Final Cut Pro and iMovie. This process eliminates the need for exporting and importing between applications and enables users to tap into the Squeeze feature set directly from their favorite editing software.

Sorenson Squeeze 6 and Sorenson Squeeze 6 for Flash are available for electronic download or for shipping in CD form. Sorenson Squeeze 6 is US$799 and Sorenson Squeeze 6 for Flash is $499. Upgrades from previous versions of Sorenson Squeeze begin at $199. The complimentary one-year Sorenson 360 Review & Approval account includes 5GB of storage, 100 streams per month and a maximum video length of 30 minutes.