BBC Ditches Kontiki P2P: "Because its P2P technology simply wasn’t needed anymore."“[O]ver the past year the cost of bandwidth has decreased by 90 percent, making direct HTTP downloads a viable alternative" [NewTeeVee]
- shame the same can't be said for end-user prices, despite financial markets taking a dive and gas prices jumping all over the map, the cost for home connections have stayed stable here at least.
Showing posts with label TVP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TVP. Show all posts
Monday, December 29
Tuesday, October 9
Content wants to be?
Live reporting mashup - during the recent demonstrations in Denmark, a local company did a nice "live" coverage - mixing input from text messages (and some mobile images) with Google Maps [from Poynter]. A nice and new way to use the pop-ups, even if it probably had to be done manually based on user input. With more mobile phones getting gps - this might make for some really interesting coverage of both current events and travel advise down the road.
Pay to see it all - "If you pay for the highest quality of service, you will get unimpeded service for digital TV delivery" a CNet piece on the next-gen network from NTT in Japan, brings up some interesting possibilities - especially if it was able to offer instant changes, say $2 extra for high(est) quality during an important football match. Or differentiation for different channels - I'd pay for full quality for certain niches (disney and discovery... geeky? And proud of it!), but the rest are just time sinks and could just as well be low fi.
Or get paid - another good piece from the C3 blog, on future models for VOD (video on demand), with both ads and general subscriptions as possible viable business models. And it makes a lot of sense - VOD is changing from a small niche offering into a way of watching video content in general - so why shouldn't the two main models for television as we know it be applicable? Advertisers want attention, and targeted groups. And we as consumers want television at a reasonable cost - be it in terms of time (ads) or money.
Pass it around - the assorted "convergent" web offering such as Joost and the new Adobe player represent a new niche for content large and small, with very different approaches to the "guy with a camera" market. Azereus (10 mill d/l) is opening up - while Joost (50k/weekly unique) opens the API but not the content flow. (And here I'm talking about convergent in a tech sense, mixing streaming and p2p, downloads and subscriptions, into something new and different)
And share with a friend or 500 - the Facebook express (350k in Norway, of 4.6 million people) is still gaining speed and attention, with "over 350 million installations across 5,268 applications on the site" [SFN] for their application development program. Not to forget that online useage is often done with TV in the background anyway
Now combine the new options for video with the options for broad business models - and things might start to look a lot different. The main question is how many more years it will take. Probably more than we expect now, but less than it seemed when we look back...
...and the sun brings out the colors of fall on the trees...
Pay to see it all - "If you pay for the highest quality of service, you will get unimpeded service for digital TV delivery" a CNet piece on the next-gen network from NTT in Japan, brings up some interesting possibilities - especially if it was able to offer instant changes, say $2 extra for high(est) quality during an important football match. Or differentiation for different channels - I'd pay for full quality for certain niches (disney and discovery... geeky? And proud of it!), but the rest are just time sinks and could just as well be low fi.
Or get paid - another good piece from the C3 blog, on future models for VOD (video on demand), with both ads and general subscriptions as possible viable business models. And it makes a lot of sense - VOD is changing from a small niche offering into a way of watching video content in general - so why shouldn't the two main models for television as we know it be applicable? Advertisers want attention, and targeted groups. And we as consumers want television at a reasonable cost - be it in terms of time (ads) or money.
Pass it around - the assorted "convergent" web offering such as Joost and the new Adobe player represent a new niche for content large and small, with very different approaches to the "guy with a camera" market. Azereus (10 mill d/l) is opening up - while Joost (50k/weekly unique) opens the API but not the content flow. (And here I'm talking about convergent in a tech sense, mixing streaming and p2p, downloads and subscriptions, into something new and different)
And share with a friend or 500 - the Facebook express (350k in Norway, of 4.6 million people) is still gaining speed and attention, with "over 350 million installations across 5,268 applications on the site" [SFN] for their application development program. Not to forget that online useage is often done with TV in the background anyway
Now combine the new options for video with the options for broad business models - and things might start to look a lot different. The main question is how many more years it will take. Probably more than we expect now, but less than it seemed when we look back...
