In a demo that drew gasps at TED2010, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft. He is the architect of Bing Maps at Microsoft, building augmented reality into searchable maps. He's also the co-creator of Photosynth, software that assembles static photos into a synergy of zoomable, navigatable spaces.
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, September 25, 2009
Bionic Eye - An Augmented Reality iPhone App
Bionic Eye is a new iPhone 3GS application to visualize Points of Interest (POI) located in your nearby environment in the US, thanks to a unique Augmented Reality functionality using the iPhone camera. It is similar to the Layar Mobile Augmented Reality Browser which have been released for Android phones earlier.
Bionic Eye's POI databases include restaurants, WiFi hotspots, subway stations (New York Subway, Washington Metro, Chicago L Rapid Transit), etc. Over 100.000 POI are already included in this application.
Bionic Eye's POI databases include restaurants, WiFi hotspots, subway stations (New York Subway, Washington Metro, Chicago L Rapid Transit), etc. Over 100.000 POI are already included in this application.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Netflix Everywhere: Sorry Cable, You're History
Wired: Netflix Everywhere: Sorry Cable, You're History
Today, nearly 3 million users access Netflix's instant streaming service, watching an estimated 5 million movies and TV shows every week on their PCs or living room sets. They get it through Roku Digital Video Player
, which was successfully launched in May 2008. (The Roku now also offers more than 45,000 movies and TV shows on demand through Amazon.com and, since August, live and archived Major League Baseball games.) They get it through their Xbox 360s—Microsoft added Netflix to its Xbox Live service last fall. They get it through LG and Samsung Blu-ray players. They get it through their TiVos and new flatscreen TVs. By the end of 2009, nearly 10 million Netflix-equipped gadgets will be hanging on walls and sitting in entertainment centers. And Hastings says this is just the beginning: "It's possible that within a few years, nearly all Internet-connected consumer electronics devices will include Netflix."
Friday, July 24, 2009
Youtube 3D Video Player
YouTube introduced a stereoscopic player for watching videos in 3D. If you play a 3D video a drop-down menu will show options for red/cyan and amber/blue 3D glasses and some options that don't require glasses. Here's a brief overview video.
To enable the 3D player, you need to add the following tag to one of your videos: yt3d:enable=true. Peter Bradshaw, a Google employee, has more information about this experimental feature:
I'm the developer working on the stereoscopic player as a 20% project. It's currently very early, hence the silly bugs like swapping the eyes for the anaglyph modes. A fix for this is in the works.
The current tags are provisional and may change or expand. They are:
yt3d:enable=true Enables the view mode.
yt3d:aspect=3:4 Sets the aspect of the encoded video.
yt3d:swap=true Swaps the left and right sources. You may need to add this to videos when the player with fixed anaglyph modes ships.
You can try the new feature by searching for yt3d:enable=true.
To enable the 3D player, you need to add the following tag to one of your videos: yt3d:enable=true. Peter Bradshaw, a Google employee, has more information about this experimental feature:
I'm the developer working on the stereoscopic player as a 20% project. It's currently very early, hence the silly bugs like swapping the eyes for the anaglyph modes. A fix for this is in the works.
The current tags are provisional and may change or expand. They are:
yt3d:enable=true Enables the view mode.
yt3d:aspect=3:4 Sets the aspect of the encoded video.
yt3d:swap=true Swaps the left and right sources. You may need to add this to videos when the player with fixed anaglyph modes ships.
You can try the new feature by searching for yt3d:enable=true.
Friday, July 17, 2009
BlockBuster OnDemand Streaming on Samsung HDTV and Blu-ray Players
Blockbuster OnDemand challenges Netflix and Amazon's Instant HD Video on Demand service.
Blockbuster OnDemand is coming to a long list of Samsung TV and home theater products. The online pay-per-view streaming service will be added to Samsung's online-enabled HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and Blu-ray home theater systems via future software updates. As part of the deal, Blockbuster will also sell some of the Samsung products in its video rental stores.
The service, due to launch in September or October in the United States, is similar to Blockbuster's existing pacts with TV maker Vizio and digital video recorder maker TiVo Inc, which was announced in March.
According to Samsung, the Blockbuster OnDemand feature will be added to "Samsung LCD and Plasma HDTVs Series 650 and above, and Samsung LED HDTVs Series 7000 and above," as well as "select 2009 Samsung Blu-ray players and home theater systems."
