Biographical Information

Articles for Dom Robinson

The Economics of Music: Streaming vs. CD Sales—A Deeper Look

In recent years, a narrative has emerged pitting streaming services against traditional music sales, particularly CDs and vinyl. Social media posts often circulate claiming that a single CD sale is worth hundreds of hours of streaming for an artist. While these comparisons can be eye-catching, they often oversimplify a complex ecosystem and misdirect artists' frustrations. This article aims to unpack the intricacies of music royalties, challenging common misconceptions and highlighting the real issues at play.

The Economics of Music: Streaming vs. CD Sales—A Deeper Look

In recent years, a narrative has emerged pitting streaming services against traditional music sales, particularly CDs and vinyl. Social media posts often circulate claiming that a single CD sale is worth hundreds of hours of streaming for an artist. While these comparisons can be eye-catching, they often oversimplify a complex ecosystem and misdirect artists' frustrations. This article aims to unpack the intricacies of music royalties, challenging common misconceptions and highlighting the real issues at play.

Dom Robinson Talks Streaming Sustainability and the LESS Accord

Streaming Media's Tim Siglin sits down with Greening of Streaming Founder Dom Robinson to discuss streaming sustainability and the LESS Accord in this exclusive interview from Streaming Media East 2023.

Preserving Our Inter-generational Legacy (or Streaming Media’s Feet of Clay)

So considering streaming, file transfer, or even leaving the long tail simply unused and archived as the storage media changes around it over years, there's much to think about for anyone wanting to leave a video as an intergenerational legacy.

View From the Edge: IBC 2022

There is stress in big public streaming companies that is stifling their innovation completely at the moment. Billion-dollar contracts are cool, but disruption is cooler, and the Unicorns have done their disruption now, and it's time for other actors to take the stage. So what was disruptive at IBC 2022?

Don’t Believe the (Financial) Hype

Dom Robinson writes about why it's important for the streaming industry to focus more on customers first over investors and share prices

id3as' Dom Robinson and Help Me Stream's Tim Siglin Talk Greening of Streaming

id3as' Dom Robinson and Help Me Stream's Tim Siglin discuss the latest Greening of Streaming developments--including taking the conservation case to Parliament--in this interview from Streaming Media East 2022.

Sustainability, Streaming, and the Data Attribution Challenge

"Sustainability" is perhaps the most important buzzword in the streaming industry, but most current efforts to define "green" or "net zero" streaming miss the target.

The Streaming Industry's Stellar 2021 Opens the Door to an Even Better 2022

We'll see even more of the innovation—both technical and cultural—that we've seen over the past year, but temper your excitement with a healthy dose of skepticism about Web3.

Where Are the Women in the Streaming Media Industry?

A look at any conference program—including our own—makes it clear: It's long past time for the streaming media industry to take the gender imbalance seriously, and to identify and address the root issues—not just the optics.

The Roaring—and Streaming— '20s

In this installment of 'View from the Edge,' our intrepid columnist goes out. In public. To a gig. There's nothing like it, he writes, and streaming needs to figure out ways to bring some of that live energy to folks who can't make it in-person.

The Greening of Streaming, One Year On

From an article in Streaming Media a year ago has grown a brand-new organization devoted to meeting the sustainability challenge in the streaming industry.

ttconv Simplifies Subtitling and Captioning

Thanks to ttconv, a new format converter, adding timed text to video is becoming simpler and more efficient, and Facebook is already embracing it

How to Licence Music for Streaming

Want to stream music online? Be prepared to deal with a labyrinth of licensing regulations. Here's an overview of music licensing for streaming, and scenarios to help you figure out what you need to do.

The Streaming Industry Turns the Camera on Itself

In 2020, the streaming media has had to use our own tools to produce our own events. How'd we do?

Don't Believe the 5G Streaming Video Hype

5G holds promise for smart cities, smart vehicles, and industrial automation. For video streaming? Not so much.

View from the Edge: Back to (Streaming) School!

As with everything else in the world, the return to school for streamers looks different in 2020

The Greening of Streaming

The time has long since passed to turn our attention to making the streaming delivery ecosystem more environmentally friendly. Here are some of the key challenges, as well as some suggested first steps towards solutions.

