At the Streaming Media West show in LA, come meet the buyers at the center of the growing online video advertising market and learn where they see the dollars going this year—and in 2011. In this panel, we'll ask the buyers about their media planning strategies, what it takes to engage with them, what they're buying, and what's keeping them up at night. Is it brand safety, targeting, measurement, or something else? Hear from top agencies and brand marketers to discover the inside of what the buy side really wants from online video. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Teg Grenager, Co-Founder, VP, Product, adap.tv
• Dave Martin, SVP Media, ignited
• Julian Zilberbrand, SVP, Digital Director, Technology Activation Group Services, Starcom Mediavest Group
• Jonathan Wilner, VP, Strategy and Biz Dev, Fox Audience Network

You can register online for the Streaming Media West show and get $300 off by using my personal discount code of DRF1. Have a question about the show? Someone you want to meet? Reach out to me and I'll be happy to make an introduction.

We're happy to announce that at the Streaming Media West show, a special session, developed by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), a coalition with support from every industry involved in digital entertainment, will discuss their plans to create a new system to provide consumers with a revolutionary new way to enjoy their favorite movies, TV shows and other entertainment. This panel will discuss the business and technology needs to standardize digital content and how the DECE consortium's newly launched UltraViolet can benefit all players. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Chris Marlowe, Senior Media Strategist, Edelman
• Mark Teitell, Executive Director, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE)
• Timothy Dodd, VP, Media and Entertainment, Neustar
• Paul Fahn, Digital Media Convergence Technology, Samsung
• Leszek Izdebski, Managing Director, Global Media Group, Cisco

You can register online for the Streaming Media West show and get $300 off by using my personal discount code of DRF1. Have a question about the show? Someone you want to meet? Reach out to me and I'll be happy to make an introduction.

After Steve Jobs announced the iPad, a whole new round of anti-Flash sentiment swept the ranks of the online design and development community. Many claims have been laid down by both "standards" and Flash proponents, and not all of them are based on fact. At a special session at the Streaming Media West show in LA, Robert Reinhardt, author of the Flash Bible series will walk you through the potential capabilities of HTML5, the differences across browsers, and how they compare to those of the Flash platform. Learn the effect HTML5 will have on video encoding and distribution in the future and how HTML5 may impact your business.

Register online for the entire Streaming Media West show and get $300 off by using my personal discount code of DRF1. Have a topic about HTML5 that you wan't Robert to cover in his presentation? Put it in the comments section below and I'll make sure he gets it.

With the number of new broadband-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players expected to be sold, along with devices such as the Xbox, Roku, TiVo, and PS3, consumers now have many ways to get their video fix. So what are the new business models that will be created from these new devices? At the Streaming Media West show next week, come hear from executives on the role of current consumer entertainment devices in this new convergent world and how these devices will play together to offer a superior video experience. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Andrew Wallenstein, Senior Editor, PaidContent.org
• John Koller, Director, Hardware Marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Dan Kelley, Sr. Director, Marketing, D-Link
• Jim Funk, VP, Business Development, Roku
• John Griffin, Director, Connected Electronics, Dolby

In addition, we'll also have additional devices avaialble on the show floor including the TiVo Premiere,  Sony Internet TV with Google TV, the Logitec Revue with Google TV, Boxee and a new device from Western Digital. Register online for the entire Streaming Media West show and get $300 off by using my personal discount code of DRF1.

At the Streaming Media West show in two weeks, I will be presenting a special hands-on session demonstrating some of the latest streaming media devices and content platforms including the new Google TV, Apple TV, Roku XDS, Xbox 360, PS3 and some yet to be announced devices. See how these devices access content from content platforms including Netflix, Blockbuster, iTunes, Amazon On Demand, Zune Video, PlayStation Network and Cinema Now.

Attendees will see these devices in action, learn which platforms they run, what content they are capable of getting and have their questions answered in a Q&A session. If you like devices, this is the session for you!

In addition, we'll also have additional devices avaialble on the show floor including the TiVo Premiere,  Sony Internet TV with Google TV, the Logitec Revue with Google TV, Boxee and a new device from Western Digital.

Register online for the entire Streaming Media West show and get $300 off by using my personal discount code of DRF1. Have a question about one of these devices you want me to answer? Put it in the comments section below and I'll make sure to get you a response.

Many enterprise streaming media initiatives have developed robust on-demand and live webcast capabilities, and some even offer "YouTube"-like functionality. So what's the next area these companies will focus on? At the Streaming Media West show in LA, enterprise customers will discuss where they see the biggest gain in ROI and how much media control they will be giving their employees in the future. If you have a well-established streaming media environment, or if you just want to know what the future holds for enterprise streaming media delivery, this is the session for you. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Eric Hards, Manager Digital Media Services, Lockheed Martin Space Systems
• Mark Tarleton, Manager, Webcast Operations, Raytheon
• Kevin Hill, Manager, Collaboration Systems, Intuit
• KC Hundere, Director, IT, Glendale Community College
• Shaun McIver, Global Head of Multimedia Solutions, Thomson Reuters

You can register online for the Streaming Media West show and get $300 off by using my personal discount code of DRF1. And check out the entire list of enterprise and education speakers including executives from Wells Fargo, Northwestern University, Cadence Design Systems, eBay, Columbus State Community College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, San Jose State University, University of Toledo, Cisco and more.

For those that track the content delivery networks, they are familiar with the idea that CDNs are trying to diversify their revenue by adding "value add services" to their portfolio. While that term is widely used by CDNs, and was originally coined by Akamai, I have yet to see any CDN define what it really means or which services fall under that term. After my post two weeks ago regarding AT&T teaming up with Cotendo to bring new CDN services to the market, I got a lot of questions specifically about dynamic site acceleration (DSA). I thought it would be helpful to explain what dynamic site acceleration is, what are the differences between DSA offerings, and what's the business case for the product.

Simply put, dynamic site acceleration is a suite of technologies and/or products that make websites reliant on dynamically served content perform better, load faster, and ultimately, make more money. Traditional CDNs improved performance by caching critical content closer to end users. The personalization (Facebook), streams (Twitter), geolocation (FourSquare), real-time info (Google Instant), and customization (MyYahoo) inherent in Web 2.0 have made caching content far less useful. SaaS and enterprise applications (B2B and B2C) have made the case for dynamic, transactional content, as well as the demand for ecommerce and web retailers – focusing on personalized recommendations, and transactional and secure check-out and shopping carts.

DSA augments or in many instances replaces caching by creating new ways to quickly deliver online content or deliver online services and transactions faster. This, in turn, translates into a better user experience, more user clicks and interactions, higher conversion rates and better search engine visibility. Researchers from Microsoft and Google found that a 2-second site loading slowdown resulted in 2% fewer queries, 3.75% fewer clicks, and significant decreases in user satisfaction. The Aberdeen Group found that a 1-second delay in page load time equals 11% fewer page views and a 7% loss in conversions. (In other words, a site that averages $100,000 a day in revenues would lose an additional $2.5 million in sales each year). This is precisely why Google has an entire team of engineers dedicated to shaving milliseconds off load times for search results and is the rationale for DSA.

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