Most probably these top HDTV and Blu-ray players will play Blockbuster HD movies:
- Samsung LN46B650 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
- Samsung LN52B750 52-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV
- Samsung UN40B7000 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV
- Samsung PN50B650 50-Inch 1080P Plasma HDTV
- Samsung BD-P2500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
Do you like these Samsung devices or do you prefer the excellent and Vizio 32" 1080p LCD HDTV (VOJ320F1A)
at a low price of ~$500?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
HOME Movie Views Tops 1M on YouTube
HOME - the Film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand has been released on June 5th 2009 World Environment Day. For the first time ever, a film has been released on the same day in over 50 countries and on every format: movie theaters, TV, DVD and Internet.
The full Project HOME movie is available on YouTube in HD (1280×720 mp4 @ 2000 kbit/s) for free. It has reached one million views in 9 days. The network traffic to deliver the full 93 minutes of HOME HD is in the magnitude of a petabyte!
The plan was to show HOME Project on YouTube until 14th June but the date has been apparently extended. The download counter is close to 1.2 millions and counting. Thank you Yann Arthus-Bertrand, PPR and YouTube!
HOME on the iPhone
It is now possible to find out the latest news on the planet, calculate your carbon footprint or watch Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s film thanks on the iPhone thanks to a free application available on the Apple Store website.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
HOME project - Free HD Earth Movie on YouTube
HOME - a Film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand (to be released on June 5th)
The French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand is well known for Earth from Above
, a stunning collection of photographs that affords its viewers a window into the world's workings. He has wandered the globe to gather this collection of more than 200 uniformly striking photographs. His new project is a unique movie HOME. In his own words:
"We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.
The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.
For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.
HOME has been made for you: share it! And act for the planet."
More than a movie, HOME will be a major event all over the globe: for the first time ever, a film will be released on the same day in over 50 countries and on every format: movie theaters, TV, DVD and Internet.
HOME project is available on YouTube in HD for free. Home is also available on DVD
, Blu-ray
formats and as a companion book - Home: A Hymn to the Planet and Humanity
.
The free release of the first HD movie is another milestone for broadband internet innovations.
The French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand is well known for Earth from Above
, a stunning collection of photographs that affords its viewers a window into the world's workings. He has wandered the globe to gather this collection of more than 200 uniformly striking photographs. His new project is a unique movie HOME. In his own words:"We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.
The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.
For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.
HOME has been made for you: share it! And act for the planet."
More than a movie, HOME will be a major event all over the globe: for the first time ever, a film will be released on the same day in over 50 countries and on every format: movie theaters, TV, DVD and Internet.
HOME project is available on YouTube in HD for free. Home is also available on DVD
, Blu-ray formats and as a companion book - Home: A Hymn to the Planet and Humanity.The free release of the first HD movie is another milestone for broadband internet innovations.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Rovio Wi-Fi Home Security Robot
Ever wanted to be in two places at once? Now you can.
WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled WebCam Robot
is a groundbreaking new Wi-Fi enabled mobile webcam that lets you view and interact with its environment through streaming video and audio, wherever you are! It is a new challenger of the remote control Spykee bot that you have seen on my blog earlier.
The Rovio has an impressive list of features that makes it useful as a home security robot, telepresence device or a just for fun toy gadget:
WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled WebCam Robot
is a groundbreaking new Wi-Fi enabled mobile webcam that lets you view and interact with its environment through streaming video and audio, wherever you are! It is a new challenger of the remote control Spykee bot that you have seen on my blog earlier.
The Rovio has an impressive list of features that makes it useful as a home security robot, telepresence device or a just for fun toy gadget:
- Easily remote control from any web-enabled device: PC or Mac, cell phone, smartphone, PDA or even your video game console.
- Head-mounted moveable camera and wide range of vision
- Indoor GPS
- MPEG4 video
- Self-docking capabilities for auto recharge
- Built-in LED headlight
- Wi-Fi connectivity (802.11b and 802.11g)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Amazing SSD and Hard Drive Deals on Amazon
The first terabyte hard drive had been introduced 2 years ago. Nowadays you can buy 1 TB hard drives for less than $100. Great capacity at an affordable price!
2009 will be the year when Solid State Drives (SSDs) will become mainstream by offering faster disk performance and greater durability than traditional hard drives. Since they use NAND flash memory instead of spinning platters for storage, there's no waiting for disks to spin up, and there are no moving parts to worry about breaking down.
