Hi everyone -

I’m Neal Hartsell, vice president of Marketing for RipCode, and a new voice on the RipCode blog.  I’m a fairly recent addition to the RipCode team and my first chance to tell the RipCode story in front of a large group came last month when RipCode had the prestigious opportunity to present to cable industry executives as part of the Innovation Showcase at the 2009 CableLabs Conference in Colorado Springs. For those that may not know, the focus of CableLabs is to showcase the latest in content and services that operators may employ to serve cable customers. As I talked with industry executives at the show, it became clear to me that broadband service providers are paying close attention to the growing number of consumers watching TV shows online.  As consumer’s desire for ‘time shifted’ video content increases, cable and broadband operators are looking for ways to retain control of their customer base by extending their brand to Web and mobile domains, while increasing revenue opportunities in the new Internet and mobile media markets.  The RipCode transcoding story seemed to resonate with the cable operators that I talked to as a viable solution for:

• extending broadcast content to desktop and mobile devices
• extending the cable brand to alternative viewing models
• capitalizing on Internet and mobile advertising revenue

To learn more, check out the video from RipCode’s Innovation Showcase presentation.