May 12, 2010
By Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen Conference Chair, Streaming Media and CMO, id3as
Featured Articles
For the rest of the Summer 2010 issue of Streaming Media magazine please click here

Editors' Picks 2010: The Best of the Best

When the end of 2009 rolled around, we were faced with the annual challenge of coming up with our Editors' Picks, our choices for the top 10 technologies, products, and services in the world of online video. It had been such a huge year for our industry that we found ourselves a bit overwhelmed by having to make the choices, so we did the only sensible thing: we procrastinated.

Of course, in the meantime, a few new candidates emerged, which made our task that much more daunting. On the other hand, we think the list we compiled does a better job of capturing what's hot in online video than we could have done 4 months ago. Taken as a whole, the winners indicate not only the technological advances that were made over the past 12 months or so, but also the growth of online video in the mainstream. adswizz

Adswizz Ad Server
Based in Brussels and led by former Doubleclick director Patrick Roger, Adswizz works with agencies, advertisers, publishers, and ad networks to deliver multiformat, multiplatform ads. In other words, it's a one-stop shop for anyone in the online advertising value chain, and in 2009 it racked up an impressive list of partners including Freecaster.tv and France's StickyAds TV video ad network.

Aprico Aprico Personalisation Engine
More than just a simple recommendation engine, the Aprico Personalisation Engine integrates with Windows Media Center via the Watchmi plug-in to allow users to create their own personalised TV channels aggregating content from across broadcast, VOD, and internet sources into a single location and watch it on demand. The Netherlands-based Aprico is also working with device manufacturers and service providers to bring the service to set-top boxes.

BeBanjo Sequence BeBanjo

"If you're bringing content to a screen, Sequence is for you." So goes the tagline in BeBanjo's marketing video, and it's true. Sequence is a collaborative workflow management tool that keeps tabs on content at every stage of the media delivery chain. BeBanjo customers include Sky, Telefonica, Channel 5, and TV Numeric, and the Spanish company is looking to add even more with the launch of Movida, its new rights management, metadata, and scheduling tool.

Flumotion Streaming Server
A modular approach to content delivery, Flumotion Streaming Server grew out of Spanish company Fluendo's work with the open source community and is available in both open source and turnkey versions. On one hand, it's a multiformat rival to Wowza Media Server Pro, but it's also very much its own animal, set apart by the Flumotion e-store, where customers can configure the entire server from the ground up via an online interface. Talk about self-service!

LiveU LU-30 LiveU
Israel-based LiveU calls the LU-30 a "satellite truck in a backpack," but that doesn't tell the whole story. Just plug in a DV camera and broadcast live H.264 at data rates up to 1Mbps over any 3G/EVDO network (or Wi-Fi or Ethernet, if you want to kick it old school). Webcasting from the field just got a whole lot easier and more reliable.