Amazon offers great deals (up to 64% discount) on traditional hard drives and SSD storage. Have a look at these selected bestsellers of Western Digital Hard Drives and Intel SSDs:
2009 will be the year when Solid State Drives (SSDs) will become mainstream by offering faster disk performance and greater durability than traditional hard drives. Since they use NAND flash memory instead of spinning platters for storage, there's no waiting for disks to spin up, and there are no moving parts to worry about breaking down.
Amazon offers great deals (up to 64% discount) on traditional hard drives and SSD storage. Have a look at these selected bestsellers of Western Digital Hard Drives and Intel SSDs:
- WD My Book Essential Edition 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U10000N
1 TB external USB disk for $120 (save 25%) - WD Caviar Green 1 TB Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, SATA II WD10EADS
1 TB 3.5" internal disk for $90 (save 35%) - WD My Passport Essential 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive WDME3200TN
320 GB portable USB disk for $90 (save 31%) - WD 1TB GreenPower AV 16MB Cache 25dBA Hard Drive WD10EVCS
1 TB low noise disk for audiovisual applications like TiVo for $109 (save 64%!) - Intel SSDSA2MH080G1C5 X25-M 80GB 2.5 Inch Solid State Drive (MLC SSD)
80GB mainstream SSD for $325 (save 49%!)
Friday, April 24, 2009
Amazon Instant HD Video on Demand Streaming Movies and TV Shows
2009 is the year of HD Video on the internet.
Amazon.com (AMZN) has launched "Instant HD"
, a high-definition video version of its on-demand service, offering consumers the ability to rent movies and purchase television episodes shown in HD.
Amazon will add more than 500 HD TV shows and movies to its Amazon Video On Demand service. Titles are from major networks and studios like Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Showtime Networks, with new-release movie titles including "Twilight
" and "Frost/Nixon
" and TV shows such as "The Tudors
", "Saviors
" and "Smallville
".
Customers can use Panasonic Viera
CAST-enabled HDTVs, the Roku Digital Video Player
, certain types of TiVo
and the Sony Bravia Internet Video Link
device to order and watch HD movies for $3.99 to $4.99 each. Television episodes are available for purchase at $2.99 each.
Customers also can buy the content to watch on their personal computers or download it for later viewing offline. Finally the promise of on demand HD video streaming has come true.
Amazon.com (AMZN) has launched "Instant HD", a high-definition video version of its on-demand service, offering consumers the ability to rent movies and purchase television episodes shown in HD.Amazon will add more than 500 HD TV shows and movies to its Amazon Video On Demand service. Titles are from major networks and studios like Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Showtime Networks, with new-release movie titles including "Twilight
" and "Frost/Nixon" and TV shows such as "The Tudors", "Saviors" and "Smallville".Customers can use Panasonic Viera
CAST-enabled HDTVs, the Roku Digital Video Player, certain types of TiVo and the Sony Bravia Internet Video Link device to order and watch HD movies for $3.99 to $4.99 each. Television episodes are available for purchase at $2.99 each.Customers also can buy the content to watch on their personal computers or download it for later viewing offline. Finally the promise of on demand HD video streaming has come true.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Recast Digital Delivers HD Flash Video with RVD1
2009 will be the year of Full screen HD video on the Web.
Recast Digital is a provider of High Definition (HD) Internet video streaming services.
Recast Digital combines advanced Flash Player development with vastly scalable video delivery mechanisms to offer content owners, media businesses, and online advertisers, a highly effective method of serving ultra-high quality interactive on-demand - and live - video to large audiences.
Recast Digital's Flash-based RDV1 player senses the computer power and bandwidth available to the user, and adjusts the definition accordingly up to the 3.2 Mbit/s required for full HD quality. They have re-engineered Flash using existing codecs so that it enables HD content very smoothly, even across the internet and works with Adobe Flash 9 or above. The player supports the following quality and bandwidth options:
Recast Digital is a provider of High Definition (HD) Internet video streaming services.
Recast Digital combines advanced Flash Player development with vastly scalable video delivery mechanisms to offer content owners, media businesses, and online advertisers, a highly effective method of serving ultra-high quality interactive on-demand - and live - video to large audiences.
