Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders

Streaming Live Video

Podcast Video | Posted by Phil Leigh on April 23, 2008

If you would like to learn how to stream live video (like sporting events) over the Internet, this interview is for you.

Subject: Our guest today is Dave Stoner who is the President of ViewCast. His company manufactures high speed video capture cards and appliances that will convert live video into Internet-ready streams in real time.

Summary: Most Internet video is produced and edited in advance. This applies to the podcasters like me, as well as the Hollywood studios and TV producers with content at places like hulu.com. Since the production, code conversion, and editing is done ahead of time, there is no way that our tools can deliver real time video over the Net.

Nonetheless, the demand for live video streams is growing. The best examples are sporting and news events. As a result, a need exists for high speed components and appliances that will convert a live TV feed into formats suitable for video streaming “on the fly”.

Viewcast appears to be a leader in this little known market.

Phil’s Take: As the TV audience gradually spends more time on the Internet, the networks and local affiliates are becoming more aware of the need to make live programs available there as well. For example, TV news programs are increasingly being made available for live streaming, or on-demand download shortly after they are broadcast.

It seems likely that the trend will ultimately affect virtually all live programming. A case in point is the recent NCAA Basketball Tournament. CBS streamed all of the games as ad-supported Internet programming.

Tip of the Day: Optimizing Corporate Videos

Don’t isolate them on your website. Instead consider yourself something like a TV network in which your corporate website is merely the anchor affiliate. By posting the videos at popular destination websites such as YouTube, you turn those sites into “remote affiliates” of your network…and they can be all over the World.

One way to get your videos distributed to all the popular video sites is to register at tubemogul.com. You post there once, and they post to all the others for you. Contact me to learn how Inside Digital Media can help produce and distribute videos about your company.

– Phil