Preview: Content Delivery Summit 2020

Content Delivery Summit Chair Dom Robinson previews Content Delivery Summit 2020, the leading conference for CDN, edge delivery, and distributed computing, which Streaming Media is hosting as a free full-day webinar on June 1.

The Cat in the Art Gallery

While the broadcast industry chases the laser pointer, the IP-first generation is appreciating the real art—without advertising

Time for a Correction?

Our industry still sometimes over-promises and under-delievers. We need to keep it real if we want to sustain the sector and grow stable companies and livelihoods for those passionate about it.

DIY: Rudimentary Video Streaming

In our last DIY article, we walked you through basic live audio streaming. Now, put on your coder's hat and dive into a basic video streaming project.

Struggling With Capacity and Congestion in the Digital Video Age

Can the internet keep up with the ballooning demands video is placing on it? And how can planners manage growth while keeping costs down? The correct answers are not always the obvious ones in this hall of mirrors.

The Future of AI-Driven Products: Don't Believe the Hype

Marketers love promoting artificial intelligence solutions, but their smart tools are extremely limited—and not really all that smart.

25 Years of Internet Radio, Part 2

Back when online video was the size of a postage stamp, audio companies were changing the way the world heard radio. Here are reminiscences from RealNetworks and other pioneers.

25 Years of Internet Radio: Part 1

Can you believe it's been a quarter of a century since the first internet radio broadcast? In this first installment of a two-part series, we talk to some of the trailblazers who started a revolution.

OTT Moves Toward Microservices as Speed Becomes an Issue

Microservices architectures are central to the growth of OTT services, but they're widely misunderstood. Here's an intro to the major players.

In Defense of Autoplay, an Unloved and Unmourned Feature

While most people cheered when some browsers deactivated autoplay on videos, our columnist lamented. Here's why this is actually a step backward for the web.

The Flux Before the Storm: The Media World Bares its FANGs

With the rise of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google—and the shift from digital dinosaurs to digital natives—this is a time of great change. That's both exciting and frightening.

DIY: Live Audio Streaming Using Icecast with FFmpeg

Building on previous DIY articles, this installment will walk you through capturing audio, encoding and packaging with FFmpeg, then playing out through the Icecast server you set up in the last article

Hey, Streaming Industry: Fix This!

In which our resident crank opens his craw, unleashes the italics, and goes to town on problems with the cord-cutting experience, why industry pundits lie about latency, and what's wrong with advertising (hint: everything)

DIY: Icecast Internet Radio Server

In the latest installment of our do-it-yourself series, we'll look at how to set up an Icecast server on an AWS cloud instance.

DIY: Rudimentary Audio Streaming

For the second installment in our do-it-yourself series, we look at how to set up a very basic audio stream between two computers on the same LAN. While the coding is simple, the concepts underneath are crucial to an understanding of how streaming works.

DIY: Streaming to Multiple Destinations

Want to stream to YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch, but don't need a commercial streaming service and don't mind doing a bit of coding? Read on!

Streaming Forum Preview: Broadcaster Streaming Strategies

Hear speakers from Sky, BT, and CenturyLink discuss their organisations' approaches to OTT technologies, including virtualisation, containerisation, micro services, and encoding, as well as their overarching strategies for reaching multiple devices and audiences.

Commentary: It's Not AV1 vs. HEVC

With Apple joining the Alliance for Open Media, there's been a lot of talk about AV1 vs. HEVC. But we no longer live in an either/or world, and can now give viewers what they want with minimal cost and effort compared to years gone by.

Buzzword Bingo Creates Tomorrow's Most Talked-About Products

Play along: Just draw buzzwords out of a hat to invent the latest online video essential. Not sure what the product does? That's a feature, not a bug.

The Telcos Are Embracing Streaming—For Real, This Time

After attending 7 conferences in 9 weeks, it's apparent that telcos are moving into online video again in a big way, and they no longer view OTT and streaming as something tangential to their core business

MP3: The End of the Beginning, or a New Dawn?

MP3 may be the VHS to other audio formats' better-quality Betamax, but it's here to stay, especially now that the format is royalty-free.

