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David Pogue's "Video Wall" Explained
If you're a David Pogue fan like me, you were also likely wondering how he pulled off his recent "iPad Town Hall" which featured him interacting with 20 people in what appeared to be a live "video wall." The town hall video, which runs about 5 minutes is classic Pogue - funny, educational and fast moving.
This week Pogue shared the details of how he built the "video wall" which actually wasn't live, but was instead a mosaic of scripted QuickTime videos he solicited from his Twitter followers. He then embedded them all in a Keynote presentation and through some editing flair created the illusion that it was live. The result is very slick and showcases what a relative amateur can produce with some creativity and persistence.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).Categories: Devices, Newspapers
Topics: David Pogue, iPad
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VideoNuze Report Podcast #57 - April 16, 2010
Daisy Whitney and I are pleased to present the 57th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for April 16, 2010.
Daisy and I are back from the NAB Show in Las Vegas and this week we share 2-3 key takeaways. For her part Daisy was impressed by the energy and mood at the show which was significantly brighter than last year. Daisy heard from a number of people contemplating new ventures, a big departure from last year when most people were hunkered down. Daisy shared further insights about specific companies she interviewed.
Then I talk a little more about my reactions to the Level 3 - Silverlight 3D streaming demo I saw in Microsoft's booth, which I wrote about on Tuesday, and also the new local TV station JV for mobile DTV that was unveiled at the show and which I wrote about yesterday.
Click here to listen to the podcast (14 minutes, 0 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Categories: 3D, Mobile Video, Podcasts
Topics: 3D, Level 3, Mobile DTV, NAB Show, Podcast, Silverlight
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Broadcasters' New Mobile DTV Joint Venture Offers Potential
One of the more interesting things coming out of the NAB Show this week was the announcement by a dozen local TV station groups of a new mobile direct TV content service intended to reach 150 million Americans. The service, which is still unnamed, is backed by Belo, Cox, E.W. Scripps, Fox, Gannett, Hearst, ION, Media General, Meredith, NBC, Post-Newsweek and Raycom. No details on programming were revealed except to saying local and national news, sports and entertainment would be included.
For the last several years, it's felt as if local broadcasters have been on the short end as online and mobile delivery have gained steam. One looming threat has been from broadcast network partners, who have increasingly embraced online distribution, which threatens to shift audiences from consuming programs through local affiliates' stations to consuming at the networks' web sites and aggregators like Hulu.
More recently, the FCC's National Broadband Plan, with its "voluntary" spectrum reclamation would transfer valuable bandwidth to mobile carriers - a move that was quickly perceived as further marginalizing local broadcasters' role in the digital ecosystem. If this wasn't enough, the launch of Apple's iPad highlighted the growing role that consumer electronics devices - and the apps that are built for them - will play in empowering users to search and access content from many new sources, further fragmenting traditional broadcast audiences. All of this has unfolded against the recession's backdrop, which has suppressed consumer spending and local ad spending.
Now, with the new joint venture, local broadcasters seem to have the beginnings of a cohesive plan to show that they too have an important place in the digital era. Throughout the NAB Show various industry executives repeated the mantra that local broadcasters play a vital role in news, weather and emergency information, a not-so-subtle reminder to policy-makers that broadcasters shouldn't be shunted aside in favor of shiny new gadgets.
Still, it's early days for the venture and for mobile DTV in general. Next month a big DTV trial in Washington, DC is scheduled using the ATSC-M/H technical standard. The new JV doesn't have any agreements yet to put DTV tuners in handsets or with carriers for integration. Larger questions of governance still loom as well. Broad industry initiatives like this often suffer from members' differing goals, tactics and motivations. An even larger question is consumers' desire for the mobile DTV format. With countless viewing options already, and more coming every day, local stations' DTV efforts will be in a competitive battle for attention.
Big questions remain about what the new JV's ultimate impact will be, but at a minimum it at least appears to show that local broadcasters are getting serious about how they fit into the digital video ecosystem.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).
Categories: Broadcasters, Mobile Video
Topics: Belo, Cox, E.W. Scripps, FOX, Gannett, Hearst, ION, Media General, Meredith, NBC, Post-Newsweek, Raycom
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comScore's February 2010 Numbers Show Further Online Video Usage Declines
comScore released its Feb '10 online video rankings yesterday, which showed the 2nd straight month of usage declines in aggregate and for many of the top 10 sites. Total video views came in at 28.1 billion, vs. 32.4 billion in January and 33.2 billion in December '09. As I pointed out in my analysis of comScore's Jan numbers last month, and as the chart below shows, in each of the last 3 years, the period from December to February has seen flat to slightly declining viewership.
