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Brightcove CEO and Chairman Jeremy Allaire delivered the keynote address,""Setting the Stage for 2010 and the Future of Online Video", at the Online Video Platform Summit this past Wednesday, November 18th at 1:45 p.m. PST. His keynote was streamed live on Streamingmedia.com, and on this and many other blogs and websites powered by Livestream through an embeddable player. You'll see me in the beginning of the video introduce Jeremy, who presented a high level overview of some the underlying currents and drivers in the online video market and the shape of the online video platform industry and it's role in the broader development of web. He talked about the pervasiveness of video on the web, which he discussed in detail in my CEO Conversation post from earlier this week, and how virtually every professional organization - from SMBs (small medium-sized businesses) to major corporations or media publishers - are investing in their web sites and are starting to realize that video is one of the most effective mediums for their marketing and communication and education objectives. He also discussed the announcement earlier this week of the release Brightcove 4, an extensible suite of tools with a host of new features and many other new capabilities and Brightcove Express, an entry-level version of the service. Twitter played a large role in the Online Video Platform Summit and Streaming Media West providing great conversation context to the sessions. There were a number notable Tweets during the keynote including:@dboyll: Jeremy, re OVP's "it's only a platform if developers are building on top of it"@ayolo: Jeremy Allaire: Expansion of how online video is being used is "driving the complexity." Want to do more with video - brand, site #ovps09 and @jbreitfelder: Brightcove #ovps09 keynote - two best ways to spread video: search & social Stay tuned for more #smwest09 and #ovps09 coverage!

As we move into the final day of Streaming Media West and the Online Video Platform the buzz of TV Everywhere, mobile, HD video on the web, adaptive bitrate technology, social video, advertising formats and, the all important question on how to monetize it all echoes through the conference and exhibit halls. The last sessions today wrap up the week long events and later this afternoon, I'm moderating an Online Video Platform Summit panel session on monetization that will feature Benjamin Wayne of Fliqz, Peter Csathy of Sorenson Media, Teg Grenager of Adap.tv and the one and only viral video genius Kevin "Nalts" Nalty. In this special Online Video Platform edition, I'm presenting Daisy Whitney's New Media Minute that my good friend Mark Robertson calls, "Nalts’ Cuddly Tips & Strategies for YouTube Video Success." As Daisy says, "Viral video is dead. Long live low production values. The cheaper the better. Don’t cuddle it to death, let go of your brand persona. Those are the sage words of Kevin Nalty, who is an online video strategist, a career marketer, and a YouTube star with more than 100 million views of his videos. In this episode of the New Media Minute, shot on location at the recent iMedia Summit in Las Vegas, he shared his tips for brands that want to play in the YouTube sandbox with New Media Minute host Daisy Whitney."

For the first time, Streaming Media West will be delivering live coverage, keynotes and Red Carpet interviews starting this morning. Keynotes from Bill Stone, president of FLO TV at 12 p.m. EST/9 a.m. PST on Tuesday, Nov. 17, Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire on "Setting the Stage for 2010 and the Future of Online Video" from the Online Video Platform Summit at 4:45 p.m. EST/1:45 p.m. PST, and Emil Rensing, chief digital officer of Studio 3 Partners/EPIX at 12 p.m. EST/9 a.m. PST on Thursday, Nov. 19. The Red Carpet interviews will be throughout the day and through the week, sponsored by Brightcove, with dozens of prominent online video industry leaders on the Streaming Media TV page Then, Wednesday night at 10:30 p.m. EST/7:30 p.m. PST, the presentation of the 2009 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards, followed by a performance from video remixers Eclectic Method will be streamed live. Watch it here or on the StreamingMedia.com home page as well as in larger-screen format here. Stay tuned for more ongoing coverage of the events!