When Online Video Is Everywhere, What Will Be Left to Innovate?

The very systems the streaming video industry is now working to create could make the area both omnipresent and invisible. Now that's a scary thought.

Killing ‘OTT’: Why the Term 'Over-the-Top' Has Lost its Meaning

Is Netflix an OTT service? Yes, but also no. It depends. And that gets to the heart of why people keep using the term 'OTT' incorrectly.

CDN Market Pricing Down, but Overall Growth Continues

At last week's Content Delivery Summit, Dan Rayburn presented his annual survey of pricing and trends in the industry. Per-GB prices are down, but CDNs are making up for the drop with increased efficiencies and value-added services

Commentary: Pointing Fingers in the Wrong Direction After AWS Outage

Sites and services that went down when an Amazon Web Services region failed shouldn't blame Amazon. They should blame their own poorly architected cloud infrastructure.

Review: DJI Inspire 2 with Zenmuse X5S Camera

The DJI Inspire 2 sets a new bar for drones, and the Zenmuse X5S camera is on par with much pricier models. It might be overkill for live streaming, but combined with the drone and DJI's gimbals, it's well worth the price.

The Shift to 4K Video: What Does it Mean for the Network?

Consumers are demanding 4K, so now it's up to operators to provide support. But how long will it take for everyone in the pipeline to get 4K-ready?

Coming Soon: SIMS and eSIMS in Smart TVs and Set-Top Boxes

The combination of mobile networks' high service velocities and millennials' reluctance to be tied down to fixed-line services means that the next revolution in video delivery will bypass fixed-line broadband altogether.

Streaming and Politics: Can Video Escape the Online Echo Chamber?

The promise of the internet was free and open discussions, but increasingly it feels like the powerful are the only ones doing the talking. Can viewers break down those narratives and create their own?

The Return of Multicast: Why it Succeeds in a Live Linear World

Multicast isn't new, but CDNs, operators, and content publishers have finally caught up to the possibilities it offers for increased scale and decreased costs.

Service Velocity Taking Hold in the Online Video Space

We've moved from dedicated hardware to virtualized appliances, but a new approach to service velocity promises even faster ways to spin up new OTT services and bring them to market

The Coming Disruption: Uncapped Mobile Will Be Unstoppable

Online access could look greatly different in the near future. No industry is too big to fail, and that includes today's biggest telecommunications companies.

If Taylor Swift Doesn’t Like Free Streaming, Then Turn Her Off

Taylor Swift pulled off a publicity stunt when she complained about free music services. Maybe the industry needs a way to stop her from cheapening its technology.

Commentary: Don't Believe the Video Quality Hype

OTT and other streaming services are losing the plot in their race towards ever-higher resolutions and ever-lower latency, when viewers actually don't care that much, especially when it comes to advertising.

Where Have All the Streaming Risk-Takers and Innovators Gone?

An industry that was once thrilling, groundbreaking, and revolutionary has now become commoditized and ordinary. Is this the cost of progress?

SDN and NFV: The Future of Virtualization and Cloud Computing

With software-defined networking and network function virtualization, the SaaS providers of today may soon find themselves adapting to more robust virtualization solutions. Here's a primer explaining how and why.

How to Shoot Aerial Video Using Drones and Quadcopters

Ready to get a bird's-eye view with an airborne camera? Here is a list of drone dos and don'ts from an experienced aerial videographer.

Buyer’s Guide to Content Delivery Networks 2015

CDN-hunters, read this first for an explanation of the basic key performance indicators to explore in order to make the right choice for any size company.

Review: Limelight Orchestrate Performance

Video isn't the only asset that can benefit from delivery via a CDN. Limelight Orchestrate Performance shows how website acceleration can significantly improve the performance of any website, not just video-heavy sites.

LiveU LU500 Road Test

LiveU remains the leading provider of cellmux solutions, and the LU500 is its flagship product. Combined with the LiveU Central service, it performed exceedingly well in our tests and solidified its position as the industry's current reference platform.

Broadcasters and Advertisers Still Drinking the Audience Measurement Kool-Aid

What's better: "Millions" of viewers as defined by sketchy science and unreliable data, or thousands of viewers as defined by accurate streaming logs? Old media continues to bank on the "millions," and that will eventually lead to their demise.

