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10/01/2008

The attendees at last week’s Streaming Media West conference in San Jose must not have received the memo about the shaky economy, as it was packed. Perhaps part of the reason for the activity was the need by corporations to reduce travel and energy costs. After decades of promise, video, along with the complementary application of interactive voice and chat, is seeing wide spread application in the workplace and is delivering on on cost savings and increasing productivity.

The Streaming Media West conference was more than just about the corporate applications of video, as it also was a discussion of the consumer application of video. Advertising is integral to making the model for consumer video work. One of the panels at Streaming Media West dealt with advertising as it relates to Internet Video. Dmitry Shapiro of Veoh suggested that his video aggregation business could be helped by a downturn in overall advertising spending. More details on this and an informative panel about mobile video adoption in the next issue.


Non-Traditional Mobile Video

In the meantime, the following video posts deal with mobile video, but not in the traditional sense.

Streaming Media West Live, No LiveUHybrid Satellite-Internet Distribution Video

Click here to learn more about a cellular uplink solution for professional mobile video applications

Click here to learn about a hybrid satellite-Internet video solution


Golf and Local Content (advertisement)

Register to attend the Oct 20, 2008 Viodi Local Content Workshop in Edina, MN. Oct 20th is the afternoon before OPASTCO’s Technical and Marketing Symposium and the workshop is just a few miles east of OPASTCO’s event.

The Workshop is a half day event that will cover topics including:workshop banner

  1. Production methods – video editing, camera, lighting, audio, etc.
  2. Production hardware – camera, light, microphones
  3. What other telco’s are doing, and
  4. Inspire Marketing on Marketing.

Power to the Veeple – Launches Today:

I met briefly with Ed Lee of Veeple, at the Streaming Media West conference. Veeple launches today and looks to be an interesting way for organizations of all sizes to stream, monetize and manage their video libraries on a pay-as-you-go basis. The cursory look at the features along with the interfaces is positive and it seems like a cost-effective way to control one’s content distribution destiny. This is definitely a service that deserves a closer look. 


FTTP/FTTH Emerges as the Winner for the Delivery of Triple Play Services by Alan Weissberger

New video services, like multiscreen IPTV with simultaneous recording, will cause a "bandwidth explosion." Despite regulatory obstacles, we think that network operators will be forced to deploy fiber as close to the home as possible to provide the necessary increased bandwidth needed for new services. It looks like its starting to happen now with several independent telcos announcing their FTTP roll outs.  To read the rest of Alan’s article, click here.


People on the Move:

Congratulations to Jessica Kizorek on her new e-book, “The Digital Future of Philanthropy” Viodi View readers may remember the review of her earlier book that was on the topic of web video. I look forward to reading her ideas on the use of video in philanthropy. I am certain I will be able to learn from her techniques, as her company, Two Parrot Productions, just raised $251k for school lunch programs in Tanzania.

Chad Richard, former President of PhotoShow (which was acquired by Roxio earlier this year), announced the official launch of Futhermore Wines. He and his partner have created a wine label exclusively focused on premium Pinot Noir. This is not a full-time gig for Chad, however, as he is still involved in technology for a major consumer electronics brand.


The Korner – In-the-Box Building

Slightly overlapping and in the same location with Streaming Media West was the West Coast Green conference, which I wanted to, but did not attend. What Image courtesy of Inhabitatdrew my interest in this conference was an article I had read about a new construction technique being applied to both commercial and residential buildings from a company called SG Blocks.

SG Blocks uses cargo containers as the framing for a building. SG estimates that worldwide, there are at least 18 million of these 320 square foot building blocks. According to the West Coast Green web site many of these containers end up in the U.S., because they are increasingly too expensive to ship back to their origination point.

The houses do not have to look like the Harbinger House (thanks Inhabitat.com for use of the image – they have a great summary of the Harbinger House on their site). In fact, the houses can be built to look like any ordinary house, as evidenced by a project that SG Blocks implemented with HUD funding.

Pricing appears to be comparable to other framing techniques, depending upon the location of construction (in Silicon Valley, it is probably cheaper than traditional construction). Besides reusing something that has reached the end of its useful life, advantages to using cargo containers for building include resilience to hurricanes and seismic activity and reduced construction time.

To this last point, it took less than 5 hours to erect the Harbinger House which was on display at the West Coast Green conference. Through the magic of broadband video, we can experience the relatively rapid speed (55 minutes) for the "framing" of the Harbinger House.

click here to watch this video

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