A Wider Net

A post from Robert Scoble reminded me to share a vision of our webcasting future: Multisourcing. While his post wasn’t really on this topic, he did describe a moment where, in the middle of what appeared to be yet another boring online press conference with audio and slides, the principles in the company turned on a webcam and continued the conference live on camera. They showed their produce, live, and they took questions openly and without screening. The impact of going to live video was immediately apparent, since so much of the message is contained within the body language of the presenters. Also, their willingness to field questions openly indicates that this is not a press stunt - they have a real innovation to talk about and they’re proud of it.

Bravo to the Intel team, who gave the press conference. Was it necessary to use a handheld camera and an amateur operator? Probably not - you can mix production value and honest delivery and achieve even better results. But the fact that this was a video press conference isn’t what I’m here to talk about.

The fact that they “switched on” the video mid-broadcast, and the fact that it had a casual appearance is what made me think of multisourcing as a topic of discussion. Multisourcing, as it pertains to webcasting and events, refers to bringing in broadcast sources from multiple locations. For example - you could incorporate live video feeds from your CEO in Dallas, your CMO in Seattle, and your EMEA VP of Sales from London.

Traditionally we would have to use either satellite or terrestrial fiber (which you may have heard called Vyvx) to connect video feeds from multiple cities and switch them into a live broadcast. For broadcast television that is still the way it’s done 99% of the time. That’s very expensive. It’s reliable, but crazy costly. Especially when you bring in more than one source and when the distance is greater than 1,000 miles (satellites can only see so far so you may need multiple hops and fiber is billed per mile of transmission). The other option for remote feeds is video conferencing, but getting the right mix of gear on both ends and successfully penetrating firewalls with the connection is, at the very least, a juggling act.

The webcast world has some answers, mostly thanks to Flash video from Adobe (Macrodobedia).

First, flash video servers make it easy to incorporate multiple video streams into your broadcast. You can have a dozen participants anywhere on the internet turn on a standard webcam and become available as sources to your webcast. You can switch them one at a time or, in some cases, show several at once as part of an ongoing conversation - useful for a panel discussion. The quality will not be the same as if you had them all together in a studio with professional equipment. To a certain degree, that’s totally acceptable - especially if there is a high-quality “anchor” broadcast and you are only using the remote feeds to bring in people unable to make it to the central studio. There are a number of companies already doing this including Operator11 and Avacast. Most of the larger webcast platform companies are also working on their flash solutions and this capability is certainly on their roadmap.

Next, there is a relatively new mobile video product from ComVu that allows you to switch between multiple live video streams, some or all of which can be originated from mobile phones, and rebroadcast them to desktops and (you guessed it) mobile phones. This is the ultimate in anytime, anywhere broadcasting, and is especially exciting for the future of remote news gathering. The quality is, well, what you would expect from cameras attached to phones that have been rattling around in people’s pockets along with lint, breath mints, and dirty sexy money. But it’s acceptable for certain circumstances and it will only get better. They’re already where internet video was six years ago - give it time.

There are, I’m sure, other solutions available. I can’t even count the number of times we’ve needed to “bring in” someone in a far away place to webcast or live meeting. And we’re getting increasing numbers of requests for virtual meeting solutions where multiple people, in multiple locations, need to talk to a large group of people all over the place. The future of webcasting will certainly include multisourcing as a standard capability.

Network World Magazine calls the Fujitsu U810 “attractive to healthcare professionals” and possibly the “Ultimate Mobile Device”. From what I can see, it’s one the first attractively priced little UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) that’s plenty loaded with possibilities.

Ever since Microsoft unveiled project Origami we have seen a steady flow of UMPC’s that seem like products in search of a market. When Network World’s Keith Shaw commented that the U810 had specific application to healthcare professionals it struck a cord with me. Perhaps they have finally arrived at the right mix of size, weight, functionality, performance, and battery life to meet a specific mass-market need. UMPC’s have been too small for comfort, too power-hungry to last, and too expensive to matter.

I still love the vision of UMPC’s and I wish I had one at my side on a daily basis. There’s only so much you can do with a smartphone or PDA, and only so many places you want to lug your laptop.

If a UMPC can provide reasonable computing on the go, decent web browsing, and decent presentation support, then it’s a clearly exciting thing for any mobile work force - especially sales people, travelers, and healthcare professionals.

The video below details how cool the U810 can be. It’s a teeny laptop. It’s also a teeny tablet PC - for sketching, filling out forms, and giving one-to-one presentations. And if you need an amazing tablet application to inspire you into the possibilities of tablet PC’s, check out this video I found on Robert Scoble’s blog.

I’m even more enamored with the HTC Shift below , a device that has many of the same attributes as the U810 but doesn’t have the great quote in Network World Magazine. A demo video of THAT device is below. I hope to have one of these in my hands very soon and I’ll give you a quick download. Retailers: these devices may be the perfect device to ship to every one of your stores. Clerks can use them around the store for guidance on shelf arrangements and product signage. Then can use it to complete training programs. They can use it to verify the correct price on the website that day. They can even use it to show a customer how a product is supposed to be used. It’s a lot lighter than a laptop, easier to stow, cheaper to replace, and (presumably) harder to break.

So I like the looks of the U810, and I love the looks of the Shift. I guess I’ll have to order two. To go. And don’t bother to wrap them - I’ll eat them here.

Yep, I wrote about these after seeing them at CES and thought they would make cool holiday gifts. Now all of Google’s Adsense customers will carry their brand around in their wallets. I’m still looking into how much storage they packed onto it and if it came preloaded with any Google-goodies (Googlies?)

From Everything USB

The folks who created the giant KFC logo in the desert of Nevada have made their impression on Google Maps.

I checked maps.live.com and they do not show it yet.

Here is a video detailing it’s construction:

If you’re wondering if it was worth it, given the fact that the casual Google Maps user has no business looking in on random patches of desert (you have to zoom in to view only a few miles at a time in order to see it), then check these links out:
A story seen on Digg that so far has almost 2,000 diggs
Fox News.

Found via Billboardom

Related posts:
Google Earth Blog
Ad Lab
Ad Lab again

I’m finally getting around to posting a link to my Google Reader shared items. Any time I spot a post of interest I “star” it to make it easier for me to find later and “share” it so it appears in this list. There’s a mishmash of items in there. Some of them turn into posts here. Some are just plain silly. I also tend to link to several posts in a row from the same site, since this is how I tend to read my feeds - in gusts.

Here’s the link to my shared items.

And here’s a little widget that shows the last few items on the list.