Learn how to easily upgrade your Windows Media infrastructure to the next-generation Microsoft core media platform, built on Silverlight, Expression Encoder, and IIS Media Services. See how to easily deliver your existing audio and video content (including Windows Media, MP3, Flash, QuickTime, and other formats) and learn how to create new content at higher quality and with smaller file sizes, and then deliver it adaptively, cross-platform and cross-device, at the highest possible quality for each user.  For those looking into cloud-based media solutions, we'll also show you how to simplify delivery and eliminate infrastructure costs using Windows Azure.

In this session, Adobe will demo their new Flash Media Server Family of products and show how they meet the needs of organizations, enabling them to reach their audience both internally and externally with dynamic, high quality streaming video. Learn how the Flash platform enables simple workflows including encode once and deliver across different devices. Attendees will also get to see new Adobe solutions coming to market and how organizations can take advantage of video for communication and collaboration.

Learn how to use SharePoint to deliver live and on-demand audio and video and see how you can serve content directly from your SharePoint database or from your media servers, and make that content easily searchable. Learn about using SharePoint as your primary media portal, with built-in media players that work across multiple platforms. Find out how you can achieve all of these on your own, or how an enterprise content management partner can help. Finally, we will demonstrate a new content management solution from Microsoft that fully integrates SharePoint with the latest Microsoft media platform technologies, including IIS Smooth Streaming, Silverlight Media Framework, Expression Encoder, Approval Workflow, Rough Cut Editing, Broadcast Scheduling, Ad Insertion, and more.

Learn the technological fundamentals behind encoding for both H.264 and WebM formats. You'll learn how to encode H.264 for HTML5 distribution and streaming to iOS and other mobile devices, as well as how to encode it for Flash, including live, on-demand, and RTMP, as well as HTTP-based adaptive streaming. For WebM, you'll learn the basics of on-demand streaming, plus get a look at live WebM encoders. Finally, you'll learn how the various H.264 and WebM encoding tools compare in regards to performance, quality, and features.

As the number of broadband-enabled devices invading the living room continues to grow, lots of questions remain about their capabilities. In this session, company executives will demo the Boxee Box by D-Link and the WD TV Live Plus and WD TV Live Hub. Attendees will see these devices in action, learn which content platforms they run, and get their questions answered in a Q&A session.

Ad buyers have different criteria for assessing "valuable" inventory when it comes to online video. But is it tied to the perceived value of the brand behind the content, or is it just how well the content performs that determines value? If the latter, how does each ad buyer measure performance of online video campaigns? In this session, you'll hear from real ad buyers about what online video publishers can do to maximize the success of campaigns and thus the value of their inventory to advertisers.

Years of conclusive statistics show that streaming can offset travel costs, outsourced services and production costs, and the opportunity costs of removing employees from the office for meetings. But once you've proved the ROI and gotten your program going, the question becomes, "How do we know this is working?" This session features firsthand examples from Fortune 500 organizations that are using streaming to support core communications, training, and educational programs and employing metrics to prove cost savings and employee engagement.

Learn the technological fundamentals behind encoding both H.264 and WebM formats for playback with the HTML5 <video> tag. Learn the basics of H.264 and WebM encoding and how to produce it for HTML5 distribution. In addition, see how the various H.264 and WebM encoding tools compare in regard to performance, quality, and features.

From Hulu to Netflix, streaming video is having a powerful impact on the traditional television industry. But are consumers really cutting the cord and bypassing cable operators in favor of online video? With the broadcast networks facing some of the same threats as the newspaper industry, will services like TV Everywhere and over-the-top (OTT) content be the industry's savior? These topics and more will be addressed by this panel of content heavyweights.

An in-depth conversation about the evolution of reporting, producing, distributing, and consuming video news. News executives will discuss strategies both around creating original content and in aggregating video from outside sources. Speakers will also talk about new distribution and syndication models and the emergence of new platforms for news, including mobile and connected TV's.

In the face of the rich-media revolution, educational institutions are using video in every aspect of campus life, from lecture capture to distance education, campus websites, libraries and preservation, digital asset management, clubs and events, and more. The challenge is finding media solutions that are agile, scalable, and cost effective. This panel will discuss best practices for integrating video and rich-media solutions into higher education institutions, presented by top universities that are leading the charge with integrated media strategies for viewers both on and off campus.

This live coding session will demonstrate how to develop from scratch your own interface for HTML5 video, including embedding a video using HTML5, building custom controls using the JavaScript API, fallback strategies for older browsers and devices, and fixing known playback bugs on the iPhone and Android. By the end of the session you should feel comfortable adding HTML5 video to your own site.

