| The importance of offering online video increases as people spend less time watching TV and more on the internet. The current delivery models for online video suffer from flaws as they are characterized by e.g.: limited scalability, cost inefficiency, risk for bottlenecks. Because of these limitations, many content providers offer a limited amount of video online and this video content is often in low quality, which damages the user experience. Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology might change the way video content is delivered and consumed over the internet. Indeed, P2P technology addresses the flaws of the present content distribution models by providing cost-saving, scalable solutions to distribute high-quality video over the internet. In addition, online content distribution, e.g. live and on-demand news, has implications on the user experience as it allows them to gratify certain needs. As a result, P2P systems – which still carry the connotation of illegal file-swapping – might turn into a partner, instead of an enemy, for the media industry. However, broadcasting content over the internet still faces obstacles as well, e.g. as broadcasters are tied to content license agreements. This event discusses the commercial viability of P2P technology and provides cases of two industry leading companies. This FLEET (FLEmish E-publishing Trends) symposium will contain the following topics:
Date: Tuesday, 2 June 2009, 13h30 – 16h30 Location: K.U.Leuven, Mediacentrum / Centre for User Experience Research (CUO) Computerlokaal (-1th floor) Parkstraat 45, 3000 Leuven. Contact and more information: | The role of P2P networks in the converging (news) media landscape Jorn De Boever, CUO / IBBT, K.U.Leuven Download slides (pdf) Content providers are being confronted with a fragmented audience that consumes an increasing amount of time on the internet, leading to new challenges and opportunities for the (news) media industry. This session introduced the strengths and weaknesses of the use of P2P systems for content delivery. Second, the presentation focussed on the motivations for users to turn to internet media to gratify their needs. Octoshape - How we handle large scale streaming in high quality Stephen Alstrup, CEO and co-founder, Octoshape Download slides (pdf) Octoshape is the streaming provider for CNN, NBA, Nascar, MLG, Eurovision Song Contest, streaming large events as Olympic Games for four broadcasters in Asia. This company makes it possible to deliver HD-streaming over open IP without buffering and stream in large scale for a reduced cost compared to traditional solutions. The presentation included:
Marius Arnesen, Media developer NRK R&D Download slides (pdf) The presentation demonstrated how the Norwegian broadcaster NRK has approached P2P technology, Bittorrent, from early experiments to the establishment of their own tracker. Issues that have been discussed include copyright, distribution, politics and how the viewers have adopted this new technology. |