Recast Digital's Flash-based RDV1 player senses the computer power and bandwidth available to the user, and adjusts the definition accordingly up to the 3.2 Mbit/s required for full HD quality. They have re-engineered Flash using existing codecs so that it enables HD content very smoothly, even across the internet and works with Adobe Flash 9 or above. The player supports the following quality and bandwidth options:
- 580 Kb/s - WD Bronze
- 736 Kb/s - WD Silver
- 1036 Kb/s - WD Gold
- 860 Kb/s - SD Bronze
- 1.2 Mb/s - SD Silver
- 1.7 Mb/s - SD Gold
- 1.2 Mb/s - HD Bronze
- 2.2 Mb/s - HD Silver
- 3.2 Mb/s - HD Gold
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Spykee Robot - Remote Control Spy Robot with Wifi Skype Video
Spykee, the spy robot is an innovative home surveillance solution and an incredible fun and cool gadget all in one. It is Skype compatible and have 3 different models.
Spykee Spy is the WiFi robot you build yourself! He can be controlled remotely from anywhere in the world using a computer and Internet connection. Spykee moves, watches, hears, speaks and monitors (whatever you want). He is available for preorder on Amazon.com for less than $300. He is a great toy but also an universal home surveillance security guard robot too.
Discover all his other functions:
Spykee Spy is the WiFi robot you build yourself! He can be controlled remotely from anywhere in the world using a computer and Internet connection. Spykee moves, watches, hears, speaks and monitors (whatever you want). He is available for preorder on Amazon.com for less than $300. He is a great toy but also an universal home surveillance security guard robot too.Discover all his other functions:
- Photo/Video: Spykee takes pictures and records video.
- Monitoring and Video Surveillance: He monitors and protects your room from intruders with his video surveillance function! Spykee detects movement and sends you a picture of the intruder by e-mail.
- VoIP Phone: Spykee lets you make free calls on the Internet with VoIP Phone function!
- MP3 Player: Spykee can play mp3 music. It is made for iPod through Erector.
- Self-recharging: When Spykee gets low on power it will find its power station and automatically dock with it to recharge.
- Webcam
- Microphone
- Speaker
- Flash lightning and lights
- Rubber tracks
- Comes with recharging dock
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
FUJIFILM FinePix Real 3D Camera and Imaging System
FUJIFILM has finally announced on Photokina 2008 a radical departure from current imaging systems with the development of the Real 3D System that marks a complete break from previous attempts to introduce 3D technology to the consumer camera world.
The Real 3D System consists of
Welcome to the world of 3D Imaging! The next step is to use 3D desktop, mobile devices and ultimately the 3D Internet!
When will Apple deliver the iPhone 3D with 3D Camera and 3D Display? Until then check out the wonderful animations of stereoscopic images made by Joshua Heineman of Cursive Buildings.
The Real 3D System consists of- Dual CCD 3D digital camera with ‘RP (Real Photo) Processor 3D’ chip
- 3D photo frame: 8.4-inch “FinePix Real 3D Photo Frame” with over 920,000 pixels
- High Resolution 3D printing system
Welcome to the world of 3D Imaging! The next step is to use 3D desktop, mobile devices and ultimately the 3D Internet!
When will Apple deliver the iPhone 3D with 3D Camera and 3D Display? Until then check out the wonderful animations of stereoscopic images made by Joshua Heineman of Cursive Buildings.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Exaflood - Internet Video Traffic - Zettabyte by 2015
From YouTube, IPTV, and HD video, to “cloud computing” and ubiquitous mobile cameras–to 3D games, virtual worlds – the new wave is swelling into an exaflood of Internet traffic. An exabyte is 10 to the 18th. The Discovery Institute estimates that by 2015, U.S. IP traffic could reach an annual total of one zettabyte (1024 bytes), or one million million billion bytes.
Video and rich media is expected to dominate IP traffic. TDP's IP Traffic Projection in the U.S. by 2015 shows:
Video and rich media is expected to dominate IP traffic. TDP's IP Traffic Projection in the U.S. by 2015 shows:- video calling and "virtual windows" could generate 400 exabytes
- Internet video, gaming, and virtual worlds could produce 200 exabytes
- movie downloads and P2P file sharing could be 100 exabytes
- non-Internet “IPTV” could reach 100 exabytes, and possibly much more
- business IP traffic will generate some 100 exabytes
- cloud computing and remote backup could total 50 exabytes
- other applications (phone, Web, e-mail, photos, music) could be 50 exabytes
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Hybrid P2P-CDN Streaming Enables HD Video Delivery
Peer-to-peer technology innovations will take center stage for content delivery. Why? The combination of commercial P2P technology and Content Delivery Networks promises the best of both worlds: scalable yet cost effective media streaming and delivery.