Net Neutrality Is Misguided, Because the Internet Doesn't Exist

While it's fashionable to announce oneself as being for Net Neutrality, our columnist argues that the idea is built on a fallacy.

Unity Intercom: Low-Budget, High-Quality Talkback for Webcasts

Unity Intercom uses iPhones and server software running on a Mac to offer full-featured talkback for up to 58 stations

How to Maximize the Reliability of a Cellular Bonding Solution

Cellmux technology is now an essential part of many video operations, but connections aren't always reliable. Here's how to ensure strong uptime and throughput.

CDNs and IXPs: Working Together Towards Increased QoE

The internet exchange point (IXP) is back at the table in deep discussion on a variety of fronts with the CDN community, and the discussions are very welcome too!

Netflix, Net Neutrality, and the Future of OTT

In a discussion at last week's CDN World Forum, telcos, operators, CDNs, and broadcasters tackled the questions of Net Neutrality and Netflix, only to find the answers intertwined

OTT Delivery: Creating Strategies for Video Streaming

The term "OTT" is used for many types of video delivery. Here are the different OTT workflow models, and the various ways they bring videos to viewers.

The Real World Cup Champion: Cellmux Technology

Concerns about cellular and mobile backhaul in Brazil proved to be unfounded, and cellular multiplexer vendors AVIWEST, LiveU, and TVU reported widespread and successful deployment of the technology throughout the World Cup

Streaming Forum Preview: Enabling Freeview to Deliver OTT Services

Applying a "cloud thinking" approach to application design can radically optimise video workflow efficiencies, and can deliver OTT television as effectively as it can reach into mobile and web markets.

Streaming Forum Preview: Next Generation Content Delivery Architectures

Think that HTTP distribution is the end of the road for content delivery networks? Think again. This panel at Streaming Forum will explore how content delivery is changing, right down to the network infrastructure.

Enough with Desktop and Mobile: Let's Virtualise the Operator

What if Apple and Google joined forces for their greatest accomplishment yet: Creating robotic workers with all the flaws of the real things.

Mushroom Networks Announces Integration with NewTek TriCaster

TriCaster operators will be able to access Mushroom Networks Streamer control and feeback via the TriCaster user interface

A Buyer’s Guide to Backhaul

Whether you call it backhaul or contribution feed, getting a signal to a studio or CDN is a key step in the streaming delivery chain. Here's a look at the options.

A Buyer’s Guide to Content Delivery Networks

CDNs aren't what they used to be. Here's what you need to know as you select one (or more) to deliver your content.

A Buyer's Guide to Cellular Multiplexers 2014

The cellmux vendor universe is expanding, but a careful needs assessment can lead you to the right solution for your company.

Brazil, the World Cup, and the Olympics: Ready or Not?

With the Sochi games winding down, all eyes turn to Brazil for the next two global sporting events, this year's World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. Are mobile networks in Brazil ready for the traffic that's bound to come from all the live video being generated from those events?

Comment: Think Locally, Grow Globally

If European streaming technology companies want to thrive in the face of U.S. competition, they need to ignore exaggerated market valuations and focus on delivering real solutions to the real markets where have an edge

Creating NASDAQ’s Cloud-Based Virtual Workflow

How one late-night brainstorming session turned into a more efficient workflow with tremendous cost savings.

A Bloodless Revolution: How Technology Could Save Us All

How the internet replaced the government: Presenting a possible future where technology solves our problems and low-priced production tools help us communicate.

Teradek Bond II: Hands-On Review

The name's Bond. Bond II. And it's a cellular bonding device and encoder that delivers terrific performance at a price point that's almost unbelievable.

AVIWest DMNG Pro180 and Studio: Hands On Review

With a great form factor, rugged construction, and well-designed UI and controls—not to mention solid signal delivery in difficult conditions—the AVIWest DMNG Pro180 is one of the leaders in the cellular multiplexing sector

First Look: Sat-Comm Karbon 75 Ka-Band Flyaway Antenna

When facility lines and leased lines are cost-prohibitive, but cellular bonding doesn't provide the necessary QoS, portable Ka band antennas like the Sat-Comm Karbon 75 are just the ticket for live event webcasting.

