I thought I embraced the future of television several years ago when we got our first TiVo. While that event was significant, it's now clear our DVR was only a technological painkiller to make tolerable the broken state of television: scheduled screenings with heavy commercial interruption. But things have come a long way since then.
To demonstrate how far and fast television has come, I turn to my own household. We're a good example because we're neither manic early adopters, nor laggards -- we're somewhere in the middle. We experienced extraordinary change over the past year, and it happened with only modest investment and simple upgrades.
- Our television now is high-definition, 52 inches widescreen, with digital surround sound.
- Verizon's FioS fiber-optic lines have replaced traditional coaxial cable lines into our home, and they connect to a high-definition cable-television receiver.
- Those fiber-optic lines enable much faster Internet connection speeds, making broadband video more meaningful than ever before.
- Sources of online video are getting serious, and high-definition video quality is becoming more prevalent. There's BitTorrent, of course, but also more legal and mainstream sources, including Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.
- Our television system plugs into our cable box, but also a dedicated laptop (with Blu-ray DVD) and several other devices. One awesome device is a Roku, a digital video player that instantly streams high quality movies and network television series from Netflix (and soon from Amazon Video On Demand).
- With a dedicated laptop for our television system, services like Boxee make online video social and optimized for widescreen. This helps us discover the best content, display it properly and filter things we don't want.
Indeed, these technologies prompted significant behavioral shifts and media configuration choices. Here are the big ones in our household:
Firing The Cable Company Becomes A Sport
It used to be that the traditional cable company was the only television content and Internet pipeline into our home. But now there's a better choice, and it's creating downward pressure on prices, and upward pressure on product selection, quality and service. While a duopoly is not ideal, it's much better than a monopoly. And I certainly enjoyed firing our traditional cable company. So did our neighbors.
Decline Of Casual, Commercial-Interrupted Viewing
Casual, commercial-interrupted television viewing is almost gone, unless it's a quick clip on a laptop. There are several reasons: First, today's steroid-injected media systems don't lend themselves to casual viewing. Richer programming, huge vivid pictures and surround sound means that our television room has turned into a theater. Therefore, it becomes difficult to do anything but focus fully on the programming. Similarly, commercial interruptions become more intense and difficult to ignore, which means they become more bothersome.
Second, the paradox of technology is that television systems have gotten overly complex. With numerous devices, configurations and programming sources, it takes more planning, commitment and work to view. That complexity has led my family to be more selective and gravitate toward more meaningful programming with higher expectations and focus.
One Theater Versus Multiple TVs
In our house, we've never had more than one or two televisions. But as televisions evolve into mini theaters, the complexity and cost inherent in a good system makes it impractical to have multiple television configurations. Certainly, there will be more video screens, evident on mobile devices and laptops, used primarily for short-form viewing. But for long-form television viewing, we certainly don't want to downgrade from a theater experience to a lighter, less-satisfying one. Switching back and forth is unpleasant.
Thirst For High-Definition Content Growing
Once you get used to high-definition video, anything less is painful to endure. As a result, we sometimes select programming we'd otherwise disregard -- because it was high-def and the alternative wasn't. We long for the day when all programming will meet a minimum threshold of high-def.
Dumping The Cable Box
Most significant, we're almost ready to dump the cable box, which delivers traditional broadcast channels and network programming. The combination of better broadband, plug-and-play devices (like Roku) and serious online video streaming has made a big dent in our traditional cable-box viewing. Sports and other live events are still tied to cable boxes, and therefore will remain among the few significant incentives to keep traditional cable programming over the next couple years. But I underscore that the only time my family really used our cable box in 2009 was to tune into the Super Bowl. In one year, when our FioS subscriber agreement ends, we plan to cancel cable programming, unless it's a bundled giveaway.
To be sure, television and video content will continue to evolve quickly. Our personal media habits and technology configurations, described above, will outdate quickly. What will be the new television experience? I'm not sure, but I anticipate it will keep getting better. And I hope it simplifies.
How is television changing for you?
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Pirate Bay Trial: Episode III
Yesterday (day 3) the Pirate Bay trial was not as full of tension as it was on Tuesday but some things did clash again, of course. On one side there were prosecutors with rather weak attempts of finding the admins of the site guilty of how the users actually use The Pirate Bay for swapping illegal content and, on the other side, there was the legal team for the defendants stating that their clients cannot be hold responsible for what users choose to upload.
