Live video is going to be huge
05.16.07A couple of things I've been wanting to write about lately, a quick note before running to work. First, this morning I read on Beet.tv that both On2 (the video transcoding service we use at SplashCast) and Akamai (huge content delivery network for video) are coming out with live streaming video services. I gotta cheer for the little upstart groundbreakers like UStream but this is exciting stuff. Video on the web, one of the most compelling types of media being published, will no longer by exclusively asynchronous. Have you seen my favorite podcasts in the player on the sidebar of this blog? Make those all live broadcasts and I will gladly watch one or two minutes of commercials every 15 minutes. The barrier to entry into the video publishing world has been lowered dramatically and when live video broadcast is easily accessible then we are going to see some thrilling stuff.
Embedded here is the BlueFox TV channel on Ustream. It appears to be one of the more regularly live channels on the site. It's not terribly exciting in the first few minutes I'm watching it, but it's good for a proof of concept. Neither the video nor the audio are streaming well enough for me over my EVDO connection. The medium is obviously in its infancy, but I think the potential is clear. Try viewing the most recent episodes of Democracy Now in my sidebar here and imagine if that was being broadcast live.
I would love to produce live video. I don't know if I'd rather do live news coverage, web 2.0 tutorials or both. Imagine being able to afford a team of researchers and technical producers. That's pretty much what you'd need to have a steady flow of interesting content instead of a lot of video of some person sitting in front of a computer. Really robust text chat and good integration of archived content perhaps between live broadcasts are other things I'll be watching for. There are some really powerful possibilities. Just something I've been getting excited thinking about lately.
May 16th, 2007 at
I’ve got an idea for live video that will make us all rich…porn! I swear man, I think people would totally pay to see live porn.
Ok, I’m just being a shit. But, seriously, I’m excited about accessible live video. I’ve been working with The Roxy and a few of our clients here at Nemo on live video projects. I’ve been disappointed, however, with the quality of the feed from UStream. It’s still choppy and feels like 1999 because of it. CDNs, like Akamai, would need to allocate significantly more bandwidth in order to deliver a smoother experience, which is what I think needs to happen in order to spill out of the geek market and into the mainstream.
May 16th, 2007 at
We saw the value of ustream at Podcast Hotel. People from Sweden were watching. They could be a part of the discussion. Live streaming ill spread into mainstream culture. It breaks down historically quite costly technology and processes. In my book, that is proof enough that live streaming is here to stay.
May 17th, 2007 at
Live video on the internet is by no means a new concept. What’s different about these start-ups is they’re giving users a simple, software-free way to do it without charging them anything for the service. Immediately popular? Absolutely! But I’d like to see how they plan to profit from the excitement in order to stay afloat. I’d imagine it costs a lot of money to host that kind of service.
May 20th, 2007 at
Marshall
Great thoughts here on the evolving live video landscape.
Have you checked out Mogulus.com? I’m doing a behind the scenes review/screencast, and this looks set to bring the whole game to the next level, doing a lot of what you are asking for here (and I recently blogged about over at MNM).
Live streaming, motion graphics, lower thirds, embeddable player, multiple cameras, youtube imports, straight from the hard drive video import, auto-pilot video playlists for when you aren’t broadcasting from your cam. This is basically a TV studio squeezed into a web-app.
As you can probably tell, I’m kind of excited about what these guys are doing. I think the potential for citizen journalism and how-to stuff is huge.
May 24th, 2007 at
[…] Social Video: An Emerging Advertising Model? I just read Marshall KirkPatrick’s posts on Social Media Production and Live Media. In his last paragraph he mentioned production. In my mind, production knowledge is fundamental to monetizing new social video concepts. Over the years I’ve worked in Hollywoods TV commercial production landscape with brands like Apple, Nike, Pepsi, Nintendo and now as a co-founder of a social media widget company. I can see that my production and TV commercial advertising knowledge are fundamental to evolving revenue models in social video production and distribution moving forward. […]
May 24th, 2007 at
Hey Marshall,
This is Simon at Pladeo (formerly InCircles) - looks like we’re getting into the same space these days
I enjoyed your posts on social media and I responded to some of your thinking about the subject on my new blog http://pladeo.wordpress.com. Check it out when you get a chance
Keep up the good work!
S
May 25th, 2007 at
There’s something seriously compelling about the fact that the video is live. I wrote a series about marketing with web video and its pros and cons a while back… and clearly I have to revisit the topic.
I agree with you, I’d definitely watch AdSense (or any other) commercial splices if the video was live.
May 26th, 2007 at
Agree. Big time.
More about live video at http://streaming2dot0.blogspot.com/
June 27th, 2007 at
[…] Further reading:Marshall Kirkpatrick […]
August 27th, 2007 at
nutrition during the infancy and toddler hood period
Thank you for putting your thoughts to paper and I thank your relatives for turning them into this blog!
February 8th, 2008 at
The service is still very much in its infancy and has been down at times. Since the website is already telling that there are 2134+ people watching 89+ live channels, its understood that there is quite a bit of load on it very quickly.
February 24th, 2008 at
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