Contest is now closed. If you're looking to get Internet sourced video on your TV or game console, look no further than PlayOn software from MediaMall Technologies. Designed to be installed on a PC, (no Mac support) the software relays on-demand streaming content from your PC to your TV and other compatible devices via the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. And thanks to MediaMall Technologies, I have one free lifetime license of the PlayOn software to give away to a lucky reader of my blog.

To enter the drawing, all you have to do is leave one comment on this post and make sure you submit the comment with a valid email address. Drawing is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. The winner will be selected at random at the end of the month. A big thanks to MediaMall Technologies for the giveaway. Congrats to Ron Ramkirpaul from Virginia who won the item.

As video becomes increasingly important on the web, content providers, browser developers, and end users can no longer afford to have the primary video delivery mechanisms locked up in standards that cannot be adapted to new environments. This is especially true for emerging trends such as mobile video and cross-device video technologies. HTML5 Video might be the answer, and at the Streaming Media West show next week, we'll discuss what it is, the challenges it's facing, and how it affects other formats such as Flash and Silverlight, as well as how leading platforms and web giants such as Google, Mozilla, and Apple are supporting it. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Tim Napoleon, Co-Founder, President, Alldigital
• Jeroen Wijering, Chief Digital Architect, LongTail Video
• John Luther, Product Manager, WebM Project
• Gerald Abrahamian, Executive Director, New Media Operations, Comcast Entertainment Group

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.

Everyone reading this blog is aware of the fact that Internet traffic continues to grow, and that an increasing amount of this traffic is being driven by video. Cisco VNI projects Internet traffic to grow 5 times between 2009 and 2013, and video will constitute 90% of overall traffic. As a result of all this video traffic, one of the biggest buzz words being used lately by telcos as well as vendors selling CDN platforms for use inside a carrier network is the term transparent caching. There's a lot of folks using the phrase these days and as a result, a lot of confusion exists as to what it is, how it differs from regular caching and the role it plays in the CDN industry.

Content caching technology utilized for network optimization has been available for many years, and today, there are a couple of different types of caching approaches being used. Originally caching technology focused on basic web pages and moving HTML files and web objects closer to a user to improve response time. Basic web caching became less necessary as network operators grew bandwidth capacity throughout the last decade and today, most people are familiar with caching to provide application acceleration and scale for CDN's like Akamai. There is also service specific content caching to address particular services, such as Google cache.

What may (or may not) come as a surprise to some readers is the impact that all this traffic has on service provider networks. While CDNs make their money from content publishers who typically pay based on volume, network service providers' money comes from their subscribers who pay a fixed amount per month. So while CDNs (theoretically at least) stand to gain from this increase in video traffic, network service providers are stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. They have to invest in their networks to scale to support this traffic, yet they are receiving little incremental revenue from it. Clearly, investment with no return is not a sustainable model, and service providers recognize this.

Continue reading »

On Nov. 3rd, at the Streaming Media West show in LA, I’ll be presenting the latest CDN pricing data from Q4. A week after that, I’ll get my presentation online and share all of the slides and data on my blog. I’ll also have updated numbers on the size of the video CDN market along with new projections on its expected growth. If you plan to go to my session at the show, make sure to bring your questions as I’ll be discussing and answering question about the CDN business as well as value add service offered by the CDNs.

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.

Online video has the potential to enable contextual, behavioral, and demographic-targeted advertisements, but video ad targeting has barely taken form as a broad practice. At the Streaming Media West show in LA, come hear what methodologies are used to capture relevant data to target appropriate users and what metrics are used to determine the efficiency of video campaigns. Will media agencies become structured for micro-buys to narrower audience segments, or will technical innovation drive the shift towards relevant ads on a mass scale? Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Jamison Tilsner, Evangelist, Business Development, Kantar Video
• Tony Fernandez, VP, Technology, CBSSports.com
• Grant Ries, Chief Revenue Officer, BlueKai
• Suhaila Suhimi, Senior Partner, Director of Digital Strategy, MediaCom
• Mark Trefgarne, CEO, LiveRail

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.

At the Streaming Media West show in two weeks, Allan Poore, Principal Group Manager for Expression Encoder at Microsoft, will showcase the latest codecs and encoding techniques to deliver the best quality video for your customers, to the PC, TV and mobile devices. Attendees will get an in-depth look at Expression Encoder to learn the tradeoffs between quality and speed, how to take advantage of adaptive bitrate technologies, and how to differentiate your content from the competition while reaching the widest possible audience.

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.

At the Streaming Media West show, Nov. 2-3 in LA, we have a panel of executives that will discuss the new ways content owners and site developers are aggregating content and distributing it on the web. See examples of ways to develop niche vertical sites without significantly expanding staffing, and discuss how to reach audiences on social networking sites like Facebook. Learn about some of the new emerging platforms for niche video distribution and best practices for increasing your chances of making money with your content. Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Jonathan Seelig, Managing Director, Globespan
• John Caldwell, President, National Geographic Digital Media
• Ran Harnevo, CEO, 5min Media
• Julie Lee, SVP, Business Development, VEVO
• Vanessa Pappas, VP, Audience and Strategic Partnerships, Next New Networks

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.