The unprecedented growth of mobile, Internet and IPTV content is taxing legacy video delivery models:
• Commercial Internet video traffic will increase 5X by 2012
• User-generated video content will increase 3X by 2012
• 2/3 of all mobile traffic will be video by 2013
• 14.3 billion online videos were viewed by U.S. Internet users during December, 2008 alone
The fascination with being able to view both professional and user-generated entertainment content on Internet and mobile devices will not taper any time soon, but there is equal if not higher demand for instant access to a staggering volume of educational video, instructional video, enterprise sales and marketing video and surveillance video – by public, private and government constituents.
In the video below, we take a look at the different levels of video content - premium, amateur and reference - and how they impact distribution and monetization strategies.
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.
Many people that regularly follow the RipCode blog know that we’ve been working with MySpace – though on what, we’ve had to be a bit vague. However, I’m excited today to finally be able to tell you about the project and I hope that you’ll quickly catch on and be as excited as we are at RipCode.
In choosing RipCode, MySpace made a clear choice about the future direction of their transcoding environment. Rather than adopting legacy pre-transcoding methods, their decision to utilize RipCode’s On-Demand Transcoding technology helps them achieve a more efficient, effective and eco-friendly method for extending video to the MySpace mobile community.
We’ve talked about this in the past, but it’s worth mentioning again. As the volume of video grows and the number of mobile devices supporting video continues to expand, companies have to find alternative solutions to deliver content to their customers across multiple screens. MySpace’s decision is proof that market leaders are embracing change in traditional transcoding methodologies and looking for smarter, more scalable solutions to manage mobile video growth.
If you have a MySpace account and have a mobile device that supports streaming video, check out the new MySpace Mobile video service and let us know what you think:
1. From your mobile device, go to m.myspace.com
2. Login to your MySpace profile
3. If you have videos loaded to your online profile, you will see a My Videos link on the user homepage. Click on the My Videos link
4. On the Videos page, select Uploaded or Favorite videos
5. Select video by clicking on View
6. On Video Details page, click Play Video
Or, for a quick tour of the new MySpace mobile video service, check out this short video.
As most people know, today the much anticipated RIM BlackBerry Storm makes its debut in stores. And with next week marking the start of the traditional holiday shopping season, this year’s must-have devices like the iPhone, G1, Bold and Storm will be topping many holdiay wish lists.
Many of RipCode’s blog readers are familiar with our On-Demand Transcoding solution. But what you may not know is that in addition to supporting RTSP streaming of on-demand content for the most popular video-enabled devices — like the Storm, Bold and Android – we also support progressive download of on-demand video content for the Apple iPhone. All without the need for special client-side players or applications, and without pre-transcoding content.
For aggregators and operators looking to extend their video libraries to these popular devices, our sales team will be conducting onsite, on-demand transcoding demos for this season’s must-have mobile devices. If you’re interested in learning about demos in your area, let us know.
Today I’d like to introduce RipCode blog readers to a new RipCode partner, Millennial Media, one of the leading mobile advertising companies in the US. Together we are working to provide advertisers and mobile content publishers with an integrated service featuring Millennial Media’s ad targeting and distribution system with RipCode’s On-Demand Video Transcoding and delivery technology.
Most of our frequent blog readers are familiar with On-Demand Transcoding and how this technology works. Now we’re extending VOD transcoding to the mobile ad space, enabling Millennial Media’s ad clients to easily integrate video into their mobile campaigns delivered across their premium ad network. RipCode clients will benefit through seamless inclusion of video advertising from top brands and the best possible user experience, ensuring a profitable model for providing engaging mobile video content to consumers.
Creating a compelling mobile user experience is especially important when monetizing content. Advertisers are paying for screen real estate and want to maximize their investment. With RipCode, video files are optimized for delivery on-demand based on the unique capabilities of a customer’s mobile handset including screen resolution, codecs and network delivery protocols; a critical feature for ensuring the best user experience. Combined with Millennial Media’s intelligent ad targeting, video ads are paired with contextually relevant video content then seamlessly delivered as a single stream with no re-buffering between the ad and the requested content; decreasing the abandonment rate and boosting an advertisers ROI.
Millennial Media’s senior vice president of products & marketing, Eric Eller, will be presenting at the ad:tech show in Chicago this week on a panel entitled “Making Mobile Work”. A fitting venue to launch our partnership. Best of luck to Eric this week at the show; we hope he’s seeing lots of interest in the joint solution!
On Tuesday, August 5th, I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion at the Building Blocks Conference in San Jose, CA produced in conjunction with Digital Hollywood and the Consumer Electronics Association, producers of CES. The focus of the conference is transforming consumer electronics, entertainment and media across broadband, mobile, social media and video.