Consumers are using broadband-enabled TVs, Blu-ray players, OTT devices, and game consoles for services such as Netflix, VUDU, and Hulu. This has increased the demand for enough bandwidth to handle multiple streams of HD-quality video. But how is this demand being met? In this session, the technology partners that are delivering solutions to enhance the OTT experience will explore how the speed, bandwidth capability, and reliability of the MoCA (Multimedia over Coax) home networking standard are enabling service providers and original equipment manufacturers to maximize OTT services.

Video workflows have become greatly refined over the years, thanks in large part to online video platform providers. While their services have been continually improved and refined to make it easier for content owners to manage their video, the platforms must evolve even further. This session discusses what the evolution of these services is going to look like, what new functionality customers are looking for, and ways in which the video ecosystem can be further simplified.

Social media and online video are changing the way employees engage and collaborate inside leading organizations. A mobile workforce needs information accessible at any time and from anywhere in the world. In this session, attendees hear from real end users about how they were able to harness the power of online video and Enterprise 2.0 strategies to crowdsource knowledge from employees, increase collaboration, and connect communities.

This seminar starts by detailing the playback specs for all iDevices, old and new. Then, it shares the strategies used by prominent iTunes publishers to serve the complete range of installed iDevices. Next, the seminar switches to cellular wireless delivery, with a technical description of Apple's HTTP Live Streaming, including recommendations for the number of streams and Apple's encoding parameters. The seminar concludes with a review of encoding options for HTTP Live Streaming and techniques for serving multiple target platforms such as Flash and iDevices with one set of encoded H.264 files.

Streaming sites such as Hulu, CBS, ABC, and others have proven that savvy audiences are turning to their computers for entertainment, and in a way that's profitable. How are traditional and cutting-edge companies capitalizing on this trend? In addition to providing the content, how are they taking advantage of this "connected" platform as they deliver content? And finally, how might online video based subscription offerings affect cable companies to this new content source?

If you distribute or produce content that will be digitally consumed, you are faced with preparing your media for a multitude of screens. From Android-based tablets to the iPad, iPhone 4, and beyond, mobility is the new video frontier. So what's the right strategy to reach all these devices? How many variants of one clip must a publisher create? Which platforms will yield the greatest uptake? In this session, industry leaders with hands-on experience answer these questions and provide a best practices approach to help you develop your content to multiple devices.

Content owners can now choose from a large number of new transcoding solutions including in-house enterprise-class software and hardware appliances; cloud-based solutions; and transcoding services offered by CDNs and other third-party vendors. Given this breadth of choices, choosing the right transcoding mechanism, or combination of mechanisms, has significant impact on the cost, quality, security, and reliability of the overall solution. This session focuses on the benefits and trade-offs of each mechanism and helps you select the best solution for your needs.

This session will help you understand how the Adobe Flash Platform supports top-quality video delivery with reduced publishing complexity. Specifics about delivering protected video using Flash Media Server will be demonstrated to devices such as the Apple iPad 2, the Motorola Xoom tablet and Atrix smartphone, as well as to browsers supporting the HTML5 video tag. Additional discussion points will include targeting devices like set-top boxes and internet-enabled TVs.

With so many broadband-enabled devices in the market, trying to determine what each one offers in the way of streaming quality and content inventory can be quite confusing. In this special session, Dan Rayburn will present hands-on demos showcasing multiple devices, including the Apple TV, Roku XDS, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3. Attendees will see these devices in action, learn which content platforms they run, and get their questions answered in a Q&A session.

Smart TVs have joined new set top boxes, Blu-ray players, game consoles, and media center PCs as ways for internet-streamed video to reach the big screen. But with so many choices, how do you pick which ones to develop for, which ones to deploy on, and which ones to ignore? This session explores everything from the possible emergence of a standard stack for Smart TVs to handicapping Roku, Boxee, Google TV, and more. It also explores best practices in developing apps that work across many of these devices.

Now that organizations are showing proficiency in creating video-based content and even enabling employees to contribute user-generated video, how do you develop communication strategies for this content? And, as companies amass hundreds or even thousands of hours of video, how does the enterprise manage, secure, and govern it all? Come hear these issues and others discussed by a group of enterprise content owners and hear what the future holds for enterprise video communication.

With major media sites such as YouTube, The New York Times, Flickr, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Vimeo now offering HTML5 video players, and Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera web browsers rapidly adding HTML5 features, it’s time to consider what HTML5 offers in comparison to competing proprietary technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun’s JavaFX. What are the implications for your business? What tools are available for effectively using HTML5 multimedia elements? What are the trade-offs? This session looks at the current state of the market and discusses how you can expect HTML5 video to impact your business.

Companies can choose from a variety of business models to monetize OTT video: video ads, subscriptions, pay-to-own-the list goes on. This presentation will consider the trade-offs faced by content owners and the pros and cons of content bundling vs. à la carte offerings. We'll also examine the issues from a service provider perspective, including opportunities to adapt offers by consumer segment, by content type (e.g. live sports, movies, TV shows), and across platforms including "TV Everywhere." Following the main presentation, Azuki Systems CEO John Clancy will join for a Q&A session to provide additional industry perspective.

