Thursday, December 07, 2006
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Challenges of High Quality Video Delivery
Since Google acquired YouTube, online video sharing and delivery segment has been hot topic of discussion. A good overview of online video viewing is presented by Scott Kirsner in As online viewing booms, the amateurs give way to big media. As more and more big media content coming online, a new technology challenge is emerging for content distributors.
The file size for 90 minute full length HD quality video can range from 2 to 6 GB. And it may be easier, convenient and hassle-free for viewer to get it delivered via next day Sneakernet than to wait 3 to 18 hours in downloading it online. There is nothing instant about downloading full-length high quality video.
Streaming
The next best online alternative is to stream video to viewers in real-time. For smooth playback, video streaming needs to have some buffering and a 12 second buffering of HD quality video requires a 5 to 15 MB of video that need to be always available to user. And, if streaming video is originating from a centralized distribution infrastructure, the number of viewers are first limited by the processing capacity of central system and then available bandwidth.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
To address the central system processing capacity limitation, the option is to have multiple delivery nodes. And, to address bandwidth limitation, these content delivery nodes should be located as close to the viewer as possible. This is the model used by CDN providers who share the processing capacity of these nodes and available bandwidth among multiple content distributors to maximize utilization of their edge nodes.
Content delivery nodes work great as most viewers reside on the last mile that extends beyond the Internet spiderweb and as long as nodes are not overloaded by too many viewers trying to download and watch the latest video simultaneously.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) Networking
P2P networking is one scalable alternative proposed to deliver high quality video and bring the viewers in to the Internet spiderweb. Among it's other vices, from delivery perspective, P2P is infested with freeriders. You know the ones who want to download content but don't want to allow their system to be used to deliver content to others. And, the whole P2P premise fails if there are not enough P2P nodes participating in content distribution.
GridNetworks – New Kid on the Block
Today, I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Newell Edmond, co-founder and the technical brain behind a local startup in online delivery of high quality video, GridNetworks. Newell and his team worked hard for last two years to develop a hybrid solution combining the best of Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Peer-to-Peer Networking (P2P) for delivery of high quality video.
More about it next time.
P.S. This is my first effort to reach out and highlight early stage startups in Seattle area working on innovative infrastructure solutions. If you are one of them, get in touch.
How to deliver a high quality full-length video instantly to multiple viewers on their big screen simultaneously and securely?Sneakernet
The file size for 90 minute full length HD quality video can range from 2 to 6 GB. And it may be easier, convenient and hassle-free for viewer to get it delivered via next day Sneakernet than to wait 3 to 18 hours in downloading it online. There is nothing instant about downloading full-length high quality video.
Streaming
The next best online alternative is to stream video to viewers in real-time. For smooth playback, video streaming needs to have some buffering and a 12 second buffering of HD quality video requires a 5 to 15 MB of video that need to be always available to user. And, if streaming video is originating from a centralized distribution infrastructure, the number of viewers are first limited by the processing capacity of central system and then available bandwidth.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
To address the central system processing capacity limitation, the option is to have multiple delivery nodes. And, to address bandwidth limitation, these content delivery nodes should be located as close to the viewer as possible. This is the model used by CDN providers who share the processing capacity of these nodes and available bandwidth among multiple content distributors to maximize utilization of their edge nodes.
Content delivery nodes work great as most viewers reside on the last mile that extends beyond the Internet spiderweb and as long as nodes are not overloaded by too many viewers trying to download and watch the latest video simultaneously.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) Networking
P2P networking is one scalable alternative proposed to deliver high quality video and bring the viewers in to the Internet spiderweb. Among it's other vices, from delivery perspective, P2P is infested with freeriders. You know the ones who want to download content but don't want to allow their system to be used to deliver content to others. And, the whole P2P premise fails if there are not enough P2P nodes participating in content distribution.
GridNetworks – New Kid on the Block
Today, I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Newell Edmond, co-founder and the technical brain behind a local startup in online delivery of high quality video, GridNetworks. Newell and his team worked hard for last two years to develop a hybrid solution combining the best of Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Peer-to-Peer Networking (P2P) for delivery of high quality video.
More about it next time.
P.S. This is my first effort to reach out and highlight early stage startups in Seattle area working on innovative infrastructure solutions. If you are one of them, get in touch.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Rent - A - Blogger
Last week, NetGear announced contest for a guest blogger who want to blog for them at CES. Contest detail links at Jeremy Toeman blog.
After reviewing the official rules, my impression is that a journalist/media writer who is accustomed to deadlines for articles or someone who blogs often during the day will fit their requirements better. Most probably, NetGear will provide product briefings as their expectation is to blog how they fit in to the other stuff showcased at CES.
Why go outside the company to look for a guest blogger? Other than the marketing buzz about contest announcement, what value does he or she provide? You are unlikely to bag a high profile blogger, like Robert Scoble, with such gimmicks.
Guest blogger gigs can be a good avenue for niche bloggers like me who like to attend few relevant industry events but typically don't get sponsorship by their own organization. I was thinking of attending USENIX Conference of File and Storage Technologies (FAST) San Jose, CA in February. May be I should rent myself out as guest blogger for the event? Anyone interested?
You got any thoughts about guest-blogging and sponsorship, chime in.
Everybody who saw this picture, asked me what it is? I captured this image near Poplar Avenue at Hokkaido University. What is it?
After reviewing the official rules, my impression is that a journalist/media writer who is accustomed to deadlines for articles or someone who blogs often during the day will fit their requirements better. Most probably, NetGear will provide product briefings as their expectation is to blog how they fit in to the other stuff showcased at CES.
Why go outside the company to look for a guest blogger? Other than the marketing buzz about contest announcement, what value does he or she provide? You are unlikely to bag a high profile blogger, like Robert Scoble, with such gimmicks.
Guest blogger gigs can be a good avenue for niche bloggers like me who like to attend few relevant industry events but typically don't get sponsorship by their own organization. I was thinking of attending USENIX Conference of File and Storage Technologies (FAST) San Jose, CA in February. May be I should rent myself out as guest blogger for the event? Anyone interested?
You got any thoughts about guest-blogging and sponsorship, chime in.
Everybody who saw this picture, asked me what it is? I captured this image near Poplar Avenue at Hokkaido University. What is it?
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