I say this every year, but I mean it more each time: This year’s Streaming Media Europe really is set to be the best ever, with great speakers and a brand-new venue. You can see the entire programme online–we’re still filling in a few speaker slots, but almost all of the panels and presentations are now slotted. The highlight sof the event are our keynotes; on Day 1 (18 October), we’ve got Ian Mecklenburgh from Virgin Media talking about “Streaming to the Connected Home,” while on Day 2 we feature YouTube Europe Engineering Director Oliver Heckmann offering a “Peek Inside YouTube”
The entire event is loaded with top-notch speakers, though, and as with last year, it’s not just one event. This year, it’s four: The Content Delivery Summit on 17 October follows up on last year’s successful event with another great mix of presentations and speakers, including the BBC’s Richard Cooper, Limelight Networks’ George Fraser, and Level 3 Communications’ Derek Gough. The real highlight, though, is the frank and sometimes surprising conversations that happen during the panel discussions; how often do you get to see Adobe, Microsoft, Wowza, RealNetworks, Flumotion, and Code Shop discuss and debate application trends?
18 October also features the first annual Connected Home event. Programmed by informitv‘s Dr. William Cooper, this event is a one-of-a-kind gathering of online, broadcast, CE, and infrastructure leaders including Google TV, Samsung, LG, BT, TalkTalk, and others, all exploring the challenges and opportunities brought about by over-the-top video and the increasingly connected home environment. “These major industries are headed on a collision course, but to succeed they will need to work together,” says Cooper. “It is unlikely that a single winner will end up owning the consumer, but understanding the roles and relationships of the various players will enable participants to position themselves in the connected value network.”
On 19 October, we’ll feature the second Online Video Strategies event, the only event aimed squarely at the ever-growing number of organisations for whom video is now a central part of their communications strategy, but for whom video is in no way their core business. As such, it’s filled not with blue sky pondering nor awash in “inside the video industry” debates. Rather, it’s designed to give attendees the knowledge and tools they need to start or improve their strategy as soon as they leave the event—even if they’re not video experts when they walk in the door. The day begins with Pocket Video Power‘s Jules Watkins, who has produced reality shows like Pimp My Ride and MTV Cribs and will focus on “How To Make Online Videos that Don’t Suck—Without Breaking the Bank.” We’ll also have speakers from Red Bee Media, Kinura, AutoTrader, and more, all offering up practical knowledge to help attendees improve their video strategies as soon as they get back to their desks.
And, as usual, the day before the main event will be filled with terrific, in-depth workshops on “Delivering High-Quality Media Within the Enterprise on the Adobe Flash Platform,” “Next-Generation Microsoft Media Platform and Media Delivery with Sharepoint and Azure,” “Online Video Advertising–The Technology, the Science, and the Cash,” and “Encoding for Flash, Mobile, and HTML5.”
We’re also at a new venue this year: the Olympia Conference Centre in London, with the Content Delivery Summit and pre-conference workshops taking place at the nearby Hilton London Olympia.
Anthony Rose, CTO of Project Canvas—the joint venture among Arqiva, BBC, BT, Channel 4, ITV, and Talk Talk to build an internet-connected TV platform—will keynote day one. Project Canvas provides this description of his talk:
Steve Plunkett, Red Bee Media
Project Canvas is set to transform the daily viewing experience of UK television audiences and influence IPTV deployments globally when it launches in the early part of 2011. It will unlock a world of content and services, combining live channels with on-demand, bringing web-based services and interactive extras to the living room TV. Anthony Rose explains how Canvas is creating the right environment for Connected TV to thrive in the UK and beyond.
Day two offers Steve Plunkett, Director of Customer Innovation for Red Bee Media, which provides technology and creative solutions to help broadcasters, content rights holders, and brand owners engage with their audiences in traditional and new ways, including web and mobile. Red Bee Media’s client list includes Discovery International, BBC, Virgin Media, Nike, Lonely Planet, Motorola, and Siemens, and they’ve worked with media brands across the globe, including Sky Italia, TV Globo (Brazil), Star News India, and Canal+ (France). Plunkett will be discussing “Video Everywhere and In Everything:”
Check back soon for more details on all of our events—we’ve got speakers from Adobe, Akamai, Amazon, BT, Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, the Football Association, GlaxoSmithKline, Limelight, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, Zattoo, and many more.
The advance programmes for Streaming Media Europe, the Content Delivery Summit, and the Online Video Strategies event are all online. If you submitted a speaking proposal and don’t see your topic reflected, don’t panic. These are preliminary programmes that we’ll be modifying with more specifics as we get closer to the event. In particular, you can expect several sessions focusing on the hottest topics in online video: VP8/WebM, H.264, HTML5, and Flash 10.1 for Mobile.
We’ll be making our final speaker selections in the next few weeks and announcing the final programmes at the end of July.
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!
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.