This is a quick break from my promotion of the Online Video Platform Summit, which is just one week away, for a media alert to say that I'll be at NewTeeVee Live tomorrow moderating a panel discussion at 12:30 PM on Analytics sponsored by Ooyala. The focus of the session is to discuss how analytics of all types can help drive greater brand exposure as well as increased revenue. The event will be held at the the Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF, San Francisco, CA from 8:00 AM - 8:30 PM. The conference will be discussing 'Television Reinvented' and will feature panel discussions from leaders in the field of television and communications. See the full schedule at http://events.newteevee.com/live/09/schedule/ Ooyala Workshop - Real Time Analytics that Drive Personalization and Monetization As content owners and marketers move beyond the basics of getting video published on the Web, online video is becoming increasingly performance based. Ooyala's Analytics Engine provides real time data on viewer consumption and engagement. Today's discussion will focus on how content creators, brands, and creative agencies can effectively use this data to drive successful video campaigns. ModeratorLarry Kless Founder and President, OnlineVideoPublishing.com Larry Kless is President and Founder of Online Video Publishing [dot] com a new media resource firm for sharing strategies and best practices for online video publishers. Larry is a 20 year veteran of the enterprise video space and award-winning producer of corporate and educational videos. His background is in fine arts and he's a long-time member of Canyon Cinema, Inc. and Filmmakers' Coop. He writes a personal blog and is a contributor on ReelSEO.com and Vator.tv focusing on streaming media, online video, startups, gadgets, social media, advertising and marketing, videoconferencing and collaboration. He was named a 2009 Streaming Media All-Star by StreamingMedia.com, and is also Co-Chair of the Online Video Platform Summit

Sorenson Media has been on a steady pace of innovation to meet the video publishing challenges faced by video professionals. The 14-year old company redefined itself this past year by expanding the workflow of its best-in-class encoding software solution, Squeeze, into a full fledged video delivery network called Sorenson 360. The combination of client-side and browser-based encoding with a high-quality scalable content delivery platform has helped Sorenson Media solve video publishing puzzle for its core customer base with an "all-in-one total workflow." Sorenson Media is in a unique position as it's the only company in the online video platform space that has been around more than 14 years and profitable for a long time. Sorenson Media introduced its first video codec in 1997. Apple licensed the Sorenson Video 1 (SV1) codec for inclusion in the Apple QuickTime video player, which helped established a new and higher standard for video quality on the Internet. The Sorenson Spark codec was the first Flash video codec and was also licensed as the original video codec used on YouTube. Since then, it has become the industry’s most ubiquitous codec, with well over one billion videos on the Internet encoded exclusively in the Sorenson Spark format. Over the past several months I've had the pleasure of speaking with Peter Csathy, who joined as President and CEO earlier this year, and according to Peter, "we are still in the very early innings (inning 2 of a 9 inning game) of the Internet video opportunity" and the game changes everyday. Last week Sorenson Media announced a major upgrade to its well-known player with a new version 6.0. Sorenson Squeeze, which was launched on November 3. Squeeze 6 includes a redesigned user interface with many enhancements in features and capabilities with innovative tools – such as email and text notifications and a secure review and approval process – that simplify the overall workflow and allow them to more easily encode and pub

Ooyala was founded in the spring of 2007 by Google alumni Bismarck Lepe, President of Product Strategy & Marketing, his younger brother Belsasar Lepe, Director of Engineering and former Stanford dorm mate and CTO, Sean Knapp with a mission to make content more personal. Ooyala is Headquartered in Mountain View, CA and has sales offices in New York City and London. Their company name derived from a Southern Indian language, Telugu word Ooyala which means cradle. They liked the name because they felt it demonstrates what their company is doing -- cradling a new form of innovation. In a saturated online video platform market that seems to change daily, Ooyala differentiates itself in comprehensiveness, by providing a single, end-to-end platform with an integrated, intuitive interface with viewer insight and advanced monetization tools. Ooyala reaches over 50 million unique users a month via their player from their 500 media and non-media customers globally. As far a biggest competitors, Ooyala says that most often they compete against the over 10,000 homegrown implementations of video that are in the top 100,000 Quantcast sites. Outside of that, they believe that Brightcove is next closest competitor and according to the Forrester Research report, The Forrester WaveTM: US Online Video Platforms, an evaluation of six top online video platform vendors, Brightcove and Ooyala lead the pack with their end-to-end product offerings. Ooyala is a Platninum Sponsor of will be at the Online Video Platform Summit, and Bismarck Lepe will speak on the opening panel discussion, Defining ONline Video Platforms, on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 10:30 AM and presenting Ooyala's platform in the Online Video Platform Showcase following that session at 11:30 AM. See Ooyala on the exhibit floor at Booth 401. Why Ooyala? Here's what they say... 1) Comprehensiveness: Ooyala provides a single, end-to-end platform with an integrated, intuitive interface. - Enterprise-level video platform

