Welcomed by Kevin Shively, TVWorldwide

Streaming Media East 2010 – the day after report:  What is it about technology conferences that makes them so exhausting?

The exhibit floor this year was smaller then last years and I heard from the exhibitors that real “customer” presence was light, but of course for my purposes… that doesn’t really matter.

Selfishly I have to say, I am only interested in technology innovations that are easy to integrate or deploy, that are affordable and of course, that actually work.  There was a lot of discussion around scalable technology, SD to HD workflow transitions, adaptive (bit rate) streaming… and of course, highest on the list is the promise of “unified systems” (as it is referred to in the Enterprise) or single [video] signal transmission to multiple devices, something along the lines of TVEverywhere type availability of broadcast content, but specifically one feed that can play back on any device (i.e. Mobile, Desktop, Set top box, etc.).

That’s a lot to think about, but I was able to pin-point my priorities and focus on putting together a package that would work for me and my budget… and here is that journey. read this entry »

I will Tweet from Vegas rather than attempt to do full posts from NAB, but when I get back home I will write up reviews!

My goal is to get as many products to DEMO and then do write ups… So, now is the time to put in your requests for QA/UAT on any products you may be considering or interested in this year!  I am already going after the new Tricaster HD, so impress me with your initiatives and I will try to get to all your requests… And guys, don’t forget Streaming Media East is coming up in May!

Check out  the all new StreamingMedia.com that launched yesterday!  Happy Spring everyone, 2010 is a great year for technology, just don’t say “iPad” … sick of em already

For years, the most aggravating argument against the virtue of streaming media on the web versus “television” has been consistency of the user experience; however, for the last three [3] days I have been waiting for MTV on Time Warner Cable to figure out that their NYC TWC “guide” has been totally off…

Right now, the schedule dictates I should be watching a program called ” The Girls of Hedsor Hall” – but what is actually on is the program  “TI’s Redemption” -

This may seem minor, except for that the programming on the TWC “guide” has been off track for 3 days and no one has picked this up as an issue nor has anyone they corrected it.  There are plenty of other issues, like On Demand videos that simply don’t play, the guide gets stuck constantly and I always have to reboot the box.

I am also pretty pissed off at Time Warner since I went and ordered new STB’s for my home, they sent over a thrid party contractor – who was a bit of an idiot actually… and all the STB’s were refurbished.  And now, TWC is advertising the “Start over” feature that simply doesn’t work on my STB’s.

Yet more examples of end-user frustration and confusion that will hurt us all in the end.

If TWC can’t ge it right, they should at least have someone on their internal teams watching their own channels to ensure that we are getting the “end user experience” they promise …

I have to say, it’s been 4 days now since their “TWC guide has been out of sync with their programing, and it is critically disjointing…

Hey, TIME WARNER CABLE –  I feel let down, you are supposed to be the best of the best…