Commentary: SM East 2007—More Substance, Less Hype

Streams of Thought
OK, enough of that; what were some other topics of interest on the show floor and in the hallways of Streaming Media East 2007?

The Enterprise Looks to Entertainment-Targeted Solutions. The enterprise, and the use of consumer-focused tools in the enterprise, was another topic of discussion. While the East show is primarily about entertainment, since it’s in New York, several attendees asked about using products like the Slingbox as a less expensive alternative to enterprise products like VBrick or Envivio. The point is well taken, as the quality of products like NewTek TriCaster, Apple TV, Sling, Visionary Solution—and a few other companies in the low-cost, high-quality encoding and delivery space—hints at the same revolution that happened in broadcast cameras and high-end projection systems for corporate training facilities. Since many of these companies are headquartered out in California, perhaps this issue can be addressed at Streaming Media West, which takes place from November 6-8, 2007 in San Jose.

Is Entertainment the Key Market? Speaking of the West show, there were also some comments about holding the show in Los Angeles or at least closer to Hollywood; several exhibitors also had good arguments for moving the show closer to San Francisco. That makes sense, but keeping the show in Silicon Valley is one area where I think Information Today and Rayburn’s team have stayed grounded: the move of earlier Streaming Media shows to Long Beach and L.A. put too much emphasis on the entertainment industry, which I feel stunted the growth of enterprise streaming at a critical point in 2000 when it was just beginning to grow.

Search. Search is another area several attendees asked me about; unfortunately, it was definitely under-represented at the show. Not one search vendor was present, although it’s possible that a search vendor could have been among one of the 15 or so exhibitors that I’ve heard were turned away due to lack of space. While the argument could be made that search is integral to the social networking video sites or has been consolidated into the enterprise asset management tools, the lack of expanded search tools is hurting the growth of online video.