Telemak Blog - streaming & mobile media

The Telemak Team

2008-06-10T16:51:00.002+02:00

red button

2008-05-05T13:57:00.003+02:00

curious?

Boop-ivia

2008-04-17T22:29:00.005+02:00

Olivia & "her" Telemak team always on time!

Thanks to this simple and nice device ;-)

Becoming a rare object in this fast moving & technical world.

The convergence of the market space: a reality

2008-04-09T10:08:00.003+02:00

I remember going to NAB in Las Vegas, I think in 1998, and seeing the biggest banner ever: Welcome to NAB, the convergent market space. I was really impressed by the idea that television and web would converge. Going inside, it was not really the convergence of TV and web, but analog and digital worlds that were coming together. Humph, bummer.

10 years later, I'm thinking again of this one liner. And actually we have what 10 years ago was predicted by the NAB organisers: a real convergence of the audio-visual content. and market. As a company we have been working now since 1994 with internet and multimedia and images and sound. We were pioneers in the streaming industry (and I hope we still are). And one thing was certain for us, but many people didn't see or agree: TV, internet and Mobile phones would all become delivery devices for the same content. Shoot and edit once, deliver many. When Telecom operators are proud to present quadruple play, actually they speak of the convergence of the media. Use your media to deliver it everywhere.

The next step is of course to make device adapted content. Who will be watching a feature movie on a small mobile screen? But wtaching news and sports in your travel time is something totally different. Think of (business) news, your hobby TV etc. delivered to your mobile device. Think of business related information or youth programs on your PC. Think of your feature movie rented on the internet playing on your plasme TV at home. We are there. Microsoft's Media Center, and Apple with Apple TV, ipod and iphone are the first to offer the convergence of the media on top of the known PC with browser and media player.

Today I see more and more companies using audio-visual material on their website, adding a podcast here, a media library there. I also see companies starting their own "TV channel" online. What is preventing them from taking the same content to TV?

Dreaming of a White Easter

2008-03-25T11:17:00.005+01:00

no comment!

A new Telemak service: Make-up by Olivia

2008-03-07T15:51:00.006+01:00

Today Telemak launches a new service for our customers: Telemak [Make-up]. If you want to enjoy this service, please contact our sales team. In the meantime, enjoy the video of the first tests done today showing how Olivia is pleasing Manu (our dedicated rabbit) with the first make-up given by Telemak :-)

Mobile TV, a hype or a need?

2008-01-31T10:43:00.004+01:00

Is mobile TV a hype, or a real need? The world today runs on mobile applications and devices. Think Blackberry, iPhone, N-series form Nokia etc. You can't imagine living whit-out anymore.

More and more people have access with their mobile device to high-speed data networks. GPRS, Edge, UMTS, HSDPA, ... have been and are being developed at the speed of light. And what is more intensive, and profitable, than video on a data carrier? Sure, high proces for those data packets are still a blocking factor. And maybe the minimum hardware requirements and setup procedures are also part of the problem. But I see a steady increase of the amount of viewers on the platform run by Telemak for Mobistar Mobile TV.

The future commercial launch of broadcast TV on mobile devices will certainly give a big boost to the delivery platform. DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld) doesn't use data carriers but receives the signal from "the air". You don't pay for the packets you receive, but probably will pay a fee for accessing the service like you would cable TV.

I think that in the future, the mobile phone (device) will be the central remote control and distribution device of your media center. Receiving your Electronic Program Guide (EPG) via mobile data tranfert, programming your viewing time, receive the DVB-H channels on your mobile device, send it over bluetooth or WiFi to your TV, and you're all set. And use that same data access to send back your shopping list you just watched on TV. And why should it be your TV? We could imagine renting your TV space in the business lounge at the airport or use your hotel TV. How far is the future?

What is needed to deliver a (good) webcast

2008-01-15T07:41:00.000+01:00

One of the things I strongly believe in in our industry is the need for quality delivery. Many start-ups in the streaming industry do think that just by downloading a free copy of Windows Media Encoder or QuickTime Broadcaster they have the knowledge to produce an entire TV show on the web. Unfortunately for them, and their customers, it isn't that easy.

