Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Cloudapp for Mac Overview/Demo

Smartphone-readable microparticles crack down on counterfeiting

Led by MIT chemical engineering professor Patrick Doyle and Lincoln Laboratory technical staff member Albert Swiston, the researchers have invented a new type of tiny, smartphone-readable particle that they believe could be deployed to help authenticate currency, electronic parts, and luxury goods, among other products. The particles, which are invisible to the naked eye, contain colored stripes of nanocrystals that glow brightly when lit up with near-infrared light.

Read more: http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/tiny-p...

Star Trek Voyager The Bridge Demo on the Oculus Rift

Akamai Tops ABI Research’s Multiscreen Video Service Providers Competitive Assessment; Ooyala and Brightcove Finish in Second and Third Respectively

Research News

Scottsdale, Arizona - 24 Apr 2014

Cloud video service companies provide the backbone for over the top (OTT) video services, TV Everywhere services from content providers and sport’s leagues, and movie studio’s nascent movie stores and Ultraviolet offerings.“This market was characterized by significant in-house versus off-premise decisions just 12 to 18 months ago,” according to ABI Research practice director Sam Rosen.“Now, most traditional broadcasters and distributors, as well as new entrants to the market are universally adopting cloud services until their solutions scale to number in the top five to ten video services.”

The cloud video services market is led by Akamai, a content delivery network (CDN) that strikes impressive relationships with nearly every other vendor in the video ecosystem to handle the video distribution needs of Tier 1 customers.Second in the market is innovative Ooyala, the second largest (by revenue) online video platform (OVP) which has focused continually on the needs of media customers.Brightcove has largely acquired its way into third place with acquisitions of Zencoder (cloud based encoding platform) and more recently, Unicorn Media (with a strong ad insertion capability).

The market is rapidly growing from $2.3 billion in 2013 to $4.6 billion in 2019, according to ABI Research.“Like any complex and rapidly changing market, there are significant opportunities as well as a few pitfalls.Mobile managed video platforms and Southern European markets led to some hiccups in growth during 2013.In the future, we expect the OVP category to grow faster than other business models servicing this market,” adds Rosen.

ABI Research’s recently published Competitive Assessment “Video Delivery Hardware and Platforms” joins comprehensive market forecasts “Mobile Multiscreen & Cloud Video Delivery Hardware and Services” with findings in the firms Mobile, Multiscreen, and Cloud Video Delivery Market Research.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.

By Jim O'Neill

Yet another report about cord cutting, this one saying cord-cutting households are on the rise in the U.S., especially among video streamers.

The report from Experian, a marketing firm known for consumer insights, targeting and data, and suggests cord cutting is growing slowly, but inexorably. It said about 7.6 million (6.5%) of U.S. households counted themselves as cord cutters in 2013, compared to 5.1 million households (4.5%) in 2010.

The research also found that – not surprisingly – the percentage of younger consumer households, aged 18-34 who were not subscribing to traditional pay-TV sources had grown from 7.9% to 12.4%, a 57% increase. Experian didn’t break out cord cutters and cord nevers in that number, but the trend is stark.

Among households that have a Netflix or Hulu account, non-pay-TV subscriber percentages jump to 18.1%, up from 12.7% in 2010.

Want a really scary number? Try this: households inhabited by an adult under the age of 35 that subscribe to a streaming service go without pay-TV subscriptions at nearly 4X the national average, a whopping 24.3%.

The study also posits that device owners, especially iPad owners are far more likely to cut the cord than non-device owners.

IPad owners, the survey found, are 65% more likely to be cord cutters, other tablet owners (36%), iPhone owners (33%) and other smartphones owners (20%) all are at risk, Experian found.

That predilection for devices is a good example of why operators need to continue to aggressively develop their TV Everywhere efforts.

The bottom line? If a service provider can’t deliver content over-the-top to those devices, odds are they’re going to continue to lose subscribers.

Experian said that “while the act of watching streaming or downloaded video on any device is connected to higher rates of cord-cutting, the act of watching streaming or downloaded video on a television is the most strongly correlated.”

In other words, while adults who watch video on either a tablet or smartphone are 1.5 times more likely than average to be cord-cutters, those who watch streaming video on a television are 3.2 times more likely to be cable-cutters.

And, said Experian, “those who say that they use their television primarily for watching streaming or downloaded video are 5.7 times more likely to be cord-cutters.”

Experian said being able to stream directly to a TV “appears to be the tipping point” for cord cutting, and posits that as devices like Roku, Apple TV, Amazon’s FireTV and Google’s Chromecast become more popular the cord cutting phenomenon will accelerate.

Experian’s report said about one-third of U.S. households currently have an Internet-connected TV (34%). About 41% use Apple TV and 35% use Roku, the company said, noting that it had no available data on Chromecast. The study also didn’t consider the recently released FireTV.

Obviously, pay-TV operators are concerned about their subscriber losses, but those losses have been more than offset by gains in broadband subscribers, a product that actually has higher margins than their TV business.

