Korea and Serome Technology: Full Stream Ahead

Korea's adoption of streaming media is unparalleled, and unbeknownst to many yet Korea has been a part of the streaming media landscape since the dawn of the technology's boom. With over 1,100 webcasters and one of the most advanced wireless communications networks in the world, it's easily the most under-exposed country in the global streaming community - until now.

According to NetValue's Asian Streaming Report, distributed in conjunction with Streaming Media Asia, held this week in Hong Kong, Korea leads the global pack with a staggering 74 percent of its Internet population accessing streaming media.

The first of such studies in Korea found that 40 percent of Internet connections were originating from cyber cafes, where users receive free access with the purchase of coffee or snacks. The recent development of "PC rooms" throughout the country, has proven wildly successful in making streaming content a highly sought and commonplace experience. PC Rooms don't offer the amenities of a cyber cafe, but they do offer low cost access to high-speed Internet connections.

Max Boo-Young Hwang, country manager of NetValue Ltd, Korea claims that over 20,000 PC rooms exist in Korea with an average of 30 PCs per room, hosting upwards of 200 people per day. Online gaming, chat, e-mail and streaming media in particular, is fueling the demand across the country.

According to Hwang, broadband has now become a household word in Korea. High bit rate access is available in more than 60 percent of households with an Internet connection. Over 80 percent of these broadband subscribers are accessing streaming content via DSL.

"I don't even know what ADSL stands for, but my mother knows," said Hwang.

Six Internet Data Centers (IDCs) across Korea currently distribute broadband content in a similar fashion to the delivery methods employed by the likes of iBeam or Akamai. Koreans who wish to serve streaming content must lease space at one, some or all of the IDCs.

Korea's Commitment to Technology

Korea's optical network began as a government project in 1995 and would soon make government-owned Korean Telecom (KT) the most heavily invested member of the country's broadband access services groups.

"Almost 5 years ago, the government claimed our survival is to make our country an intelligent country. They provided PCs for a very low price," added Hwang.

And like any group of high-speed Internet access users, Koreans began surfing in droves, spawning numerous Internet businesses throughout the country, but with very little emphasis on the development of Internet-related technologies.

Dr. Jae-Yong Lee, senior member of technical staff, Serome R&D Center explains, "In the last couple years, Korean companies have begun to go out and compete with other solution providers and manufacturers as well, but their activity is not so high, like companies in the US or other regions."

Serome and MPEG-4

Serome Technology (www.serome.com) is one of the key Korean companies leading the streaming charge with MPEG-4 based streaming solutions for both wireless and wired devices.

Windows Media currently dominates the wired streaming landscape in Korea with over 80 percent of the market share, but individuals and companies throughout the country are waking up to the future of MPEG-4, particularly in the wireless space.

Serome provided extremely impressive wireless demos on the Streaming Media Asia exhibition floor, adding themselves to the wireless streaming arena with fellow exhibitors Emblaze and Packet Video.

"Now, we're in initial phase of the application, so we're actively promoting our software and architecture of MPEG-4 in Korea," said Lee. "We are providing this as a solutions provider. To promote our solutions, we have to be a service provider as well because we have to educate the customers and market," added Lee.

Equally impressive was Lee's demonstration of Serome's MPEG-4 technology over wireline. Streaming karaoke, video puzzles, click and drag video windows and multiple streaming videos within the same player window, to name a few, provided a glimpse of what's to come in MPEG-4.

"Our video is always MPEG-4 video, which is MPEG-4 simple profile. Many other companies are providing only the simple audio and video streaming. With this player, we not only have the audio and video streaming, but also the banner ads, buttons, which are not part of the player, they're part of the content," said Lee. "If a player supports BIFS (Binary Format for Scene Description) technology, it's fully compliant as part of the MPEG-4 system."

While the wireline application of Serome's MPEG-4 solution provided more of a "wow" factor than anything else, the wireless streaming demonstration to handheld devices was definitely impressive. Serome has entered the wireless ring with a powerful product at a key time in the technology's evolution And after such a compelling introduction to the streaming community in Hong Kong, the industry is bound to hear a lot more from Korea technology providers in the months and years to come.