Many years ago I learned the lessons the hard way. I figured that a good webcast, which should be seen as a TV broadcast using IP delivery, needed good knowledge in 4 areas: IT, audio-visual, networks and telecommunications. Remove one of those and you will see that it gets very complicated to achieve your primary goal: get the image and sound to your audience. And believe me, it isn't that easy. Some people I know well have found out by going face first into the digital wall.

The number of companies that are able to setup and deliver an event webcast to the world wide web are quite low, but increasing. With all the new tools that are available for web 2.0 and television 2.0, on top of the increased expertise of people and companies make it easier than ever to do your thing. But then why are so many web videos of such a low quality or unavailable? The answer is easy: start this article all over again. It needs expertise and a broadcasters mentality to get it done. Not the straight IT talk, but to "go for it" TV walk. You have very strict deadlines, and a large number of points of failure. Keep them under control, and your webcast will succeed.

And above all, work with people that have really delivered in the past. Ask them to show you their achievements and what part of the production they control, and what part is subcontracted. The more is subcontracted, the more that can go out of control. A one stop shop is in our industry the best bet. Then it is just a question of enjoying the show !

Is Apple dropping Akamai in favor of Google?

2008-01-15T07:20:00.000+01:00

Rumors lately have spread around saying that Apple might switch its content delivery from Akamai to Google. Swiss American Securities, a division of Credit Suisse is saying that it has learned that Apple will no longer use Akamai. They see Apple dumping Akamai for a Google-based content distribution network and expect Apple to announce that next week at Macworld.

No details have been given, but I doubt the news. iTunes for instance relies on Akamai for it's music and video download service. And what can Google offer that Akamai can not? OK, Google is Google and so they can build anything they want, but still. Where is the value of the deal? Google is primarily an advertising company, and I don't see the match with Apple's business. Of course Google and Apple work and will work together on certain business deals such as advertising in iTunes and iPhones; or use Google as the standard search engine.

Anyway, we at Telemak continue to work with Akamai, a 9 year old relationship. We have served hundreds of customers and Petabytes of data using Akamai without a glitch. Why even think to switch when you have a winning team?

Telemak 2008 !

2008-01-08T15:38:00.000+01:00

The Telemak team finished 2007 with a nice team goal: make our own food. The food was good, the champagne and wine too, and the spirit even beter. Have a look for yourself. Interested in joining the team? Send a mail to jobs@telemak.com. Or if you need our team work to get you sorted out with your (web) video, let us know and we'll make sure you feel the Telemak 2008 spirit.

Telemak wishes you a happy New Year

2007-12-30T14:10:00.000+01:00

All of us at Telemak wish you all the best for 2008.

Happy New Year !

IBC MPEGIF Master Class review by Christophe Lenaerts

2007-09-07T10:10:00.000+02:00

At the first day of conferences at IBC 2007 I was invited to attend as a panelist in the third session: New Video Applications & Services.

After a nice keynote of Thomas Staneker - Senior Executive VP IPTV, T-Com talking about T-Com's new IDTV and web streaming services (no sales pitches please) we all could have a few minutes to tell what we thought about the subject. Unfortunately some panelists didn't get the "no sales pitches please" email from the organisers. But all in all we had a very clear view of how the world of video should run and how it isn't running regardless of what the industry promised in the early years 2000.

The panel:

Moderator Sebastian Moeritz - Pesident, MPEGIF/CEO dicas

Speakers Thomas Staneker - Senior Executive VP IPTV, T-Com
Christopher Lenaerts - CEO, Telemak
Bob Giddy - CEO, Amino
Ivan Verbesselt - Senior VP, Head of Strategic Marketing, Nagravision
Tassilo Raesig - Head Content Navigation Services, Business Development, Sony
Gianpaolo Balboni - Senior Program Manager TV and Multimedia, Telecom Italia
David Trescot - Vice President Rhozet Business Unit Harmonic Inc

Web 2.0 vs Television 2.0

What I heard from the panel where all on how to get the ISP's and mobile operators a critical mass to launch IDTV, IPTV, Mobile TV etc. What I didn't hear enough is how the industry thinks to do that. From the ISP and Telco you hear how they will launch another nice channel to keep their customers at hand. And from the content owners (Hollywood) you hear that they will launch an independent platform because they don't want to get linked to the telco.