...and the sun brings out the colors of fall on the trees...
Wednesday, May 30
Finally some more info on the Joost Widgets
Joost has launched a new sub-site for the soon (still...) release of the Widget framework, at dev.jooost. There is very limited information so far, but the one article there gives some insight in between the marketing buzzword:
Introducing Joost™ Widgets: "built the Joost Widget platform on top of the latest Web standards, powered by the Mozilla browser engine. Developers who are familiar with technologies such as HTML, XML, CSS, SVG, Ajax, Javascript and RDF will find an exciting new environment to develop their ideas"
Finally a step closer to realizing the promise of Joost - the best options from the internet, in the form of open-source based development acceptance (rather than leaving the users to hack for themselves with Greasmonkey or similar)
What do you want to do when watching video? How about keyword tags with linked Google search or News feeds? Geotagging for other watchers and in-show quiz? Multi-player Tetris?
Stay tuned? ;)
Introducing Joost™ Widgets: "built the Joost Widget platform on top of the latest Web standards, powered by the Mozilla browser engine. Developers who are familiar with technologies such as HTML, XML, CSS, SVG, Ajax, Javascript and RDF will find an exciting new environment to develop their ideas"
Finally a step closer to realizing the promise of Joost - the best options from the internet, in the form of open-source based development acceptance (rather than leaving the users to hack for themselves with Greasmonkey or similar)
What do you want to do when watching video? How about keyword tags with linked Google search or News feeds? Geotagging for other watchers and in-show quiz? Multi-player Tetris?
Stay tuned? ;)
Wednesday, May 23
Multi-tv
Just turned of the "regular" television, as the Champions League final match in Athens has ended, and turned a bit more attention over to the laptop which has been running the latest updated version of Joost for some hours. Incidentally the wikipedia page is already up to date with the result - Milan getting it with a 2 to 1 win over L'pool
Now the shows have their own direct links, such as this for an introduction to drawing - sending you to a (rather empty) information page, along with a dedicated link to start the program in Joost (joost: protocol)
Also the sorting in the channel guide seems to work now - and that is a good thing with the number of available channels growing, even a small subset runs into 40 channels so sorting by genre or personal preference is nice.
Still it needs a bit more intelligence to "combine the best of the web"; like folders - just like Google reader let's you group rss feeds, the channel guide should be in levels, giving the option for packages and collections of channels and searches. That way all the animation could have one folder, the music another and the assorted sci-fi'ish stuff a third - making it easier to browse and jump between channels.
If the information and grouping was sent to the central servers it might also make it easier to predict next shows for pre-caching in the background thereby increasing the speed of swapping channels
And still no widget toolkit to play around with - might have to have a look at some of the forum post about possible direct hacks to the existing client to get a better feel of the options.
...and the sun gets up much to early in the summer...
Now the shows have their own direct links, such as this for an introduction to drawing - sending you to a (rather empty) information page, along with a dedicated link to start the program in Joost (joost: protocol)
Also the sorting in the channel guide seems to work now - and that is a good thing with the number of available channels growing, even a small subset runs into 40 channels so sorting by genre or personal preference is nice.
Still it needs a bit more intelligence to "combine the best of the web"; like folders - just like Google reader let's you group rss feeds, the channel guide should be in levels, giving the option for packages and collections of channels and searches. That way all the animation could have one folder, the music another and the assorted sci-fi'ish stuff a third - making it easier to browse and jump between channels.
If the information and grouping was sent to the central servers it might also make it easier to predict next shows for pre-caching in the background thereby increasing the speed of swapping channels
And still no widget toolkit to play around with - might have to have a look at some of the forum post about possible direct hacks to the existing client to get a better feel of the options.
...and the sun gets up much to early in the summer...
Thursday, May 10
Joost gets a boost forward
NewTeeVee:
» Joost gets $45 million in funding: "Investors lucky enough to put their money in Joost: Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Viacom, CBS and Chinese tycoon, Li Ka-shing."