Again was invoked the rather stupid theory 1 download = 1 lost sale which we brought up in another post – “the music industry really believes that the music illegally shared equals the music that would otherwise be paid for?! It they do it means they are tremendously stupid, if not, it means they are just a bunch of hypocritical greedy bastards.”
The defence was prompt to respond: “We don’t know who the uploaders are. We don’t know how the uploaders came to possess the material, that is to say, the protected material. We don’t know how Fredrik Neij may have influenced the uploader.”
“And perhaps more importantly, how did he promote this, other than that he, via The Pirate Bay, provided a legal function and technology.”
“I submit that the torrent files one finds on The Pirate Bay can also be found by other search engines, like Google,” the defence added.
So far, the future looks bright for The Pirate Bay. Despite the existence of some other charges remaining and constituting the prosecution’s high hopes (read: we’ll settle even for this much), the development of things up to this moment point to one happy clear-name
Again was invoked the rather stupid theory 1 download = 1 lost sale which we brought up in another post – “the music industry really believes that the music illegally shared equals the music that would otherwise be paid for?! It they do it means they are tremendously stupid, if not, it means they are just a bunch of hypocritical greedy bastards.”
The defence was prompt to respond: “We don’t know who the uploaders are. We don’t know how the uploaders came to possess the material, that is to say, the protected material. We don’t know how Fredrik Neij may have influenced the uploader.”
“And perhaps more importantly, how did he promote this, other than that he, via The Pirate Bay, provided a legal function and technology.”
“I submit that the torrent files one finds on The Pirate Bay can also be found by other search engines, like Google,” the defence added.
So far, the future looks bright for The Pirate Bay. Despite the existence of some other charges remaining and constituting the prosecution’s high hopes (read: we’ll settle even for this much), the development of things up to this moment point to one happy clear-name
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
DIY: Stream special events live to your family and friends over the Internet
My wife and I just finished cleaning up from our daughter’s first birthday party and Grandma is rocking the tired little center of attention to sleep without the hint of a struggle tonight. We had a houseful today for a typical toddler’s early Saturday afternoon birthday party (squeezed between a consensus of nap times) with about 7 youngsters under the age of two as well as a couple cousins and neighbors slightly older. The living room and kitchen were filled to capacity with family and friends buzzing about milestones and how much the other kids have grown since the last time they had seen them.
It was a very special day for our young daughter, and ourselves, as well as my parents who drove 8 hours to stay for the weekend and celebrate the first birthday of their first grandchild. But today had that feeling of ’something extra’ because steps were taken to stream the party live over the Internet so that family and friends who could not attend in person would be able to experience the magical moments as they happened live rather than through a photograph or recorded video.
Anyone with a camera can broadcast to the world
There are a number of things that need to be addressed (or at least considered) on your side of the stream before beginning:
Speed of your Internet connection
Quality of hardware
The environment
Online streaming service
Notifications and access
We’ll tackle them one at a time…
1. Internet connection
This one is pretty straightforward. The faster your connection, more specifically your upload speed, the higher the quality of video and audio can be maintained. 300-400 bps (bits (of data) per second) upload speed is the minimum to obtain the best results. If you have a cable Internet connection you should be just fine. DSL pretty much averages out around 250 bps upload which will still allow for a watchable stream. Most streaming services allow you to tweak the video and audio quality settings to obtain the best final result. If your upload speed is < 128 then forget streaming, it will look like a still capture every 2~30 seconds. There are many places online to test your bandwidth speed to see if it’s worth going beyond this first step for live streaming on the web. My favorite right now is Speedtest.net.
A note if using a wireless connection: the number of devices sharing bandwidth on the network will affect your upload speed. So if you have any devices that can be turned off during your streaming event (i.e. Tivo, mobile phone, another computer) it would be beneficial to do so.
2. Quality of hardware
This boils down to deciding whether to use a computer with an internal webcam built-in or to use an external, normally USB powered, camera and microphone. If using a laptop, most brands and models purchased within the past 2 years have options for integrated webcams. If you are shopping for a new laptop and live streaming is a consideration for use, save yourself some grief and just get it. The sting of any extra cost will quickly fade after the excitement of doing your first live stream or video chat with a family member. Especially after hearing them say, “I can’t thank you enough” over and over again.
Keeping everything internal will also make it easier to move your streaming setup around if you have to switch ends of the room, or move to another room like we did today for opening gifts. I have used Apple products since 1996 and their built-in iSight camera works very well, but for this latest event for my daughter’s birthday I had a fairly new Acer Aspire One 9″ netbook with a built-in webcam and microphone. The smaller footprint was desirable to fit on a fireplace mantle and it performed quite well for our purpose.