Mushroom Networks Streamer: One to Watch

A channel-bonding link aggregator that's optimized for video and decoupled from a particular codec, the Mushroom Networks Streamer offers unique flexibility at an attractive pricepoint

Review: Streamstar Webcast Case

Watch out, Livestream. This compact solution gives producers everything they need to deliver an immersive, multicamera experience. For the right uses, it's a spectacular choice.

Voddler's Disruptive Approach to Rights

Swedish-based VOD platform's ViewShare lets users share content from other download services. But is it legal? Voddler says "everything is in development."

Cellmux Antennae: Does Size Really Matter?

With great power -- and a 247-foot antenna -- comes great responsibility. Presenting one possible future in the cellmux antenna arms race.

Wearable Computers Pit Real Reality Against Altered Reality

In this unhappy alternative future, wearable computers can be harmful to the wearer's health. Take note: Not every enhancement is an upgrade.

Qualcomm StreamBoost: A Solution in Search of a Problem?

StreamBoost is a compelling technology to shape video and other traffic at the entry point to the home. But is that really where most congestion occurs?

EutelSat's NewsSpotter Ka-Sat Challenges Cellular Multiplexers on Cost and Time-to-Air

While cellular multiplexers have brought efficient, "good enough" streaming from the field within reach, EutelSat's Ka-Sat turns out to be competitive on both price and quality, with better SLA

A Buyer's Guide to Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

Where have all the CDNs gone? None of the most prominent CDNs want to be thought of as CDNs anymore. What does that mean for buyers or for the industry?

A Buyer's Guide to Cellular Multiplexers

Forget the sexy form factor and look deep inside the technology. Here are the three questions to ask before buying a cellmux.

Criticisms of the BBC's HTML5 DRM Efforts are Off-Base: Commentary

Internet activists Glynn Moody and Cory Doctorow miss the boat when they assert that the BBC violates the public trust by attempting to bring DRM into the HTML5 browser ecosystem

Sync Your Cloud Video Storage with CloudHQ

CloudHQ lets you sync video files and other documents across Google Drive, Dropbox, SugarSync, and other services for resiliency and cross-platform compatibility

Comment: While AWS May Have Caused Netflix's Outages, They're Really Netflix's Fault

It's about time that companies with poorly engineered services stop blaming AWS for their own engineering incompetence.

No Budget? No Problem: Live Event Streaming for Less

Broadcasting an event live online doesn't have to cost a fortune — especially if good is good enough.

Reliable UDP (RUDP): The Next Big Streaming Protocol?

New so-called reliable UDP solutions offer an alternative to TCP. But are they worth the time or money to implement?

The Mobile Viewpoint CellMux Backpack Solution: A Hands-On Review

This kit offers a long telescoping antenna and for good reason -- it moves radiation away from the operator's head. But how does it perform in real-world conditions?

The Coming Cyberwar: Could this Be the Future?

Think it can't happen here? Presenting a dystopian view on what happens when too much openness leads governments to regulate the internet.

Olympic Diary: The First Cellular Games

Cellular video multiplexing technology has radically transformed the way the London 2012 events are covered, giving viewers video of action that would have gone completely unnoticed in previous games

Olympic Diary: Online and Mobile Viewing Shatters Records

The numbers so far might not be Royal Wedding-sized, but when you consider the number of streams being viewed by the number of viewers, the figures are staggering

Olympic Diary: Games Fever Turns the Lords on to Online Video

Impressed with the success of the BBC's streaming of London 2012—and eager to raise more money by selling off radio spectrum—the UK House of Lords pushes for OTT to replace OTA entirely

Olympic Diary: Excellent Planning Results in Quality Streaming

Contrary to what some scare-mongers predicted, the 2012 Olympic Games have not yet melted the internet.

Mobile Viewpoint Reviewed: A (Literal) Road Test

The Netherlands' Mobile Viewpoint cellumux won the contract to follow the Olympic Torch Relay for the BBC, and its performance on our road test showed why

WCIT-12: The End to the Internet as We Know It?

