The night before the Streaming Media West show next week, the Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley is putting on a special event they call SMARTER TV. Starting at 7pm, at the Silicon Valley Bank, speakers from CBS, Yahoo! Connected TV, TiVo, Boxee, Roku,and ZillionTV will be discussing what’s taking place in the connected living room.

After the discussion there will be screening of a new video from Dominik Rausch who is the Producer of Easy to Assemble, an online video series created by IKEA. (www.easytoassembleseries.com) The cost is $20 to attend and all the details can be found online here.

From the integration of Facebook and Twitter into Verizon's FiOS to the new viewing party capability in the Xbox Live's Netflix application, there is no doubt that many in the digital home space see the social web's next destination as the TV screen. But will consumers go for it?  

At next week's Streaming Media West show we've got Michael Wolf, VP
of Research at GigaOm, moderating a panel on the use of social media in
the living room. The session will discuss how the social web will extend into the living
room, while also exploring how social media and real-time web can -if
ever – be monetized in a TV context.

• Moderator: Michael Wolf, VP, Research, GigaOm
• Ruchir Rodrigues, VP, Product Platforms, Verizon
• Jeremy Toeman, Founding Partner, Stage Two Consulting
• David Jordan, VP, Marketing, Rovi Corporation
• Itzik Cohen, CEO, Clipsync

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 $200 off the ticket price. You can attend all three days of the SM West show for only $695.

Marc Whitten, GM of Xbox LIVE will be our keynote presenter on Wednesday Nov. 18th at the Streaming Media West show. During Marc's keynote, he'll be showing off some of the new functions coming to the Xbox 360 including Zune Video and 1080p streaming. Updated: I can now disclose that the Xbox 360 dashboard update will be rolled out on Tues, the day before Marc's keynote. (official announcement) Come see Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and instant on HD video from Zune demonstrated during the show.

And thanks to Xbox, we're also excited to announce that we'll be giving away a bunch of Xbox 360 pro consoles, LIVE membership cards, messenger kits and Microsoft Points after Marc's presentation. If you want a chance at winning any of the gear, simply go online, register for a FREE exhibits pass using the promo code of DRF1 – and you're in!

Original episodic web television has grown up in a short time and is now recognized as a respected and legitimate entertainment platform. But in our current economic downturn some web television studios have been forced to close and the reality is that it's still really difficult to create a sustainable business model.

At next week's Streaming Media West show, we've got some of the top web producers who will discuss what it takes to create, market and sell a web television series and debate the future success
of web television.

These guys and gals are the cream of the crop in web television today. Combined the speakers have worked on The Burg, The All-For-Nots, LonelyGirl15, The Guild, Legend of Neil, The Gemini Division, Afterworld, and EPIC FU amongst others.

• Moderator: Marc Hustvedt, Co-Founder, Tubefilter, Editor-in-Chief, Tubefilter News
• Speaker: Thom Woodley, Partner, Chief Creative Officer, Dinosaur Diorama
• Speaker: Jenni Powell, New Media Consultant
• Speaker: Brent Friedman, Co-Founder, Electric Farm Entertainment
• Speaker: Zadi Diaz, Creative Director, Co-Founder, Smashface Productions

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 $200 off the ticket price. You can attend all three days of the SM West show for only $695.

As is the case when you have nearly 150 speakers, we've had three cancellations this week. The following sessions have open spots on them and I am accepting all speaking requests. I will be filling them today so please contact me ASAP if interested.

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009
The Impact Of TV Everywhere And Over-The-Top Video – 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
TV Everywhere is currently construed as a TV-to-PC service. Is this type of online service enough to slow consumer consumption of and defection to over-the-top video services? What more must cable providers do to grab the attention of their subscribers? With OTT services now incorporating HD video, social media, 3D interfaces and even new types of entertainment like 1 versus 100, can TV Everywhere possibly compete?

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009
Making Effective Online Video for Training and eLearning – 11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
The tools for making video are becoming increasingly accessible and easy to use. But when it comes to providing quality education, simply making video is not enough. To be truly useful, video must not detract from the content, and ideally should enhance it. In this panel experts in the field will discuss methods and tips for producing programs that make the most of online video's advantages in order to create a better learning experience.

Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Live Broadcasts & HD Video: Can Web Video Scale To TV-Sized Audiences? – 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Last year we saw a big uptick in the number of high profile, large-scale live events on the web. Most weren't offered in HD, and the debate still remains whether the Internet is even capable of supporting live events with the kind of traffic seen from TV broadcasts. We'll explore this discussion from all angles-technology, infrastructure, and quality-to get a feel for what the barriers are and when we can expect to see more large-scale live events delivered in HD.

If you are going to be in the San Jose are next week, we’ve got a lot of networking events taking place during the Streaming Media West show for those in the online video community. Here’s a quick list of what’s taking place and I’ll update this post as I learn of more events. If you want to find out about events as soon as I know, follow me on Twitter.

Monday Nov. 16th
Brightcove is throwing an exclusive executive networking event at the St. Claire Hotel in San Jose, CA from 7:00 – 10:00 pm PT. Brightcove says that attendance is limited and that registrations will not be taken at the door. You must be pre-registered to attend Brightcove’s networking event. http://brightcovewest.eventbrite.com/

Tuesday Nov. 17th
Streaming Media West opening reception and networking event in the exhibit hall from 5pm-7pm. If you don’t already have a pass, you can register in-person using the discount code of DRF1 and get a FREE exhibits pass which gets you in to the exhibit floor, all the networking events and the keynotes. www.streamingmedia.com/west/exhibitors.asp

Tuesday Nov. 17th
Special Streaming Media West Networking Mixer from 7:00pm – 8:30pm in the San Jose Marriott Ballroom. The event is FREE but you must RSVP at: www.streamingmedia.com/west/networking.asp

Wednesday Nov. 18th
Join us for the best Readers’ Choice Awards party ever! The RCA Awards Reception will be held in the San Jose Marriott, Wednesday, November 18 from 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Mix it up—or should we say REmix it up—at our rocking party following the award ceremony: open bar, video remixing legends Eclectic Method, networking, and dancing galore. www.streamingmedia.com/west/readerschoice.asp

If you forget what’s taking place next week, or not sure on the location, call me at anytime on my cell at 917-523-4562 and I’ll give you the details.

With so many broadband enabled devices capable of streaming content to the living room, I thought it would be a good idea to let attendees to next week's Streaming Media West show the ability to get hands-on with as many of these devices as possible.

I'm happy to announce that we've set aside some space on the exhibit floor, booth 416, where attendees can see content offerings available on the Xbox 360, TiVo, Roku, VUDU and FLO TV.

Stop by and see 1080p streaming on the Xbox 360; Netflix and MLB.TV streaming on the Roku; Amazon On Demand and Blockbuster streaming on TiVo; VUDU's HDX quality on a broadband enabled LG Blu-ray player; and FLO TV's new personal television. I'll be at the booth showing off these devices, doing demos and representatives from these companies will be there at times as well.

This is a great opportunity for anyone who's never been hands-on with these devices and platforms to see them in-person and I thank these companies for providing us with the hardware.

If you have a device you want to have featured in our device pavilion, for free, contact me ASAP.

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 $200 off the ticket price. You can attend all three days of the SM West show for only $695 or get a FREE exhibits pass which gets you into the show floor, all three keynotes and the networking events.