At the Streaming Media West show in LA next month, we've got encoding guru Jan Ozer doing a one hour session on "How To Encode Video For Adaptive Streaming". Jan's seminar identifies the most relevant adaptive streaming technologies and details the most critical factors for comparing them. Attendees will also learn how to choose the ideal number of streams and key encoding parameters, get an overview of options for encoding and serving the streams, and closes by describing techniques for serving multiple target platforms like Flash and iDevices with one set of encoded H.264 files.

If you want to get some hands-on expertise with video encoding and get your questions answered by one of the most experienced encoding masters in the industry, then you won't want to miss Jan's session at the show in two weeks. It's not too late to get a pass to the show and readers of my blog can register using my own personal discount code of DRF1, which gets you a two-day ticket to the show for only $595,if you register early.

Looking to cash in on the expected growth of over-the-top video being delivered across service provider networks, last week Qwilt announced that they have raised $24M in two rounds of VC funding, with one of the investors being RealNetworks founder Rob Glaser as well as some of the original VC’s that invested in Facebook and Netflix.

Qwilt has spent the past two years on the platform which is still being developed and tested and the company expects to launch their offering sometime in the first half of next year. What exactly Qwilt’s solution will look like and how it technically works, the company isn’t saying. But from a high level, Qwilt is a software play that is layered on top of commercial hardware platforms and includes four main components including a DPI product tailored for video, an optimized storage system, a video server and an analytics platform.

It’s great to see more vendors coming to the market to help carriers deliver video more efficiently, but Qwilt already has some very serious competition in the market. Qwilt says they feel their solution is different in that it is “carrier grade” and can be “dropped in without any configuration of the network” and while that sounds good in theory, it’s also some of the exact same selling points other vendors make, including folks as big as Cisco. So Qwilt really has their work cut out for them in entering this market.

The one advantage Qwilt or any vendor like them has when developing a product like this is that today, HTTP is the key application protocol. Even as little as a few years ago this was not the case and trying to develop platforms for video was much harder. In addition, while most vendors are scrambling to try and grab as much of the market share today as they can, Qwilt feels, and I agree with them, that we are in the very early stages regarding the growth of video across service provider networks. Qwilt says they see no need to have to rush into the market and can afford to wait another 24 months until the market is more mature.

Without a product on the market and more details on exactly how Qwilt’s technology works, it’s hard to say how successful they can be. But service providers have only just begun building and deploying video delivery platforms and while the volume of traffic they are seeing today sounds like a lot, it will be nothing compared to what it looks like 24-36 months from now. And that is exactly what Qwilt is betting on, the long-term impact video is going to have on service providers and the expected growth of the market in the coming years.

Anyone who follows Cisco knows that they are betting big on video and have been hard at work building out a video based system for service providers called Videoscape. Cisco's goal is to be the dominant platform that service providers use for the distribution and monetization of over-the-top video. Carriers, telcos and MSOs, are the future of the video delivery business and Cisco has made multiple acquisitions over the past eighteen months adding more functionality to their platform. This morning, Cisco announced it had now made its third acquisition that ties into Videoscape, this time acquiring BNI Video in a deal valued at $99M.

In February of this year Cisco acquired Inlet Technologies after having acquired Extend Media the year before. After the Inlet acquisition, I wrote that Cisco will probably acquire an analytics platform next as that's really the only missing piece of their platform and with the BNI Video acquisition, that's part of what they have now gotten. Videoscape has all the functionality it needs when it comes to enabling content owners to ingest, transcode, store, manage and deliver video, but the tracking and analytics piece of the platform still needed to be addressed. Now all Cisco needs to acquire is a transparent caching provider and their platform will be complete.

Based on the three acquisitions Cisco has made and the numbers I hear from some folks inside Cisco on what they are spending on further developing Videoscape, the company has easily invested over $400M on the platform in under two years. Cisco sees video as one of their five company priorities and it's clear they are willing to spend heavily to secure their position in what is expected to be a huge market for service providers looking to manage the expected growth of video on their networks.

Cisco, Comcast and Time Warner Cable were early investors in BNI Video which had raised north of $16M and the deal is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2012.

Related Posts:

– 2/11 – Cisco's Acquisition Of Inlet Probably Not The Last, Expect Analytics Platform Next

– 8/10 – Cisco To Acquire Extend Media In Deal Worth $80M

At the Streaming Media West show in LA next month, you'll hear from some of the best content creators on the web who are making a living from YouTube. Come learn how these content owners are reaching millions of viewers with engaging and higher production videos than ever before. Moderated by online community guru Jenni Powell, (Nobody's Watching, lonelygirl15, The Guild, The Legend Of Neil) presenters will also discuss how advertisers are trying to gain access to their huge audiences. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Jenni Powell, Digital Content Coordinator, Relativity Media
• Rob Jones, VP, Gaming Programming, Machinima
• Brendan Gahan, Director of Social Media, Mekanism
• Olga Kay, Content Creator, Actress
• Benny Fine, Fine Brothers Productions
• Rafi Fine, Fine Brothers Productions

Like the smart phone before it, the smart TV will bring a new layer of functionality to your existing home entertainment experience. At the Streaming Media West show in LA, Shanna Prevé, Business Development Lead for Google TV will discuss the highly anticipated Google TV 2 platform, the opportunities for content providers and developers and the common myths and misperceptions around smart TV. Come hear about the latest developments on the platform, the killer apps, and what lies ahead.

I'm pleased to announce that Matthew Strauss, SVP and GM of Comcast Interactive Media will be the keynote speaker on day two of the Streaming Media West show in LA, taking place November 8-9th. Matt will be speaking about Comcast's approach to online video and doing a live demo showcasing Comcast's latest version of their Xfinity platform as well as discussing the challenges and opportunities in the ecosystem around online video content. Learn how Comcast is looking to give consumers access to content anytime, anywhere on any device and the significant leaps the company has made in the past twelve months towards this mission.

Access to all keynotes during the show are free with an exhibits pass, so go online and register today. You can also get $200 off the conference ticket price using the promo code DRF1 and if you register for a gold pass, we'll even throw in a free Roku 2 XD streaming box while supplies last.