Appleís New QuickTime TV Technology Raises Video Streaming Quality
Apple Computer has introduced QuickTime TV, a cross Mac/PC platform broadcast architecture designed to dramatically increase the quality level of streaming video to personal computers. Steve Jobs, Appleís interim CEO, said, ""QuickTime TV offers the best experience for watching video on the Internet."" QuickTime TV emulates a traditional television broadcasting system by combining four key components: a receiver, a transmitting station, a distribution network and content. The receiver is Appleís cross-platform QuickTime 4 Player running on a personal computer and the broadcast station is QuickTime Streaming Server software. ""QuickTime TV is the first killer network on the Internet,"" Jobs said. ""Viewers are going to experience high-quality video and audio over the Internet for the first time."" Apple has licensed Sorenson Vision compression technology, a recognized leader in quality imagery and has formed a new partnership with Akamai Technologies to add QuickTime TV support to its broadcast network of more than 900 servers in 15 countries, including customers such as CNN, GO Network and Yahoo! The Akamai network provides for redundant server operations for instant backup if any one server goes down and rebroadcasts program content from a server located close to the PC user. Appleís business model differs from its competitors RealNetworks and Microsoft in that Appleís QuickTime 4 is an open streaming protocol with no server tax. The QuickTime TV streaming server is being ""given away"" with the Mac OS X Server operating system and Appleís Darwin open source initiative. The open source initiative enables anyone to download and modify the source code as long as modifications are made public to other users. With no server fees and open source coding Apple is making it very easy for people to get into streaming video using its technology. Apple has announced a new lineup of content providers who support the technology. The QuickTime TV broadcasters include ABC News, Disney, ESPM, Fox News and Sports Online, National Public Radio, VH1, the Knitting Factory, RollingStone.com, Virgin Radio, BBC World, Bloomberg, HBO, WGBH Boston and The Weather Channel. Beyond serving large corporate mass media outlets, Apple wants small organizations and individual users to adopt QuickTime TV for broadcasting personalized content. Perhaps a new breed of videomakers will be encouraged and new long-form projects ala ""The Blair Witch Project"" will soon be streamed into the household. Itís this potentially lucrative future for broadband streaming media technology thatís driving the intensive race between Apple, Microsoft and RealNetworks to dominate the market. A free, downloadable QuickTime player is available for Macintosh and Windows users from www.apple.com/quicktime. It provides one-click access to QuickTime TV channels, as well as the ability to bookmark content from anywhere on the Internet.