Video

Sezmi aims to redefine TV service models

Tue, 06 May 2008 06:59:50 -0400

For those of you who heard about Sezmi Corp. while walking around the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas last month, and didn't recognize the name, the company is actually video wholesaler Building B re-launched as an online video/broadcast/IPTV aggregator of sorts. After announcing initial partnerships with Sun Microsystems and Harris at NAB, Sezmi is now talking about further details of its FlexCast video distribution system. FlexCast leverages existing digital TV spectrum and home broadband connections such as DSL to deliver content to a Sezmi receiver, which also collects digital TV content, local broadcast content and other Internet-based content, stores all that content, and presents to users in organized, recommendation-based menus.

Some observers are calling Sezmi's approach confusing, while also calling it a competitive threat to cable TV and satellite TV companies. However, it is also a challenge to the strategies telcos have used to deploy IPTV, relying more on existing broadband conduits than new fiber investment. Sezmi also is trying to provide an answer to one of the key questions that next-generation TV service providers continue to struggle with-how to collect, maintain and present video content from as many sources as possible. It's now up to broadband service providers who haven't yet committed to massive TV investments to decide if it's the right answer.

For more:
- read this story at Telephony

Related article:
- Sezmi predecessor Building B initially launched last summer. Sezmi report

Mediaroom pal Sigma offers new chip

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:59:20 -0400

Semiconductor company Sigma Designs has introduced a second-generation chip for IPTV set-top boxes that the company claims offers a 50% performance improvement. Sigma has been the only set-top chip contributor to Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV platform. That might be kind of like a tight, but little-known garage band opening for The Rolling Stones: It is a surprising and tremendous gig to have, and you have to keep fighting off bigger names from taking over your position.

Of course, Microsoft's IPTV dominance can be compared to The Stones' reign over rock in other ways: Despite cracks in the facade, the power remains as full as ever.

For more:
- see this coverage at Light Reading's Cable Digital News

Microsoft licenses Flash

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:59:20 -0400

Adobe's Flash player is emerging as the dominant mobile standard for mobile video after Microsoft and Adobe inked a licensing deal this week. The deal follows similar agreements with Nokia and Verizon to deploy Flash Lite. The Microsoft deal enables web browsing of Flash Player-compatible content on future editions of Windows Mobile-based handsets as well as the Internet Explorer browser.

With half a million devices already loaded with Flash Lite and Flash the technology of choice for an increasing number of content creators the technology is fast becoming become the de facto standard for mobile rich media. The only hold-out is Apple which developed its own player for video content for the iPhone.

For more:
- Adobe Microsoft licensing announcement

Related articles:
Microsoft inks Silverlight deal with Nokia Article
Adobe not good enough for iPhone Article

Snack TV rules online video market

Tom Burton — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:59:30 -0500

A new survey has confirmed short-form video continues to dominate online video usage. According to Online Video Content: The New TV Audience, the bulk of video consumed online is snack-able, video-bite-sized entertainment, rather than a complete meal of full TV episodes or full-length movies.

"The most popular online video content, watched by 40 percent or more of the U.S. online video audience, consists of short pieces of five minutes or less: news clips, jokes, movie trailers, music videos, clips from TV shows and entertainment news," says David Hallerman, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report.

News is the most popular form of video with 61 percent of users watching news in any month according to the report's estimates. Jokes and comedy attract 57 percent, movie trailers 51 percent and music videos 49 percent of online video watchers.

Hallerman says as technology problems are solved, the computer-television connection will be more viable and pleasurable for the average consumer; online video content will expand in both length and breadth, and professionally-produced material will account for a large part of the menu."

For more:
- Online video usage Report

Related articles:
YouTube expands mobile usage Article
NBC wants a better deal for content Article

Akimbo goes white label VOD

Tom Burton — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:59:10 -0500

Akimbo is making its third play into the video space launching a white label solution for business wanting to establish their own Web TV channels. While their track record might be less than impressive, Akimbo is perhaps becoming best known for its ability to keep getting VC funding. This time it has picked up $8 million in new VC, making it $56 million over nine years. According to PE Hub, return investors include AT&T, Blueprint Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Self described as "revolutionary," the new video distribution service offers a variety of business models including advertising, transactional, subscription, download-to-own, download-to-burn, pay-per-minute, gift cards and account credits.

"One of the most important pieces missing in the stampede to the Internet video market has been an easy solution for content owners to control the marketing and sale of their own video assets," claims Akimbo CEO Thomas Frank . "Until now, content owners have been forced to use incomplete solutions or rely entirely on distribution deals to publish professional content. We have engineered a solution that allows content owners to take control of their own destiny without incurring costly infrastructure expenses or unreasonable revenue splits with third parties."

Akimbo initially produced a set-top box to download premium VOD content for TV. Like many others have discovered consumers were not ready and the business closed a year ago. Akimbo then joined the stampede of companies trying to aggregate video content.

For more:
Akimbo Unveils Complete Internet VOD Solution Release
Akimbo tries a new strategy Article

Related article:
Cisco and AT&T invest in Akimbo Article

Microsoft powers new P2P live web video service

Tom Burton — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:59:10 -0500

A new British video service, Livestation, will use P2P technology developed by Microsoft's Cambridge lab to deliver what it promises will be broadcast-quality live television over the Internet. Livestation went into private beta this week and delivers live video on Microsoft's Silverlight platform. Silverlight also works on mobile telephones so will enable direct "broadcasts" to handsets.

According to a blog by the Director of Business Development for Microsoft's Emerging Business Team, Don Dodge, the picture quality is "delivered with extraordinary quality and crispness. The video is like watching a DVD on your PC ... no jerky motion, no buffering ... it is just like watching live TV."

