This month, Vizio, the North American vendor of value-priced television lines sold heavily in warehouse clubs and discount store chains, amended its exclusive use of smart TVs based on the Chromecast platform as it expanded its selection of app partners beyond the Google ecosystem. The move not only lets Vizio customers access a more traditional […]
Archive | Streaming video
Chinese video streaming market: How big can it get?
While the streaming video industry is focused on Netflix’s Q2 data—which was punctuated by the addition of 5.2 million subscribers—it might be a good idea to keep a closer eye on streaming service providers in China. Today, leading Chinese internet-based streaming services are believed to have more than 500 million active users, according to China […]
Wireless Video: Demand vs. Capacity
The forecast for internet video use from Cisco’s annual Visual Network Index continues to astonish. It estimates that, by 2021, 82% of all internet traffic will be video—up from an estimated 73% in 2016. That’s all internet traffic, both wired and wireless. Predictions for wireless video traffic are no less impressive: 78% in 2021 over […]
Hungry Mobile Video: Will Next-Generation TV Feed the Beast?
Bandwidth-hungry video is viewed as an insatiable beast by those who are delivering it over crowded networks. Better compression and mobile network advances have relieved some congestion but the flames of UHD and virtual reality are licking at the heels of cellular networks. TV broadcasters think they can help relieve some of that congestion with […]
Apple Makes Play for Video’s Future at WWDC 2017
The big news out of Apple’s recent developers conference wasn’t the new, more powerful iMac Pro or refreshed Macbooks. It was the news that Apple was embracing HEVC compression across its product lines. (OK, it was big news if you’re a video compression junky!) Apple threw both of its arms around HEVC at its World […]
Amazon Is Building a Video Empire to Crush All Rivals
Amazon is a rather unique public company. Rather than redirect its profits (when there are profits) to shareholders, its founder and president Jeff Bezos famously prefers to re-invest its huge cash inflows into furthering the business and taking bets on the future. One of Amazon’s biggest bets is video. This year, the company is likely […]
The Smart Future of the Security Camera
Fans of any good spy drama know the scene well. Our hero is out in the streets, frantically chasing down some goons. Back at headquarters, an army of analysts sit at their consoles monitoring security camera feeds and offering real-time guidance to our hero as she navigates the cluttered crossways. In the dramatic telling, it’s […]
Roku Makes Big Advertising Leap
What do you think of when you hear the words, “hit TV series?” When it comes to linear TV, the meaning of that phrase is pretty concretely anchored in actual audience metrics. A “hit” series is one that the networks are reasonably sure many viewers are tuned into. Indeed, networks have a fairly strong handle […]
Will AI Power the Next Leap in Video Compression?
Artificial intelligence’s (AI) role in the digital content economy isn’t merely confined to better anticipating what TV series you’d like to binge watch next. It’s increasingly being brought to bear to solve a more challenging (and equally long-standing) technical problem: how to shave off bits from a video file without fatally compromising quality. While the […]
Capped America
Failed presidential candidate John Edwards once spoke of “two Americas.” While Edwards was making an economic pitch, his message, with a little temporal updating, could just as easily apply to the market for data. In one America—that of residential broadband—most users enjoyed unlimited data and zero restrictions. In another America, mobile broadband users faced tight […]