For years, broadcast ad buyers have made their purchases based on a show's or a network's audience, and more and more attention is being given to audience identification on the internet. So why isn't anyone buying online video advertising this way? The potential for brand advertising in interactive video content remains virtually untapped, even as online video consumption has doubled since last year and the industry's ability to measure brand lift is better today than it ever has been. Can Gross Ratings Points be adopted from TV to become the standard metric for online video?

This session will present case studies from Boeing, Motorola, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center showcasing the use and deployment of video for live and on-demand applications. Attendees will learn about webcasting workflows, on-demand applications, and ways these companies are using video today to improve communications, increase efficiency, and enhance their businesses.

Now that Google has made the decision to remove H.264 from Chrome, it's more important than ever to pick the right video formats for online video distribution. Many claims about HTML5 have been laid down by both standards and Flash proponents, and not all of them are based on fact. This session walks you through the capabilities of HTML5 and the Flash platform as well as the codecs they support, including WebM and H.264. Learn the effect HTML5 will have on video encoding and distribution in the future and how HTML5 may impact your business.

With the number of new broadband-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players being sold, along with devices such as the Xbox, Roku, TiVo, and PS3, consumers now have many ways to get their video fix. So what are the new business models that will be created around these new devices? What hurdles need to be overcome so that content can be monetized for multiple platforms? Explore with this panel the role of current consumer entertainment devices in this new convergent world and how these devices will play together to offer a superior video experience.

Content producers need to distribute their content as widely as possible in order to build a brand, grow an audience, and augment revenues. But in a world with infinite UGC and reduced barriers to entry for professional producers, there doesn't seem to be enough advertising to support the ever-increasing supply of content. In this session, we examine the different strategies required at various stages in a content producer's life cycle to achieve the above objectives without diluting leverage and pricing power for securing various revenues streams on multiple platforms.

This session provides tips and tricks, best practices, and lessons learned regarding the technical set-up of live streaming production. Learn how to stream multiple formats from a single encoder, use social networking overlays, leverage adaptive bitrate streaming, and transition between live streams from multiple camera angles using multi-encoder synchronization. Come learn how to deliver interactive, high-quality experiences for your next live event.

The first generation of HTML5 video technology has been focused on just getting video to play. Things like video analytics, advertising, live streaming, content protection, and player UI customization have lagged behind. In this presentation, learn how these gaps can be addressed, both now and in the future, what HTML5 can and cannot do today and predictions for the state of HTML5 video experiences in the next 2-3 years.

This session discusses and demonstrates ways content owners can use social media platforms to generate awareness for their video library. Learn the best practices for building a fan base with Twitter and Facebook as well as ways to augment your core brand via mobile devices and apps. Speakers also discuss some of the most successful ways to package your brand to sponsors.

For all the buzz about online video advertising, most content owners have yet to be able to turn their online video from cost center to profit center. Still, strong signals suggest that video monetization is around the corner, provided content owners don't pull back in today's tight economy. What will it take to reach that tipping point, and what direct cost and revenue impact will it have on content owners? With all the different ads formats on the web today, which ones have the greatest ability to help content owners monetize content and why?

This seminar identifies the most relevant adaptive streaming technologies and details the most critical factors for comparing them. Next, the seminar details how to choose the ideal number of streams and key encoding parameters. Then it provides an overview of options for encoding and serving the streams, and closes by describing techniques for serving multiple target platforms like Flash and iDevices with one set of encoded H.264 files.

This session features presentations of new products that deliver video compatible with HTML5 devices and browsers. Vid.ly, a new service from Encoding.com, allows content owners to generate a short URL for each source video and Vid.ly automatically delivers the optimized video for the right device. LiveTranscoding.com showcases a new live transcoding service that provides multiple outputs in real-time from a single source stream. The cloud-based service enables companies of any size to move to HTML5-compatible live video by supporting output formats such as WebM, Ogg, and H.264.

This session discusses how converging media technologies are redefining traditional distribution methods; how interactive and on-demand services are changing; and how entertainment and news video is being consumed. Come hear from some of the leading publishers, broadcasters, and advertisers about the impact that video and new media is having upon their business models.

As video becomes increasingly important on the web, content providers, browser developers, and end users can no longer afford to have the primary video delivery mechanisms locked up in standards that cannot be adapted to new environments. This is especially true for emerging trends such as mobile video and cross-device video technologies. HTML5 Video might be the answer, and we discuss what it is, the challenges it's facing, and how it affects other formats such as Flash and Silverlight, as well as how leading platforms and web giants such as Google, Mozilla, and Apple are supporting it.