live streaming

In a posting on its corporate blog, Tuesday, YouTube announced that, during and after President Obama's State of the Union speech--which will be live-streamed Wednesday on YouTube among other platforms, along with the Republican Party's response--users of its service will be able to ask follow-up questions, some of which will be answered live by the president himself next week as part of a special live event (whose exact time and date has apparently not yet been determined). "On Wednesday night at 9 p.m.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

TV Guide Network on Monday announced two new initiatives which it says will make its 2010 award-season live red-carpet telecasts "more fun, fashionable and interactive for the fans at home."

Premium programmer, HBO, has launched a free iPhone/iPod touch application in the Apple App Store. According to the company, the app, which was designed by Atimi Software, is designed to provide an "in-depth, interactive experience" that incorporates a range of branded entertainment, including video clips and in interactive episode guide. "We think the HBO App for iPhone and iPod touch will quickly attract both HBO's loyal fans as well as new consumers," HBO's VP of brand strategy, Alison Moore, said in a prepared statement.

A number of items of broadband-video and live-streaming news have come across [itvt]'s desk over the past few days. Here is a brief round-up:

Italian software company, Command Guru, recently produced an interactive, live streaming, fly-on-the-wall reality TV show, centering on the efforts of an international team of 10 developers, led by Cocoa guru, Aaron Hillegass (author of "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X"), to develop a free, open source, social networking iPhone application in seven days ("from start-to-publish on the App Store").

In what may be one of the most unusual examples of convergence to date, two researchers from Japan's Keio University have developed a microwave oven that plays YouTube videos while the user waits for their food to cook. Dubbed the Castoven, the device incorporates a 10.4-inch LCD screen into its door and also integrates a speaker.

Designed to be connected to a home computer, and powered by an Adobe AIR app that accesses videos through YouTube's API, the Castoven--which is not yet available for sale--selects the videos it displays based on length: thus, if the user is warming up their Hungry-Man TV dinner for six minutes, the device will automatically play a six minute-long video.

Livestation, which streams live news from a range of international sources via browser and desktop player solutions, on Monday announced the launch of version 3.0 of its desktop software. New features, according to the company, include:

Livestream (formerly Mogulus), a New York-based company which offers a platform that enables amateurs and professionals to produce and distribute live TV on the Internet, last week announced the immediate availability of a free service for streaming live to the iPhone and iPod touch. According to the company, users of its flagship Livestream Procaster platform can now start streaming live to the iPhone/iPod touch audience over 3G or WiFi, with less than five minutes of set-up.

In a posting on its corporate blog, Monday, Livestream (formerly Mogulus), a New York-based company which offers a platform that enables amateurs and professionals to produce and distribute live TV on the Internet, announced the release of a beta Mac version of its Procaster product.

BSkyB's Sky News arm has begun streaming its TV output live, free and 24/7 on its Web site, http://www.skynews.com. It has also launched a new, higher-bitrate video player on the site, which it says will provide visitors with a "richer and more immediate" video experience: Sky News's online team worked with BSkyB's Sky Player arm to develop a login-free version of the latter's broadband video platform, which is accessed via a tab on skynews.com's main story carousel. The player, which does not require viewers to have a Sky account, can be accessed by anyone in the UK or the Republic of Ireland.

Broadband video platform provider, Ooyala, announced late Monday that it has closed a $10 million Series C funding round. The round--which brings the total raised by the company to date to $20 million--was led by new investor, Rembrandt Venture Partners, and saw the participation of current investors, including Sierra Ventures. As part of the investment, Rembrandt general partner, Sik Rhee, will join Ooyala's board.

Here is a round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

Broadband video platform provider, Ooyala, last week announced the release of live streaming with real-time analytics for its flagship Backlot platform. According to the company, the new functionality enables its customers to quickly and easily set up a live stream from the same console from which they manage their VOD content, while the company's analytics engine provides real-time viewership statistics from its analytics dashboards.

Here is a round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue: