Streaming Media - April/May 2008 - (Page 40)

between quality, processor power for decoding, and available data rates. In the end, though, the final encode should work for the lowest-end user and still impress the highest-end user.” Out of all this, and the need for mass delivery, media asset management systems and content delivery networks were born. Without Cleaner, there would have been no basis for Anystream, Telestream’s FlipFactory, or even Sorenson Squeeze and Apple’s Compressor. Even today Darren’s tool has yet to be matched. “Darren uses our product now,” says Randon Morford, product manager for Sorenson Media’s Squeeze transcoding product, which is now in beta for version five. “It’s taken us five versions to even get close to the power of Media Cleaner, but we think we’re there now.” a decade of streamingmedia.com advertising, pay-per-view (now called transactional pricing), bundling, and so on. There was even a 1998 Streaming Media West panel on Streaming Video Strategies for “traditional” cable and TV broadcasters. One thing that has seemed to change slightly, with the advent and maturity of CDNs, is the focus on “roll your own” broadcast streaming and hosting networks. Why build when you can buy? That was a discussion that went on for at least 6 years while the CDNs were busy building out. The Last Word Henning Schulzrinne is one of the names you often don’t hear when looking back at the beginnings of streaming media. As a professor and chair in the department of computer science at Columbia University, Schulzrinne has had a significant impact. A quick read of his research interests (internet real-time and multimedia services and protocols, ubiquitous computing, mobile systems, quality of service, modeling and analysis of computer-communication networks, operating systems, network security) and the protocols he’s worked on (RTP , RTSP SIP and CASP) show just how deeply rooted his , , research work is with the advancement of streaming. In a recent interview, I asked Schulzrinne to encapsulate his thoughts on streaming in the last decade. I was expecting a scientific or research-focused response, but I was pleasantly surprised when Schulzrinne’s answer neatly summed up the growth from technological curiosity to key business tool. “Streaming media, once an exotic application more noted for its novelty than its practical uses or popularity,” says Schulzrinne, “has now become one of the applications dominating Internet traffic and a major part of popular culture, education, and dozens of niche applications.” And, just like Rob Glaser and the RealNetworks team that set out to change the way we broadcast, Schulzrinne thinks streaming isn’t just about replication of old broadcast mediums. “The boundaries between media-file delivery, nearreal-time media streaming, video/audio-on-demand and true interactive audio and video have become blurred,” he says, “with similar codecs and protocols; but this continuum affords far greater flexibility than just replicating radio, TV and telephone or ISDN videoconferencing services.” [All of us at Streaming Media would like to thank everyone who's supported us over the years and made the success of our shows, website, and magazine possible. Here's to the next ten years and beyond!—Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen, Editor] Tim Siglin (writer@braintrustdigital.com) writes and consults on digital media business models and “go to market” strategies. He is chairman of Braintrust Digital, a digital media production company, and co-founder of consulting firm Transitions, Inc. Comments? Email us at letters@streamingmedia.com, or check the masthead for other ways to contact us. Back to the Future As we look forward to another decade of streaming media, exercises like this—looking back at where we’ve been—solidify the gains and reveal future opportunities and challenges. If the early years were ones of fierce competition to become the de facto online video standard, the last few years have seen a tangential trend. A noteworthy decision was made several years ago when Gary Sullivan of Microsoft’s Core Media Processing Team, Windows Digital Media division, was in a unique position within the industry. He served as the chairman of the International Telecommunications Union’s Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and liaison from this group to the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). Sullivan eventually moved into a co-chair role at MPEG as MPEG-4 was being developed, and then into the chairman role of Joint Video Team (JVT), a joint ITU/ISO MPEG group that implemented the decision to create an MPEG codec: H.264, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 or Advanced Video Coding (AVC). Fortunately, Sullivan’s bold decision was also natural for someone with his background. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1999, Sullivan was manager of communications core research at PictureTel Corp., the leading videoconferencing system manufacturer before Polycom acquired it. So his experience seeing multiple codecs fighting it out—and slowing down the growth of videoconferencing—is now benefiting us all. I’m not saying H.264 (or VC-1, or continually improving MPEG-2) is the final word in codecs. In a recent interview, Doug McIntyre, former CEO of On2 Technologies (best known perhaps as the video codec supplier to Macromedia for Flash 8 video) noted that innovation for video compression is still in its infancy. With that I fully concur, and I look forward to covering continued innovations in these pages and online at StreamingMedia.com. Even looking back at the Streaming Media shows from 10 years ago, it’s easy to see the discussions have continued unabated: format wars, player wars, 40 STREAMING MEDIA April/May 2008 http://streamingmedia.com http://StreamingMedia.com

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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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