Streaming Media - April/May 2008 - (Page 30)

decade of StreamingMedia.com By Tim Siglin a Occasionally you’ll read these words in one of my articles: “It’s like 1997 all over again.” n o, I’m not yearning for the glory days before we knew that the artist formerly known as Prince might just become Prince again, after he’d partied like it was 1999. What I mean is that we’ve been here, under very similar circumstances— both the good and the bad—for well past a decade. And while the playback devices and even a few of the compression technologies have changed—think Flash Video—it’s often the same vexing business models and the same limitations that we’re dealing with. This commentary isn’t meant to denigrate today’s new stars any more than it’s meant to give pause to the “stupid money” that chased silly valuations a year ago and is doing so again (as in, “We don’t understand the business model but it’s got to work since it worked for Facebook”). Rather, it’s meant as a classic practical exercise in the art of learning from what we did before, right and wrong, and leveraging the benefits of what we’ve gained in the last 10 to 15 years of streaming media. This need to look back and assess the business and technical hurdles we’ve overcome, as well as the ones we’ve stumbled over, was personally driven home to me as I walked into a dinner in Barcelona on the day before Valentine’s Day. The Mobile World Congress was in full swing, and everywhere there were signs of video dominating discussions at a show traditionally geared toward handsets and mobile radio chip designs: Robert Redford was a keynote speaker, as was Isabella Rossellini, both touting the artistic growth of the “third screen” or “small screen” for streaming mobile short films. It was almost like watching the final SuperComm event in 2005, when Cisco’s John Chambers stood up in front of a group of telecom executives in the U.S. and declared video delivery was the key element that would drive fixed-line (DSL) subscriber growth—and also would create an equally promising opportunity for cable TV operators. 30 STREAMING MEDIA April/May 2008 http://StreamingMedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Streaming Media - April/May 2008

Streaming Media - April/May 2008 Table of Contents Beyond the Bottom Line Technology and Business Trends by the Numbers (Not So) Instant Karma MSN Autos Revs Up Video Production Dow Finds the Right Streaming Chemistry Why Video Is Changing the World A Decade of StreamingMedia.com What's Your Digital Media Strategy? Blasts From the Past: A Decade (Almost) of StreamingMedia.com Headlines Analyze That A League of Their Own: Streaming Media All-Stars Where Are They Now? Wanted: Sexy HDTV That Connects to the Internet and Services All DVRs Anystream Agility Inlet Technologies Spinnaker S3000

Streaming Media - April/May 2008

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