Live video streaming technology, formerly the province of big expensive webcasters, is within the reach of many. Here at Beet.TV we have been reporting on innovations at uStream and Justin.TV, start-ups who are empowering users with an easy and free way to stream live from a webcam and computer.
(We just learned from Valleywag that Justin.TV was the forum for a bit of live sexual frolics from a wild Gawker Media staffer. Shocking but true!)
We’ve been following Adobe, Microsoft and On2, who are providing new solutions to empower live streaming. It is inevitable that video sharing sites will add live video. Live will be big in 2009. Here’s good story about the space in INC and a round-up in the Los Angeles Times.
One cool start-up in the space is Palo Alto-based Veodia. Angel funded, it is up and running, offering a dramatically sharp streaming image in h.264/MPEG 4. The stream plays in a QuickTime player. Soon these MPEG 4 files will play in Flash video players. Adobe supports this now with its beta Flash 9 product.
Veodia creates an embed code so streams can be seen on multiple sites. The live streams are stored and played on demand. In TV parlance that’s "live to tape." So, for example, a live concert is streamed lived and then made available through a link or embed code.
Unlike the free uStream, Veodia is a pay service with costs set against hours of
streams and the size of the audience. Pricing can be set around a single event or for ongoing programming The company is providing a free trial with .5GB of storage and 500 viewer minutes. Check it out.
Two weeks ago at MIT, I met Guillaume Cohen, founder of Veodia. The company was streaming the Technology Review conference. Quality looked really good.
You can grab the file of this interview right here.
— Andy Plesser