Kyte is the online and mobile video platform for live and on-demand content. The Kyte Platform combines the real-time, interactive and community building capabilities of the social web, with the analytics, control, and monetization features of professional video platforms, enabling companies to engage online and mobile audiences, build community and monetize. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with European offices in Berlin, London and Zurich. The company was founded by Daniel Graf and Erik Abair in 2006 and has been recognized with numerous awards including a 2009 OnHollywood Top 100 company and a 2008 OnMedia 100 by AlwaysOn for innovation, market potential, commercialization, industry "buzz" and game-changing strategies in advertising, marketing, and promotion. Kyte differentiates itself as an enabling technology and other platforms as destinations. Major record labels are using Kyte’s offerings as “a full media platform.” Recording artist 50 Cent was as early Kyte adopter and premiered his new video on Facebook (powered by Kyte) and got 500,000 views in two days. Customers range from TV & film, music, radio, brands & agencies, publishers and enterprises & organizations. Kyte is a Platinum sponsor of the Online Video Platform Summit and will be on the exhibit floor in Booth 427. Daniel Graf, CEO & Co-founder of Kyte will showcase the Kyte Platform on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:30 AM as part of the Online Video Platform Showcase - Day 1. Come see Kyte and other platforms Kaltura, VMIX, and Delve Networks in action and learn about their features and capabilities, and get answers to your questions from the platform providers themselves. About Kyte Kyte is a universal digital media platform that provides an end-to-end, online and mobile solution for the production, distribution and monetization of digital content. Through strategic partnerships with the world’s leading media companies, mobile carriers, and mobile device m

Kaltura provides the world's first Open Source Online Video Platform. Founded in 2006, Kaltura's open source code is available as a free Software Development Kit and as downloadable packages for leading platforms, including content management (Drupal), blogging (WordPress), collaboration (MediaWiki), enterprise (MindTouch), and education (Moodle). The company has been recognized with numerous awards for its open source platform and was recently named one of 10 "Innovative Applications Companies to Watch" by IDC. Kaltura is also a founding member of the 'Open Video Alliance' (www.openvideoalliance.org), a coalition of organizations dedicated to fostering open infrastructure, tools, and standards for online video. According to the Forrester Research report, The Forrester WaveTM: US Online Video Platforms, Q4 2009, Kaltura ranked as a strong performer following Brightcove and Ooyala. Forrester Sr. Analyst Bobby Tulsiani noted: "Kaltura offers a highly differentiated video platform option, which allows organizations to fully own the open source code at no charge. The company also impresses with pioneering user-generated video that allows viewers to remix video clips. Additionally, the open community at Kaltura.org provides a great resource for innovation and sharing in development. As a newer entrant to the market, Kaltura has started with a solid entry; if it can buttress its monetization and reporting capabilities, it will certainly compete with the market leaders."Kaltura is also a Platinum Sponsor of the Online Video Platform Summit and has planned a number of activities at this year's event. CEO and Chairman Ron Yekutiel will be speaking on the opening panel session Defining Online Video Platforms, Wednesday, November 18th at 10:30 AM and presenting Kaltura's features and capabilities in the Online Video Platform Showcase, also on November 18th at 11:45 PM. Kaltura will be sponsoring a magical lunch following the showcase - The Magic of Open Source Video! with Supe

Brightcove was founded in 2004 by Jeremy Allaire and is considered to be the first online video platform. Brightcove is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business with offices across North America, Europe and Asia and offers the most comprehensive video platform in the market according to a new report, The Forrester WaveTM: US Online Video Platforms, a Q4 2009 37-criteria evaluation of six top online video platform vendors by Forrester Research. Brightcove and Ooyala lead the pack with their end-to-end product offerings that target organizations of all sizes followed by Strong Performers: Kaltura And VMIX and Contenders: Twistage And Fliqz. Brightcove is a Diamond Sponsor of the Online Video Platform Summit and Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove CEO and Chairman will deliver the keynote address, "Setting the Stage for 2010 and the Future of Online Video", Wednesday, November 18th at 1:45 PM. See Brightcove on the exhibit floor in Booth 705. All six companies evaluated in the Forrester report are participating in the Online Video Platform Summit and several created videos to promote the event. In this video Jeremy Allaire briefly describes Brightcove's vision for video publishing on the web. About Brightcove Brightcove is an online video platform that is used by media companies, businesses and organizations worldwide to publish and distribute video on the Web. At our core, we’re dedicated to harnessing the inherent power of the open Internet to transform the distribution and consumption of professional media. Today, Brightcove is used by hundreds of organizations in nearly in every corporate and social sector for online video initiatives. Operating in 28 countries with offices across North America, Europe and Asia, we count among our customers many of the largest media companies and marketing organizations in the world as well as a wide range of small and medium sized businesses. The Brightcove platform is a white-label, on-demand service that gives website publishers

