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  • Downloading Will Be The Death of Blu-Ray













    Predicting the demise of Blu-ray is a popular sport – and it has just gained another fan.

    Consumer review specialist Reevoo has come out with a report saying that the high-def format is fighting a losing battle against HD download services and hard drives.

    It suggest consumers continue to favor DVD players – despite the price of Blu-ray players falling significantly in the past few months.

    But the Reevoo report says that when customers have to upgrade, they are happy to skip Blu-ray altogether and go straight to a combination of downloads and hard drives.






    According to its data and reviews, consumes favor the "convenience" of digital downloads and digital hard drive recorders.

    Whether Blu-ray’s demise will be quite as swift as Reevoo are suggesting remains to be seen.

    There’s no doubt, though, that the format really needs to start making waves soon.






    Reevoo summarises the three main factors it identifies as impeding the uptake of Blu-ray as:






    – Improved DVD players – DVD players are still outselling Blu-ray players by a factor of 10:1 according to Reevoo data. Newer high-end DVD players capable of ‘upscaling’ a standard definition image to near-HD, the gap between DVD and Blu-ray has shrunk to the point that shoppers see no reason to upgrade
     


    – Blu-ray pricing and inflated disc prices




    – Households are downloading – The window for Blu-ray to become the leading video format is closing rapidly. The format is also competing with downloads through services such as Apple’s iTunes store which offers HD content for rental or purchase at a lower price than Blu-ray discs.Hard-drive based personal video recorders (PVRs) sold twice as many units as Blu-ray in the UK over Christmas according to Reevoo data








  • BitGravity Offers 1080p HD Live Video Streaming







    BitGravity announced today that it is launching a live digital video service that will allow users to stream Flash-based HD video over the Internet.

    The BG Live HD service can stream live events in 1080p or 720p resolution and doesn’t require a viewing client to be downloaded.

    The content delivery network (CDN) provider, making the announcement at DEMO 2009, said the new service was the first affordable, true HD, online streaming service for live events in 1080p or 720p resolution.

    Perry Wu, co-founder and CEO of BitGravity, said the notion of HD live broadcasting over the Internet is not earth shattering.
    However, he said doing it in a way that enables wide adoption is.

    Perry Wu, CEO BitGravity

    "Technology is not meaningful if we only deliver four out of five requirements that customers demand," he said.

    "TV-quality 720p and 1080p HD with only a few seconds delay off live, no client download, simple set-up, scalability, and affordability are the table stakes for being a player in this space."

    Last October, BitGravity announced the release of an application programming interface (API), capable of supporting cutting-edge interactive video applications.

    Based in Burlingame, California, the company launched a standard-definition version of the live online streaming service at last year’s DEMO event.

    Since then it has live streamed events such as the Democratic and Republican national conventions and President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

    Wu said BG Live HD, provides TV-quality video with just a few seconds of delay.

    He said the service has low hardware start-up costs.

    The HD H.264 live streaming software will initially be offered at no price premium over SD H.264 delivery.

    To stream live with an HD camera and Internet connection, BitGravity requires only an Apple Mac Pro loaded with BitGravity transcoding software, a PCI expansion card, and an HDMI or HDSDI source connected to BitGravity’s network.

    The new service streams data at a rate of 1.5- 2 megabits per second, which most cable modems and DSL lines can handle.
    BG Live HD will be generally available in April.

  • I-Movix Launches SprintCam V3 Broadcast-Integrated HD Ultra Slow-Motion Solution







    I-Movix has launched the first broadcast-integrated, native HD, ultra-slow-motion solution offering frame rates of 500 to 1,000 fps with instant replay.

    The new SprintCam V3 HD produces slow-motion output equivalent to 20 to 40 times slower than normal speed, which the Belgian company says makes it the most advanced HD system available with full broadcast integration.

    I-Movix’s SprintCam system has been used extensively to provide slow-motion footage from recent major broadcasting events, including Beijing 2008.

    Laurent Renard, CEO of I-Movix, said the new SprintCam V3 HD had an unmatched combination of exceptional image quality and light sensitivity, instant replay, broadcast integration, and out-of-the-box operation with no requirement for special training.

    He said the image quality, combined with its ease-of-use, made the V3 HD ideal for slow-motion requirements in sports broadcasting, commercials production, documentaries and movies.

    The SprintCam V3 HD system comprises a high-speed HD camera, an operational control panel, a slow motion remote, and the camera control unit.

    It will be available in June 2009.

