How do the top sub-$5,000 encoding tools compare in terms of encoding quality, speed and feature set? Find out in this presentation by Jan Ozer from the 2009 Streaming Media Europe event. Tools analysed include Adobe Media Encoder, Apple Compressor, Sorenson Squeeze, Telestream Episode Pro and Episode Engine, Microsoft Expression Encoder, and On2 Flix Pro.

All of the panel sessions at this year’s Streaming Media Europe were filmed, and every week we’ll be featuring one here on the blog. This week it’s the session “Reaching Multiple Screen Convergence: Streaming to the PC, Mobile, Television, and Gaming Devices.” The concept of seamlessly transferring a video session between the television, PC, mobile, and/or gaming device at the consumer’s will is multiple-screen nirvana. This session provides a look at how close we are to reaching this goal and what strategies network operators and content publishers can employ to encourage adoption while monetising these new services.

Speakers are:
• Martin Sutherland, Director, European Sales, Vantrix (moderator)
• Pierre-Yves Le Berre, VP, Business Development, Anevia
• James A. Neufeld, Product Specialist, never.no
• Jim Taylor, Chief Technologist, Sonic Solutions International Digital Media Alliance (IDMA)

If there’s still any doubt about multiple screen—and multiple device—convergence, take note that Jim Taylor was until recently best-known for his work in the optical media field and is the man behind DVD Demystified.

Project Canvas—the proposed joint venture from BBC, ITV, BT and Five to build an open internet TV platform—has launched an official website to promote the initiative and improve on a perceived failure to communicate its goals to the public. The site will aggregate announcements from as well as news about Project Canvas, and will eventually also host technical information for consumer device manufacturers and SDKs for developers.

The “charm offensive,” as Digital TV calls it, may be too little, too late, as current conventional wisdom (and analyst opinion) suggests that, like Kangaroo before it, Project Canvas might be shot down, though this time it may be halted by the BBC Trust, which had initially indicated it would approve the initiative this past autumn, as StreamingMediaGlobal.com’s Adrian Pennington wrote last month.

Thanks to all who attended this year’s Streaming Media Europe last month in London—all 1,015 of you, a 32% increase over 2008’s numbers. I think it’s safe to say that this once again demonstrates just how vibrant the online video industry remains even in the current economy, and the fact that we had visitors from 41 countries means that this has become a truly global event!

We’ve posted all of the session and keynote videos from the show here, but we’ll be rolling some of it out here on the blog over the next few weeks. We’ll kick things off today with the keynote from Myles McBean, VP of Disney Online EMEA. Tim Siglin’s report on the keynote is here, but don’t take his word for it. Check out the video!

It’s looking increasingly as if the BBC’s broadband-to-TV Project Canvas might never actually see the light of day. Analysts are speculating that the initiative is dead, and Freeview and Freesat both adding the BBC iPlayer, we wonder if Project Canvas might be moot. For more on this story, see Adrian Pennington’s article on StreamingMediaGlobal.com

Like most studios and media & entertainment companies, Disney is embracing the opportunities and rising to the challenges of getting its content to multiple screens and devices—PC, TV, set-top boxes, game consoles, and mobiles. Leading the charge for Disney is Myles MacBean, VP and general manager for Disney Online Europe Middle-East Africa, and he’ll be speaking on the topic next month in his keynote at Streaming Media Europe.

I had a chance to sit down with Myles for a video call using the ooVoo service, which offers free two-way video chat and premium options that allow for chats among up to six people. Myles and I talked about a wide range of topics, including:

• The impact that Disney’s focus on youth audiences has on its multiple-screen strategy
• The necessity of taking a holistic approach to the creation and delivery of multiple-screen content, and keeping multiple screens in mind from the beginning of the content creation process

Apologies for the slightly out-of-sync audio.

Counting down the last couple of weeks here to Streaming Media Europe, and two of our keynote speakers took some time to chat with me about the state of the industry. Some great insights here as Dr. William Cooper, founder and chief executive of informitv, and Nicholas Wheeler, Managing Director of ITN On each talk about what to look for in the next 12 months, what barriers stand in the way of continued online video growth, and what has most surprised them in the space in the last year. (Thanks to ooVoo, we were able to record these transatlantic video chats.)

We’ve just announced the full programme for this year’s Streaming Media Europe, to be held at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith, 14-16 October. You can check out the entire programme here, but here are some highlights:

• Keynotes from Myles MacBean, VP & General Manager, Disney Online EMEA; Nicholas Wheeler, Managing Director, ITN On; Dr. William Cooper, CEO, informitv; and Guy Phillipson, CEO of the Internet Advertising Bureau UK. Watch this blog in coming weeks for video interviews with our keynotes.

• Pre-conference workshops on the topics Live Broadcasting for Silverlight and Windows Media Player, Encoding H.264  for Streaming and Progressive Download, Developing a Rich Video Player for the Adobe Flash Platform, and Planning, Building, and Launching a Video Blog.

• Two full days of conference sessions, which will feature speakers from the BBC, Sony, Microsoft, Cisco, Global-MIX, Deutsche Telekom, Level 3, Teliasonera, Akamai, Telemak, Livestation, RealNetworks, Adobe, Tremor Media, Adap.tv, Red Bee Media, Thomson Reuters and more.

Early registration discounts apply until 25 September.

Canadian-based Arqiva, which is the UK’s largest broadcast transmission provider, has purchased the technology assets behind Kangaroo, the BBC/ITV/Channel 4 initiative that was derailed by regulators. See this article on StreamingMediaGlobal.com for more information.

Microsoft officially launches at an event in San Francisco on Friday. But why wait until then to find out the latest and greatest? Ben Waggoner, Microsoft’s principal video strategist for Silverlight, sat down with our Troy Dreier to talk about some of the leading features—including out-of-browser playback—in the new Silverlight 3. Check it out here.