Streaming Media - December 2007/January 2008 - (Page 96) Dan Castles PRESIDENT & CEO TELESTREAM w e’ve entered an era in which consumers are now dictating when, where and how they wish to view video content—from television programming to classroom lectures and executive communications. Consumers are as likely to view content delivered over the internet to their computers, iPod or other mobile devices, as they are to view conventional broadcast programming. This on-demand viewing phenomenon will change the way a growing number of enterprises and educators feel about using digital video as a tool to promote their products and services, communicate with employees, and deliver classroom lectures to students. On the other end of the video spectrum, usergenerated content is being uploaded to broadcasters and a growing number of video-sharing websites like YouTube. How will enterprises, educators, media companies, and distributors respond to this rapidly changing video environment? With Flexible compression and workflow automation software solutions, from companies such as Telestream, that provide the adaptability to respond to evolving market and business needs will simplify this process. These needs include the ability to receive media and metadata from multiple input sources and devices, validate user-generated content, reformat and resize media for a variety of viewing devices, apply filters to improve quality, add graphic layers for branding and promotion, provide notifications, and deliver media and metadata to multiple destinations for ultimate distribution to a growing number of viewing platforms and devices. Since our inception nearly ten years ago, we have worked closely with our customers to meet their evolving digital media needs—from our first ClipMail encoding and IP delivery products to today’s industry-leading FlipFactory, Flip4Mac, and Episode software solutions. We enable content owners and distributors to efficiently process and distribute digital media to meet viewers’ evolving on-demand video needs—while protecting the corporate bottom line. These are exciting and challenging times for enterprises, educators, media owners, and service providers. We look forward to working closely with these companies in the coming years to simplify their digital media workflow needs. sponsored supplement 96 Steve Condon he economics, user experience, and technology for any time, anywhere, any device viewing solidify in 2008. Three major trends are affecting the viability of rich media delivery, and as these trends evolve they are transforming the business of online media. The economics of online delivery have changed. Over the past year, we’ve seen a healthy dose of new competition in the CDN space. The resulting decreases in the price of content delivery have “changed the game” in terms of the economics of long-form content distribution over the internet. As a result, in 2008 we’ll see advertising, subscription, and complementary models take hold for content owners and distributors. This will move online VOD and “over the top” services from the lab into the mainstream P&L of major media companies. Consumer loyalty is built through improved programming experiences. The introduction of online electronic programming guides (EPG) changes the consumer’s internet video experience from “drive-by” viewership, where viewers randomly cruise websites for new and interesting content, to an experience in which consumers can indicate their preferences and get suggestions as well as scheduled VP, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT | VERISIGN downloads of high-quality content. Online viewers will eventually have a wide slate of programming available— complete historical libraries, searchable by subject or key words, user generated—as well as platforms designed to facilitate flexibility in sharing and access, offering onlinemedia rights that are comparable to their offline counterparts. For media companies and broadcasters this is important—an engaged, habitual consumer is much more valuable than those who visit occasionally and randomly. Commercial peer-to-peer delivery takes hold. VeriSign was ahead of the curve when it introduced the first commercial hybrid CDN, The VeriSign® Intelligent CDN—a content delivery environment which combines central server delivery with peer-assisted delivery—in late 2006. Other major CDNs have followed VeriSign’s lead. The growing availability of hybrid CDNs also reflects a growing awareness of the difference between “commercial P2P” and the technology utilized by filesharing networks (frequently used for unauthorized downloads of copyrighted materials). Commercial P2P is secure, reliable, and sophisticated software and network technology that delivers a consistently high quality user experience while protecting the rights of content owners, creators, and distributor. t STREAMING MEDIA December 2007/January 2008
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.