A question from the public asked to the telcos on how to reach the critical mass to pay for those services was answered that it didn't matter if there was demand, but only that the technology was there and needed to be put to market. I think that is wrong. If you look at the success of Google and Yahoo and Amazon en Ebay it is not because they maunched a dedicated closed service on a telco's network, but because their critical market is the entire world connected the the world wide web. They reach millions of customers every day across the telcos and ISPs and mobile operators. And I'm sure of one thing, the CEO's and CFO's of those telcos are jealous of the success of Google and co. They are looking to ways to join the hype. Even Apple understood that they needed too keep away from building their own network, but to use the largest communication channel ever: the web. Using content from all the majors in the US and Europe and Asia, they offer through iTunes a single platform where people can listen, buy, subscribe, watch download and aggregate content. The next phase should be to make a platform, OS, browser, software, hardware, IPS, telco and mobile independent content delivery tool. The company that succeeds in doing that and launch it cross border will be the next Google. Or is Google already doing that?

Conclusions:

My perspective is that Web 2.0 and Television 2.0 will be the catch line of IBC 2008. Next year I suspect to see companies such as Google, Youtube, Daily Motion and Yahoo be present at IBC. And actually, Google already is present with Adsense audio. Or maybe will they be at NAB 2008?

Free video hosting service at Telemak

2007-08-29T14:15:00.000+02:00

The success of free video sites such as YouTube (Google), Yahoo! Video, DailyMotion (France) or GarageTV (Belgium) has led Telemak to provide a new service offering the best quality online videos via a single distribution service to a variety of popular video sites. Contact us to see how our streaming engineers can help you optimizing the distribution of your professional videos.

Broadcasters and not operators should finance Mobile TV

2007-08-29T13:28:00.000+02:00

Ingrid Lunden reports after her interview with a Vivendi executive that the battleground between telcos and broadcasters for Mobile TV domination is emerging. According to Vivendi, the broadcasters, and not the mobile operators, should be financing and distributing Mobile TV.

Most of the mobile TV initiatives that have been launched so far in Europe have been spearheaded by mobile operators. Telemak has built and still operates the very first Mobile TV platform in Belgium. Mobistar (France Telecom) currently has over a dozen of Mobile TV channels in the mobile air.

Although Mobile TV services have not made a lot of profit to the operators, it is in the hands of the broadcasters to work closely with the operators on mobile advertising models in support of a free service and new television formats which appeal to a generation of urban and mobile users.

Telemak is an official Apple QuickTime Service Provider

2007-08-22T23:44:00.000+02:00

Telemak is mentioned on Apple's website as one of their QuickTime Service Providers. Telemak is one of the only companies listed in all 3 categories: Content Delivery; Production and Encoding. What Apple says about there service providers:

A host of QuickTime service providers can assist you with any QuickTime task, from content creation to delivery. Whether you need to create a multimedia CD or webcast a corporate speech, these companies can provide valuable expertise.

Mobile Video Services Worth $17 Billion By 2012: Report

2007-08-21T19:11:00.001+02:00

By James Quintana Pearce

ABI Research has predicted that the global market value for mobile video services including video mail, video calling, and video sharing services, will grow from $1 billion in 2007 to over $17 billion by 2012. This represents a compound average growth rate of 74 percent. That's a pretty good figure (although I'm not sure if it includes pure content services), but it's a lot less that ABI was quoted as predicting two years ago when the figure given was “250 million people are expected to be watching mobile video by 2010, generating some $27 billion in sales”. Interestingly, if you do an unsophisticated calculation of multiplying the $17 billion figure given by 74 percent you get about $27 billion for the year 2013. Anyway, hopefully it indicates some of the hype is going out of the market and the predictions are coming down to reasonable levels.

According to ABI, the industrialized regions of North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific will command 90 percent of the video services revenues. (release)

Telemak staff at BBQ

2007-08-14T17:28:00.000+02:00

Some days you just need the time off. We went for a great BBQ in Ecaussines and had some extra fun. As people say, no comment...