ACTA and SOPA may be dead, but proposed changes to the Internet Telecommunications Regulation pose an even bigger threat to a free and open internet

CDN World Forum Offers Overview of Latest Content Delivery Propositions

With a wide-ranging agenda and selection of speakers, the second annual CDN World Forum in London covered everything from CDN federation to boutique services delivery

Anevia: First to Market with MPEG DASH?

The last few pieces of the standard have yet to be finalized, but IPTV and OTT solutions provider Anevia is already offering MPEG DASH to customers, with updates to come as the specification evolves

The Disconnected Home: The House of the Future Needs Re-Booting

Connected technology is brilliant -- until it isn't. When everything that can go wrong does, home is no longer as safe as houses.

Commentary—Ad Revenue, Distance Learning, and Piracy: Three White Elephants Waiting to be Shot Down

For too long, the viability of ad revenue-supported content, distance learning, and piracy prevention has gone unquestioned. That's because, once you dig a little deeper, you find that none of them work the way they're supposed to.

Buyer's Guide: Content Delivery Networks

No one said choosing a CDN is easy, so here's a guide to the decision-making process. Don't miss our giant CDN flow chart.

Buyer's Guide: CellMux, Link-Aggregator, and Channel-Bond Devices

What to look for in cellular multiplexing devices -- perhaps the fastest growing streaming technology.

CDN Federation: A Badly-Defined Solution in Search of a Real Problem?

At last year's Content Delivery Summit Europe, there was serious interest in exploring the CDN federation model. Further investigation, however, reveals that the notion was more down to marketing and sales than engineering

To DRM or not to DRM: Commentary

DRM will always have a place, but content owners should spend more time creating innovative distribution models like Netflix that are easy-to-use and priced right.

Teradek Bond: Review

Yet another entrant in the "cellular multiplexer" field, the Teradek Bond offers reliable, good-quality streaming over cellular networks for a reasonable price

Today's Tech Battles Echo Ancient Religious Wars

The more things change, the more they stay the same. There's something familiar in all these tech platform battles, and it reaches back thousands of years.

eZs3: A Simple Approach to Video Publishing

Yorkshire, England-based eZs3 finds success with an unpretentious, no-frills set of video publishing tools

MPEG DASH and Connected TV will Rule 2012

Between the inevitable adoption of MPEG DASH and the growth in connected TVs, 2012 should be a banner year for streaming media

Cloud Computing Predictions Are Over-Hyped

A recent report predicted the UK cloud computing market will be worth more than £100 billion by 2013. Such prognosticators would do well to get their heads out of the clouds and take a lesson from what happened with CDNs

European Content Delivery Summit Results in Federated CDN Trial

For the second year in a row, the Content Delivery Summit in London provided a genuine opportunity for CDNs and content providers to share ideas, and this year resulted in a plan for an ad-hoc CDN Federation trial run

Wired 2011: Where's the Video?

The tech glitterati spent day one talking about social networking, biotech, and even 3D printing, but not video. Perhaps the online video industry has gotten so good that the influencers haven't noticed how much they've been influenced?

Wired 2011: The Next Generation of Facial Recognition

Face.com's facial recognition technology is at once amazing and scary. Are you ready for your close-up?

iOS 5 and iCloud Are Great, But What About Video?

iCloud is more than just Apple's entry into the world of cloud computing; it essentially means Apple is acting as a CDN. But if that function is going to expand to streaming video delivery, it's going to strain the network in ways that Apple's not ready for.

Content Delivery Summit Preview: A Meeting of the Minds

Unlike other industry events covering the content delivery business, our Content Delivery Summit at Streaming Media Europe seeks to be a conversation that sparks innovation and cooperation across the industry

TVU Networks TVU Pack, LiveU LU60, and AVIWEST IBIS DMNG Compared

A comparison chart of three leading cellular multiplexers

Streaming from the Field with TVUPack, LiveU LU60, and AVIWEST IBIS DMNG

A look at the TVUPack, LiveU LU60, and AVIWEST IBIS DMNG, three products that offer cellular streaming from the field

The Life of a Video Packet: View from the Edge

In which we follow the birth, life, and untimely death of a lone video packet trying to get from point A to point B