- so in addition to getting the cash for further technical development and infrastructure, they have also managed to get two "incumbent" players (Viacom and CBS) on board - probably only a minor share as a vote of confidence, but interesting for the next steps none the less.
No doubt that the video market is going online as, step by little step, convergence is finally just around the corner for the mass market - blurring the boundaries of PC and TV into a world of choice and convenience
» Joost gets $45 million in funding: "Investors lucky enough to put their money in Joost: Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Viacom, CBS and Chinese tycoon, Li Ka-shing."
- so in addition to getting the cash for further technical development and infrastructure, they have also managed to get two "incumbent" players (Viacom and CBS) on board - probably only a minor share as a vote of confidence, but interesting for the next steps none the less.
No doubt that the video market is going online as, step by little step, convergence is finally just around the corner for the mass market - blurring the boundaries of PC and TV into a world of choice and convenience
Tuesday, March 13
Art and games - what drives the use?
Two subjects - or general trains of thought to set us off;
When more and more of what fills our leisure time is digital and also increasingly online - how does that affect "art" in the traditional sense? Is there any point in printing out a photo, when you can put it on Flickr, Picasaweb or deviantART and get it in front of more people - get better feedback - and improve your skills along with their enjoyment?
Or take this great artwork by Heise - in 8 hours it got the attention of nearly 10 000 people - and in 14 of over 20 000- a lot more than most "regular" art shows get in a week or more (if at all). It is a stunning piece, so full of details and suggested meaning, truly on par with several traditional portraits I've seen in galleries and museum across Europe. And it is online, freely viewable to view and download.
devStats: submitted: 8h 20m ago - favourites: 1,299 - Views: 9,831
[update]: by 14h 15m favourites = 2,513 and views = 21,751 ...
How can you (aka the professional) compete with the skill and combined leisure time of millions - and more importantly - should you? Not only in terms of attention, but in terms of monetary gains. In an era of abundance, what place is there for those who still 'need' a living from their art?
"a player will base decisions upon what is perceivable, and a given scene may well present a variety of options to the player" - I felt that when testing GRAW2 before the weekend, as the map and the pan made me aware of what might be behind a given building and made me send the team around the left corner rather than the right...
From break-out cut scenes in Final Fantasy, to in-game events in Half Life 2 - games are changing how they tell or explore events, evolving and learning - just like cinema did over the decades, and television did when it expanded into cable and storyland (thank you HBO)
So will there be a new way of doing "cinema" for games? Or will it vary greatly across the genres, picking up the current trends in the relevant settings in other media outlets - like sportscasts, TV drama and perhaps sitcoms? One rule to guide them, or simply moving to the next level in terms of doing a solid job based on some accepted and tested principles (in just the same way as Sheldon and Campell have given a leg up for working with characters and story, respectively)? Hopefully for the viability of the "nextgen" consoles, which ever direction gains prominence - games as entertainment and valid choices (on par with tv and magazines) will continue to enter the 'mainstream mass market suburbia', one inquisitive teen at a time!
-listening to Joost - Music Nation, chillin' with Living Legends cool beats
...and the sun was actually still out when I got back from work - probably why there is energy left over for this post and possibly another later on...
- Art - what makes a impact in a digital, global world? (Inspired by deviantART)
- Games - how do they change the way we interact with computers, movies and games
When more and more of what fills our leisure time is digital and also increasingly online - how does that affect "art" in the traditional sense? Is there any point in printing out a photo, when you can put it on Flickr, Picasaweb or deviantART and get it in front of more people - get better feedback - and improve your skills along with their enjoyment?
Or take this great artwork by Heise - in 8 hours it got the attention of nearly 10 000 people - and in 14 of over 20 000- a lot more than most "regular" art shows get in a week or more (if at all). It is a stunning piece, so full of details and suggested meaning, truly on par with several traditional portraits I've seen in galleries and museum across Europe. And it is online, freely viewable to view and download.
devStats: submitted: 8h 20m ago - favourites: 1,299 - Views: 9,831
[update]: by 14h 15m favourites = 2,513 and views = 21,751 ...