  • TuneWiki Adds Lyrics To Mobile Streaming Radio







    TuneWiki is taking the idea of giving listeners lyrics to go with their mobile music a stage further by extending it to streaming radio.

    The social media player already offers audio and video while displaying synchronized or translated lyrics.

    Smartphone-biz.news spoke to Chad Kouse, VP of R&D and CIO of the US-based developers, at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

    He said the streaming internet radio service would allow users to search by genre and select from thousands of global radio stations.

    But more interestingly, he said it would also give listeners the ability to add lyrics to songs – even if they "tuned in" mid-way through a track.

    "This is the first time anyone has put lyrics and album work on streaming radio," he said.

    The free media enhancement application is available for Google Android, but TuneWiki expects to release it for BlackBerry, J2ME, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices by April.

    The advanced player also features translation, music maps and a social network.

    This music-based network allows users to share music information with friends – what they are playing in real time and allows friends to send feedback to the handset.

    TuneWiki displays music maps that show songs playing in the same GPS location and can navigate the map to any other location in the world to see what’s playing there.





    It also creates music charts that shows top songs in GPS location, or of any country or state.

    Kouse said TuneWiki has had over 2 million downloads of its software since launching fully eight months ago.

    It is also possible to download TuneWiki onto jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches and Kouse said the team are currently working on Palm.

    TuneWiki’s goal is to have lyrics always on, always available, always synchronized to music – on any device that can play music back and connect to the internet.

    He said a community-based effort was the way to put music and lyrics together.

    See below a short video demonstration from MWC.

    TuneWiki has also negotiated a partnership with a major music publishers association that grants it the rights to stream lyrics for almost 2 million songs – ensuring the legal use of many submitted lyrics.

    Those that fall outside the licensing remit are protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows unlicensed lyrics to be uploaded, unless the rights-owner asks for a take-down.

  • Celeno Technology Enables Multiple HDTV Streams Around Home


    Technology that delivers multiple HDTV streams from PCs to TVs and other electronic devices around the home could be launched by the summer.

    Israeli-based Celeno Communications is field-testing in-home WiFi networks with backing from Cisco.

    Celeno, which manufactures semiconductors for multimedia WiFi home networking applications, has created technology that upgrades the transmission portion of the WiFi network but works with existing receivers such as set-top boxes.

    The company says the product is almost ready for commercial deployment and would be built into broadband access gateways.

    Celeno’s OptimizAIR technology uses 5 GHz spectrum, not the 2.4 GHz spectrum used in current WiFi data networks.

    It uses standard PHY and MAC layers but adds proprietary algorithms that the company says can double the throughput of standard 802.11 WiFi and increase the range of the signals by as much as eight times.

    Technology additions include Spatial Channel Awareness and Beam-Forming MIMO (multiple inputs, multiple outputs).

    The company said it can stream HD video 120 feet, through four brick walls and more than three floors.

  • Research Identifies IP Media Phone as $7bn Opportunity by 2013


    The evolution of the media phone product segment may just be beginning but it has the potential to become the 4th screen in the home.

    That’s according to a report by In-Stat, which said the device could also become a next generation business IP phone.

    The researchers say service providers and IP phone manufacturers are introducing media phones to add value to traditional voice telephones and enable IP-based services.

    Already devices such as the Verizon Hub and AT&T HomeManager, which support both IP communications and the delivery of Internet information and multimedia content, have been launched on the market.

    The free report, The Media Phone Has Arrived, can be downloaded from the In-stat website.

    Other findings include:

    • Consumer media phones will generate between $4-$8 billion in annual revenue, worldwide, by 2013.
    • Business media phones will generate $3.3 billion in annual revenue, worldwide, in 2013.
    • The US market will open up in 2009, with Europe coming on line in 2010.

  • Mirial's Softphone Video Conferencing Software Upgraded to Full-HD


    Mirial has released version 6.2 of its video conferencing software that steps the Softphone up from 720p to 1080p.

    Cristoforo Mione, business development director at Mirial, said that with Full-HD resolution up to 1080p for both decoding and encoding, the upgraded version set the pace of the evolution in video and VoIP technology.

    He said that whatever the PC settings and available bandwidth, the Softphone automatically optimizes configurations to provide the best user experience and video quality, even in case of floating call conditions such as bandwidth drops/peaks.

    "Video resolution was upgraded from 720p to 1080p, 3-party video calling and H.239 collaboration features are embedded and ready just with a few-clicks installation," he said.

    Mione described the Softphone as "nearly like having a top-class HD camera, an enterprise-fit MCU and a shared meeting room, all in one single piece of software to be launched everyday, anytime, from any desktop".