The companies and services that have voted for Hybrid P2P-CDN architecture include:
The companies and services that have voted for Hybrid P2P-CDN architecture include:
- Akamai
- BBC iPlayer
- BitTorrent
- Cisco Invests in Hybrid Content Delivery Network, GridNetworks
- Cisco to Distribute Grid Networks P2P Client
- Internap
- Limelight
- Pando (P4P)
- Velocix (formerly know as CacheLogic) announces hybrid-P2P live streaming solution
- Verisign
Monday, February 4, 2008
Amazon EC2 Flash Video Streaming
The ability to host web video clips in the Cloud is getting near with the release of the Wowza Pro media server for Amazon EC2 (beta).
Wowza Media Server Pro Unlimited is a high-performance, extensible and a fully interactive, Flash media server for live and on-demand flv streaming, chat and recording.
Wowza Media Systems has teamed with Amazon Web Services to make billing quick, easy, and secure for the combination of Wowza Media Server Pro, machine time with various EC2 instances and bandwidth.
Pricing of Wowza Pro Unlimited for Amazon EC2 is:
It is still in beta so improvements might be expected related to
Recommended books on Flash Video Streaming:
Wowza Media Server Pro Unlimited is a high-performance, extensible and a fully interactive, Flash media server for live and on-demand flv streaming, chat and recording.
Wowza Media Systems has teamed with Amazon Web Services to make billing quick, easy, and secure for the combination of Wowza Media Server Pro, machine time with various EC2 instances and bandwidth.
Pricing of Wowza Pro Unlimited for Amazon EC2 is:
- Instances
- $0.14 per Small Instance-hour consumed (or part of an hour consumed)
- $0.45 per Large Instance-hour consumed (or part of an hour consumed)
- $0.88 per Extra-Large instance-hour consumed (or part of an hour consumed)
- Data Transfer
- $0.12 per GB of data transfer in
- $0.20 per GB of data transfer out
- Monthly Charge
- $5.00 recurring monthly charge
It is still in beta so improvements might be expected related to
- performance
- load-balancing
- using Amazon S3 for hosting videos
- management
Recommended books on Flash Video Streaming:
- Hands-On Guide to Flash Video: Web Video and Flash Media Server
- Flash Video for Professionals: Expert Techniques for Integrating Video on the Web
- Networking IP Video: Video on your IP Network - Streaming, Surveillance, Conferencing, Telepresence, and Video Telephony - and How to Deploy them all (Cisco Technology Series)
- Hands-On Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting: Emerging Media Tools for Business Communication
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Google Maps Apartment View (Fun Video)
Two young men take a turn down the wrong street view and discover a secret Google Maps feature. Brilliant!
A fun video by the Vacationeers - a stylized comedic film group that features Todd Berger, Kevin Brennan, Jeff Grace and Blaise Miller. Imagine the (frightening) possibilities of this innovative feature where reality and virtual worlds meet!
A fun video by the Vacationeers - a stylized comedic film group that features Todd Berger, Kevin Brennan, Jeff Grace and Blaise Miller. Imagine the (frightening) possibilities of this innovative feature where reality and virtual worlds meet!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Open Internet Video: Miro Challenges Joost
Turn your computer into an internet TV with Miro - the free open-source video platform with the recently released version 1.0!
There are many ways to explain Miro:
Miro functions more like iTunes: download interesting videos from the internet or subscribe to 2500+ video RSS channels. Miro has build in BitTorrent support. Since videos must be downloaded, playback is not instant for now; but the videos load pretty quickly. Miro can play MPEG, Quicktime, AVI, H.264, Divx, Windows Media, Flash Video, and almost every other major video format.
Joost is like a better TV with instant play and interaction. It has 250+ commercial broadcast channels to choose from.
Miro and Joost have different strengths and focus. Users enjoy the competition of the maturing online video services.
There are many ways to explain Miro:
- "A TiVo for the internet."
- "Turn your computer into a TV."
- "Simple, elegant internet video."
- "HD TV on your computer."
Miro functions more like iTunes: download interesting videos from the internet or subscribe to 2500+ video RSS channels. Miro has build in BitTorrent support. Since videos must be downloaded, playback is not instant for now; but the videos load pretty quickly. Miro can play MPEG, Quicktime, AVI, H.264, Divx, Windows Media, Flash Video, and almost every other major video format.
Joost is like a better TV with instant play and interaction. It has 250+ commercial broadcast channels to choose from.
Miro and Joost have different strengths and focus. Users enjoy the competition of the maturing online video services.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
How To Deliver High Definition Video on the Internet
Today more and more households have HDTV sets and broadband internet connections with 6-8+ MBit/sec bandwidth. However the scalable delivery of HD video content is still a big challenge.
