Archive for the 'Internet Video' Category

On-Demand Transcoding Minimizes Strain On New Media Storage and Search

Published by
Brendon Mills
at March 14, 2008 in On Demand Transcoding, Internet Video and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Yesterday on Contentinople, Frank Smith talked about a comment that YouTube’s Philip Inghelbrecht made during a Digital Hollywood Media Summit in New York.  He remarked that 10 hours of fresh content is uploaded to YouTube every minute…wow!  Frank’s post also went on to talk about the strain the volume of new media content is putting on storage, exceeding current capabilities, with an estimated 281 billion Gbytes uploaded in 2007 based on an IDC study sponsored by EMC Corp. 

This really underscores what we’ve talked about on this blog before, and what we’ve been hearing from content providers, UGC sites and syndicators.  As video libraries continue to grow, operators are faced with hardware, storage and energy costs associated with keeping up with Web 2.0 consumer behavior and appetite for rich media content on multiple screens.  So as more file space and computing resources are consumed in duplicating content over and over again to support viewers demand for video in a variety of formats, how do you find what you’re looking for amongst all the clutter? 

In addition to reducing the strain on storage capacity, On-Demand Transcoding minimizes the search problem through drastically optimized storage infrastructure.  By transcoding video files on demand, there are significantly fewer files to have to search, which creates an easier and more efficient search effort.  With 281B GB uploaded last year and growing, this problem is more than a little real.

RipCode at SXSW Interactive

Published by
Brendon Mills
at March 12, 2008 in Internet Video, Transcoding, H.264 and Adobe. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Yesterday I participated in a panel discussion at SXSW Interactive in Austin.  The panel was called “Crunching and Streaming: Online Video Distribution Challenge and Opportunity”.  I saw that a few people including Terry Storch and Daryl McMullen have thought enough of the discussion to include a mention on their sites. My fellow panelists included:

Sloan Foster, Armida Technologies
Todd Byant, Netcast HD
Ashley Manning, Adobe Systems
Jeff Kramer, Polycot Labs

The focus was on the challenges and opportunities associated with the evolution of video delivery.  We discussed new video compression technologies available such as H.264 that are improving video quality. It was a really interesting discussion, especially around the licensing of codecs – commercial vs. freeware – and whether royalty-free codecs can provide the same or better compression  than commercial solutions.  We also talked about how technology has finally evolved to enable the convergence of video and the reality of truly ubiquitous viewing.

Overall, I thought it was a good discussion and hope the audience felt the same. I think they’re will be a podcast of the panel session available soon – when it’s live we’ll post a link to it from the RipCode site.  Thanks again to everyone that attended and participated in the discussion.

Part 2: Frost & Sullivan Interview

Published by
Brendon Mills
at March 7, 2008 in IPTV, Mobile Video, Internet Video and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

We’ve received great feedback in response to Part 1 of our interview series with Dr. Gerry Purdy, Vice President and Chief Analyst with Frost & Sullivan.  In Part 2 we begin discussing the impact that the iPhone and YouTube have had on the mobile user experience.  We also talk about the opportunities and the complexities of mass video distribution across all three screens - Internet, mobile and IPTV.

We hope you’re enjoying the series.  Look for Parts 3 and 4 coming soon…

Part 1: Frost & Sullivan Interview

Published by
Brendon Mills
at February 28, 2008 in Frost & Sullivan, Mobile Video, Internet Video and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Last week I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Gerry Purdy, Vice President and Chief Analyst for Frost & Sullivan to discuss their analysis of the current and future transcoding market. Having both just come back from the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, we had quite a bit to talk about, especially around mobile video. Due to the length of the discussion, we’ve broken the interview into 4 parts to make it a bit easier to digest. Part 1 focuses on Frost & Sullivan’s worldwide encoder and transcoder research report including the impact mobile video will have on transcoding and the challenges that await this year.

I enjoyed the chance to get Frost & Sullivan’s perspective of the market. I hope you’ll find the dialogue interesting as well. We’ll be posting Parts 2 - 4 of my conversation with Dr. Purdy over the next few weeks…stay tuned.

On-Demand Transcoding Enables Personalized Video Advertising

Published by
Brendon Mills
at February 22, 2008 in Advertising, Mobile Video, Internet Video and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

Research by Yankee Group suggests that revenue attributed to downloads and in-streaming advertising is forecasted to grow significantly over next five years.  By 2011, in-stream advertising revenue is expected to reach $3.89 billion dollars and revenue for downloads will contribute $850 million. In this weeek’s video blog, we discuss the roll On-Demand Transcoding will play monetizing video content - especially for mobile video. 

Video Transcoding for Online Media

Published by
Brendon Mills
at February 8, 2008 in On Demand Transcoding, Internet Video and Transcoding. 2 Comments    Email This Post

In today’s news environment there is a healthy competition between online media outlets to be the first to provide breaking news coverage with the supporting visual aids that consumers have come to expect.   However, using today’s legacy transcoding technologies, video updates are cumbersome, since they have to be pre-transcoded and stored into the appropriate file format for the site’s unique requirements.  This becomes a barrier for providing timely, updated video news coverage.