Voting opens today for the inaugural Streaming Media European Readers’ Choice Awards, the only awards program in the online media industry that lets end users have their say about which products and services are their favourites.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve received a deluge of nominations, and from that list we’ve narrowed it down to a total of more than 125 nominees in 12 categories:
• Transcoding Solution—Hardware, software, or cloud-based solution for encoding and transcoding content
• Online Video Platform—SaaS platforms that enable customizable publication, syndication, distribution, and monetisation of video on the web
• UGC Platform—User-generated content sites and services
• TV over IP Solution—Set-top box, over-the-top, and “catch-up” solutions for delivering television content online
• Reporting, Analytics—Services that offer metrics that, among other things, help content publishers better understand who’s watching, when they’re watching, where they’re watching, and for how long
• Streaming Services Provider—Provider of end-to-end streaming services, from capture and encoding to delivery and distribution
• Video Advert Platform—Technologies and services that allow for targeted ad insertion into online video content
• Webcast Platform—Hardware, software, and SaaS solutions for delivering live web events
• Delivery Network—Edge or peer-to-peer content delivery providers
• Music & Audio Delivery Solution—Music download services, internet radio, and music sharing
• Best Live Webcast of 2009—Most impressive and successful live web event
• Best Streaming Innovation of 2009—The “catch-all” category, for simply the coolest, most innovative streaming product, service, or event of the year.
You will be able to vote for one nominee in each category, with the voting open until 21 August. We’ll publish the finalists—the top 3 vote-getters in each category—on 7 September, and then announce the winner in each category at Streaming Media Europe on 15 October, as well as on the website and in the Winter European edition of Streaming Media magazine.
We’re excited to announce the first annual European Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award, for which nominations will be accepted beginning today. Modeled after the successful U.S. program, the European Readers’ Choice Awards will be the only awards program that honors the top efforts in the online video industry as decided by the people who actually use the products and services and watch the content.
The awards process begins with the collection of nominations in 12 categories:
• Transcoding Solution—Hardware, software, or cloud-based solution for encoding and transcoding content
• Online Video Platform—SaaS platforms that enable customizable publication, syndication, distribution, and monetisation of video on the web
• UGC Platform—User-generated content sites and services
• TV over IP Solution—Set-top box, over-the-top, and “catch-up” solutions for delivering television content online
• Reporting, Analytics—Services that offer metrics that, among other things, help content publishers better understand who’s watching, when they’re watching, where they’re watching, and for how long
• Streaming Services Provider—Provider of end-to-end streaming services, from capture and encoding to delivery and distribution
• Video Advert Platform—Technologies and services that allow for targeted ad insertion into online video content
• Webcast Platform—Hardware, software, and SaaS solutions for delivering live web events
• Delivery Network—Edge or peer-to-peer content delivery providers
• Music & Audio Delivery Solution—Music download services, internet radio, and music sharing
• Best Live Webcast of 2009—Most impressive and successful live web event
• Best Streaming Innovation of 2009—The “catch-all” category, for simply the coolest, most innovative streaming product, service, or event of the year.
Nominations may be submitted here beginning today through 29 June. The staff of Streaming Media will evaluate the nominations for appropriateness to category and then publish a list of nominees in each category on 6 July.
At that point, our readers will be able to vote for one nominee in each category, with the voting open until 21 August. We’ll publish the finalists—the top 3 vote-getters in each category—on 7 September, and then announce the winner in each category at Streaming Media Europe on 15 October, as well as on the website and in the Winter European edition of Streaming Media magazine.
So make your nominations soon, and look out for the list of nominees on 6 July!
We’ve extended the deadline for speaker proposals for this year’s Streaming Media Europe conference, to be held on 15 & 16 October (with pre-conference workshops on 14 October), again at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith. You now have until Friday, 8 May to submit proposals.
While we welcome all potential speakers, we’re especially interested in end users who can speak to the challenges, trends, and opportunities they are dealing with as they deploy online video and music strategies in both consumer-facing and internal communications. Submissions can be made directly here, but be sure to read our guidelines first.
Once again, we’ll be having two tracks, one focusing on Technology & Content and one on Business & Strategy. We’ll likely have a total of about 20 sessions, as well as four keynotes. Stay tuned for more information about those keynotes, and we look forward to your speaker submissions.
Hard to believe, but it’s time to start planning for this year’s Streaming Media Europe conference, to be held on 15 & 16 October (with pre-conference workshops on 14 October), again at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith. A testament to the continued vitality of online video in the face of tough economic times, last year’s show bucked the trade show trend and saw an increase of more than 50% in attendees over the 2007 show: 768 visitors from 23 countries, and more than 70 speakers.
We’re now soliciting speaker proposals for the 2009 show. While we welcome all potential speakers, we’re especially interested in end users who can speak to the challenges, trends, and opportunities they are dealing with as they deploy online video and music strategies in both consumer-facing and internal communications. Submissions can be made directly here, but be sure to read our guidelines first.
Once again, we’ll be having two tracks, one focusing on Technology & Content and one on Business & Strategy. We’ll likely have a total of about 20 sessions, as well as four keynotes. Stay tuned for more information about those keynotes, and we look forward to your speaker submissions.
Voting opens today for the inaugural Streaming Media European Readers’ Choice Awards, the only awards program in the online media industry that lets end users have their say about which products and services are their favourites.