It's still too early in online video's evolution to form hard and fast conclusions about the impact of seasonality, but judging from the past 3 years it seems as though we're beginning to see the pattern. February is also a shorter month than either Dec or Jan, so this too plays a role in explaining the downward trend in viewership.
As usual, YouTube was the most-used video site, generating 11.9 billion views, down from 12.8 billion in Jan and 13.2 billion in Dec. YouTube's share jumped up to 40% in Jan, marking almost 2 years that the site's share of the overall video market has been plus or minus 3 percentage points of 40% share, a remarkable achievement given the growth of other video sites.
Hulu is one of those sites that achieved growth in Feb, increasing its video views to 912.5 million from January's 903 million, though both are down from the site's December record of just over a billion views. In Feb Hulu averaged 6.18 minutes viewed per video, the first time the site has been back up over 6 minutes since Sept '09. Hulu's audience came in at 39.2 million uniques, continuing to be stubbornly stuck around the 40 million mark for a full year. I've commented before that Hulu appears to be encountering a challenge broadening its user base. The deletion of the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert programs will only make this challenge harder.
As the chart above also shows, in the past 2 years March has been a month when viewership rebounded, setting the stage for growth over the following 9 months. We'll see whether the same pattern starts to play out next month.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).
Categories:
Topics: comScore, Hulu, YouTube
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LiveU: High-Quality Live Broadcasting Gets Portable and Cheap
Among the more interesting conversations I had over the last few days at the NAB Show was with Avichai Cohen, COO and co-founder of LiveU, whose lightweight mobile video uplink solution opens up all kinds of new opportunities for remote broadcasting while also saving customers lots of money. LiveU has been on my radar for some time, but this was the first opportunity I've had to see its LU-30 device. I wasn't the only one interested; their booth was buzzing with activity.
The LU-30 incorporates 6 wireless aircards from multiple cellular service providers which are bonded together to provide a high-quality on-demand
video uplink. The device fits into a LiveU-provided backpack so the user is able to simply plug in their video camera and begin broadcasting remotely. Avichai explained that the company's patents focus on the bonding, load balancing and smooth delivery under highly variable circumstances. The device also takes in Ethernet and other connections if a customer wants alternative uplinks vs. wireless. The LU-30 interfaces with the LU-100 server in the studio where the video is processed for delivery to viewers.
Beyond the technology, LiveU also distinguishes itself with a simple monthly fee model of $1,500/mo for 30 hours of use, which Avichai said no customer has yet exceeded. That's a huge savings over renting a satellite or mobile uplink for $5,000/day. Even if the user is in an area where roaming charges apply, LiveU absorbs those costs so the flat monthly fee remains intact.
News and sports are the most logical applications for LiveU and Avichai said the company has added both domestic and international broadcast customers. The proliferation of live streaming events, and the trend toward multiple video captures to enhance social media and smartphone consumption, is another natural opportunity. To help penetrate the market, LiveU has partnered with companies like Livestream, Ustream and Kyte, who are in turn offering remote broadcasting as a service to their customers.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).
Categories: Technology
Topics: Kyte, LiveStream, LiveU, Ustream
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Netflix Signs Up Irdeto to Secure Streaming Delivery
Irdeto, the digital media security provider, is announcing this morning that Netflix has licensed the company's Cloakware Embedded Security software as
part of its solution to secure content streamed to multiple consumer devices. Cloakware is a set of tools to defend against unauthorized tampering and attacks. Irdeto has a broad customer base internationally and has lately been raising its profile in the U.S.
For Netflix, the push for enhanced security comes as the company begins expanding to additional CE devices beyond the desktop for its hugely popular Watch Instantly streaming feature. The iPad is the first new device Netflix has targeted, and its app is considered one of the most widely downloaded in the iPad's first weeks on the market. No doubt this success will spawn further Netflix Watch Instantly implementations, particularly as competing tablets come on the market in 2010 and smartphones proliferate, especially those powered by Android.
Categories: Aggregators, DRM
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Seeing 3D Streaming Video For the First Time at NAB Show
It's no surprise that 3D is a major focus here at the NAB Show this week. But with all the market attention on how and when consumers might upgrade yet again, to an expensive 3D television set, one thing I've wondered about for a while is when might we see 3D online video streaming to standard monitors. At last, I saw a demo of this in the Microsoft booth yesterday. Microsoft showed a live stream of German broadcaster TVN's control booth (yes, pretty boring stuff but something live was needed), delivered in 3D to both a computer monitor and also to a Panasonic 3D TV.