However, by transcoding video on demand, as a consumer requests it, online media sites can create a distinct competitive advantage.  They can lower the physical barriers restricting content from being viewed on multiple viewing mediums, making the same video available to their mobile audience as their PC viewers.  And, they can be the first among their competition to provide video coverage of the latest weather event, celebrity “faux pas”, play of the day, or other breaking news. 

Transcoding Expands Video Advertising Opportunities

Published by
Brendon Mills
at January 28, 2008 in On Demand Transcoding, Advertising, Mobile Video, Internet Video, Transcoding and Uncategorized. 2 Comments    Email This Post

In many interesting blog posts from NewTeeVee, Contentinople, and Digital Media Wire to name just a few, have discussed the video advertising outlook for 2008. 

Research by Yankee Group suggests that revenue attributed to downloads and in-streaming advertising is forecasted to grow significantly over next five years.  By 2011, in-stream advertising revenue is expected to reach $3.89 billion dollars and revenue for downloads will contribute $850 million.

Two important metrics driving the growth of these revenue streams are the number of users who watch online video and the amount of time spent watching online video – both of which are on the rise.  As the number of users and time spent viewing video increases, advertisers will bid up the CPMs thus driving higher the top line revenue attributed to in-stream advertising.  IDC research also suggests that approximately 1,200 terabytes of data are consumed each day in the U.S. alone by users watching online video.  This number is expected to grow to an astonishing 7,800 terabytes/day by 2011.
Pre-roll and in-stream video ads, whether online or mobile, represent a huge opportunity to monetize content.  The opportunity also creates additional stress on existing transcoding resources, requiring operators to increase their transcoding capacity to keep up with the push to monetize more content in more formats.  We agree with Jay Braage, that online video is the key to the media castle – but new approaches to video transcoding is what will help deliver video to wider audiences and thus giving operators new opportunities to cross-market content and open new advertising and revenue streams.

Value of the Video Long Tail

Published by
Brendon Mills
at January 21, 2008 in On Demand Transcoding, IPTV, Mobile Video, Internet Video, RipCode V4, Transcoding and Uncategorized. 0 Comments    Email This Post

In a recent Mashable post by Mark Hopkins, he discusses the intrinsic value of the video long tail, in particular the difference between current event and news-based video versus video produced for enjoyment.  At RipCode, the video long tail is a topic that we are very familiar with. 

When you talk about video long tail content, it’s important to understand the unique challenge to content creators, aggregators and network operators striving to expand their video distribution by offering support for a greater number of devices extending their reach to the “3 screens” – Internet, mobile and IPTV.

Each device supporting video playback maintains one or multiple media profiles defining what types of content is supported.  These media profiles are differentiated by many variables including resolution size, codec implementation, aspect ratio, scan method, and network protocol.  So it’s no longer just about making long tail video available for viewing on a PC, but to any video enabled device.  

Pre-transcoding video can be a practical approach when working with smaller video libraries supporting a limited number of supported profiles; however, it becomes problematic for content aggregators who have large libraries and ingest a high volume of content on a daily basis.  As the size of a video library and number of supported profiles grow, so does the data storage requirements.

 As we talk about on our website, by transcoding video on-demand, content creators can realize value from not just the most popular and widely viewed video, but from the video long tail as well.  Until now, it was deemed too resource intensive to pre-transcode and store less widely viewed titles in multiple file formats – like the news-based video that Mark talks about in his blog.  But by changing the nature of transcoding from a “pre-transcode” methodology to one where video is transcoded only when a customer requests it, this opens the door for less popular content, enabling content creators and syndicators to monetize their entire video library.

2008: Pivotal Year for Internet and Mobile Video

Published by
Brendon Mills
at January 16, 2008 in Advertising, Mobile Video, Internet Video and Transcoding. 0 Comments    Email This Post

At the start of any new year we all take out our crystal balls in hopes of looking into the future and predicting the outlook for the year.  And this year is no different.  NewTeeVee came out with their list of online video predictions for 2008 and GigaOm has their list of 5 trends for the year.  And of course there is all of the product news around mobile and IPTV as well as content deals coming out of the CES show in Las Vegas, leaving us to ponder and wonder what’s in store for 2008?

Here at RipCode, we think this will be the year that video takes a large leap toward realizing the vision of video ubiquity, gaining traction in becoming a viable choice for consumers on all “3 screens”.  In particular we think this will be the year of the low resolution revolution.  As handsets and networks improve, we’ll see more and more content creators, syndicators and UGC sites implementing mobile initiatives to move beyond the PC and package their video for the portable, personal mobile market.  This gives them an opportunity to extend the reach of content that they currently have and opens up other revenue streams for monetizing that content.

Also, I personally believe that this is the year that you will hear transcoding and pre/post roll advertising in the same sentence.  Operators are pushing the boundaries to monetize more and more online videos and pre/post roll advertising, although hated, is still the overall leader in revenue generation.  This year you will see many announcements, some from RipCode, on unique applications in transcoding technologies and advertising strategies.

And finally, here are kudos to some new innovations like SlingMedia’s announcement to release SlingPlayer for the popular BlackBerry devices, the anticipated 3G version of the iPhone and the prospect of carriers like Verizon opening their networks to any device give us early hope that 2008 will indeed be a pivotal year for Internet and mobile video.

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!