Blasts From the Past: A Decade (Almost) of StreamingMedia.com Headlines

Sept. 15
ResearchTV and Sony Demo HDTV Streaming Over Internet
ResearchTV, a consortium of research institutions created to gain better access to research information, has teamed with Sony Electronics’ Broadcast and Professional Company and demonstrated the first ever streaming of high definition television (HDTV) over the internet. On Sept. 9, computer engineers and television experts celebrated their first successful demonstration when an HDTV video stream was sent from the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto to the University of Washington (UW) campus in Seattle over the new high bandwidth Internet2 backbone.

Sept. 17
Akamai Teams With RealNetworks for Streaming Media Delivery
Content delivery provider Akamai Technologies announced the incorporation of software technology from RealNetworks to support the delivery of RealAudio and RealVideo content in the Akamai network. RealNetworks is licensing RealProxies for integration across Akamai’s global network. In addition, Akamai is developing a customized service for the delivery of streaming content created using RealNetworks’ RealSystem G2.

Sept. 21
Burstware Debuts on the Internet
Instant Video Technologies (www.burst.com) announced the debut of its enterprise-class software, Burstware, on the internet. Burstware will be widely available for internet applications for all of IVT’s existing customers and partners. Burstware delivers high-quality, jitter-free video and CD-quality audio across any IP-based network. According to IVT chairman, president, and CEO Richard Lang, "Whenever the network pipe is bigger than the encoding rate, Burstware can be utilized as the media delivery mechanism."

2000
Jan. 6
Nielsen//NetRatings Announces Top Internet Media Players in November
Measurement service Nielsen//NetRatings announced that the RealPlayer topped its November usage data for the top internet media players. RealPlayer garnered the majority of the usage with a reach of 12.1% of the active internet universe. Apple’s Quick Time had a 7.4% reach of active internet users, and Microsoft’s Windows Media Player held a reach of 3.2%. In raw numbers that comes out to 8,973,331 for RealPlayer users, 5,461,303 for QuickTime, and 2,376,191 for Windows Media.

Jan. 12
Internet Research Group Releases Content Delivery Report
Internet Research Group announced it has released its new 2000 Content Delivery & Distribution Report. It focuses on companies like Akamai, Digital Island/Sandpiper, Mirror Image Internet, and SkyCache, and why they are becoming more important, especially in light of AOL’s acquisition of Time Warner. The report says that the market for content delivery products and services will reach $6 billion by 2004.

Jan. 20
USA Video Interactive Wants to Broadcast Network TV Over the Net
USA Video Interactive announced it has signed a six-figure contract with Inetcable.com (www.inetcable.com) to serve as a technology partner in broadcasting network television signals over the internet. Live TV broadcast signals will be routed to USA Video Interactive’s "live" encoding engines and compressed with USA Video Interactive’s Wavelet compression technique. The signal will then be broadcast via Inetcable.com’s satellite distribution system.

Jan. 20
Movie and Broadcasting Companies Take Legal Action Against iCraveTV
It seemed so simple at first. The idea was to webcast broadcast television programming over the internet. The Toronto webcaster iCraveTV was taking the feeds of stations like NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, FOX, and the WB, as well as some Canadian stations, and putting them online for anyone to tune in. But iCraveTV’s webcasting days may be over. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said it was taking legal action to stop the "theft and unauthorized performances of U.S. copyrighted films and television." Ten motion picture and three broadcasting companies today filed a complaint against iCraveTV. It charges that iCraveTV is responsible for "one of the largest and most brazen thefts of intellectual property ever committed in the United States." —JA

Jan. 27
Clinton’s State of the Union to Be Webcast
For those stuck at the office without a TV, a few sites offer an alternative for watching President Clinton’s State of the Union address tonight at 9 p.m. EST. WorldStream has teamed up with Voter.com to present an entire evening’s worth of programming.

Feb. 16
America Online to Use Akamai for Content and Streaming Media Delivery
Is there any stopping Akamai? A week after announcing its intent to acquire INTERVU, it announced a deal with America Online (www.aol.com) to deploy Akamai edge servers within AOL’s network. The financial details of the deal were not released. —JA

Feb. 23
ViewCast.com Announces Osprey-2000M MPEG-2 Card
Hardware maker ViewCast.com announced the Osprey-2000M, a new MPEG2 and MPEG1 card that can be used to create streaming video with Windows Media and RealSystem G2. ViewCast.com will publicly demonstrate the Osprey-2000M at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas in April. The new Osprey-2000M is an MPEG encoder/decoder offering bitrates from 1Mbps to 15Mbps for broadcast-quality video. —JA