YouTube: A Peek Inside

YouTube's European engineering director Oliver Heckmann will keynote Streaming Media Europe in London in October, and he offered us a preview of his behind-the-scenes talk

LiveU Shrinks Its Newest Model

Despite its decidedly unsexy name, the LiveU LU40i offers very exciting new capabilities, including a rich array of Layer 2 interfaces

Mushroom Networks' Portable Streamer Sends Any Video Source To a Content Delivery Network

Unlike other so-called "cellular multiplexers," the Streamer takes a video feed via Ethernet and sends to the CDN of your choice

TVU Networks Gets Small with the TVUPack Mini

Aviwest is no longer the only chocolate box-sized live broadcast solution on the market.

Content Delivery Pricing Goes Crazy: Commentary

If the price for content delivery is dropping drastically, then why are so many companies paying such exorbitant rates?

BT Ordered to Block Access to Piracy Search Engine

Newzbin2 is being shuttered, like the first Newzbin before it, but for different reasons.

CDN and the Cloud: Together at CDN World Forum

With our own Content Delivery Summit coming up in October, we took a look at one of the other CDN events, the CDN World Forum in London.

Streamzilla Unveils Updated Network, Products

Europe's leading "home-grown" CDN spins off technologies into new products, including the "CDN in a Box"

Ooyala Leads the Way to Monetisation

By focusing on monetisation from the beginning, Ooyala has carved out a niche in the increasingly competitive online video platform market

TV Everywhere, and I Mean Everywhere: Commentary

The ability to watch TV in literally every room in the house is creating a new normal for today's kids. Is that a good thing or not?

Telcos and the State of Content Delivery

The TDN—telecontent delivery network—comes into its own.

Portable Cellular/Wi-Fi Video Broadcast Unit Review: IBIS DMNG

AVIWEST's IBIS DMNG is the latest and greatest in portable, cellular/Wi-Fi video broadcast units, and it's a terrific addition to a growing field

What if Google Didn't Drop H.264 in Chrome?

Pundits have pounced on Google for dropping H.264 support in favor of WebM in the Chrome browser. But what if an all-H.264 world isn't all it's cracked up to be?

Rackspace Teams With Akamai; Could Be Good News for Limelight

Rackspace announced last week that it is partnering with Akamai, and reports suggested it is phasing out its relationship with Limelight. That makes little sense, unless there's more behind-the-scenes deal-making going on here than meets the eye.

Commentary: BT and its Orwellian Aims to Mind Control the UK (Not)

The controversy over British Telecom's new pricing scheme goes to show that the "Net Neutrality" debate might be the most ridiculous thing since the "Millennium Bug"

Musings from the Final Hangover: Some Out-There Predictions for 2011

In which our intrepid columnist gazes into the empty cider glass and prognosticates some likely—and not-so-likely—developments for 2011

Commentary: It's Time for a New Interpretation of Monetization

Now that video delivery costs are minimal, it's time to stop looking for direct ROI on every byte of video served, and for a new breed of analytics to emerge

Case Study: Online Fight Channel — Niche Sport Webcasting That Pays

Commentary: Flinging and Flicking

With Apple's AirPlay, users can "fling" content from their iDevices to their Apple TVs. But what happens if, instead of streaming the content from a mobile device, viewers can "flick" it to their TVs, which will then pick up the content and take over the streaming directly from the source?

Blue Coat Optimizes Video on Enterprise Networks

Dot-com boom and bust survivor Blue Coat Systems has expanded and enhanced its support for streaming video with its latest ProxySG line of products

Case Study: Online Fight Channel—Niche Sport Webcasting That Pays

Commentary: Sometimes, The Old Ways are the Best

New formats and delivery protocols might be sexy, but in a mission-critical corporate environment, so-called "deprecated" technologies might still be the way to go

IBC Through the Eyes of a First-Timer and a Veteran

Whether you've attended the show multiple times or are a seasoned pro, the IBC show in Amsterdam offers much more than what's on the exhibit hall floor.