Dodge writes that LiveStation is built on two research technologies, Pastry and SplitStream, from Microsoft's Cambridge Research Lab. He said Pastry is a type of P2P system called a 'distributed hash table,' which makes it easier for computers to find and store information, and to organize themselves for collaborative tasks. Splitstream is an application built on top of Pastry which allows real-time streams such as live video to be robustly distributed peer-to-peer.

For more:
- Livestation open for private beta Site
- LiveStation and Silverlight deliver Live TV to your PC Blog

Related articles:
Roo jumps out of P2P Report
Video challenges the Internet Report

ABC goes live for Super Tuesday

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:59:30 -0500

If you can't get enough politics for today's Super Tuesday Primary race, try ABC's online coverage. ABC is taking the oh-so-brave move and is actually putting its coverage of the primaries online for the day. The press release breathlessly compared FDRs famous fireside radio chats and the first TV debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon to today when ABC is "bringing political content to Americans in a never-before-explored format."

Not so sure about the never-before-explored format. Sadly, this morning the service was running news items about athletic moms, but the move to go live on the 'Net is again evidence of the inexorable shift of video to online. While for ABC it is a one-day-only service, as a general proposition it will be pre-recorded material which will go online sitting in servers waiting to be requested. in that scenario, TV will do what it does best and cover live events--be it Sunday's audience-record-breaking Super Bowl XLII, or today's intriguing primaries. The service is being delivered by Move Networks and to get to the ABCNow service try this link.

For more:
ABCNow coverage of the primaries

Related articles:
TiVO predicts a la carte TV Report
washingtonpost.com, Newsweek bow online Super Tuesday coverage Release

Community web TV comes to U.S.

Tom Burton — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:59:10 -0500

Trying to tell Americans how to do TV might seem like taking coals to Newscastle but that is what U.K.-based WebsEdge is trying to do with web channels built around municipal and interest communities. With a number of global channels and several local U.K. channels already operating, WebsEdge was in Washington, D.C. last week looking to set up a U.S. beachhead.

According to CEO Stephen Horn, the web provides an ideal opportunity for municipal governments to communicate with their residents providing that content is relevant to community needs. He says this is very different to traditional broadcast video and often involves having to cover complex issues using experts to communicate to citizens about issues challenging the community.

According to Horn, businesses are noticing the growth in user-generated content and a greater number of organizations will use IPTV to communicate with their stakeholders. In light of the growing demand of IPTV for business use, there will be a steep increase in Professionally Generated Content (PGC), content generated by professionals, organizations, communities and companies. Which, of course, is where WebsEdge steps in.

Horn, a former BBC journalist, also believes advertising will not sustain IPTV because the numbers are not big enough to attract audiences that advertisers will care for. "Right now the business model just isn't there. Too many people are relying on advertising income or worse still have no real idea where the income is going to come from. And until we figure that out this surge forward in our industry just won't be sustained."

For More:
- US IPTV milestones for 2008 Report
- About WebsEdge site

Related articles:
IPTV solution used to train Portland's fire fighters Release
Internet video: Threat or opportunity Release

30-second TV ads not good enough

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:59:30 -0500

Throwing your 30 second TV commercial onto the web is not enough, says interactive web advertiser Tom Walker. Walker has recently started at interactive video house, Firstborn, and told Advertising Age the days of simply taking 30 second advertisements designed for TV and slapping them up on the web are over.

"It's an enormous mistake when a marketer just takes a 30-second spot and throws it on the web," said Walker. "A 30-second spot has been crafted for TV, and a web experience is very different. Even if [consumers] are going on the web to watch "Lost," the experience is different. Video is an incredibly valuable tool on the web, it has to be created and produced in a manner relevant to what's happening on the web. [It has to be] edited in a way that feels natural and not interruptive, that helps boost the experience and add to it."

The online video ad industry is only just emerging as a key part of the Internet video industry and, while much of the content coming down IP pipes is traditional linear TV, the success of YouTube as a marketing channel suggests marketeers are going to increasingly dedicate much larger budgets to purpose-built interactive video advertising.

Advertising is set to be a critical component of the online video market with some analysts at the recent CES predicting the download market is going to move to a free ad supported model, rather than the paid download model now being experimented with.

For More:
- For Online Video, Think Beyond 30 Seconds Article

Related articles:
TV shows more popular than news online Report
Adap.tv ups the online advertising game Report

Qwest says no to video

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:59:50 -0500

Will Qwest's Ed Mueller be seen as a visionary or the boy who stood before the dike getting his finger wet? Mueller's big call not to set up a video based business and instead put Qwest's money into a high speed connectivity sets Qwest apart from the industry and many of its vendors who are investing strongly on video being the next big thing.

In a Telephony Online interview Qwest again confirmed their thinking. According to CTO Pieter Poll: "We are trying to look a little ahead. The young consumers of the future will want broadband on demand, and they are more interested in interaction and in the symmetry of the service. We have a great relationship with DirecTV [Qwest is a reseller], and they have a core competency in content. What we want to be able to provide is that 20-Megabit Internet connection that is more important to the younger consumers of today. They not only don't want a wireline phone, they also don't want to have a TV--because they use video on demand."

Qwest may not have the capital in any case to go chasing long run diversification, but the risk of being a glorified ISP is that bandwidth is commoditized and the margins become hard to build any sort of profitability that will impress investors. And as lines continue to be canceled, growth becomes really hard.

For more:
-Telephony Online interview Article
-Kids don't want no stinkin TV Article

Related article:
- Internet TV arrives Article