The Real CDN Market Share Numbers

2007-08-13T17:07:00.000+02:00

Dan Rayburn writes on his blog about the real market shares of the CDN (Content Delivery Network):

In his eyes, the worst data that is routinely quoted in the market in all forms is the percentage of market share that any CDN vendor has in the market. None of those numbers are accurate because they are not backed up by any real data simply due to the fact that CDN providers and content owners do not release the majority of their data to the public or to research houses. For all those research reports you see about the size of market share, the number of streams delivered etc... all of the CDNs will tell you if you ask them that they provided ZERO data, other than what is already public, to the analysts who write the reports.

In two different articles about content delivery vendors last week, one said Akamai had 60% of the CDN market share and the other one said 80% market share. Which one is it? That's a big difference in a market that is a few hundred million dollars. I see reports that say Limelight Networks has 10% market share and I also hear numbers up to 25% market share. So which is it? The answer is, no one truly knows. And the question we should be asking is why does anyone care? Does size or market share equal long term success?

Recently, when speaking with CDNetworks they said they had 8% of the market share for CDN services and that Limelight Networks had 9%, based solely on revenue. When I asked where those numbers came from, the said from a Frost & Sullivan report on CDNs and they included a slide in their presentation showing the data.

Web 2.0 in under 5 minutes

2007-08-10T14:37:00.000+02:00

See how Web 2.0 affects your life already today. Is it really the future or just another marketing scam?

DVB-H Mobile Video Standard Gains Support Around the World

2007-08-10T14:28:00.000+02:00

Plenty of challenges lie ahead, but the recent push to settle on the standard in the EU gives a boost to DVB-H's viability and long-term prospects.
In mid-July, Viviane Reding, the European Union’s commissioner for information society and media called on member states to agree upon the DVB-H standard for the delivery of mobile broadcast television.

DVB-H, or Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld, in its simplest terms enables the delivery of television to mobile devices via the broadcast paradigm of over-the-air TV, which supports any number of simultaneous users, vs. streaming or downloading, which are often limited by the capacity of servers delivering content. (See a more detailed definition here.)

DVB-H isn't the only technology vying to dominate the potential multibillion-dollar mobile TV market, and as such the EU's decision has met with criticism, especially from the camps of competing technologies, as noted in this article. Their claim is that the market should determine a winner, and that government intervention may stifle innovation.

One of the first casualties of this announcement looks to be the UK-based Movio mobile TV service offered by BT through a partnership with Virgin Mobile. The Lobster phone that offered access to this service was built on Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), a competing standard for the delivery of mobile television. While other concerns plagued the service, this recent announcement by the EU was its proverbial nail in the coffin.

Elsewhere in the world, there's been a rush to invest in DVB-H networks:
— A pilot launch in Hungary by Antenna and T-Mobile Hungary
— Trials and deployments across East Asia powered by UDCast
— A build-out of a DVB-H network in Moscow by VimpelCom
— The launch of the first commercial mobile TV service in the Phillipines
— The introduction of a new Nokia phone with DVB-H support in India.

Despite all this investment, DVB-H does have hurdles to overcome, in particular having the right spectrum available through which to deliver its broadcast signals. This article dives into what's going on in Australia regarding trials of DVB-H and the eventual launch of commercial services.

The challenge with spectrum is that DVB-H wants to ride in the 700MHz range, but in most countries that spectrum is already tied up with analog over-the-air TV broadcasts, including the United States.

Change is afoot, though, as countries that have not yet made the transition to digital broadcast TV are making moves to do so. This is perhaps best evidenced here in the U.S., where Tuesday FCC announced the rules for the upcoming spectrum auction, which will sell off that valuable 700MHz spectrum that's opening up with the upcoming transition to digital broadcasting to the highest bidder.

The U.S. isn't sitting around waiting for this spectrum to open up, as there have already been efforts to get DVB-H off the ground, though so far with limited success.

Earlier this year, Crown Castle International began testing its DVB-H-based Modeo mobile TV service in New York City, delivering six channels of live video and eight channels of audio. Despite a push to invest millions of dollars into this effort, last week they closed up shop, leasing access to the spectrum they were going to use to two private equity firms.

