Microsoft will be making a bunch of announcements this week from their MIX event surrounding Silverlight and StreamingMedia.com’s Editor Eric is at the event and will be covering the announcements shortly.

From the week of NAB, Microsoft was distributing with its press kit the below chart comparing Silverlight’s features and benefits with that of Flash. I have not had a chance to really review them side by side but this is how Microsoft sees their platform stacking up to Flash.

We have some great sessions at the Streaming Media East show, May 14-16 in NYC talking about P2P and other forms of content distribution. One of the sessions on May 15th is entitled "Is P2P The Answer To Large Scale Video Delivery?"

Moderated by Rich Mavrogeanes the Founder and CTO of VBrick, this session discusses whether P2P will finally revolutionize online video distribution. They will discuss whether the cost savings advantage with P2P is real, how P2P will translate into a competitive advantage, how P2P distribution may affect the networks and CDNs and what some of the potential problems are that P2P technology may face from the telco’s. The panelists include:

• Nick Rockwell, CTO, MTV Networks
• Christopher Levy, Chairman, Digital Media Management Working Group, DCIA
• Monty Mullig, SVP, Internet Technologies, Turner Broadcasting System
• Brian Taptich, VP, Business Development, BitTorrent

Register for the show and come hear the debate on whether P2P is the answer to the fundamental capacity limitations for large-scale video audiences for today’s Internet. Are there any topics or points would you like to see discussed at this session? If so, please include them in the comments section.

CMP currently has two Online Media Director positions available to
lead, manage and oversee the digital media strategy for their Channel
(targeting the sellers of technology) and Technology Innovators Group
(targeting the builders of technology). Locations: San Francisco and
Waltham, MA.

For more details, contact Beth Rivera at CMP.

If you are looking for a new position, have taken a new job or are a company that has a job opening, let me know. In many cases I will highlight it here on the blog – free of charge.

I know it may seem strange to ask that question, but part of the problem with P2P technology is that most content owners don’t know what P2P does and does not support. I’m with them. Even I don’t know what P2P distribution can and can’t do. For instance, many P2P providers call their service "P2P streaming" but is it really streaming? If you are not using a Flash Media Server for example, then how are the P2P networks delivering "streaming" Flash video?

There seems to be no standard amongst the P2P providers as to what they all provide, the range of services vary greatly and many speak to P2P as being a live solution, others say only on-demand. Yet what is interesting to note about nearly all of the P2P delivery providers websites is that they all have the exact same sales propositions. All of the sites talk to the same value proposition being
quality, cost and security.

And none of them that I can find talk to reporting, which seems odd. How are the P2P delivery networks going to distinguish themselves from one another? They have to do something, because as of right now, visiting each of their sites, they all sound and look exactly the same.

We have some great sessions at the Streaming Media East show, May 14-16 in NYC talking about user generated content. One of the sessions on May 15th is entitled "User-Generated Content Tools".

Moderated by Steve Bryant, Associate Editor of eWEEK and Hollywood Reporter blogger, this session covers how with more than 50 user generated content sites available on the Web today, what tools are currently being offered and used by consumers for content generation? Learn what tools consumers want, how they manage content today and what the future holds for making consumer-generated content even easier to create, upload, and deliver. The panelists include:

• Chris O’Brien, CEO and Co-Founder, Motionbox
• Matt Sanchez, CEO and Co-Founder, VideoEgg
• Steve Rosenbaum, CEO and Founder, Magnify.net
• Scott Rhodes, CEO, Veotag

Register for the show and see firsthand presentations from some of the leading companies offering tools in this niche vertical. Are there any topics or points would you like to see discussed at this session? If so, please include them in the comments section.

That’s the title and focus of the June/July issue of Streaming Media magazine. In addition to discussing P2P we’ll also have a SPECIAL REPORT: How Will Silverlight and Adobe Media Player Change the Online Video Landscape?

Additional editorial topics for this issue include:

– Online Video and Web 2.0
– This is Not Your Father’s TV, Part 2
– Streaming vs. Progressive Download: The Business Case for Each
– Putting VideoLAN to the Test
– First Look: Microsoft Windows Media’s New Video Encoding Profiles
– Reviewed: VX30 Video Encoder
– Case Study: MTV’s The Hills Are Alive on the Web

Streaming Media magazine is published bi-monthly and is free to U.S. residents that qualify. International readers can also purchase a subscription to the magazine.

The list of providers who are selling P2P based content delivery services to distribute video continues to grow rapidly. I am trying to create a comprehensive list of all the P2P distribution networks in the market today so I can better compare the solutions they have to offer. Below is the list of P2P video delivery networks that I currently track. I know there are others out there I forgot or that I don’t know about and I would be interested to hear from others who they would add to this list. I am primarily interested in those providers delivering video as opposed to P2P technologies that specialize in audio. I’ve also separated those providers who have just a P2P offering and those who offer both a P2P and regular CDN offering.

 P2P Offering Only

• www.1-click.com
• www.bitgravity.com
• www.gridnetworks.com
• www.itiva.com
• www.movenetworks.com
• www.octoshape.com
• www.rawflow.com
• www.rinera.com
• www.swarmcast.com
• www.voddler.com      

P2P & CDN Offering

• www.cachelogic.com
• www.verisign.com

Who’s missing from this list?