A note if using a laptop: if operating on battery power, make sure it is fully charged before the event. Nothing will bring down a crowd watching your stream like a sudden black screen when the battery dies. Then there’s the interruption to the event to get things back in order, as well as trying to answer the phone from those who are calling to let you know there is a problem.
3. The environment
The most important thing to be aware of is lighting. Sometimes it is impossible to control this factor, but whenever possible avoid having the main subject sit in front of a brightly lit window bec/ this will cause a hotspot on the lens and keep their face in dark shadow for the duration of the stream. Light should come from behind the camera and not the subject. Whenever possible, turn on a group of lights that will evenly light their face. This short video from the (AFI) American Film Institute on Howcast shows you the basics of three-point lighting.
If using the built-in microphone, try to keep people from standing or sitting too close because any sound they make will overpower the subject of the stream. Even if they think they are whispering low enough not to be heard, it can get picked up and all people will hear is their commentary that they obviously didn’t want anyone else to hear.
Also try to keep a clear path from the camera’s viewpoint to the main focus of whatever you are trying to showcase. There is nothing less exciting than watching a pair of backs blocking your little angel taking her first steps in front of everyone, except those watching the stream.
And lastly regarding environment, be aware of the stream. As in our case today, gifts had been mailed prior to the party and when we knew we were opening the present of someone watching the stream, we would turn, smile and wave holding up their gift and said thank-you the same way as if they had been in the room. You don’t have to treat every second as if you were a play-by-play sports commentator, people can enjoy simply being spectators, but sometimes it is important to make those watching feel like they are part of the group.
4. Online streaming service
There are two basic methods of broadcasting a live stream of your event:
Downloading software that was created specifically for this purpose (many times this type of software can be found online for free but you will have to embed the stream in a website, either your own domain or through a separately hosted site) and this may require more than a beginner’s familiarity with web terminology and capability
Utilizing an online service that is free, requires no downloads and can create a stream as quickly as you can log into your account and click the “Broadcast Live” button.
There are surprisingly only a handful of online services that can reliably broadcast a live stream to the world and they are: Ustream.tv, Stickam, justin.tv, blogtv.com, and livevideo.com. For the purposes of this article, we will be focusing on the easiest route to accomplish our goal and use one of the 2 free online services that stand out as industry leaders, Ustream and Stickam.
The comparison of both services could easily warrant an article on its own, but if you’re curious to compare on your own just create a free account with both and look through the FAQ, services descriptions and interface layouts to see which feels like a better fit for your individual tastes.
I used Ustream, but both services meet the basic needs anyone would need in order to stream live a family event:
no cost to participate
an internet connection and browser with recent version of Adobe Flash Player installed
fast, easy access to launch a new stream
streams audio and video
chat capability with viewers
public and private access to stream
stream to hundreds, even thousands of simultaneous viewers
Once you click the button to broadcast live, either will ask permission for the flash player to access your web cam. If you have multiple input sources, the one you want to use is available to select through a drop down menu after right-clicking the flash player.
And that’s it!
You can monitor your stream as your viewers would see it, increase the view to fullscreen for better monitoring of composition from a distance, or adjust video and audio settings within the interface to tweak the quality and performance of your stream. But I have found that the default settings are normally more than adequate for providing a stream, especially if your bandwidth upload speed is in the 300-400 bps range or higher.
5. Notifications and Access
One last item to consider is letting your event guests know that they are participating in a live stream to the Internet. Some people may not be comfortable with this, especially for a stream that is open to the public and anyone can view - sometimes you will come across people who may find your stream through a simple search via the online service you are using and if they are being rude in the chat box you are able to block their further participation with a single click of the mouse.
Setting up a private stream may require notifying family and friends ahead of time on how to find your stream online, and then use the password you would have given them to access the stream. Likewise to broadcasting, the download speed of their Internet connection will also affect the quality of their viewing experience. Simply put, this experience at either end is really not for the old school dial-up days of AOL discs you received in the mail.
Once a stream starts, it is possible to announce your stream via email, and even Twitter nowadays - but nothing beats a simple phone call ahead of time so you can hear the tone in their voice when they ask, “You’re gonna do what to who online?”
