Tags: blip.tv, bliptv, Dina Kaplan, Jennifer Jones, Marketing Voices, social media, user-generated content, video, Web tv

Friday’s announcement from Yahoo! Video touted a “wider viewing experience,” in addition to more content, bigger files and more sharing opportunities. And then there are those who ask whether another user-generated video site is what we really need.

Then there’s Apple TV Take Two. Steve Jobs and Apple continue to suggest that integration, convergence and usability might help consumers make the switch from TV as they know it to greater reliance on broadband and computing for downloadable video (including movie rentals).

Regardless of where things will ultimately end up, TV set sales are still big business (you may have seen coverage recently suggesting that men would still make considerable sacrifices in order to get a 50-inch TV display. We might as well ask: what would you be willing to give up for a big TV?

Tags: television, Internet, James McQuivey, Yahoo! Video, user-generated, Apple TV, Take Two, Steve Jobs, convergence

For the lay person, digital video is created with a video codec that encodes and compresses a stream of information. There are numerous codecs, each offering its own benefit and/or tradeoffs for visual or audio quality and file size.

Unlike traditional systems that force a single codec, CodecSys runs each frame of video past a collection of the codecs and determines which codec is best for that particular frame or series of frames. Exploiting attributes of multiple codecs, CodecSys can reduce bandwidth needs by 50-75%. Since it’s a software solution, new codecs can easily be incorporated into the system.

Broadcast International CEO Rod Tiede talks with Brad Baldwin about CodecSys and their recent demo with IBM at the 2007 IBC Expo in Amsterdam on the new BladeCenter QS20 “Cell Blade”.

Tags: Bandwidth, BladeCenter, Broadcast International, Codec, CodecSys, IBC, IBM, IPTV, Rod Tiede, video

Related Stories: IntelMooresLaw

Tags: mobile information, interaction, user-generated content, social networking, WiMAX broadband, IntelMooresLaw

Rattner, who spoke with PodTech’s Michael Johnson to give a preview of the Fall IDF, wrapped up the annual developer conference by acknowledging Wired Magazine’s prediction that, as social media and user-generated content hit the mainstream at the same time as the rise of broadband and increased connectivity (and mobility), the coming year could see 60 million participants in online virtual worlds.

Rattner was also joined onstage by Greg Nuyens, CEO of Qwaq, who demoed virtual worlds for the enterprise. Outside of business applications, virtual surgery (especially as a training tool) suggests that realistic virtual environments are already a significant force in some communities.

The larger message that Rattner left the crowd with was that the computing power that will be necessary to deliver this rich 3-D experience will have to be substantial, especially given the demand that real time or “frame rate” visual experience for the 3D Web will demand.

Tags: Justin Rattner, Fall IDF, virtual worlds, 3D Internet, social media, user-generated content, Greg Nuyens, Qwaq

Tags: Ben Elowitz, Wetpaint

Tags: Daphne Kwon, Bill Hildebolt, ExpoTV

Users now have a chance to have their video content shown on Indian TV channels through Sumo.tv. We caught up with Pankaj Thakar, CEO of Cellcast, to find out more about their plans for user-generated content in India.

The way it works is that users upload their content, Sumo.tv editors will check for content suitability and quality and then pass it on to the TV channels. How do users get paid? Through a revenue share with Sumo.tv. (Every time a user’s content is downloaded on mobile phones or shown on TV, the content owner gets a share of the revenue.)

When we met Pankaj, he was on his way to London for a board meeting of the parent company Cellcast Group. Pankaj mentioned that Cellcast India will be spinning off from the parent company very soon. So watch out for that.

Tags: User-generated content, Cellcast, Sumo.tv, Pankaj Thakar

By the way, it’s tough to get a hold of Sean, because he’s a pretty busy guy. (his titles: executive vice president, general manager of the sales marketing group, and chief sales and marketing officer for Intel. And it’s the week before CES….). His schedule makes getting him for a sit-down interview a big challenge. I caught him in the hallway, and the simple fact of having a camera in my pocket made this podcast possible. The quality is fine for the content, and it’s not all that long ago that this wouldn’t have been possible.