Ooyala Raises $22 Million to Accelerate Global Expansion

Investment will help the online video platform move beyond the U.S. and Europe into Asia, and brings total investment in Ooyala to $42 million

The State of the Stack

Commentary: Some Data Packets are more Equal Than Others

The debates over net neutrality show a misunderstanding of fundamental characteristics of how traffic moves on the internet.

Commentary: RIAs are the Beta Ground for Browsers

Silverlight and Flash both have a future, but publishers should be considering HTML5 as a way to step away from vendor lock-in and the player and plug-in wars.

Commentary: YouTube Leanback is a Big Step Forward

While large-scale initiatives like Project Canvas and HbbTV will obviously do more, YouTube Leanback is a crucial move towards getting online video to the living room

Online Video Advertising: What's Wrong With This Picture?

Online video is hotter than ever. So how come online video advertising success stories are so hard to find?

Commentary: IPTV and its Grip on Reality

The IPTV World Forum in London was awash with set-top box and middleware manufacturers in a fool's gold rush for a market that doesn't exist.

Inside Thomson Reuters: Creating a Global Webcasting Platform

A look at the inner workings of a worldwide streaming empire.

Hitchhiker's Guide to Streaming Media: Advertising Systems

Until differences among ad technology providers are worked out, new advertising approaches will likely still take a back seat to traditional advertising models adapted for online video.
Wed., Mar. 11, by Dom Robinson

Hitchhiker’s Guide to Streaming Media : Container Formats

Container formats are one of the most misunderstood aspects of streaming video and audio technology. Here's a basic explanation.
Mon., Feb. 16, by Dom Robinson

Hitchhiker's Guide to Streaming Media: Service Level Agreements

Before you sign a service level agreement (SLA), be sure to read the fine print and understand the implications of the availability and support levels promised.
Tues., Nov.18, by Dom Robinson

Hitchhiker's Guide to Streaming Media: Online Video Advertising

Video adverts are becoming more and more pervasive, and advertisers have more options than ever in the types of ads they deliver. Here's a breakdown if the leading online video advertising categories.
Tues., Sept. 30, by Dom Robinson

No Turning Back: The State of the European Content Delivery Market

22 Sep 2008

After more than a decade of fits and starts, the content delivery market in the U.K. and Europe is poised for major growth.

Hitchhiker's Guide to Streaming Media: The History of IP

10 Sep 2008

A little history lesson to provide some context for those of us using the internet to deliver video.
Wed., Sept. 10, by Dom Robinson

Hitchhiker's Guide to Streaming Media: Multicast

20 Aug 2008

Multicast is often misunderstood, and until recently has been more promise than practice. But more and more ISPs are embracing multicast, and the efficiency gains it offers mean its use is likely to continue to grow.
Wed., Aug. 20, by Dom Robinson

Hitchhiker's Guide to Streaming Media: DRM

07 Aug 2008

What's the difference between digital rights management and conditional access technologies? What are the DRM strategies in use today? And why should you care? This DRM primer breaks it all down.
Thurs., 7 Aug, by Dom Robinson

Streaming Spotlight: Flip Video Ultra

10 Jul 2008

The Flip Video Ultra is so much more than it at first seems to be. It is so simple that for the first time in years I have been able to focus on what I am filming rather than how to improve the image. The output is simple and effective and the extra software, although simple, actually turns it into a great communications tool.
Thurs., 10 July, by Dom Robinson

Hitchhiker's Guide to Streaming Media: Encoding

01 Jun 2008

Encoding...decoding...codecs...formats. What's the difference? Don't panic; our intrepid guide breaks it down for you.
Mon., June 2, by Dom Robinson

Hitchhiker's Guide to Streaming Media: Webcasting

16 May 2008

For those trying to understand the streaming of life, the universe, and everything. In the second installment of our Hitchhiker's Guide Series, we tackle the history and basic technology of webcasting.
Fri., 16 May, by Dom Robinson

Hitchhiker's Guide to Streaming Media

21 Apr 2008

For those trying to understand the streaming of life the universe and everything—don’t panic. In this new series, we endeavor to provide clear, accurate, and detailed definitions of all things streaming. Whether you’re a newbie or a veteran, we hope you’ll find the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Streaming Media useful.
Mon., 21 April, by Dom Robinson