Tag Archives: Video Streaming

Cloud, Mobility, Technology

Akamai Cuts 5 Percent of Workforce as Q4 tops expectations | ZDNet

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The company is cutting workers primarily in its media division as it aims to improve margins.

The media division, Akamai’s unit that speeds up Web pages (including Video streaming), saw fourth quarter revenue fall 3 percent.

Source: Akamai cuts 5 percent of workforce as Q4 tops expectations | ZDNet

Suprised?

Based on the conditions of the markets, i.e. the dissolution of Net Neutrality, companies like Akamai are primed to present attractive solutions to a bandwidth constrained market.  Akamai historically has been a market leader in this space, along with Amazon’s CloudFront solution.  So, I take pause by these actions, although on the surface Akamai has market dominance in this growth area, are there other potential impeding factors:

  • Akamai’s business operating plan needs to be retooled to compete with ever-increasing competitors into space once dominated.
  • Projected (i.e. inside information) regarding FCC regulations that will put Akamai at a market disadvantage.  Lobbyists!
Business, Education, Entertainment, Fun, Technology

Aerial Photography Communities Aligned by Interest, Broadcast in Realtime

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Although I fail to see the excitement and mass appeal of aerial drone use, the hobby has taken off on the tail end of military UAV.  Just like the stationary 24/7 webcams, and web sites that catalog these cams, the drone networks, or communities may spawn entirely new interest groups.

Do you have a drone with the ability to stream video in realtime?  You may drive a following to your stream based upon a multitude of reasons, e.g. location; subject(s) of focus.  Once airborne, your drone may broadcast to a web site that tracks your drone’s latitude and longitude, as well as dynamically tagging the feed with relevant frame data.  Object recognition may scan each frame, or a sampling for ‘objects of interest’.  Objects of interest may appear to a community of enthusiasts as a ‘tag cloud’.  Users may select a tag, and drill down to a list of active feeds.  Alternatively, users may bring up a map view to show the active drones flights.  The drones may also show ‘bread crumbs’ of a flight, maybe the last 1/2 hour,  the buffered video available.  Could be just an extension of YouTube, or a new platform designed entirely around Drone Realtime Streaming.

Business, Economy, Entertainment, Media, Movies, Technology

Streaming Companies Provide their Platform to Content Creators

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Streaming Platforms / Content Creators

Streaming companies enable content creators to use their well known, branded platforms to grow content author followings.  The reciprocal nature of the relationship creates an even broader customer base for streaming content platforms.

  • Direct competition with Google’s YouTube.
  • Microsoft to stretch SharePoint’s abilities re: video streaming, Video on Demand, and Broadcast Live, as well as it’s user licensing model, it could be another tool for entrepreneurs to offer any content creator a “Digital Entertainment Portal”.

Any content provider of digital media entertainment:

  • Broadcast Television Channels – e.g. CBS, NBC, SyFy
  • Independent digital media producers, e.g. currently using channels to reach a large audience, e.g. YouTube

The streaming company can create a portal wizard to build copy a streaming portal template.  The digital media producer uses web app widgets, similar to Microsoft SharePoint sites, to customize their portal to their digital media video/assets.  The Streaming “Portal” provider, as part of their service, handles the monetary transactions for customer subscriptions, or other business models supported.  In addition, the bandwidth load from streaming would be handled by the Streaming “Portal Provider”, a major benefit, leveraging the companies’ Content Delivery Network (CDN).

Anyone could apply for a partnership with the streaming company, and once approved, may use the tools provided by the streaming partner to spawn a new platform site around the customer/producer’s content.

This new revenue stream of streaming companies platforms, such as Netflix and Amazon Instant, may be vastly multiplied using a “Partner Portal” model.

Update 2/5/18

It seems that this path of content providers leveraging existing Portal Streaming companies has already begun:

  • Verizon FiOS embedding Netflix as a “Channel”
  • Amazon Prime (Prime Video) embedding CBS ALL ACCESS, HBO, STARZ, Showtime, Cinemax, etc. branded as “Amazon Channels”
    • Amazon has the capability to leverage their Amazon CloudFront (Highly secure global content delivery network (CDN))

At this juncture, no content on the “Indie” level being embedded in the Portal Streaming companies.  Looks like Google YouTube still monopolizes this space.

Since the original post date, CBS ALL ACCESS has been released, showing content providers, in addition to their own distribution channels direct to clients, will offer their content through 3rd party streaming portals as well…for now.  Maybe just for convenience because these streaming portals require subscriptions to the content provider in order to be served up.

Another post projecting the renaissance of streaming and content creation.

This post was from Dec 2014, but still very relevant today.

Media Companies (and Execs) in the Driver’s Seat for a Prosperous New Year

Media, Technology

Verizon Poised to offer the Digital Media Food Chain: Content Creation to Distribution

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The service, which Verizon only refers to as OTT, or over-the-top, named because it will be available to anyone with an Internet connection, as opposed to a television subscription, is the company’s big growth engine for the future. So far, the company has been mum on the details.

The telecom company is readying a mobile and online video service for launch in late summer, and a top exec says there’s nothing like it.