The Foo Fighters know how to rock. They've toured live for the last 15 years reaching a fan base that stretches across the globe. But last Friday, October 30th at 7pm (PT), they opened up the virtual doors to their Studio 606 in Los Angeles to put on their first live concert produced exclusively for their fans online. The free live show was powered by Livestream and aired on the band's Livestream and Facebook pages to promote the release of their much anticipated Greatest Hits album on November 3rd. The performance featured Facebook/Twitter chat integrations so that fans could interact with the band and each other live during the performance. The Foo Fighters' Facebook page incorporated a similar live stream+chat module that's been used in a variety of events over the last year, including CNN's live stream of Barack Obama's inauguration. According to Livestream Co-founder and CEO Max Haot: "As the Foo Fighters were playing, they were keeping an eye on the stream of Facebook status updates coming in, sometimes responding to comments and taking song requests. This is first time ever that a live concert was produced just for their fans online – it was not just a broadcast of an existing concert/event. The concert attracted more than 150,000 viewers and trended on Twitter (#2, #1 was Halloween), was #1 on Digg and was featured on Facebook Celebs. The event generated a lot of buzz in the music and social media industry." Watch live streaming video from foofighters at livestream.com The integration of live video and interactive chat helps build value on many levels by enabling artists to connect with fans, extend their reach through existing social networks and boost their video marketing, merchandising and promotion efforts. The cost to produce a live event using an online video platform like Livestream is significantly less than traditional broadcast television. Advertising and sponsorship deals will also help generate revenue for artists and music industry along wi

Every year since 2003, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) has published the Streaming Media Industry Sourcebook, an annual publication for technology managers and executive decision makers who are implementing rich media within their organizations. The Sourcebook, first appeared in print in December 2003, blends a comprehensive directory of solution provider companies with highly practical articles on choosing, installing, and justifying a streaming initiative. It's also Streaming Media's annual double issue and is a yearly review and look ahead at the year to come. Streaming Media Magazine Editor-in-Chief Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen announced the 2010 Streaming Media Industry Sourcebook today and offered a glimpse of the contents of the publication: "The Year in Review and Futurewatch sections will look back and ahead, respectively, at the enterprise, entertainment, and education verticals as well as at mobile video, content delivery, advertising, and video to the living room. We'll also feature buyers guides aimed at helping you make smart purchasing choices for online video platforms, encoding solutions, enterprise video solutions, and video formats and players. On the how-to front, we'll take a look at deploying a DRM solution, encoding for multiple devices, and optimizing video search engine optimization, among other topics. We'll also announce our annual Editors' Picks—our writers' choices for the best products and services of 2009" Eric also included this exclusive video interview with a special Streaming Media magazine subscriber who had an interesting perspective on "The Revenge of Online Video." Subscribe today for your FREE copy of the 2010 Sourcebook at: http://www.omeda.com/strm/ Full media kit can be downloaded here. http://www.streamingmedia.com/mediakit/2010SourcebookMediaKit.pdf See the digital version of the Streaming Media Sourcebook 2009

According to Trust Agents author Chris Brogan, “Social media… is the new dial tone,” a concept that is the subject and title of a new short documentary by Marc Ostrick, CEO and Co-founder of eGuiders and Michael Sean Wright, founder of nicefishfilms. The video, which documents their day at the Blog World Expo and the conversations with noted bloggers and reporters who describe the growing shift in media production and consumption through social media networks. This is the first in their Spark Series which explores the documentary style of filmmaking using consumer grade new media tools. By shooting with Kodak Zi8 and Flip Ultra HD cameras they wanted to see how far they could push the limits of the technology by bringing a filmmaking sensibility to amateur event coverage video. They also used a few other accessories to increase the production value, like a Sennheiser ME 66 shotgun microphone and a Frezzi Micro-fill light, all of which all could fit into a bag. The soundtrack of the video was composed in Garageband. The video shows how the disrupters are becoming mainstream and as eGuider Brian Rothe says:"The new dial tone is a dialog among media producers, technologists and bloggers who are looking to express their ideas in the stream of the real-time web." Appearances in the new dial tone include: Robert Scoble - Tech Blogger, @scobleizer Don Lemon - CNN Anchor, @donlemoncnn Hugh Hewitt - National Talk Radio Host, @hughhewit Leo Laporte - Chief Twit, @leolaporte Chris Brogan - Author, @chrisbrogan Chris Morrow - CNN iReporter, @morrowchris Ben Parr - Co-Editor, Mashable, @benparr The next Spark Series will focus on Jeff Pulver's 140 Character Conference that will be taking place the next two days on October 27 and 28 in Los Angeles. Follow the Filmakers: Marc Ostrick (OSTRICK) on TwitterMichael Sean Wright (nicefishfilms) on Twitter