The capacity to deliver high definition video already exists at the edge of the network – leveraging the massive build-outs of individual networks. The challenge comes from how you tap into that capacity. The best way to solve this problem is to deliver from the edge using distributed architectures.
The potential benefits are huge and the demand for high definition video is growing. How to deliver HD content to the internet? Let's examine the possibilities.
1. Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
Content Delivery Networks such as Akamai have tons of servers distributed across hundreds of cities. These servers can deliver high bandwidth content such as HD video from the Edge to the users. Even YouTube moves most popular content to a CDN. Akamai has recently announced their plans to bring High Definition to the internet. Their platform is architected to meet the following technical requirements:
Utility computing and storage services are another way to host scalable video content and applications. The Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) provides such an on demand distributed service. However these services are not yet proven for hosting High Definition content. Check out my previous post on Amazon S3 for Video Hosting.
3. Use Peer-to-Peer (P2P) protocols such as BitTorrent
P2P file sharing applications have been popular in the last couple of years. P2P could be used for TV and movies as well:
Which way to go?
The optimal choice depends on the requirements. CDNs are proven technologies but P2P could be cheaper as it matures. Utility storage services are similar to CDNs and the two could became competitors. What is your choice?
The capacity to deliver high definition video already exists at the edge of the network – leveraging the massive build-outs of individual networks. The challenge comes from how you tap into that capacity. The best way to solve this problem is to deliver from the edge using distributed architectures.
The potential benefits are huge and the demand for high definition video is growing. How to deliver HD content to the internet? Let's examine the possibilities.
1. Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
Content Delivery Networks such as Akamai have tons of servers distributed across hundreds of cities. These servers can deliver high bandwidth content such as HD video from the Edge to the users. Even YouTube moves most popular content to a CDN. Akamai has recently announced their plans to bring High Definition to the internet. Their platform is architected to meet the following technical requirements:
- Technology and an operational model to operate serving devices in the largest high-throughput networks around the world
- Established relationships with the largest high throughput networks
- Support for delivery, storage, and management of files greater than 2 Gigabytes
- Support of VC-1 and MPEG-4 video standards
- Support for files with resolutions of 720p, 1080i and 1080p
Utility computing and storage services are another way to host scalable video content and applications. The Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) provides such an on demand distributed service. However these services are not yet proven for hosting High Definition content. Check out my previous post on Amazon S3 for Video Hosting.
3. Use Peer-to-Peer (P2P) protocols such as BitTorrent
P2P file sharing applications have been popular in the last couple of years. P2P could be used for TV and movies as well:
- Joost offers a new way of watching TV using P2P as the underlying architecture
- Vuze offers Hi-def Theater using their BitTorrent based client software
Which way to go?
The optimal choice depends on the requirements. CDNs are proven technologies but P2P could be cheaper as it matures. Utility storage services are similar to CDNs and the two could became competitors. What is your choice?
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Amazon S3 for Video Hosting
In an earlier post I have written that the next YouTube could be built on Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) by two guys in a dorm for roughly $0. It is indeed very easy to host videos on Amazon S3.
All you need to do is to sign up for an Amazon S3 account and upload your videos with the Amazon S3 Firefox Organizer (available here: S3Fox). To see this in action check out this interesting Amazon S3 video hosting tutorial by Perry Lawrence on YouTube.
You can simply include the hosted files in your web pages. However it is also possible to create nice web applications or mashups using the video content on S3. The book Amazon.com Mashups
by Francis Shanahan will help developers to get familiar with Amazon Web Services. The examples in this book demonstrates how to integrate AWS with APIs from Yahoo!, eBay, Google and YouTube. Check out this sample chapter on the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) available at Wrox.
It has never been easier to create your own YouTube!
All you need to do is to sign up for an Amazon S3 account and upload your videos with the Amazon S3 Firefox Organizer (available here: S3Fox). To see this in action check out this interesting Amazon S3 video hosting tutorial by Perry Lawrence on YouTube.
You can simply include the hosted files in your web pages. However it is also possible to create nice web applications or mashups using the video content on S3. The book Amazon.com Mashups
by Francis Shanahan will help developers to get familiar with Amazon Web Services. The examples in this book demonstrates how to integrate AWS with APIs from Yahoo!, eBay, Google and YouTube. Check out this sample chapter on the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) available at Wrox.It has never been easier to create your own YouTube!
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