There may be a fair amount of preparation time to get everything in order before the event starts, but once you go through the motions for the first one, the second event you decide to stream live for your family and friends will be only a few clicks away.
Have fun and enjoy!
It was a very special day for our young daughter, and ourselves, as well as my parents who drove 8 hours to stay for the weekend and celebrate the first birthday of their first grandchild. But today had that feeling of ’something extra’ because steps were taken to stream the party live over the Internet so that family and friends who could not attend in person would be able to experience the magical moments as they happened live rather than through a photograph or recorded video.
Anyone with a camera can broadcast to the world
There are a number of things that need to be addressed (or at least considered) on your side of the stream before beginning:
Speed of your Internet connection
Quality of hardware
The environment
Online streaming service
Notifications and access
We’ll tackle them one at a time…
1. Internet connection
This one is pretty straightforward. The faster your connection, more specifically your upload speed, the higher the quality of video and audio can be maintained. 300-400 bps (bits (of data) per second) upload speed is the minimum to obtain the best results. If you have a cable Internet connection you should be just fine. DSL pretty much averages out around 250 bps upload which will still allow for a watchable stream. Most streaming services allow you to tweak the video and audio quality settings to obtain the best final result. If your upload speed is < 128 then forget streaming, it will look like a still capture every 2~30 seconds. There are many places online to test your bandwidth speed to see if it’s worth going beyond this first step for live streaming on the web. My favorite right now is Speedtest.net.
A note if using a wireless connection: the number of devices sharing bandwidth on the network will affect your upload speed. So if you have any devices that can be turned off during your streaming event (i.e. Tivo, mobile phone, another computer) it would be beneficial to do so.
2. Quality of hardware
This boils down to deciding whether to use a computer with an internal webcam built-in or to use an external, normally USB powered, camera and microphone. If using a laptop, most brands and models purchased within the past 2 years have options for integrated webcams. If you are shopping for a new laptop and live streaming is a consideration for use, save yourself some grief and just get it. The sting of any extra cost will quickly fade after the excitement of doing your first live stream or video chat with a family member. Especially after hearing them say, “I can’t thank you enough” over and over again.
Keeping everything internal will also make it easier to move your streaming setup around if you have to switch ends of the room, or move to another room like we did today for opening gifts. I have used Apple products since 1996 and their built-in iSight camera works very well, but for this latest event for my daughter’s birthday I had a fairly new Acer Aspire One 9″ netbook with a built-in webcam and microphone. The smaller footprint was desirable to fit on a fireplace mantle and it performed quite well for our purpose.
A note if using a laptop: if operating on battery power, make sure it is fully charged before the event. Nothing will bring down a crowd watching your stream like a sudden black screen when the battery dies. Then there’s the interruption to the event to get things back in order, as well as trying to answer the phone from those who are calling to let you know there is a problem.
3. The environment
The most important thing to be aware of is lighting. Sometimes it is impossible to control this factor, but whenever possible avoid having the main subject sit in front of a brightly lit window bec/ this will cause a hotspot on the lens and keep their face in dark shadow for the duration of the stream. Light should come from behind the camera and not the subject. Whenever possible, turn on a group of lights that will evenly light their face. This short video from the (AFI) American Film Institute on Howcast shows you the basics of three-point lighting.
If using the built-in microphone, try to keep people from standing or sitting too close because any sound they make will overpower the subject of the stream. Even if they think they are whispering low enough not to be heard, it can get picked up and all people will hear is their commentary that they obviously didn’t want anyone else to hear.
Also try to keep a clear path from the camera’s viewpoint to the main focus of whatever you are trying to showcase. There is nothing less exciting than watching a pair of backs blocking your little angel taking her first steps in front of everyone, except those watching the stream.
And lastly regarding environment, be aware of the stream. As in our case today, gifts had been mailed prior to the party and when we knew we were opening the present of someone watching the stream, we would turn, smile and wave holding up their gift and said thank-you the same way as if they had been in the room. You don’t have to treat every second as if you were a play-by-play sports commentator, people can enjoy simply being spectators, but sometimes it is important to make those watching feel like they are part of the group.
4. Online streaming service
There are two basic methods of broadcasting a live stream of your event:
Downloading software that was created specifically for this purpose (many times this type of software can be found online for free but you will have to embed the stream in a website, either your own domain or through a separately hosted site) and this may require more than a beginner’s familiarity with web terminology and capability
Utilizing an online service that is free, requires no downloads and can create a stream as quickly as you can log into your account and click the “Broadcast Live” button.