Verizon continues to line up video content from partners as well as through acquisitions, such as AOL.

Source: Verizon mulls mobile video that doesn’t eat into your data cap – CNET

Entertainment

Entertainment Portals, and Opportunities for Target State

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This posting is an assessment of the current state of entertainment portals, and opportunities for future, target states.  This post may be updated as additional portals are evaluated, and system capabilities are added. System capabilities listed maybe mutually exclusive.

Entertainment Portal Analysis in PDF Format

ENT Portal Delivery Model - Slide 1
ENT Portal Delivery Model – Slide 1
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ENT Portal Delivery Model – Slide 2
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ENT Portal Delivery Model – Slide 3
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ENT Portal Delivery Model – Slide 4
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ENT Portal Delivery Model – Slide 5
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ENT Portal Delivery Model – Slide 6
ENT Portal Delivery Model - Slide 7
ENT Portal Delivery Model – Slide 7
`ENT Portal Delivery Model - Slide 8
ENT Portal Delivery Model – Slide 8
Entertainment

Video Streaming Services Roadmap for Content Suppliers, and Enhanced Portals

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Approved and Reviewed for Relevancy June 12th, 2017

Netflix and Amazon Prime Movies use a scrolling carousel for their users to browse through their movies.  For Television series, web streaming services use a generic, series specific, image to articulate the whole series.  Movies simply show the cover of the movie box with options such as Play Trailer.

An augmented paradigm can help their viewers to select videos.  For Television, if the viewer selects a TV series, instead of showing a text description about the episodes listed for the seasons and episodes, each of the TV episodes for a season could be tiled across the screen.  The user first selects a season, and all the episodes for the season would be displayed in tile format.  If the user hovers over the episode image, the episode information could be displayed in a popup text box.   A “best scene in show” video clip can be played by the viewer.  “Best in Show” clips would be selected by the content provider’s expert media staff .

Going Beyond the Movie Trailer

If a user hovers over a movie box image, four small buttons popup over the image in the foreground and are accentuated.  The movie image gets dim in the background.  This viewing paradigm is similar to the cnet.com web site that uses the mechanism for viewing their stories, and for socializing their stories through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and email.  Selecting one of the three buttons will play a ‘content expert’ or a ‘viewer’s choice, favorite scene’. The fourth button goes to the show details page of the movie, as it does today.  Using this media portal format introduces additional ‘value add’ by the content providers, and makes the service go beyond the streaming of video.  The value proposition is simple, customers get entertaining insights into a movie they MAY select to watch, and the web streaming service is perceived to be more than just streaming, the service is filled with knowledgeable, entertainment media staff.

The movie expertise provided by the video streaming service may grow into favorite movie quotes, and optionally accompanied sound bites. An actor’s filmography may be displayed in the details section of the movie, with the option to drill down to the media content, if available for streaming or purchase. Furthermore, streaming services may partner with established movie expertise web sites.  Amazon’s Instant Video integrates media expertise from their IMdb,  Amazon property.  Video streaming services offered today are very little beyond, finding a random movie that catches your eye, or search for your preconceived movie, and take a chance to watch it.    Very little value add, if any, is provided to the video watcher.  Any company dipping their toe into this space has significant opportunity to distinguish themselves from other existing services.   Specifically, the content owners that go to the web streaming service model.  They are the best positioned to provide significant value add to their line up.  Throwing a large video archive at consumers shows the tremendous depth of available videos, but may be daunting for the video streaming subscriber.  However, if the streaming service are providers of expertise around their owned content, such as TV series out takes, cast interviews, scrapped clips, and any pilots that the providers never aired are just a few ideas.

Welcome to the beginning of the web video streaming services that mature as more content owners push the envelope with their power to create content, and maximize the usability of their assets.

Can Amazon leverage it’s IMDb asset and Alexa to guide your entertainment choices in a palatable way?  With Amazon’s brilliant implementation of X-Ray, one can only hope.

Business, Sports, Technology

Players and Ball Tagged with WiFi for an Enhanced Sports Experience

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I was reading about MLB’s iBeacon driven events that are in proximity to you, and receiving advertisements, or interactive content for the “physical event”.  As I’ve mentioned, I would like to see from my seat in the stands, a real time, dynamic score card, that shows me players trying to steal a base, as an example, or show me an error in progress, awesome.

One step further, feel the bone crushing view of a wide receiver driving the ball, and feel the wall of defense men stop me with a vibration, a jolt and real time video of the catch, and the eventual stop at the N yard line.  Put that in your XBox One, get in the game with enhanced realism never before experienced by a spectator.

Business, Technology

Google Chromecast Review – Watch CNET’s Video Review

Google Chromecast Review – Watch CNET’s Video Review.

Video Streaming from major distributors for 35 USD?  Wow!  Too bad not all TVs are equipped with USB, but close enough that all new TVs seem to have them.  My cable box has USB input, so I wonder.  Nah, probably won’t work.  Please Motorola?  Google owns Motorola and so, although enabled by the media channel distribution network, USB could be an easy sell to turn on, the cable box hardware manufacturer to the media channel distributor, e.g.  cable company. Oh, yeah, FYI – my cable box is made by Motorola.