Internet Video Magazine Newsletter – February 2007

Third Screen – Fourth Screen – Who Cares? It’s all about video on the phone.

Our team just returned from 3GSM Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Aside from eating tapas, drinking sangria and avoiding the pickpockets on Las Ramblas, we saw a lot of interesting and world-shaking new phone technologies and most of it revolved around video and television on phones.

Some say the growing explosion of video and television on the cell phone screen is the emergence of the third screen. TV being screen number one, computer monitor screen number two and the mobile device - cell phone is screen number three. However, those in Hollywood like Robert Redford and the Sundance Film Festival say that the cell phone is screen number four. They consider TV to be a screen, computers to be a screen, and then, movie screens in a theatre to be a screen. And then the cell phone would be screen four. But really who cares? I just want to watch my YouTube and AtomFilm's videos on my cell phone.

 FYI - check out the Sundance video for cell phone contest winners

Yes, we like to watch videos and TV. But more important to us here at Internet Video Magazine, we like to make movies!

Check out the latest video phones.

The new Nokia N95 is a great example.

You can create VGA quality video at up to 30 fps. It comes with enough memory to capture about 100 minutes of video.  It also allows you to directly and easily find and download videos from YouTube to your mobile handset. Even cooler, you can easily upload videos from the handset to YouTube. Shoot em and post em…. By the way, it also comes with 5-mega pixel still camera for capturing high res images.

Is it a phone with a TV camera attached? Is it a camcorder with a phone built in? These two technologies, video and telecom, along with associated technologies like MP3 players, high resolution still image capture, built in radios and GPS, television receivers, 2 way live videoconferencing and game players, are all converging and merging. Even better, they are shipping with a lot more memory which means you can capture bigger and longer video files. 

No longer crappy little video cameras, the next generation of camcorder phones look pretty darn good – well, at least for video captured on a small phone. It might not be good enough to burn back to tape or to show full screen on your projection TV set, but for web use and for email sharing, it works just fine.  

Here’s the link at YouTube for directly uploading your videos - http://www.youtube.com/mobile 

The Telecom Network Challenge 

As the handsets become more and more powerful, they might be putting too much of a strain on the network itself. Many of use have gotten used to poor cell phone reception and dropped calls. With some of the new applications, like uploading big video and image files, a temporary glitch in the network is not a big deal. However, for real time video applications like watching live television or participating in two-way video conferencing, losing signal for a few moments or a minute could be quite upsetting.   

Similarly, users of real time applications like GPS based mapping and directions, and interactive gaming will also be up in arms if the connection fails. Because of this, the entire network architecture maintained by the service providers and carriers is starting to evolve – new equipment and software platforms are arcing that will provide what is known as five nines of quality – 99.99 per cent up and working). This translates to less than 2 minutes of down time per year.  

Companies like Enea, Emerson Network Power and others are working with the large telecom equipment manufacturers to create a new generation of telecom networks that can provide up to seven nines of quality – because end users like you and me will not stand for bad connections and poor quality. If our television connection dies just as our favorite team scores its winning goal, or while playing an interactive online game, our movies disappear into the ether, we are going to transfer to a different service provider with a better record of connectivity. 

New Killer Applications for cell phones 

Hopefully, the enhanced network can support many of these existing applications as well as many new and merging applications that will be of value to the cell phone user. A couple spring to my mind immediately. For example, an enhanced GPS based application tied into local maps and crime statistics that can tell you where not to walk in Barcelona by displaying a screen of high crime areas. Or maybe even more likely, a GPS based application hooked into real time airport info at your destination that tells you where your gate is and helps guide you to it, as well as providing accurate in formation about your flights delays and whether your plane is really boarding is not? Has your plane even arrived at the gate yet? 

Let me tell you, I’d pay a few bucks extra for those applications even if I never used my phone as a camcorder or television player.

 Comments?

You want this camcorder.  SONY's new HDV 1080i HIGH-DEF CAMCORDER is perfect for the prosumer videomaker on the go.

It is the world’s first 1080i HDV High-Def Camcorder With Three-Chip ClearVID CMOS Sensor Technology. The HDR-FX7 camcorder has a smooth slow record function. With its three sensors, the HDR-FX7 model can capture a six-second burst of video and play it back in 24 seconds as slow motion video. The model’s dual record function allows users to capture 1.2-megapixel still images and shoot video simultaneously, with the press of a button.  more

Big Stories for Small Screens - The GSM Association announced its partnership with Robert Redford's Sundance Institute to commission a series of short films from leading independent filmmakers that will be shown exclusively on mobile handsets. View now

"Photoshop Elements 5 for Dummies" is packed with tips and tricks for creating dazzling images. It will show you how to use layers to create exciting nee images, as well as how to change backgrounds, fix flaws, and artistically enhance photos. more

Video News Online
Maximizing the Audience
Online video has undergone a quiet revolution in the last two years. With the emergence of YouTube (as well as its competitors and imitators) and improvements in the way that video can be embedded in a Web page, online users are seeing video in new places and new applications.
Barry Parr - News & Information

How to Put your Videos Up On YouTube - YouTube is currently the world's most popular video upload site and gets about 65,000 or more videos a day submitted to them.  YouTube says that their videos account for 60 percent of all videos watched online and that their visitors spend an average of 17 minutes per session on the site. According to Nielsen NetRatings, YouTube has nearly 20M unique users per month.

Best Internet Videos of the Week

Best Video Web Sites of the Week

Music Videos - Best Music Videos and the Best Music Web Sites

Press Releases and Product Announcements

Thank you being part of the Internet Video Magazine community. We have over 1600 members getting this newsletter. The site is now getting around 4,000 unique visitors a day. If you want to advertise your product or service, please contact us at advertising@internetvideomag.com

We always value your privacy and despise spam. If you don’t want to get this newsletter in your email inbox every again, please hit reply and put “Take Me Off” in the subject area.

Copyright 2007 SRS Productions