The diagram below shows the details. The broadcast was captured by a 3D camera and encoded using Inlet's Spinnaker 7100 HD streaming appliance at 3 mbps in 720p HD. The files were delivered via Level 3's network which used Microsoft's IIS Smooth Streaming delivery to the PC running Silverlight. Then Silverlight does something called "anaglyph rendering" which means delivering 2 offset images in different color layers. Using the 25 cent blue-red paper glasses you've no doubt seen before, the images are fused and I was able to see the TVN control booth in 3D.
Microsoft positioned this as a proof of concept, but with all the technical pieces already in place, the idea of streaming a live 3D event online seems very close at hand with a potentially quick ramp of activity thereafter. Recall that the 2009 French Open tennis tournament was the first live HD streaming event, and less than a year later there have been a number of HD streaming sports events (e.g. NFL games, Olympics, etc.).
After viewing the TVN stream on the PC monitor I then watched it on the Panasonic plasma 3D TV, using $150 glasses. Instead of using the anaglyph technique, the TV and glasses use something called "active shutter" whereby the TV signals to the glasses to open and close each lens at double the frame rate in order to create the 3D experience. While this higher-end set up provided an improved 3D experience, with colors in particular looking sharper and truer, if you didn't have this set up in your home (which most people won't for many years), the PC experience still feels like a big step up from HD.
3D is clearly the next big thing in video delivery, yet with the replacement cycle for expensive 3D TV sets limited, 3D online streaming could represent an important starting point, introducing 3D to a huge number of users for modest expense. And for Silverlight and Microsoft generally, it could be another differentiator vs. Flash as Adobe continues its skirmish with Apple. It will be interesting to see how it is adopted and rolls out.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).
(Note - Silverlight is a VideoNuze sponsor)
Categories: 3D, Sports, Technology
Topics: Inlet, Microsoft, Sliverlight, TVN
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"VideoSchmooze" Early Bird Discount Ends This Week - Register Now and Win an iPad
Early bird discounted registration for VideoNuze's next "VideoSchmooze" Broadband Video Leadership Evening ends this Friday. VideoSchmooze is 2 weeks away, on Monday, April 26th. The event runs from 6-9pm at the Hudson Theater in New York City and includes open bar, hors d'oeuvres and a full educational program. As an extra incentive, early bird registrants only will be entered for a chance to win an iPad.
If you're eager to better understand the online video industry and meet interesting colleagues, VideoSchmooze is for you. The panel, which I'll moderate, is "Money Talks: Is Online Video Shifting to the Paid Model?" The discussion follows on last week's complimentary "Demystifying Free vs. Paid Online Video." Our executive panelists for this VideoSchmooze discussion represent multiple perspectives in this key debate:- Jeremy Legg - SVP, Business Development, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
- Damon Phillips - Vice President, ESPN3
- Avner Ronen - CEO and Co-founder, boxee
- Fred Santarpia - General Manager, VEVO
Click here to learn more and register for the early bird discount
We're also incredibly fortunate to have a 15-minute stage-setting presentation by Emily Nagle Green, President and CEO of Yankee Group, a
leading industry market research and consulting firm. Emily is the author of the recently published book, "Anywhere - How Global Connectivity is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business." Emily has been on the front lines of researching the broadband video revolution for 15+ years and previously ran Forrester's North American business. Emily will share key data from Yankee's research and her book, which will set the stage for the panel to follow.
From 6-7:30pm, prior to Emily's presentation, we'll have open bar, hors d'oeuvres and networking. Attendance is running strong and we have executives from many major media companies and industry technology providers registered. VideoSchmooze is a terrific opportunity to expand your network and meet the panelists.
I try to keep the VideoSchmooze attendance fee reasonable (at least by NYC standards!) and am grateful to lead sponsor Akamai Technologies and supporting sponsors FreeWheel, Horn Group, Irdeto, NeuLion, Panvidea and ScanScout for their support. Once again VideoSchmooze is being held in association with NATPE. You can follow VideoSchmooze and get updates that evening on Twitter at hashtag #vidooze
Early bird discounted tickets are available until Friday for $65. If you're planning to come, register now and save (plus get the chance to win the iPad). If you're planning to attend with colleagues, more deeply discounted "5-Pack" and "10-Pack" tickets are also available.
I look forward to seeing you on April 26th!
Click here to learn more and register for the early bird discountCategories: Events
Topics: VideoSchmooze
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