With no up-front expenses and no long-term commitment, both Amazon's CloudFront platform and Microsoft's Windows Azure platform enable you to pay only for the resources you use, and it's simple to configure both of them within minutes to store and deliver your content and applications. At the Streaming Media West show next week, representatives from both Amazon and Microsoft will give an overview of how their platforms work, show attendees how to use them and answer questions specific to their platforms.

Today is the last day to register online, but you can also register next week on-site at the event. Readers of my blog can still register using my own personal discount code of DRF1, which gets you a two-day ticket to the show for only $595.

If you need to create live broadcasts with the Microsoft Media Platform, we've got a great workshop taking place in LA next week, on Monday November 7th, at the Streaming Media West show. Instructors from Microsoft will walk through how-to demonstrations for multiple live video scenarios, including live camera feeds, screen captures, multiple sources, on-site encoding, interstitial advertising, rough cut video editing, and more.

They will also cover cloud-based encoding/transcoding, CDN delivery, intranet caching, SharePoint portals, live DVR playback, several flavors of dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP, and delivering to Apple iOS and Android devices. This is a great chance to see the Microsoft Media Platform in-person and get your questions answered. Online registration is still open and tickets for the workshop are only $265.

Over the past 24 hours, some Wall Street money managers have been calling me saying they are hearing that Level 3 and Limelight will soon make a joint announcement regarding both company's CDN business. I have been hearing the same thing and expect the news will come out shortly, maybe even tomorrow. Back in August I reported that Limelight was in discussions to work with Level 3 to potentially merge their CDNs businesses and work with one another to sell CDN and value add services. The companies have been speaking since the summer and while various options were looked at, it appears that both companies have now settled on a deal, which I originally heard was suppose to come out today. Maybe it will be after the market closes or will come out tomorrow, but an announcement is imminent and it will not be an acquisition, but rather some kind of partnership.

Since I don't know all of the exact details on how the deal will be structured, I'm not going to release only partial info on what I have heard and will let both companies share the full details themselves. But with the news expected to hit shortly and Limelight reporting earnings on Monday, I expect we'll hear a lot more about this very soon. I've already outlined how a deal like this could help both companies, but until a deal is officially announced and we know exactly what the structure of the deal looks like, it's still too early know how this will impact the CDN market in the near-term.

At the Streaming Media West show next week, we have a full day of pre-conference workshops, with 4 three hour sessions. One of the sessions, being taught by Kevin Towes from Adobe is entitled "Using Adobe Flash Media Server To Deliver Live And On-Demand Video."

Attendees will learn about HD-quality video, integrated live video streams, delivery to mobile devices (including iOS), and deeper interactivity through an extensible plug-in architecture. This session will also cover new features that include enhanced content protection with encrypted streaming, increased performance, and new logging/measurement tools to maximize the return on content investment.

This is your chance to come learn all about Adobe's Flash Media Server and get your questions answered by Adobe. Online registration is still open and tickets for the workshop are only $265.

At the Streaming Media West show in LA next week, we've got a great session that will focus on best practices from enterprise corporations who have adopted and implemented live video across their organization. See first hand how these companies are using video for internal and external communications and learn how you can better leverage assets already available inside your company. Learn from those who have been successful with their deployments and hear what advice their have for others deploying live video in the enterprise today. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Patty Perkins, Team Leader, Wells Fargo Creative Services Technology, Wells Fargo
• Tony Sehgal, Sr. Manager, Digital Media Operations and Infrastructure, Oracle
• Eric Hards, Manager, Web, Media Graphics and Streaming, Lockheed Martin
• Larry Kless, Production Manager, Videoconferencing and Virtual Events, Kaiser Permanente
• Michael Chop, Senior IT Architect, Collaboration, Cadence

Audio monetization models currently lead video models due to standardization around ad units, ad networks, and ad trafficking models. Digital audio broadcasters are generating significant profits today in this emerging "monetization ecosystem". So what can video and content creators learn from the radio industry?

Come to the Streaming Media West show in LA, taking place Nov. 8-9th, and learn the aspects of the digital audio monetization ecosystem including strategies for in-house ad sales, how ad network revenue share and auction models can contribute to profits, and the importance of validated audience metrics. Presented by Abacst CEO Rob Green, attendees will learn how stations like this one are making six figures a year from their audio streaming.

Over the past years, the majority of online video has been short-form UGC that is not advertiser friendly. As online video consumption grows, portals, vertical content networks, and video ad networks are looking to offer premium original content being demanded by their advertisers. With this business still in its infancy, the creative and business models are still unclear. Will what works on television work online?

At the Streaming Media West show, Nov. 8-9, come hear from a panel of heavyweights from the content creation, digital media, and ad agency worlds debate and discuss the current state and where things are headed. How does content find its audience without a traditional network to market and promote it? Does it make sense to create content without an advertiser funding it? Who are the players in the new ecosystem? This and more will be covered by the speakers including:

• Moderator: Matt Farber, President, DoubleBounce
• Brad Murphy, Chief Revenue Officer, Revision3
• Brian Fitzgerald, Co-Founder, President, Evolve Media and Gorilla Nation
• Claudia Cahill, Director of Content Associates, OMD
• Scott Donaton, President, CEO, Ensemble