There are surprisingly only a handful of online services that can reliably broadcast a live stream to the world and they are: Ustream.tv, Stickam, justin.tv, blogtv.com, and livevideo.com. For the purposes of this article, we will be focusing on the easiest route to accomplish our goal and use one of the 2 free online services that stand out as industry leaders, Ustream and Stickam.
The comparison of both services could easily warrant an article on its own, but if you’re curious to compare on your own just create a free account with both and look through the FAQ, services descriptions and interface layouts to see which feels like a better fit for your individual tastes.
I used Ustream, but both services meet the basic needs anyone would need in order to stream live a family event:
no cost to participate
an internet connection and browser with recent version of Adobe Flash Player installed
fast, easy access to launch a new stream
streams audio and video
chat capability with viewers
public and private access to stream
stream to hundreds, even thousands of simultaneous viewers
Once you click the button to broadcast live, either will ask permission for the flash player to access your web cam. If you have multiple input sources, the one you want to use is available to select through a drop down menu after right-clicking the flash player.
And that’s it!
You can monitor your stream as your viewers would see it, increase the view to fullscreen for better monitoring of composition from a distance, or adjust video and audio settings within the interface to tweak the quality and performance of your stream. But I have found that the default settings are normally more than adequate for providing a stream, especially if your bandwidth upload speed is in the 300-400 bps range or higher.
5. Notifications and Access
One last item to consider is letting your event guests know that they are participating in a live stream to the Internet. Some people may not be comfortable with this, especially for a stream that is open to the public and anyone can view - sometimes you will come across people who may find your stream through a simple search via the online service you are using and if they are being rude in the chat box you are able to block their further participation with a single click of the mouse.
Setting up a private stream may require notifying family and friends ahead of time on how to find your stream online, and then use the password you would have given them to access the stream. Likewise to broadcasting, the download speed of their Internet connection will also affect the quality of their viewing experience. Simply put, this experience at either end is really not for the old school dial-up days of AOL discs you received in the mail.
Once a stream starts, it is possible to announce your stream via email, and even Twitter nowadays - but nothing beats a simple phone call ahead of time so you can hear the tone in their voice when they ask, “You’re gonna do what to who online?”
There may be a fair amount of preparation time to get everything in order before the event starts, but once you go through the motions for the first one, the second event you decide to stream live for your family and friends will be only a few clicks away.
Have fun and enjoy!
Monday, February 2, 2009
EU conservatives launch online tv for June elections
EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS - The centre-right European People's Party on Friday (30 January) launched its own online tv channel as part of its political campaign for the June European elections.
"EU political parties can't buy airtime on big networks like BBC, CNN or Euronews, so we decided to create our own web tv channel instead," EPP deputy secretary general Luc Vandeputte told EUobserver.
The Belgian politician, in charge of the online campaign, explained that the service is provided by an external internet TV company and that it offered member parties from all 27 EU states the possibility to upload their videos and have their own channels in their respective languages.
A staff member had been trained as a journalist and would provide reports from the party's various events and conferences, he added.
The setup cost of DialogueTv was €22,724, with a monthly fee of €1,850 and a monthly streaming cost of €1,725.
Until now, the website has been streaming advertorials with conservative leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, on topics like climate change and the economic crisis.
The EPP manifesto, unveiled on the same occasion, portrayed the party as promoting a competitive social market economy as response to the financial crisis and climate change.
On the enlargement front, however, it remains against Turkey's EU membership, maintaining the German chancellor's preference for a "privileged partnership."
"EU political parties can't buy airtime on big networks like BBC, CNN or Euronews, so we decided to create our own web tv channel instead," EPP deputy secretary general Luc Vandeputte told EUobserver.
The Belgian politician, in charge of the online campaign, explained that the service is provided by an external internet TV company and that it offered member parties from all 27 EU states the possibility to upload their videos and have their own channels in their respective languages.
A staff member had been trained as a journalist and would provide reports from the party's various events and conferences, he added.
The setup cost of DialogueTv was €22,724, with a monthly fee of €1,850 and a monthly streaming cost of €1,725.
Until now, the website has been streaming advertorials with conservative leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, on topics like climate change and the economic crisis.
The EPP manifesto, unveiled on the same occasion, portrayed the party as promoting a competitive social market economy as response to the financial crisis and climate change.
On the enlargement front, however, it remains against Turkey's EU membership, maintaining the German chancellor's preference for a "privileged partnership."
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