How can you (aka the professional) compete with the skill and combined leisure time of millions - and more importantly - should you? Not only in terms of attention, but in terms of monetary gains. In an era of abundance, what place is there for those who still 'need' a living from their art?
Camera, action!
The GDC is underway/over, so there are a lot of games related articles with more than just reviews coming out from Gamasutra. One rather interesting is about "camera theory" in terms of how it affects gameplay and drives the player trough the story."a player will base decisions upon what is perceivable, and a given scene may well present a variety of options to the player" - I felt that when testing GRAW2 before the weekend, as the map and the pan made me aware of what might be behind a given building and made me send the team around the left corner rather than the right...
From break-out cut scenes in Final Fantasy, to in-game events in Half Life 2 - games are changing how they tell or explore events, evolving and learning - just like cinema did over the decades, and television did when it expanded into cable and storyland (thank you HBO)
So will there be a new way of doing "cinema" for games? Or will it vary greatly across the genres, picking up the current trends in the relevant settings in other media outlets - like sportscasts, TV drama and perhaps sitcoms? One rule to guide them, or simply moving to the next level in terms of doing a solid job based on some accepted and tested principles (in just the same way as Sheldon and Campell have given a leg up for working with characters and story, respectively)? Hopefully for the viability of the "nextgen" consoles, which ever direction gains prominence - games as entertainment and valid choices (on par with tv and magazines) will continue to enter the 'mainstream mass market suburbia', one inquisitive teen at a time!
-listening to Joost - Music Nation, chillin' with Living Legends cool beats
...and the sun was actually still out when I got back from work - probably why there is energy left over for this post and possibly another later on...
Thursday, February 8
Joost another channel
As you might have noticed over on the right I've added up a small "ad" for Joost - seeing as the beta is by invitation only, but the number of invites trickling around for regular testers is close to -1 at the moment (ie. 0 by most accounts), it seems sort of strange to blog about it and link there. BUT - hopefully the next release is just around the corner and they will be ready for another batch of lucky hopefuls to join the fray by then.
"combines the best of full-screen television entertainment with online interactive and community benefits to bring an unprecedented selection of video content to viewers anytime, anywhere" [Official launch of Joost brand]
Big words. Huge actually. But in many ways justified so far.
The number of content channels in what is basically a technical and back-end focused beta, supersedes my local cable company's basic offering. The shows look good, they are interesting to watch and sound good. And most importantly; they are making leaps and bounds forward with every incremental release - in terms of resources used, usability and stability.
I'm really looking forward to the day when the plug-in or widget API is opened up - and all the tweakers and hackers out there (perhaps myself included) can start making mash-ups bringing in interactivity of a whole different level than what you see even on dtv today. With "content aware overlays" there is hardly any limit to the potential - just look at all the variations on Google Maps. Then substitute rather static maps with full blown moving images and both big and huge words seem to fit.
In other news two new mash'ing options I came across today;
Yahoo Pipes - with capacity not quite up to the task; "Our Pipes are Clogged!" Earlier you got the frontpage with basic info, but now that is down as well.
Cuts - "create and share your take of online video" - so say goodbye to your official directors cut, and hello to everybody and his dogs' versions. Launching soon, so perhaps a bit more down the road.
...and the sun visit just long enough to keep the tulips alive - yellows, reds, and mixed...
Thursday, January 11
Surfing in a whole new way
The Venice Project™ Beta-Testing Program -Cleared to blog
Yes, I'm officially a bandwidth hog at the moment, joined up with the beta testing of the newest buzz on the net (even if it might take a bit of a backseat to CES and Macworld this week) - The Venice Project, combining TV and PC - giving out some 200 mb per hour.
First opinions are often just that, but I'll put up some notes;
- Nice interface when you get the gist of it
- Sometimes a short pause when changing channels
- Good video quality so far
- Processor more tasked than memory
Considering that the beta is only just ramping up, I think there will be a great deal more to come - and that this is just the first step on a brand new and old road (new for TVP, old for those talking convergence in 2001)
...and the sun is somewhere on the other side of the globe at the moment...
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