    Some of the Mirial Softphone’s other features include:

    • Call Management (2 lines: call hold, call transfer)
    • Concurrent support for SIP and H.323, field-proven interoperability
    • Video call recording, playback and export to a Windows Media Player file
    • Natural, full-motion video up to 2Mbps @ 30fps @ H.264 @ 1080p
    • Cristal clear audio with full duplex echo canceller
    • Web integration (single click call)
    • Remote Update

  • Cypress Communication's Frank Grillo Wins voip-biz.news' Person of the Year Award


    Frank Grillo, Cypress Communication’s executive vice president of marketing, is the winner of the voip-biz.news’ Person of the Year award.

    In nominating him for the title, the telecoms professional was described as a "visionary executive" and "innovative thinker" with "technical acumen".

    Grillo joined Cypress Communications in August of 2005 and was responsible for taking C4 IP, Cypress’ hosted VoIP and hosted unified communications solution, from inception to launch.

    Praising Grillo’s handling of the process, a voter said: "C4 IP is a technically challenging configuration and took Frank Grillo’s visionary leadership, technical acumen and foresight to launch.

    "It is the only integration of two traditionally disparate platforms: the carrier class softswitch, Nortel CS 2000, with the powerful multimedia server, MCS 5200.

    "With the successful integration of these platforms, Cypress became the only company in the USA, and only one of three in the world, to accomplish this feat.

    "To date, the C4 IP solution has won 10 awards for product innovation, and under Grillo’s leadership, C4 IP now has over 6,000 installed seats and is credited with the largest hosted VoIP/unified communications installation in the US."

    Prior to joining Cypress, Grillo was senior vice president of business services for Z-Tel and senior vice president of global business markets for MCI WorldCom.

    From 1995 to 2000 he was vice-president of marketing for LDDS.

    Voip-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.

  • MyGlobalTalk and IPsmarx's SIP-based Calling Card Platform Share voip-biz.news Product of the Year Award


    Two innovative products dominated voting to share the honours in voip-biz.news’ Product of the Year 2008 competition.

    With 33 per cent of the nominations, MyGlobalTalk’s VoIP calling solution earned praise for its sound quality and call rates, as well as features such as no contract being required, no connection fees and no minimums.

    Launched as a BETA version in June 2008, MyGlobalTalk now works on any cell phone, land line or computer.

    The company, which is part of i2Telecom, is preparing a widgets launch which will enable MyGlobalTalk to be used from Outlook, iGoogle or Facebook.

    In the many comments of recommendation, voters also highlighted customer service and ease of use as reasons for their satisfaction with MyGlobalTalk.

    Sharing this year’s award is IPsmarx’s SIP-based calling card platform, which eliminates the need for a VoIP gateway and PSTN lines using DID technology.

    Fully over IP, the calling card solution offers a range of advanced features.

    So much so that the product was described by voters as "the platform of the future", "user friendly" and having a "great technical support team".

    One reader said: "I am extremely impressed with IPsmarx’s ability to think outside the box and eliminate common problems that exist in the calling card space."

    To take this year’s award, the joint winners saw off a large field which included well-known names including Mobivox, Ifbyphone, XConnect, Skype, Fring, ShoreTel, Cypress communications and HelloSoft.

    Voip-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.

  • Vonage Confident of Growth Despite Subscriber Loss


    VoIP provider Vonage had a revenue increase of 9 per cent to USD $900 million in 2008.

    However, reporting on its fourth-quarter and full-year 2008 earnings report, the company said it had lost a net of 14,700 subscribers in Q4.

    Net loss excluding debt extinguishment costs narrowed to USD $34 million from USD $93 million excluding certain charges.

    GAAP net loss was USD $65 million or $0.41 per share in 2008.

    Marc Lefar, Vonage’s CEO, said the company had improved its financial position throughout 2008 – to the extent that it delivered adjusted operating profit and positive cash from operations for a full year for the first time.

    Noting the loss of subscribers, he was optimistic about Vonage’s business model, which he said was solid and the market opportunity for digital voice remains robust.

    "While our financial performance was sound, we fell short in our ability to substantially grow our subscriber base," he said.

    "However, we are confident Vonage has significant opportunities to create future value for shareholders."

    Lefar said a range of initiatives were being lined up for launch, including:

    • improving the customer experience
    • enhancing distribution and marketing
    • improving quality and reliability
    • initiating new products and features
    • optimizing our cost structure
    • improving talent management

    Lefar said he was confident these will drive Vonage forward as a business model poised to achieve significant new growth.