Veeple has announced interPlay, their new interactive API and plug-in that adds interactivity and analytics to 3rd-party online video players. This is a shift in Veeple's business model as an all-in-one solution, in a move to a modular structure to offer their interactivity and analytics modules to customers who already have an existing video solution. Many potential customers were interested in interactivity, metrics and increasing user engagement but wanted them to work with other platforms. By opening up the platform, Veeple sees a greater opportunity to provide a solution to online marketers and content owners that dramatically increases viewer engagement and improve conversions. Veeple CEO and Co-founder Scott Broomfield said that interPlay is based on customer demand: "We know that Veeple customers are experiencing the power of interactivity in their videos and are seeing phenomenal engagement rates, at some points, up to 63%, well above the industry average. Due to numerous requests by potential customers who have already invested in their own video environments but need interactivity to give a boost to their video content, we have decided to provide access to our entire interactive library via our interPlay API. Now, people have the ability to add interactivity and enhance conversions, without overhauling their existing online video infrastructure." interPlay is free and will be bundled with a 30-day free trial of Veeple's Intelligent Video Analytics Suite. The interactive capabilities consist of: Actionable objects including image & Flash animationsDocuments including PDF’s, Word & PowerPointTransparent actionable overlaysPopular social networking sitesTextual overlaysThe analytical suite includes: Videos views over a time span. Videos views in a geographic region. Interactions over a time span. Views at time intervals over video duration. Interactions against views over video duration. Real-time video ratings wave. Scott recorded this

One of my favorite new online video shows is The Web.Files, a weekly entertainment talk show that exclusively covers the "web celebs” involved in creating the best, most-watched, highest-rated, and most talked about series on the web. Launched this past July 2009, The Web.Files is created and hosted by the lovely and talented entertainment reporter and media host Kristyn Burtt and produced and directed by Sandra J Payne. The Web.Files uploaded Wednesdays to Blip.TV, where it is featured as a hot series on the front page each week and has racked up tens of thousands of views. The idea for the show began during Kristyn Burtt's red carpet coverage of the March 28, 2009, Streamy Awards. Burtt found that the people she was talking with that night had fascinating stories to tell and that she’d like to be the one to help tell those stories to the world through a weekly talk/interview show. Burtt then contacted award-winning filmmaker, Sandra J. Payne, whose SPwrite Productions, LLC, was about to launch its first web series, “Life with Kat & McKay” on its new portal, PurseDog. The two decided to join forces to produce the The Web.Files and have profiled more than a dozen "web celebs" including Marc Ostrick, co-founder of eGuiders, comedy duo Dave and Tom creators of Safety Geeks: SVI, YouTube star Tay Zonday and many others. In this episode, Kristyn Burtt, speaks with veteran new media guru Tim Street, Chief Creative/CEO of Ape Digital, blogger at 1TimStreet.com and creator of French Maid TV, among many other ventures. Tim began his focus on web entertainment in 1999 and is one of the pioneers in the web series field. He has attained respect for his business model in the web video world as one of the few series producers to figure out how to monetize online video through sponsored entertainment. Tim recently produced a free eBook, 10 Things You Should Do Before You Upload Your Online Video, and regularly shares his insights on how to be effective online on his blog

