Archive for November, 2007

Google’s Move to Mobile

Published by
Jon Usry
at November 9, 2007 in Google and Mobile Video. 1 Comment    Email This Post

Jon UsryHi all, I’m Jon Usry, Marketing Manager for RipCode and new contributor to the RipCode blog. After much prior speculation - industry analyst and bloggers alike now have new material to discuss as Google has officially pulled back the curtains to shed light on their highly anticipated mobile strategy.

In his recent post, Where’s my Gphone?, Andy Rubin - Google’s Director of Mobile Platforms, discusses the announcement of Android – an open mobile platform designed to deliver an entire software stack necessary to run a mobile phone including an operating system, user-interface and applications.

Through collaboration with the Open Handset Alliance on this initiative, Google has already secured the commitment and support from key players across the mobile landscape.  On the surface, this appears to be a brilliant move as it assures Google considerable distribution coverage via partnerships with established mobile operators, a diversified technology portfolio comprised of multiple handset OEMs and finally an extensive mobile applications offering driven by software companies looking to integrate their wares with Google’s platform.

As for timing - Mobile device OEM’s are targeting a Google-phone launch sometime in the 2nd half of 2008 and Google expects to release the SDK to developers as early as next week.  With a 6-9 month lead time before Google phones are commercially available, developers will no doubt be ready to deliver a plethora of mobile applications that enriches the Google-phone experience.

On a final note, positioning for a 3rd or 4th QTR launch in 2008 means one thing – Holiday sales!  Mobile operators and handset OEMs will soon start collaborating on marketing programs to ensure that early adopters everywhere will have a Gphone at the top of their holiday wish list.

The Internet Video Format War Rages On

Published by
Peter Anzalone
at November 6, 2007 in IPTV, Internet TV, On Demand Transcoding, Mobile Video, Transcoding, Internet Video and RipCode V4. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Peter AnzaloneHi all.  I’m Peter Anzalone, AVP of Product Marketing for RipCode and another new voice on the RipCode blog.  Does anyone remember the good old View-Master?  How about family vacation slides on a slide projector?  Okay, I’m dating myself but the point is there always are current and future emerging technologies driven by personal and home entertainment needs.  In today’s context, the advent of online videos has dramatically compressed the time between technologies and increased our options.  The result is not only the lack of a central point or device to view videos but the advancement of anywhere, anytime and any business model fueled by the marketplace.

In his recent article “Format Wars Forever,” Damien Stolarz does a nice job of outlining the history of warring formats.  It’s an informative, short read that is well worth your time.  Here’s the gist: Unlike the days of format standardization which created a mass market for $20 DVD players, online video players are simply software.  As such, just about any savvy programmer can now create their own software video player for any PC or mobile device.  Additionally, beyond the indispensable codec, it’s the varied business and distribution models that also steer this process.  Consequently, both time proven broadcast methods and fixed price models are no longer enough to satisfy the content providers, grownups on an airplane or teens on the go with their modern day View Master, iPod, smart phone, PlayStation Portable, PC or HDTV.  He describes this as a “rich, exciting and utterly unstable environment for online content distribution.”

My observation is that there are as many ways to monetize content as there are different end user devices for consumption.  This speaks to RipCode’s mission to enable each of these countless streams over various networks, codecs, players and devices without crippling existing storage or transcoding infrastructure.  While we at RipCode can’t get the world to standardize on one common codec, frame size or bitrate, we can and will generate these requested files on demand via RipCode V4—anything, anywhere, any screen.

As a consumer, I like the variety of choices for where and how I get my video.  As a RipCoder, enabling that experience is what we live for! 

The Collision of Traditional Television and IPTV

Published by
Brendon Mills
at November 1, 2007 in Internet TV, IPTV, On Demand Transcoding and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Television has traditionally been distributed by cable or satellite systems.  Internet television or IPTV uses the Internet to deliver video from a source to a target device such as a Web browser or set-top box.
 
Joost, VeohTV, WiTV, Babelgum and, most recently, Microsoft Internet TV are some of the prominent players jostling for market share in this rapidly emerging space.  Additionally, sites such as YouTube Mobile and MySpace TV, two top online destinations, will continue to drive traffic and generate demand for online/mobile video consumption.  (Brightcove has a good summary of why Internet TV matters.)
 
The recent public beta of Joost, a raising star in this space, has generated a fair share of media coverage about the realities of Internet TV.  The big question: Is the promise of high quality and snazzy user interface enough to pry eyeballs from traditional TV to Internet TV?  Neither Brad Stone at Bits nor Michael Garrett at Web TV Wire seem impressed with Joost—citing bandwidth problems, overloaded P2P architecture, and general lack of incentive for users to interrupt Web browsing to watch Internet TV.
 
Liz Gannes at NewTeeVee posted a great video interview with CEO Mike Volpiwho noted that Joost is targeted at the early adopters, not the mainstream TV consumer.
 
This is fair commentary from the end user perspective.  From RipCode’s perspective, we feel that Internet TV has already made significant inroads in capturing television eyeballs.  The fact that a user-submitted YouTube parodyon Brittney Spears can secure over 10 million views in less than two weeks, thus rivaling the viewership metrics on an average prime-time television program, is a phenomenon that is hard to ignore. 

The Conference Board and TNS reported last week that more consumers are watching TV online.  Report highlights include:

  • Close to 16 percent of American households who use the Internet watch television broadcasts online.
  • Three out of five respondents say that watching TV online is just more convenient, while one third say they go online to avoid watching commercials.
  • Streaming and free downloads are the top methods for viewing TV online.
  • Respondents said that TV on the Internet has replaced news programs as their most widely viewed online content.

And In-Stat has published a report in the last few weeks titled Trends Favor Mainstream Acceptance of Internet TV.  In the press release announcing the report, the In-Stat summary states that overall:

  • Respondents to an In-Stat survey felt online video will become more mainstream over time
  • Social networking aspects are starting to play an important part on how the newer generation wants to watch and interact with TV.
  • Primary detractors for online video continue to be download speed, user interface, cost, and quality of video

We could not be in more agreement with these findings.  Feedback from our customer engagements confirms the same trends.  Social networks and search engines in particular appear to be gaining viewership at a faster rate than most other models.  The question will be, how long will it take for the traditional channels to generate a counter solution to the rapid growth of Internet TV?
 
For RipCode, the rapid change and uncertainty in Internet TV and how the traditional television markets will respond is the key to our business model.  In just about every possible outcome, the resultant business model will require significant transcoding to accomplish the task of combining traditional television viewership with the Internet experience.  In addition, as these two worlds collide, the resultant combination of video libraries only fuels the need for the On Demand Transcoding℠ methodology.
 
Bonus link: 33 Ways to Watch Free TV Online.