Vertical Markets Pave The Way
One of the more interesting streaming media applications, informational centers or kiosks, is now gaining more strength within industry segments. By placing TV screens fed by data content via satellite in commercial outlets, waiting rooms or airports, companies are able to target core consumer groups, showcasing product advertisements, product information and video clips. The advantage satellite technology brings to this application is that only one distribution point is needed to reach as few or as many sites as needed--saving both money and time.
One of the main problems regarding kiosk technology, however, centers on streamlining the delivery process of that content while maintaining cost-effectiveness and quality. "There is a growing demand for such services. In fact, we are currently seeing an increase in our international business," says Joe Amor, vice president and general manager of Microspace Communications Corp. "We believe that satellite delivery of content to the kiosk industry will finally help this market grow to its full potential." Microspace currently serves various markets such as the aviation and entertainment industries. Other applications where streaming content via satellite bodes well include real time database distribution, product catalogs, financial information and e-learning programs.
"What we are seeing more of now in terms of streaming are the corporate type of environments, when you are taking off-air broadcasts and then sending that over IP through the corporate network," says Howard Barouxis, national sales manager for Thales Broadcast and Multimedia. "Other key markets that are starting to need more enhanced streaming capabilities are the hospitality industries and universities."
In fact, the International Space University (ISU), headquartered in Strasbourg, France, was seeking to enhance the education process of its institution in 2002 and ultimately turned to streaming media technology to accomplish its goals. Specifically, the university wanted to better enable educators to illustrate their lectures with relevant high- quality video programs. The ISU wanted a system that would offer "on-demand," archived or even live satellite feeds to each classroom and at any time give students more current and compelling content throughout its 25 affiliated campuses. "The ISU was able to record and edit live satellite video content and professors could access the video files during lectures through a PC," Barouxis adds.
University professors were using Thales' Topaz DTV recorder and local encoders to compress MPEG 2 video and to send it through the IP network. Most classrooms were equipped with a PC running Thales' MPEG 2 software player, Eyestream. Through the university's backbone, which was multicast enabled, this solution facilitates more widespread distribution of coursework and related content.
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