The 13 biggest MSOs in the U.S. lost just more than 105,000 net video subs in 2013, the first year the industry showed a full-year loss. Most of those losses came from cable operators who lost 1.74 million pay-TV customers.

But the industry also gained 2.6 million high-speed Internet connections. Those connections may herald the TV business model of the future.

Experian used an interesting mix of data for it report, drawing from the Summer 2013 Simmons Connect study, a survey of 24,219 US adults. Simmons Connect links in-depth consumer lifestyles, attitudes, brand preferences and more to their cross-platform media use covering 11 platforms, including smartphones, digital tablets and home computers. The report also sources data from Hitwise, the world’s largest sample of online consumer behavior.

Please follow me on Twitter @JimONeillMedia

Posted in Online Video Trends, TV Everywhere

Tags cord cutting, pay tv, ott

- See more at: http://www.videomind.com/blog/experian-cord-cutting-report-shows-why-operators-need-ott-strategy-now#sthash.qpQL8lP7.dpuf

By Jim O'Neill

New research says Harmonic and Elemental are at the top of the multiscreen encoder market, with startup Elemental leveraging its technological innovation to make big inroads.

“Harmonic has a larger portfolio but is generally less disruptive in its innovation,” said ABI Research practice director Sam Rosen. “Elemental, meanwhile, is executing on all fronts, including a recent announcement that it was the first integrated into Ericsson's EVE platform – somewhat of an upset of third ranking Envivio.”

But, Rosen points out, Envivio saw significant customer wins in the second half of 2013 and is again growing after overcoming problems encountered late in 2012 and early 2013.

The encoding market has seen a significant uptick in terms of competition as more content streams over the Internet to more devices and broadcasters and operators look to hybrid offerings -- combining traditional delivery and IP delivery – as a competitive advantage.

The introduction of 4K content and the desire by the industry to implement HEVC also has driven the encoding market.

ABI said cloud encoding platforms are finding significant use cases alongside traditional large system integrators. Companies like encoding.com and Brightcove’s Zencoder are putting more pressure on traditional players like Arris, Cisco, Ericsson and Harmonic as well as more nimble startups like Elemental, Envivio and Ateme.

Software and workflow oriented companies like Telestream and Digital Rapids – which was just acquired by Imagine (nee Harris) Communications – also are becoming core players in the market.

Please follow me on Twitter @JimONeillMedia

Posted in Online Video News

Tags encoding, online video

- See more at: http://www.videomind.com/blog/harmonic-elemental-draw-top-spots-abi-encoding-market-research#sthash.7KUb6Uiw.dpuf

Yahoo joins Netflix, Amazon et al, launching its own original content

[slideshare id=25283452&doc=fbxnewsfeedwebinar-final-130815125451-phpapp02

http://support.ooyala.com/users/otv#ooid=VyYTdnNDqS82iJ0oFDrosRVFfNgxEodR

Content Management Systems

Ooyala WordPress Plugin

The Ooyala WordPress plugin makes it easy to browse through your video library and embed videos on WordPress web site pages and blog posts.

To download the plugin, go to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ooyala-video-browser/.

Ooyala Drupal Module

The Ooyala Drupal module provides tight integration with the Ooyala, including:

Uploading directly to Ooyala from the node form
Automatic publishing of content when processing is completed by Ooyala
Automatic pulling of thumbnails from Ooyala based on Backlot settings
Bulk import of existing Ooyala videos from Backlot

To download the plugin, go to http://drupal.org/project/ooyala.

Sitecore Plugin

The Sitecore Ooyala Plugin allows customers to syndicate, view, and embed video housed in Ooyala's video platform within Sitecore's UI. From Sitecore you can:

Sync videos, channels, and labels to Ooyala's video platform
Embed a video or channel from Sitecore's CMS
Upload new videos into Ooyala's video platform
Search for videos by titles and metadata
Modify video function
Associate a player to a video
Modify video metadata
Analytics on number of views, top videos by visitors and engagement

To download the Ooyala Connect module, go to the Sitecore Developer Network (requires credentials).

Sharepoint

Microsoft Sharepoint is a web CMS that helps groups work together to create websites that manage reports and collateral and share knowledge with internal teams.

Use the Ooyala-Sharepoint Plugin to:

Edit and delete video assets within Sharepoint’s Media Library
Upload video assets with Sharepoint’s Media Uploader
Search by title, description, label and status in Media Library views
Change player settings like start/edit screen and sharing options

The plugin is tested for Sharepoint 2007 and Sharepoint 2010. To download the plugin, go to https://github.com/ooyala/Ooyala-Sharepoint.

Adobe CQ5

Adobe CQ5 is a web CMS with a productive, easy-to-learn authoring environment to help you create your web library. CQ5 uses a simple drag-and-drop interface and intuitive controls for SEO, scheduled delivery, and landing page optimization (including real-time A/B and multivariate tests).

Use the Ooyala-Adobe CQ5 Plugin to: