Streaming Media White Paper 2008 - (Page 9) www.streamingmedia.com 9 VSaaS Internet TV is Video Streaming as a Service RICH MAVROGEANES, FOUNDER, CHIEF EVANGELIST, AND CTO, VBRICK certainly poised to revolutionize how consumers obtain their entertainment, and it is already affecting corporate communications and journalism. If you are under 30, the public internet may already be your principal media source. Like the cell-phone-focused college kid refusing the installation of a wired phone line by saying,“Why would you want to call me where I am not,” corporations are abandoning satellite-based broadcasting and embracing streaming media to save money and increase their reach. Moreover, streaming media over the public internet has made it possible for even the smallest organization to achieve what only the largest ones could afford to do just a few years ago. What’s new in 2008 is how easy and reliable streaming has become, and now you can roll your own or engage Video Streaming as a Service (VSaaS). almost 500 million people who have broadband internet service around the world. You can broadcast your message for one minute or continuously for years and do it without government permission or license and virtually without restriction. Live Video Is Compelling Conventional wisdom suggests that streaming media is for entertainment use that deals with the delivery of some produced content, such as a Hollywood movie. YouTube videos are similarly primarily for entertainment.These are all forms of video on demand (VOD) that do not deal with live video, but when was the last time you put a note in your calendar to view a stored video? Likely never. Live video is automatically compelling; whether it is newsworthy or not, it is inarguably timely and potentially interactive, giving the publisher real-time feedback and demographics. Faith broadcasting,sporting events,concerts, education, financial reporting, employee alignment, government transparency, and hundreds of business and industrial applications require live, high-quality video delivery. Anyone can upload a video file to a free video sharing site (and you tend to get what you pay for), but live video is a much more difficult technical problem, though it has been solved in both a box (the VBrick appliance) and in a service (VBrick Online Streaming Service). Your choice depends on several factors. The most important aspect of professional quality is dependability. The Media Is the Message Marshall McLuhan’s idea that “the media is the message” is perhaps more relevant today than when it was coined in 1964. When you communicate using streaming media, you are not only using one of the most efficient forms of human communications ever devised but also saying something about yourself. You are saying that the information is important enough that you want to reach the intended audience regardless of where they are. Your viewers may be tuned in via cell phones, desktop computers in their homes or workplace, or via dedicated set-top boxes connected to conventional TV monitors. Unlike broadcast, cable TV, or satellite services, your eligible audience is the internet bandwidth,you can certainly roll your own, like thousands of VBrick customers already have. You may not even need a webpage for the simplest applications (if you target Windows-only desktops, for example). A VBrick WM Appliance is extremely reliable, is immune to viruses and worms, enjoys a fully embedded high-speed digital signal processing architecture (not just a computer with a capture card), delivers up to 200 direct clients, pushes to up to 25 simultaneous publishing points, operates from behind firewalls, supports multiple bit rate encoding, delivers simultaneous multicast, has built-in recording capability, and much more. The VBrick HTTP push has reliability features not found in other solutions, allowing it to automatically recover from unintentional network issues (you’ll never hear a VBrick customer use the word “reboot”), and the appliance has outstanding network citizenship features such as remote management and simple network management protocol. Simply construct a viewing page using Windows Media Player or Silverlight,point it toward your VBrick, and you are on the air in minutes. But if your organization is typical, you don’t have sufficient bandwidth to support,say,1,000 Streaming Make/Buy Make Internally • You already have needed infrastructure • You have ample bandwidth • You have the needed technical talent • CAPEX funding Buy Service • You have no existing infrastructure • You focus on the content, not the technology • OPEX funding The Online Streaming Make/Buy Decision A VBrick appliance makes it extremely easy to deploy live online video. All you need is the appliance, a webpage to view it, and internet network bandwidth to support the desired number of viewers. If you have a talented and engaged IT staff and ample http://www.streamingmedia.com
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