This is the first year for the Building Blocks Conference, but looking at the agenda it appears to be a shaping up as a good conference. The panel that I’ll specifically be taking part in is called “All Video, All the Time: Next Generation in Media Technologies – Broadband and Mobile – Content and Advertising”. The moderator, Michael Goodman, is the Director of Digital Entertainment with Yankee Group so I know the panel will engage in some very interesting dialogue.
Digital Hollywood will be audio and video taping selected sessions for podcasting and other webcasting purposes so check out their website next week for some interesting and educational content.
As most frequent readers will know, RipCode has grown into a leader and innovator in the On-Demand Transcoding market built around the strength of our flagship product, the RipCode Video Transcoding Appliance. But today, I’m excited to announce that we’re taking a new step in the evolution of RipCode. In addition to offering on-demand transcoding of stored content, we’re introducing RipCode’s Real-Time Stream Transcoding solution, focused on the transcoding and delivery of live mobile streaming of broadcast content. With this addition, RipCode has created a powerful dual-application transcoding platform enabling our customers to reach more markets with a single transcoding appliance.
RipCode’s Real-Time Stream Transcoding solution has the largest ingest capability of any solution on the market, with up to 8 simultaneous single or multi-program streams. And, it supports high-density output for video delivery over current and next generation broadcast networks including: 3GPP and 3GPP2, DVB-H, MBMS, ATSC, and Qualcomm MediaFlo.
Additionally, RipCode has added an optional Video Feed Ingest component to provide full-resolution ingests of premium audio and video via an SD SDI channel.
One of the first use cases of RipCode’s new Real-Time Stream Transcoding solution will be through our partnership with NextWave. NextWave Wireless is a global provider of mobile multimedia and wireless broadband technologies, they’re collaborating with RipCode to supply live video stream transcoding for their UMTS MBMS based TDtv™ solution. You’ll be hearing more about this later this year.
For more information on our new Real-Time Stream Transcoding solution, you can read the press release or visit the solution page on our website. This is an exciting new pivot point for RipCode and our customers as we continue to innovate and push the capabilities of video transcoding.
Last week RipCode exhibited at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas. This was our first year at this show, and considering our booth location was less than optimal – our fault for signing up late – we had good foot traffic and we’re kept busy talking with visitors and demoing our On-Demand Transcoding solution for mobile video. We got a lot of positive reaction to our message. It’s obvious that delivering video to mobile is a challenge for many companies. As we describe our unique transcoding methodology, people are really excited by the possibilities of expanding their video library to any video platform - without the increased cost of storage, energy or hardware usage. For more information on RipCode’s On-Demand Transcoding solution for mobile video, check out our video overview.
We also announced the availability of RipCode’s On-Demand Signaling Server. If you missed the news last week, you can check out the full press release on our website. The On-Demand Signaling Server is a complement to RipCode’s Video Transcoding Appliance and is designed to function as the intelligent network and workflow manager for multiple RipCode appliances. Tim Siglin from Streaming Media Magazine interviewed me prior to the show regarding the announcement. You can check out the complete interview from Tim’s podcast podcast.
Also a big highlight for us from the show was our sponsorship of the FierceWireless party for CTIA attendees at Rain Nightclub at The Palms. For pictures from the event, check out the FierceWireless website. Congratulations again to Josh Wittman from Red Eye. He was the recipient of our raffle drawing for a Sony PSP.
Overall, it was a great week at CTIA. Now, we’ll be heading back to Las Vegas again next week for the NAB show. And maybe we can win some of our money back…or not.
In Part 3 of my conversation with Dr. Gerry Purdy, VP and Chief Analyst with Frost & Sullivan, we discuss the global growth of mobile video, the impact of unlimited data plans on the mobile video market, and regulatory contraints that are impeding new mobile applications and services.
If you haven’t yet seen Parts 1 and 2 of my discussion with Dr. Purdy, I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch. Stay tuned for Part 4, which is the final video in the series.
We’ve received great feedback in response to Part 1 of our interview series with Dr. Gerry Purdy, Vice President and Chief Analyst with Frost & Sullivan. In Part 2 we begin discussing the impact that the iPhone and YouTube have had on the mobile user experience. We also talk about the opportunities and the complexities of mass video distribution across all three screens - Internet, mobile and IPTV.
We hope you’re enjoying the series. Look for Parts 3 and 4 coming soon…
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Web and mobile video delivery is a dynamic and rapidly growing, global market. RipCode has thought a lot about the hardware, software and processes in this space, and we are here to listen, share, initiate and join the conversation.
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