Transcript:
Host: John Furrier - PodTech
Guest: Sean Maloney - Intel

John Furrier - PodTech
We’re here with Sean Maloney, the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Intel. In the hallway right next to the elevator, we just did a 15-16 minutes podcast about all the cool stuff that’s going at CES. We’re talking about, before, the podcast about HD. Tell us what’s going on in you mind, in your view about the whole HD phenomenon and video and all that good stuff.

Sean Maloney - Intel
I think what we’re doing here is typical of what I think is going to be a big breakthrough. If you think about the history of video and computers, the first video came out in the early 90s, kind of, on a tiny little postage stamp pictures; probably 50 years after video came on to TVs. You think about the DVD, and DVDs came out first of all with that kind of content played on TVs and then caught up later on notebooks and desktops. Now, what you’re seeing is HD quality through devices like this.

They’re going to reach probably the mass market even faster than HD or Blu-ray because of the viral and explosive growth that you’ve on video on the Internet now. So, I think for the first time, user-generated content is going to be at the same or higher quality than professional content and put the production standards off to one side, but just the image quality you’re going to see an explosion of beautiful image quality through devices like this and that will had a profound impact not just on hardware, not just on PCs, but on the whole of the electronics industry.

John Furrier - PodTech
But, hell, we’re in the hallway here at Intel. You’re a tough guy to get a hold of, you’ve got a busy schedule. I got my handheld, I pulled it out of my pocket, we are dong a quick interview, that’s phenomenal; but we’ve talked also about the opportunities, you’ve talked about software. Talk about to the people out there developing, entrepreneurs, software developers, hardware developers, people who’re innovating; what do you see happening with this new phenomenon, user-generated video, the new platform, the network, the Internet mobility, what are their opportunities as entrepreneurs?

Sean Maloney - Intel
Oh! I think that over the next two-to-three years you could imagine a world where almost everybody above a certain income level is going to have high-def cameras. Everybody will have notebook devices, and the global opportunity and I mean global opportunity there for software developers is very significant. I’d be weary about doing stuff that isn’t thinking globally because as you know all of these trends in the computer industry all set globally.

John Furrier - PodTech
Talk about TV, Daytime TV. The notebooks now replacing Daytime TV for people at work and a mobile environment is IPTV is going to be here sooner than later and we’re doing video now. What’s your view on that?

Sean Maloney - Intel
John, you might have comment earlier wrong that the PC is the new TV during the day. I think that’s a profound comment and it’s true. The issue is going to be how much can that spread out into the evening, and the rate of change of the Internet now is much, much faster than the rate of change in conventional media and one year on the Internet is equivalent to ten years in conventional media. Even with the conventional media industry guys waking up to that over the last 12 year. They are still chasing a moving target. So, I’d bet on the new entrant.

John Furrier - PodTech
The media business is not used to moving as fast as the computer business, as you’ve just mentioned. Talk about — as the head of the Intel Sales and Marketing and their products. What’s going to happen this year for the whole of 2007?

Sean Maloney - Intel
Well, from a marketing point-of-view, if we want to get messages across the people, we use the full blend of media. We’re still using TV to get an emotional connection to people. If you want to get an emotional connection, globally TV is probably still the way to go. At some point in the next three years — that may well become unraveled, in which case there is going to be a further move of ad dollars over to the PC. I think that will depend on how quickly the TV industry responds to this.

John Furrier - PodTech
Sean Maloney here in the hallway at Intel, (Inaudible) have to get some guys over there (Inaudible) Ken, and Darrel for the PodTech at the elevators. And where is Paul Otellini, can we go up into his office? Sean thanks so much for the video.

Sean Maloney - Intel
Thanks John.

Copyright ©2006 PodTech.net. All rights reserved. Privacy policy

Tags: Larry Gerbrandt, Nielsen Analytics, John F. Ince, user-generated content

Unlike a standard hosting services, Podango allows station directors to stake their claim and then use their passion and expertise to create, collect, manage and publish channels. Podango also takes care of the tech confusion of RSS feed subscription for various systems like iTunes.

