Streaming Media West 2003 Wrap-Up
In the
Mirror Image booth, executives were showcasing their video on demand solutions with an integrated content management system. What was interesting to note was that most
clients "leverage Mirror Image’s strength for providing multiple solutions", said Jeff Marcus, VP of Operations. "While most people at the show were stopping by to look at our streaming solutions, they are quite pleased and surprised to know that Mirror Image is a global e-Business provider of end-to-end Content Delivery, Streaming Media, e-Commerce and Web Computing solutions." Additionally, Mirror Image announced at the show that New England Cable News (NECN) is using its Video-On-Demand streaming media solution to seamlessly bring its cable broadcasts to life online at
www.necn.comShai Berger and Jason Bigue of Keynote Systems were at Streaming Media West launching the next-generation Streaming metrics platform, by Keynote in summer 2003, the company’s Streaming Perspective 3.0. Since the acquisition of StreamCheck streaming media
service offerings have been consolidated and strengthened. "We have more well-placed measurement agents distributed around the world for our clients," explains Berger. "For customers, this means that our StreamQ metric reflects customer experiences worldwide with unprecedented accuracy. We also can drill down into any data point and explain why performance is suffering at any point in the network." The service is available as Streaming Perspective Monitoring, Streaming Perspective Diagnostic and Streaming Perspective Live Event, for short duration, high profile events.
In their booth StreamGuard’s executives were discussing the findings of a recent study conducted of Internet radio sites. "We found that one in six streams have an immediate and fatal error and more than a quarter of audiences, 25.7%, are waiting between 5 and 10
seconds for their streams to begin," reports Lieb Lurie, CEO of StreamGuard. "Of nearly 4 Million streams requested, we found that over half of them would qualify as frustrating experiences. With this kind of data, we feel that there’s plenty of room for improvement." StreamGuard uses measurement agents distributed around the country to request streams. Its differentiators are the way the servers can detect new streams on a page or portal, and the resulting lower cost of measurement which permits StreamGuard to set a new standard in performance metric packaging and pricing.
Keynote PresentationsScott Moore, president of
MSNBC.com and general manager of MSN News and Information, gave Tuesday's keynote address entitled
"The Future of Streaming Video," where he focused on the business side of streaming and discussed the penetration of streaming
video in the consumer market. Cable television took far longer to reach today's level of streaming penetration and now that broadband has reached more than 20 million homes consumers are beginning to demand video. Approximately 50% of streaming usage is news-related, according to Moore, and he drew on MSNBC.com's success offering free streamed video to users during the Iraq War to explain why he doesn't see a value proposition for forcing users to pay for streaming video online. "Unless you have a legacy product you need to protect," Moore explained, citing examples like the Wall Street Journal, he does not believe consumers are willing to pay for content they could just as easily view on television for free. What consumers do want, Moore said, is a more efficient viewing process with more ability to "control, condense, and combine media." "Music is leading the way here," he continues, "I think this is a precursor to what we're going to see with video." For example, the ability to watch just one interview in a news program instead of the whole show just as consumers are now able to purchase one song from an album instead of the full disc. Finally, Moore delved into the advertising problems and opportunities that exist online, particularly because light television viewers tend to be heavy broadband users and also tend to he highly educated, wealthy, and family-oriented. Based on such information, the new MSN 9 homepage will offer users the ability to create playlists of streamed news clip that will include some short, streamed advertising. Thus advertisers can reach a very different audience than television viewers using a similar medium.
------------------------
Wednesday's keynote address, "Webcasting: Rules of the Road," was delivered by the president of CCBN, Rob Adler. Adler began by recapping facts on the number of companies deploying webcast initiatives in 2003 and their success rates. He explained that a webcasts
success will be driven by ease-of-use of applications and value added tools for end users. It is less about technology, according to Adler, and more about what the customer wants. Customers are not buying streaming, delivery, technology, bit rates, etc., they are buying a business solution, he said.
Drawing from CCBN's success, Adler generalized advice for others. He advocated making execution no additional work for the customer and explained the importance of seamlessly entering the user's workflow. Increase the likelihood of the target audience accessing the webcast by understanding the user well enough to devise a solution, then allow for targeted follow-up through reporting. Adler also explained how useful transcripts of calls can be, particularly in the financial sector where up-to-the-minute information is crucial. "A minute of audio takes a minute to listen to," he said. "But a minute of audio takes about three seconds to read." Thus transcribed calls can help analysts stay on top of multiple calls without wasting time, although transcripts remain tricky because of SEC compliance issues.
View the video from Rob's keynote address http://www.tvworldwide.com/events/streaming_media/031013/
------------------------
Thursday's keynot
Companies and Suppliers Mentioned