2009年:回顾的一年

即将到来的 2010流媒体行业资料手册—due out in 2月—devotes a number of 文章 to analyzing the 2009 streaming industry verticals, 从教育、企业到媒体 & 娱乐和移动.

Without stealing the thunder of any of those 文章, 哪个更具包容性, here's a brief set of highlights from key events that occurred in the past year. (And there's still time to get your copy of the 原始资料 by 注册免费订阅 to 流媒体 杂志.)

1月
This year started out with one of the largest live streaming events in history, which took place in the United States on 20 1月 as Barack Obama was sworn in as the U.S. 总统. 美国.S. 总统ial Inauguration live streams were viewed by a simultaneous number of worldwide viewers ranging from 10-12 million, with tens of millions more viewing the streams after the events.

2月
世界移动通信大会, 每年2月在巴塞罗那举行, was the first major mobile event at which handset manufacturers could respond to Apple's release of the iPhone 3G in mid-2008. 三星发布了Omnia HD, which was the first mobile handset capable of capturing 720p high-definition video, and other manufacturers also announced HD products as a way to differentiate from the iPhone, 缺少高清捕捉和回放功能.

Nokia and Adobe used MWC as a way to push expand full-featured Flash Players on mobile handsets, announcing a $10 million Open Screen Project fund as a way to jumpstart development of products using Adobe's Flash platform. With Nokia's sights set on competition from Apple and Google, the funds were geared toward developing applications that use Flash as the underlying technology.

“这是一种促进创造的努力, 应用程序的分发和营销,阿努普·穆拉卡说, director of partner development and technology strategy for Adobe's Platform Business Unit, noting the fund was geared "as a vehicle for grants, 它不是风投基金."

3月
Apple was quick to respond, however, with the 3月 announcement of its iPhone 3.0软件, which would eventually be coupled with a speedier iPhone capable of capturing standard-definition video, iPhone 3GS. 关于iPhone 3最大的流媒体新闻.0软件 was its ability to scale to stream HD content, once Apple hardware is capable of displaying 720p or 1080p resolutions (which may be announced in late 1月 2010, if rumors of an oversized iPhone "tablet" are founded). iPhone 3.0软件 also included the ability to use adaptive bitrate "chunks" or segmented files for HTTP streaming delivery.

4月
At the annual National Association of Broadcasters show, 每年四月在拉斯维加斯举行, Wowza Media debuted an interesting server product that was able to take H.264 video files and streams and convert them for playback on any of the big three adaptive bitrate streaming protocols (Adobe's Dynamic Streaming, iPhone的苹果自适应流媒体, 以及微软的平滑流媒体). Wowza's Media Server 2 Advanced unbundles the H.264 stream from a particular protocol "wrapper" and then transferred to a new protocol.

五月
流媒体 East 2009 was held in 五月 in New York City, and one of the most-talked about keynotes was from Akamai CEO Paul Sagan. 早期有线电视时代的资深人士, which parallel parts of the streaming industry's expansion and consolidation, Sagan talked about the HD "tipping point" that 2009 had ushered in. 几个月后, Sagan and Akamai Chief Scientist Tom Leighton announced the Akamai HD network, which will be used to deliver 720p HD Silverlight streams of the 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver.

6月
The transition from analog to digital TV service was delayed several months, 但最终发生在6月12日, when analog television signals ceased broadcasting. While many cable subscribers saw no difference, as over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts were already carried as part of cable's "must carry" rules, the transition was key for those in rural areas or who relied on OTA transmissions. While I may have been one of the few whose TV convertor box coupons did not work, many viewers were able to buy convertor boxes to allow their old analog televisions to receive digital TV signals.

The freed-up spectrum has now been segmented and a portion has been auctioned off, picked up by several wireless carriers for use in wireless and mobile broadband delivery as part of 4G networks, 也被称为长期演进(LTE). Unfortunately, as LTE is still several years off in the U.S. 和欧洲, and mobile handsets like the iPhone are quadrupling usage of current mobile broadband spectrum, the wireless industry is also clamoring to use a portion of the OTA digital TV spectrum, 2010年值得关注的关键领域是什么.