Faithful readers of ReelSEO, the online video marketers guide, will be happy to know that they are now a distribution partner for Daisy Whitney’s New Media Minute show. ReelSEO now joins the ranks of other distribution partners like Beet.TV, HuffingtonPost, Natpe.org, iMediaConnections, ABCnews.com, and a handful of others. For those of you that may not be familiar with Daisy Whitney, she is a producer, on-air talent, podcaster and more than anything, an expert in the online video industry. As a reporter, Daisy specializes in covering Internet video, social networking, YouTube, iTunes and other forms of online and new media distribution of content for a range of multimedia news outlets including NBC’s KNTV, ABCNews.com, Beet.TV, MediaPost and others. She is one of the first journalists to launch her own online newscast that covers the business of Internet video – the New Media Minute, which will appear on ReelSEO every Tuesday. ReelSEO founder and publisher, Mark Roberston had this to say about their new partnership: "It is my belief that those interested in learning online video marketing should immerse themselves in knowledge of the online video space. With Daisy’s help, we hope to become that much better at equipping you with all you need to know about the new media industry, latest trends, best practices, etc…"Congratulations Mark and ReelSEO!

In yet another shake up within the online video space New York City-based web video and streaming pioneer, The FeedRoom, has been acquired by Germany-based web company KIT Digital (KITD) for approximately $9.8 million worth of stock. A long-time player in the online video market, The FeedRoom remained at the forefront of online video communications for the last decade. Since launching in 1999 as a video aggregation site, The FeedRoom raised at least $66 million with $12 million just two years ago. According to Dan Rayburn, The Feedroom had agreed to the deal some time ago and changes have already taken place with the departure of top leaders, CEO Mark Portu and SVP Daniel Webster, and the pending closure of the San Francisco office. Many in the online video news space commented that it was not a good day for The Feedroom investors who ended up losing the majority of their investments. Dan Frommer called it a "Web Video Firesale", Ryan Lawler noted it "marks an inglorious end to The FeedRoom" and Dan Rayburn pointed out that being acquired was really their only option. Dan said this about the deal: "On paper, the services of KIT and FeedRoom fit nicely together and considering that KIT paid FeedRoom investors with all stock, it was an easy deal. While the deal makes sense on paper since it gives KIT a U.S. presence, enterprise and government customers, and all of The FeedRoom's technology, the success or failure of this acquisition will all come down to the integration of the two companies. KIT has a challenge ahead of them since they are doing multiple acquistions and integrations and can't yet know how much of The FeedRoom's revenue will remain come next year." In 2004, The Feedroom transitioned to a SaaS (software-as-a-service) video platform for video management tools and went back to it's roots within the last year to power enterprise video with the FeedRoom 4.0 Enterprise Video Platform. The company has provided B2B video and digital asset management solutio

Mergers and acquisitions are heating up and in a move that has sent shockwaves through the video collaboration market, Cisco has made a hefty bid of $3 Billion in cash to acquire Norwegian videoconferencing vendor TANDBERG. The definitive agreement was recommended unanimously by Tandberg’s board of directors and represents an 11.0% premium to Tandberg's closing stock on Wednesday and more than 25% to the average closing price over the last three months.  The merger of the two companies will likely create an unstoppable force that both disrupts the collaboration market and extends the reach of both platforms from low bandwidth desktop and mid-range group based videoconferencing systems to HD videoconferencing and TelePresence. In nothing short of a brilliant move by Cisco to acquire rival in the space, the San Jose company will add Tandberg's portfolio of middle market end points, desktop units, multipoint control units (MCUs) and network infrastructure solutions into it's growing line of video offerings.  Video collaboration is hot and Cisco knows that. In the NY Times, Ashlee Vance highlighted Cisco's recent M&A activity:"In recent years, Cisco, based in San Jose, Calif., has been one of the technology industry’s most aggressive companies when it comes to acquisitions. It has bought close to 40 companies in the last five years, including the $6.9 billion purchase of the set-top box maker Scientific Atlanta and the $2.9 billion purchase of the Web meeting software maker WebEx. This year, Cisco bought Pure Digital, which makes the popular Flip video camera for consumers, for $590 million."Several years earlier, Cisco acquired web conferencing platform WebEx which has become the desktop standard for many companies and core to Cisco's unified communications experience. Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers pointed out that Cisco and Tandberg share similar cultures and visions on video technologies and unified communications collaboration and video communic

