Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Latest gossip from Video-Meetup (Boxee and more)

Tonight the NY Video Meet-up 2.0, hosted by Yaron Samid, had their monthly get together. This session was a bit unique in that Mogulus.com provided a live stream/chat facility for 65+ remote users (including yours truly). Unfortunately, the system died midway through the Boxee presentation; and was up and down for the rest of the night.....frustrating as hell!

Frustrations aside, the NY Video forum has rightly grown to be the most dynamic place to see what's happening in the NY internet related video space.

Presenters included:

Boxee- Avner Ronen, CEO. They launched an API for developers that enables them to hook into the Boxee system. Applications will be available through an Application Store. Developers control the UI and Boxee takes the role of platform provider that brings the social aspect to the big screen. Clearly a move away from the Company's initial business of replacing the UI from content providers, thereby violating their ToS (causing the Hulu snit). Not sure there is great value here (unless they can build a huge installed base), but I have to give them credit for moving so rapidly to try to find relevance, that is legal, to build a business. Seems like smart folk who I would not bet against.

Mogulus- Max Haot, CEO. The Company offers a live broadcast platform 'Procaster' where Producers can use the Mogulus browser-based Studio application to create LIVE, scheduled and on-demand internet television to broadcast anywhere on the web through a single player widget. They have a free (ad-supported) and Pro (white-label, no-ads, pay for usage) service that includes the ability to mix multiple live cameras, imported videos clips, and overlay graphics.

When it works, the company says Mogulus producers can broadcast live from a mobile phone; use a customizable flash player with integrated chat (which I think has moderation); and develop a branded channel page that incorporates interactive chat. The system is now only PC based with a Mac version in development.

When the system briefly came up, before crashing again, Max showed some neat features that included zoom and 3D panning and a broadcast virtual world gaming demo.

KickApps- Josh Weinstein, Product Manager. They provide a white label platform for companies to rapidly build customized community sites that feature video. Customization is all widget based drag and drop, including the UI and back-end campaign tracking and ad insertion. They too have a free version (where they serve ads to your site) and a paid version where you control all content. Over the last year, their partners have enjoyed 500mm views.

Diversion Media- Nicholas Buttersworth, CEO. The Company has built a video publishing platform, called HD Cloud, to provide transcoding and delivery solutions for partners. As you would expect from the name, the service is in the cloud and the Company charges on a per MB delivered....effectively converting fixed costs into variable and, hopefully, offering better value than in-house solutions.

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