by Gary Welz
Innovators V: Online TV
Online TV is a company offering technology for viewing video over the Web.However, unlike Xing Streamworks, VDOLive, Vivo, and CuSeeMe discussed in this column last week, the Online TV technology is the first and only company to allow video viewing without requiring additional downloads, plug-ins, or installations.
Online TV uses a new encoder developed by MIT Media Lab graduates, outside of the Lab, headed up by Stephan Fitch, with the financial help of Sun Microsystems. The Online TV encoder, dubbed "Rock Pipe" by its creators, is not for sale. Reuters has licensed the product for the distribution of news, and Lucent is starting to talk with the company to broadcast programming to a professional audience.
The Java-based software is able to encode and send live video in JPEG video format. It is not as highly compressed as MPEG video, but each frame has complete digital integrity--unlike MPEG video, which breaks up frames into component elements. Thus, any given frame is independent of other frames in the sequence. If you're viewing it on a 28.8 connection, you'll get the video at a lower frame rate than you would on a T1, but the individual frame quality is extremely high--high enough to read subtitles and look like a slide show with audio.
Since the video is digitally encoded, it is fully scalable to any bandwidth and any image size. You'll find, for example, that you can change the resolution of your monitor without seeing any reduction in the image quality. Online TV plans to eventually offer streams with different frame sizes for high-bandwidth and low-bandwidth audiences.
(One curious technical fact. Rock Pipe was originally optimized for the Java compiler in Netscape Navigator 2.1. The compiler in Navigator 3.0 runs much faster than that in Navigator 2.1. As a result, it throws off the timing of the Online TV encoder. You'll find that at the moment the audio sounds choppy on 3.0 but not on 2.1--although that should be corrected soon.)
The company is not now offering video-on-demand. While it's possible to serve multiple independent streams with the technology, Online TV feels that it serves its business objectives better by offering only one feed for all viewers.
Because Online TV doesn't offer a file for downloading, it is impossible for any viewer to save the programming to a disk. This prevents pirating of copyrighted materials and is a significant attraction to many content providers, especially independent filmmakers who want their films to be seen on the Net, but not recorded for redistribution.
Online TV also plans to be a content provider. According to Online TV President Rick Siegel, the company's goal is to be "the first completely digital television network and to bring regularly scheduled content to the whole world via the Internet."
Since early July 1996, Online TV has been broadcasting sporadically and assembling content. Its goal is to offer 24 x 7 (i.e., 24 hrs/day, 7 days/week) service with a variety of programming types on one channel.
The company is negotiating with Internet service providers to establish a separate Internet backbone so that its programming does not cause the Net to crash. It hopes to launch regularly scheduled programs in the Fall of 1996.
OnlineTV.com will go to multiple channels in the next 12 months as content is developed and obtained. It intends to divide into channels that have their own domain names and their own identities. Examples of secured domains for specific programming are MusicTV.com, MovieTV.com, ScifiTV.com, and LatinTV.com
Online TV plans to support programming with commercials. At the present time, the company now has approximately 16,000 daily viewers, 5,000 or 30% of which are from Sweden. It has also discovered that it is becoming quite popular in Finland, with 500 Finnish connections daily.
In the future, OnlineTV.com wants to offer users the ability to choose cameras online, two-way programming, and live viewer interaction via online virtual reality.