Today, Livestream launched Livepack, a totally wireless turn-key hardware solution for live mobile HD streaming. Through a partnership with LiveU, makers of hand-held video uplink devices, Livestream offers a unique bundled solution that combines a hardware device with their live streaming platform. This solution addresses the needs of video producers and video professionals who need to broadcast live anytime, from anywhere and on-the-go with video up to HD quality at 700-1000 kbps.  Livepack is a portable device that fits into a backpack and includes six load-balanced 3G/EVDO modems for redundancy over three carriers (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint) with data plans are that covered within the price. It allows you to you can go anywhere with a complete roaming camera setup and aimed to replace the expense of a traditional satellite uplink truck and satellite time.  While live mobile streaming is not new with companies like Qik.com, Flixwagon and Bambuser having been on the market for a few years, according to Livestream CEO Max Haot, mobile phone streaming is not a viable option if you want to live stream an event.  I spoke with Max yesterday and he pointed out that,  "You're not going to stream a two hour event using a mobile phone due to the battery life, the quality of the lens, the zoom, but more importantly also the fact that's it's only one 3G network which is usually unreliable. So the other option that has been available to people needing to do wireless live streaming has been traditional broadcast satellite. This type of equipment is hugely expensive (up to $50,000 a day) and most live streaming events can't afford it. It's usually reserved for television."Max added that if you're an event organizer and you want to live stream today you either have to make sure you have a wifi connection, laptop, camera or any sort of feed to encode reliably on the Internet using a platform such as theirs. But if you want to do it wirelessly where you don't have a

In part two of this CEO Conversations with Peter Csathy, we talk more about how Sorenson Media differentiates itself within the market and Peter offers his mid-year review of the online video space. We also talk about how in the midst of the economic recession his company continues to grow and hire more positions. Earlier this month, Sorenson Media reported that the number of international visitors to its Web site now exceeds domestic traffic as a result of the demand for the company’s digital video solutions. International sales are up and Peter attributed that to "a direct result of our established brand name and reputation for quality,” adding that, “It is also a testament to how important online video is becoming to businesses globally.” In part one, Peter described their offering as the portfolio approach where you have the products and services. While they have the video publishing platform of Sorenson 360, they also have the separate encoding solution, Sorenson Squeeze which can work seamlessly together or completely independently. Here's an overview video, Video Publishing Made Easy | Sorenson Squeeze + 360: Here's the conclusion of our conversation: Larry Kless: Last month Sorenson Media issued a press release that said, Sorenson Media Plans Further Expansion to Meet Growing Demand for Innovative Online Video Services, can you speak to that statement and further expand upon what you've been quoted there? Peter Csathy: So, the exciting thing about this space, when we talk about the macro environment is that it's crazy economic times. It's very painful out there and we all know that. At the same time, we in the online or Internet video space who provide the toolsets (and there are a number of companies), all of us are very good position because the market for our kinds of services and technology is growing literally exponentially. So these are good times for our company. And as a result, you see hiring going on with other companies that are

Since Peter Csathy took the helm of Sorenson Media as President and CEO, the 14-year old company has expanded the capabilities of its core customer base by launching an easy-to-use and cost effective video delivery network, Sorenson 360. By combining Sorenson Squeeze encoding tools with Sorenson 360, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) and video professionals, have a dedicated workflow that extends into online video workflow. According to Dan Rayburn, EVP of Streamingmedia.com, who spent several months reviewing the product a hands on review, he said, "Sorenson Has A Winner With Their New 360 Video Platform." Dan provides a thoughtful review and gave Sorenson 360 a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 and noted that Sorenson 360 was designed to address the needs of the SMBs and bundles all the key services including transcoding, storage, delivery, analytics, player customization all within an easy to use system. Here's a brand new About Sorenson Media video, that makes an exclusive world premiere right here on this blog, in which Peter illustrates the key features and benefits of the Sorenson 360 video delivery network. <![if !IE]><![endif]> The following is recent conversation I had with Peter to catch up on the latest developments at his company. He also shares his perspective on monetizing of online video, the importance of high quality video encoding and what differentiates Sorenson 360 from the offerings of the many online video platform providers in the space. This is part one of the two part interview. Larry Kless: I was just on your blog and I saw that, It's Official -- Sorenson 360 Now Features Secure Vid Review & Customizable Player Options, was that the announcement, could you explain that product launch? Peter Csathy: Yes it was so just yesterday we introduced we significantly enhanced Soresnson 360 into the marketplace and it's a good day because the reception to date has been great couldn't ask for more. Larry Kless: You also mentioned in your blog p