MPEG DASH vs. W3C WebTV?

The second W3C Web and TV workshop was held from February 8th-9th, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. The agenda was packed with interesting topics including use cases, adaptive HTTP streaming, content protection, metadata, HTML5, accessibility, and testing. Also others reported on the topic already.

I could not attend this meeting but I followed the Twitter stream #w3ctv which revealed some interesting thoughts from George and Alexander (cf. also screenshots) concerning the adopting of MPEG DASH for W3C WebTV. Alexander, I don't know whether a mug of hot tea helps here...

In general I think that DASH would just work for W3C WebTV and concerning royalties I'd like to quote from the minutes, "it needs to be clear that it is the companies that we have to ask, not the SDOs" - I fully agree [the minutes of the workshop (in usual W3C style) are available here (day #1) and here (day #2)].

In this context it's probably worth reading the following article describing Microsofts approach of "undoing Chrome's AVC (aka H.264) omission". I'm personally wondering what is better, having technology available as open source/royalty free but controlled by a single evil/not evil - whatever you prefer - entity (company) or paying license fees but having clear rules for joining/playing the game of developing and maintaining (corrigenda, amendment) a standard. I'd love to read your comments, feedback, and suggestions ...

TV anywhere, anytime ...

When reading the article on TechCrunch about watching cable TV on your iPhone, brings me back to the vision of UMA - my first blog entry here. In fact, with Sling Media's Set-Top Box (STB) you can stream TV/video content to your computer within your house. Now they'll announced to approach mobile devices at this week’s Macworld:

SlingPlayer Mobile gives consumers their entire home TV experience, including local channels, local sports teams, video on demand, pay per view, etc. Any program that you can watch on your sofa back home, you can now watch via your iPhone using a standard network connection. In addition, SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone users can also control their home digital video recorder (DVR) to watch recorded shows, pause, rewind, and fast forward live TV, or even queue new recordings while away from home.

The application will be submitted to Apple some time in Q1 but on their homepage the SlingPlayer Mobile for Blackberry is already available as public beta right now - also for Windows Smartphone, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Palm, and Symbian. Well, one could state that Apple's iPhone is the last one in the queue but I leave this debate open to everyone...

For me, this means that watching "my TV content" anywhere and anytime is becoming reality. However, I don't have a Sling Media STB and I also wonder about the legal aspects in European countries, etc. Furthermore, I would be interested whether it is possible to stream any content - not only TV content - to your mobile devices as film industry is starting to attach Digital Copies to their DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs respectively.

P2P-Next Project presents at IBC 2008 World's First video end-to-end streaming distribution of professional content to low-cost STB hardware

-- see also P2P-Next news

Amsterdam, 11 September 2008 - P2P-Next, a pan-European conglomerate of 21 industrial partners, media content providers and research institutions , is releasing its first version of NextShare, an Open Source P2P (Peer-to-Peer) video delivery platform today at IBC 2008. NextShareTV is a STB (Set-Top-Box) implementation of the NextShare content delivery platform running on a low-cost embedded hardware.

The P2P-Next research project has successfully released and tested the first Beta version of their P2P live streaming technology. This new technology allows everyone to broadcast a live stream, such as a Web cam feed or TV channel, to millions of Internet users. Key is the bandwidth efficiency of this technology, by expanding the proven BitTorrent protocol you can stream to thousands of people using roughly the same amount of bandwidth as for a single user..

NextShareTV is demonstrated at the IBC 2008 exhibition on the EBU Village (Hall 10 Both D21).

”This is an extremely ambitious project which will create a viable broadcast platform that would enable large audiences to stream and interact with live and on-demand (VoD) content via a set top box or a TV receiver. In addition, it is our intention to allow audiences to build communities around their favourite content via a fully personalized system. We are enthusiastic about the P2P-Next plans to test the P2P-Next system for major international broadcasting events, “ declares Lieven Vermaele, EBU Technical Director.

"The harnessing of Open Source P2P video streaming technology like NextShare by low-cost consumer electronics represents a sea change and an exciting opportunity for the market. Pioneer recognises that consumers are demanding greater choice and quality content on demand, together with integrated devices that are easy to use. The next step is to agree Open Standards for interoperability between CE peer devices across Europe.", says Mark Stuart of Pioneer Digital Design and Technical Director of the P2P-Next project.

George Wright of BBC, Creative Director of the P2P-Next project states: “The BBC is excited to be part of a world's first end-to-end streaming of live TV via a P2P network to a set top box using professional content at professional quality. Working with partners around Europe and content producers from the Public Service Broadcasters of European Broadcasting Union (EBU), commercial and microformat areas will allow a new distribution system to be tested, evaluated and assessed.”

The P2P-Next project will run over four years, and plans to conduct large-scale technical trials of new media applications running on a wide range of consumer devices

The project has an open approach towards sharing results. All core software technology will be available as open source, enabling new business models. P2P-Next will also address a number of outstanding challenges related to content delivery over the internet, including technical, legal, regulatory, security, business and commercial issues.”