There's still hope for realizing success with DVB-H here in the States, though, through an upcoming trial by Aloha Partners of a service they call Hiwire in Las Vegas. On July 17, they announced their initial roster of content, which includes seven channels from Discovery Communications, six channels from MTV Networks, two channels from Turner Broadcasting, and a handful of others, including Fox News, the Travel Channel, and the Weather Channel. You can download a PDF of the release here.

No word yet on when this trial will actually launch, but with the high profile failure of Modeo, anyone interested in realizing DVB-H here in the States will need to pay close attention to the outcome herein.

Christophe Lenaerts at IBC 2007 MPEGIF Master Class

2007-08-07T14:21:00.000+02:00

Christophe Lenaerts, Founder & CEO of Telemak, has been asked by the MPEGIF to participate in the IBC 2007 Master Class.

The MPEG Industry Forum (MPEGIF) will present an informational Master Class at IBC2007 focused on “Next Generation Television Technology and Business Models”.

Operators of new IP-based television services and the technologists enabling them will exchange their views on trends and technologies that are changing the way digital multimedia is created, compressed, stored, delivered and monetized. IP is the technology that is finally creating the converged information delivery infrastructure and an ecosystem is emerging, with new video and audio codecs, new middleware and content protection methods and completely new viewing experiences.

IPTV was initially associated with PTT and Telcos video services delivered over DSL. However, cable operators’ implementation of IP-based Switched Digital Video (SDV) provides the same unicast-based personalized services to compete with IPTV over DSL while at the same time, freeing up further bandwidth for High Speed Internet.

However there are still questions surrounding Next Generation Television that delay investment and launch decisions. This Master Class, as in previous years at IBC, will provide information to help organizations make important decisions. Service operators adopting new IP-based video technologies will share their experiences to date. This session will be an interactive session in which heated debates are expected and audience participation is encouraged.

Christophe will join the speakers of the 3th roundtable:
New Video Applications & Services

Next generation media creation and delivery technologies are enabling new services, which include, Improved Video and TV on Demand (ranking, positioning, sponsoring, preferences, interactive, self produced etc), Seamless integration of traditional TV, Personal & anticipated content (local and regional, educational, affinity and special interest etc), Video Advertising (relevant & transactional), Mobile TV, Mobile VOD and many other applications. Can we assume that the most compelling content for video while away from the home or office will be live content? Or is cached content such as movies going to be the way to keep the kids quiet in the back of the mini-van? Can standards really help simplify an increasingly complex ecosystem?

Information:
FREE FULL-DAY CONFERENCE
Room A, RAI Convention Center, Amsterdam

Press release
Thursday, 6 September 2007, 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Mobistar selects Telemak to develop their mobile TV platform

2007-08-03T16:59:00.000+02:00

Mobistar, a Belgian leading telecom operator, part of the Orange group, has renewed the trust in the knowledge and services of Telemak. Recently we increased their live mobile TV offer with “Cartoon Networks” & “Playboy TV” on top of the 40 (20 UMTS, 20 EDGE-technology) other TV Channels already distributed via Telemak. More channels are being deployed as we type. If you are interested make sure you are a Mobistar customer, buy a Edge or 3G phone with video streaming capacity, and get started.

Welcome to the Telemak blog

2007-08-03T15:50:00.001+02:00

Telemak has created a new blog. We will use it to post company information and industry news. Come and check regularly.

2007-01-18T17:03:00.000+01:00

Mobiya announces today its strategic alliance with Telemak to jointly develop a European platform for user generated content aimed at the mobile video user. The platform will be made available to mobile operators, broadcasters, publishers and portal giants.

The combination of Mobiya's mobile interactive applications with Telemak's video capturing, formatting and service capability is the industry's first alliance to tackle the explosion of mobile video within Europe.

Also today, mobile media publisher and distributor Player X announced a second round of funding, generating $10 million. The round was led by new investors Nordic Venture Partners and Long Acre Partners as well as original investor Arts Alliance. The funds will be deployed to accelerate its global mobile TV, video and gaming initiatives, with the news following on the heels of the December 2006 launch of its mobile television channel geekTV, available via UK operator 3.

Mobiya blog