Podango’s business model is to monetize channels with advertisers seeking to reach specific audiences. The cool thing is that Podango shares a good chunk of the revenue with the station director. Still in beta, Podango is currently adding stations quickly.

This podcast is brought to you by Rocky Mountain Voices.

Click here for transcript.

Tags: Lee Gibbons, Podango, Rocky Mountain Voices

Click here for transcript.

Tags: Dow Jones, VentureWire, Revver, Steven Starr

Chris Messina, aka FactoryJoe, is best known for his involvement in helping to create the BarCamp movement and Microformats. Recently he co-founded The Citizen Agency with real-life partner Tara Hunt.

Chris is a widely respected ambassador of open-source, most notably Firefox and Flock. Chris, as a volunteer for the Spread Firefox campaign, also designed the highly influential 2004 Firefox advert which appeared in the New York Times in 2004. Chris currently resides in San Francisco.

Click here for transcript.

Tags: Chris Messina, CrowdSourcing, FactoryJoe, BarCamp, Tara Hunt

Tags: Time Warner, AOL, Amit Shafrir

Reporter’s Notes: My thanks to my guests, Sean Carey of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, who took time out of his very busy schedule to speak with me by cell phone while traveling, and to both Steve Anderson and Chris Swain of USC’s School of Cinema Television, who spoke with me during a hectic 1st week of the new semester.

Online chatter puts YouTube’s valuation somewhere in the mind-boggling $1-2 billion neighborhood (at least today). For more, check this out.
- Matt Kelly

Tags: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Grouper Networks, Sean Carey, Steve Anderson, Chris Swain

Here are the actors in this Billion Dollar Baby:

“Our partnership with Google underscores News Corp’s continued evolution to become a powerful force in the digital media marketplace. To have come this far and gained this much momentum in just over a year is truly remarkable,” said Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation. “This is an exciting time in our history as a forward thinking media company and this is just the first of many steps we plan to take with Google. We look forward to expanding our relationship into many new areas over years to come.”

“We believe that our innovative technologies will be of real benefit to Fox Interactive Media’s growing number of users,” said Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google. “MySpace.com is a widely acknowledged leader in user-generated content and incorporating search and advertising furthers our mission of making the world’s information universally accessible and useful.”

“This deal is the next step in our evolution as a significant interactive player,” said Ross Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive Media. “Forming a strategic partnership with one of the most innovative companies in the world to expand our business together, monetize our platforms effectively and leverage our combined scale will provide substantial growth for our businesses.”

“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to bring the same innovation to monetizing user-generated content that we brought to search advertising,” said Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Global Sales & Business Development of Google. “We look forward to other opportunities to partner with News Corp. to the benefit of its community.”

Danny Sullivan, the original authority on “Search” reports the following …

“I’m at our Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose at the moment, so I don’t have time to do a long post on the news, which I’m still digesting. I’ve taken a number of phone calls on it already, so I’ll provided what I’ve given to some other reporters who have asked.

Big win for Google? Sure. Lots of traditional players are worried about MySpace, even if the site itself isn’t earning that much now, from what I understand. This gets Google in, keeps Yahoo and Microsoft out, and might be a cheap payment to protect Google’s front in the social networking wars. In other words, even if Google doesn’t make a net profit off of MySpace, the intangibles could be worth the cost. The closer ties also give Google deeper insight into the MySpace traffic, since it will soon see everyone going to these pages. That will be very helpful for Google if it wants to do a renewed social networking effort of its own.

Big loss for Microsoft and Yahoo? Maybe, maybe not. If social networking is hot, both of them — unlike Google — have very healthy communities in several international markets. In fact, that potentially could have been an issue in trying to win MySpace. Revenue-wise, Yahoo indirectly provides ads to MySpace, but current revenue doesn’t appear to be substantial, plus Yahoo already would have been giving a big chunk of this to whomever is the unknown middleman. ”

Look for more from John Battle - he wrote the book about Google called Search. Of course there will be something from Mike Arrington from Techcrunch.com