silverlight

Netflix instant streaming comes to Mac

Pete Wylie — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:38:38 -0400

Netflix announced Monday it is using Microsoft's Silverlight online video platform to bring its instant streaming movie service to subscribers using Apple Macintosh computers. The service has been available on Windows PCs for some time, and Netflix plans to have the platform released for all subscribers by year's end.

Silverlight enables advanced DRM functions on content streamed through the service, helping Netflix as it expands its library of stream-ready content. Netflix currently has 12,000 titles in its library, but it has announced a string of partnerships with Disney, CBS and Starz Networks recently to grow its portfolio.

"Silverlight with Play Ready offers a powerful and secure toolkit for delivery of dynamic streaming, which offers faster start-up, and higher quality video, adapted in real time to users' connection speeds," said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt in a prepared statement. "Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox."

For more:
- see the crunchgear.com write up of the joint release here

Three new video players, but different results

Pete Wylie — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:18:25 -0400

This week was big for player and platfom launches across sectors in online video. Joost, Brightcove and Microsoft all made significant updates to their offerings if you take the party PR line. What do you think about Joost going web-based and the new Brightcove 3? What about Silverlight 2?

I read a pretty interesting, in-depth Q&A with Jeremy Allaire on xconomy.com where he talks about the design and new features of Brightcove 3, and after comparing that with the other launches, I have to say I'm most impressed with it.

Joost's player is a straight Hulu rip, no matter what anyone says. It may have one or two features that Hulu doesn't have, but it doesn't have the level of content or real community viewership to touch them there. It got off to a head start and now finds itself behind the game and running out of original ideas. Copying a winning idea after the original one failed is far from exciting or groundbreaking.

Silverlight 2 is positioned as a direct competitor to Adobe's Flash player, which, ironically, Allaire helped write the code for when he was working for Macromedia. It's gotten good press for its updated interactivity functions and its customizable interface, and it received positive feedback from its beta tests with big-time events like the Beijing Olympics and the Democratic National Convention.

But still, I think Brightcove's launch is the most exciting of the week, because of the expanded scaled offerings for small and medium sized enterprises looking to get into the video market. The Brightcove 3 comes in three packages: basic, pro and enterprise, with price and number of features increasing with the needs of the company.

Allaire says the basic package will be four figures for the yearly license. A big knock against Brightcove has been lofty price points that left smaller companies from leveraging its excellent product. I think the tiered pricing structure should see Brightcove pick up significant market share from smaller companies than its dealt with in the past, moving closer to the profitability that Allaire confidently predicts by next year.

I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks about the new player launches, so tell me how its going using or implementing them.

- Pete

For more:
- see the Jeremy Allaire interview here
- read some glowing Silverlight praise here

Microsoft and Brightcove launch updated players

Pete Wylie — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:53:24 -0400

Microsoft and Brightcove both launched new versions of their popular platforms Tuesday, and blogs and news sites are already busy parsing them to see if they'll live up to expectations.

Microsoft's Silverlight 2 and Brightcove 3 both offer new features and updated recognition software to deliver optimal streaming speed for each user's broadband connection strength. However, Silverlight 2 is Microsoft's "Adobe Flash Killer" for rich applications development while Brightcove 3 is a dedicated video production platform that will allow individual publishers to customize and monitor their video offerings more effectively.

Available to the general public today, Silverlight 2 has been in beta since March, and was used in the online streaming of both the Beijing Olympics and the Democratic National Convention. Microsoft representatives also said Silverlight will be featured through a Symbian port on Nokia phones in the near future.

Lifetime and Showtime Networks were two beta customers of Brightcove's product and both reported greatly increased streaming capability and user interactivity after implementing the Brightcove 3 technology. Brightcove plans to offer the new platform in three tiered pricing structures to meet the disparate needs of enterprises and individuals. It will also heavily promote open third-party application development for the software.

For more:
- see the Brightcove release here
- see the Microsoft release here

Olympics online videos ratings surge

Pete Wylie — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:41:08 -0400

NBC has seen encouraging results for its online video coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games, according to Nielsen Online figures released Monday. On Friday, Aug. 8, 436,000 unique U.S. viewers accessed video coverage of the opening ceremonies and the few sports that began competition prior to the festivities. Traffic almost doubled the next day, as nearly 900,000 viewers took in video coverage of the first full day of competition.

Despite some problems with load speeds, initial lag on longer videos and network embargoes of some content, the online presentation of the Olympics appears to be a relatively seamless success so far for NBC, not to mention Microsoft's Silverlight video technology and Limelight Networks' content delivery service.

NBC intends to carry more than 2,000 hours of online video to supplement its live broadcast coverage of the Beijing games. Advertisers and Olympic sponsors are watching closely to see if online coverage will attract and keep fans of sports that don't make it to direct broadcast.

For more:
- Nielsen reports top ten Olympic websites and complete NBC Olympic video stats

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The Online Olympics Open

Doug Mohney — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:53:44 -0400

Summer Olympics coverage starts today, and NBC will attempt to present 2,200 hours of "unprecedented" online sports coverage from Beijing over the next couple of weeks.

Online viewers will be able to watch up to four live streams simultaneously through a video player based upon Microsoft's Silverlight technology. If it works, it is expected to boost coverage around less-popular events that rarely get TV time and demonstrate a way to monetize them.

Wire-to-wire (to IP) coverage will include fencing, table tennis, trampoline and archery. The event is being billed as a super "long-tale" event and is also expected to showcase Silverlight technology, which is a competitor to Adobe's Flash.

Streaming video is being linked with as-it-is-typed text commentary from NBC sports editors that will be linked into specific video frames. On-demand viewers will be able to click on text to jump to a particular described scene.

NBC and Microsoft are working with several partners to put the Games online. Limelight Networks is a key player; earlier this summer, the company helped Disney deliver 860,000 "plays" of "Camp Rock" in 24 hours.

For more:
- Tune into Seattle Times coverage of NBC's online Olympics

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NBC Gets Flamed for Vista-Only Olympic Distribution

Doug Mohney — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:40:52 -0400

Critics are lining up as NBC announces its online video tech for distributing Olympic coverage.

NBC Olympics on the Go, from NBC and broadband media company Wavexpress, is a podcast-like service to let users pick their favorite sports and have coverage automatically downloaded after NBC broadcasts each event from China. However, the service is only available for PC users running Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium PC. So, pfftp to XP, Mac, and Linux users. There's also a video player to be downloaded and details needed be worked. Reports say event coverage will be available 12 hours after an event and downloaded coverage should be playable for at least the duration of the games.

Microsoft had already cut a deal for its Silverlight environment to be the cornerstone of NBC Olympic distribution, so people shouldn't be too surprised about the Vista-only hook for Olympic footage. However, the move may not go over well in Europe and other places where Microsoft is seen as acting in a monopolist fashion. Goodness knows what the Football/Soccer fans might do.

Mobility plans have not been announced yet, leading to speculation that something might appear in a Zune format since NBC broke off its distribution deal with iTunes.

For more
- Wired reports on NBC Video Distribution for the Beijing Olympics
- Ars Technica Vista-only Olympics piece

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