A Look Backward and Forward at the Expanding Video Universe

Submitted by Keith on April 6, 2011 - 12:35

As the digital media industry prepares for its annual trek to NAB, we thought we'd take a brief pause from the frenzy and present a look at the broad changes to the video landscape over time. Today, we stand on the precipice of an expanding video universe unlike anything we’ve seen in the past 60 years. Until very recently, suppliers and consumers of media saw fairly linear growth of TV channels and available video content; even the deluge of content that arrived with HDTV five years ago was miniscule compared to the amount of media now accessible with video-enabled IP devices. 

Expanding Universe Infographic
[Click to enlarge]

In 1948, mass production of black and white televisions revolutionized entertainment, bringing professionally produced video content into the home for the first time. TV in the home made the dissemination of information more fluid, provided a boom for programming networks and paved the way for successive innovations in the media world.

After the initial rabbit ears came color TV, then cable TV, digital TV, satellite TV, and most recently, HDTV. Each decade of advancement in technology drove a hand-in-hand exchange between supply and demand that by Y2K left us staring at hundreds of linear content channels and wondering: Where will media mulitply next? 

Live From South Africa: Kicking and Streaming

Submitted by Eli on June 17, 2010 - 01:47
World Cup 2006:  - "Did you see that goal by Brazil?"
                             - "No, I wish.  I'm at work.  I'm tracking the play-by-play online, though.  Was it a good shot?"
World Cup 2010:  - "Did you see that goal by Brazil?"
                             - "Yes, which one do you mean? I saw both! That first one by Maicon was so amazing that I had to rewind my stream to see it again.  I thought for sure the goalie deflected it, but in slow motion you could see that he just bent it right in. Well I need to go file this report!"

 

In the technology world, four years is an eternity.  So, those of us woking on streaming technology not only understand its evolution in the last four years, but can truly appreciate how the presence of video everywhere has revolutionized coverage of the 2010 World Cup.

World Cup ESPN3 Screenshot

Vancouver Olympics Streaming Brings New Meaning to Live Event Viewing

Submitted by gregt on February 12, 2010 - 16:23

tickets to OlympicsIt's been a long, but worthwhile, wait since the last Olympic Winter Games.
I think this year is especially exciting due to how far we've come technologically in just the last four years, let alone since I was a kid.

I remember bending rabbit ears on my 7" TV, picking up a fuzzy CTV Broadcast of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.  Being a young hockey player and skier, I was addicted to the Winter Olympics from that moment on, and I've watched every Olympics since. 

The evolution of media delivery and consumption over that period is really remarkable, and the Vancouver games will bring more options than ever for tuning in. In the US, NBC has gone to an all-HD production for the first time.  They will be broadcasting 835 hours of content on their network.  In addition, they will be live streaming about half of that over the Internet, and providing video-on-demand replays of over 1,000 hours of events. NBC is teaming up with Microsoft to present the online streams using Smooth Streaming technology and Silverlight players, which presents an amazing step forward in video quality.

Beet.TV Interview: Sam Blackman on how online video is the new black

Submitted by admin on December 18, 2009 - 11:19

Last month at the NewTeeVee conference, Beet.TV spoke with Sam Blackman, Elemental's CEO about the launch of Elemental Server, a new appliance for transcoding HD (and SD) video at "faster-than-real-time" rates and market implications for online video technology and products attempting to satiate the demand for video.

 

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