On Tuesday, April 12 at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT, Streaming Media editor Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen will be moderating a session at NAB sponsored by NewTek called "Broadcast Minds 2011." Panelists will include Adam Carolla, whose "Adam Carolla Show" is one of the most downloaded podcasts of all-time; Leo Laporte, the "Tech Guy" who started TWiT.TV, whose podcasts were downloaded 50 million times in 2010; Steve Hellmuth from the NBA; and Mark Fratto from St. John's University.

The event will be streamed live on the home page of StreamingMedia.com (read "Adam Carolla, Leo Laporte Among the 'Broadcast Minds' at NAB" for more information) Each of the speakers is using NewTek's TriCaster to deliver live video directly to their audiences more cost-effectively than they could via traditional broadcast technologies. It should be an informative and entertaining hour.

Here's a video from NewTek previewing the event:

Today at 2pm I'll be moderating another StreamingMedia.com webinar, this time with RealNetworks on the topic of "Creating a YouTube-like Experience Within Your Organization". If you have used popular video sites on the web, such as YouTube, creating your organization's media library will be a simple and familiar experience. Viewers can access and play videos from their desktop, iPad, iPhone, tablets and mobile devices. Learn how to:

• Upload and convert existing media files like MPEG, AVI, MP3, Windows Media or QuickTime files
• Embed video and audio content created by your media library in your existing training or learning environment
• Stream video and audio to desktops, mobile devices and tablets
• Secure your organization's media assets utilizing existing authentication structures
• Customize your organization's media library

Register here and bring your questions for the presenters for the live Q&A portion of the event.

Today at 2pm I'll be moderating another StreamingMedia.com webinar, this time with Microsoft presenting the workflow for delivery of live video with Expression Encoder and IIS Media Services, using Microsoft's adaptive streaming technology, Smooth Streaming. Microsoft will walk you through the steps to understand the capabilities of your machine, select and configure hardware and software, and customize your video so that you deliver a compelling experience to your target audience.

We'll have a live Q&A session so register for the webinar and bring your questions about your live workflow setup.

Kontiki confirmed for me this morning that the rumors I have been hearing about a change at the top are true. Eric Armstong, who had been at Kontiki for eight years and was most recently their President and CEO has left the company. Kontiki’s board of directors has been interviewing potential replacements for the past few weeks and hopes to announce a new CEO shortly. Kontiki said Eric’s departure has no impact on the company’s recent B round of funding in the ammount of $10.7M.

Updated 1:13pm: Eric is now the VP of Sales in North America for Harmonic.

Updated 4/1: I’ve also learned that Kontiki’s VP of Worldwide Sales, Jacco van der Kooij, has left the company and taken a new job with Qumu.

We are very excited to announce that Eric Kessler, Co-President of HBO will kick off the Streaming Media East conference and exhibition on Tuesday, May 10th as our keynote speaker. Eric's focus of late has been on the launch of HBO GO, HBO’s new authenticated streaming service and during his keynote presentation, Eric will demo the latest version of HBO GO and sit down with me for a Q&A discussion after his presentation.

You can get access to Eric's keynote with a free exhibits pass, so go online and register today. You can also get $200 off the conference ticket price using the promo code DAN and if you register for a gold pass before April 8th, we'll even throw in a free Roku HD.

Today at 3pm ET I will be presenting a Frost & Sullivan webinar on the topic of Broadband-Enabled Devices for Over-the-Top Video. As a principal analyst in Frost & Sullivan's digital media group, three to four times a year I present free webinars and take questions on different topics in the digital media landscape.

In today's presentation, I will highlight multiple streaming devices detailing which content platforms they run, how they compare to one another and which ones have the best chance at winning in the crowded over-the-top video market. I'll also be doing a live Q&A with attendees so sign up here and bring your questions. This webinar is free to everyone and you don't have to be a customer of Frost & Sullivan's research in order to attend.

Late last night, Netflix took to their blog to announce that users in Canada now have the ability to reduce the quality of Netflix's video streams in an effort to combat the bandwidth caps from Canadian ISPs. Netflix streaming in Canada will now default to a 625Kbps video stream for what Netflix calls the "good" setting. Selecting "better," users will get a maximum 1300Kbps video stream and customers who select the "best" quality video setting will get up to 4800Kbps.

It was about a year ago that Netflix stated that ISP caps would not impact their business, yet here they are having to reduce the quality of the users experience due to ISPs. It also interesting to note that Netflix is now using the lowest quality video setting as default, meaning many users who don't know they can increase the quality of the video are going to question why it looks so poor. No matter how Netflix spins it, caps are going to have a negative impact on their business and it's no wonder that so far, Netflix does not allow most of the streaming boxes that work in the U.S to stream in Canada. Trying to watch a video encoded at 625Kbps from a box that is hooked up to a 42" TV will look horrible.

For the past fifteen years the entire streaming media industry has been talking about ways to improve video quality and creating a better user experience and now Netflix has to reduce the quality of their video in Canada, due to something they can't control. This is simply bad news for everyone involved and if caps get lowered in the U.S. or ISPs start enforcing them, our video experience as consumers will get worse, not better. This is a step backwards and we have many of the ISPs to thank for this who are complaining about all of the video traffic on their networks, yet in reality, are simply trying to cash in on it.