GridNetworks, a start-up from Seattle that is offering a new video streaming technology, has launched — and wants to steal some of the Venice Project’s thunder.
We downloaded the Grid player software, and are impressed. Check out this example of Little Miss Sunshine (you’ll have to download their software).
It aims to compete with the upcoming Venice Project, which is the company started by the Skype co-founders. Venice is supposed to launch in New York at the Television conference Thurs. or Friday. Venice Project is a peer-to-peer technology (hosted on a network of individual computers) for television viewing as simply as they did peer-to-peer for phones.
GridNetwork, for its part, says its video delivery platform delivers full-screen, DVD-quality video in a format that is better than the other guys out there. It may depend on what side of the table you’re sitting on, though. Grid says it will give media publishers full control, which we’ll explain below, to create their own version of YouTube. The Venice Project, while not out yet, but based on the reports dribbling out, puts more power in the hands of consumers, giving them their own version of YouTube, but for better quality videos.
Grid is a hybrid of peer-to-peer and content delivery network (CDN) technology — taking the best of both. Peer-to-peer is cheap but open to copyright abuse. GridNetworks uses computer nodes (peers) in the network, but places each of them in a distribution grid that delivers encrypted video via a centralized platform that allows it to keep the system legal. By using P2P, it avoids the cost of traditional CDN hardware.
The company has raised an angel round, and is run by an accomplished team led by Jeff Payne, who founded Real Broadcast Network in the mid-1990s. The team has the advantage of watching the likes of other delivery companies such as Kontiki, BitTorrent and Redswoosh (which has a similar hybrid CDN/P2P model), and have built in new technology to make delivery even smoother, Payne said. Grid has created a “Media Vault” feature that allows media companies to control their content delivery. It has built in redundant nodes, and compression technology, and supports both Flash and Windows Media players
It delivers a 1.2GB movie at a cost of 25 to 50 cents, which is pretty cheap.
Here is its statement on technology.
8 Comments
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cowboy said:
i think viviTV.com and tvkoo.com are much more impressive than other p2p solution, try the difference.
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Lee said:
The Venice Project will have a great deal of licensed content, rather than consumer generated stuff.
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Drew Robertson said:
You wrote “Peer-to-peer is cheap but open to copyright abuse”. Yes and no and yes. P2P “file sharing” is open to copyright abuse. However P2P “streaming” (used by TVkoo and Gridfold) need not threaten any copyright holder. Our policy at gridfold.com is to allow only content-owners to use our service. No pirates. No thieves. Besides the content buffers on the user’s machine for two minutes and then disappears into the ether. Full files are never downloaded.
As to the cheap part, P2P streaming is super cheap. So cheap that even obscure “left field” programming can be broadcast cost-effectively on the web.
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DON said:
What are you talking about I just tried viviTv.coma dn tvkoo.com and Reeltime and Gridnetwork’s player blows those two out of the water.
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SJ said:
Don, I think you dont fully appreciate the distinction between asynchronus and synchronus content. Gridnetworks is basically a form of filesharing using p2p. It wont be able to do real-time broadcasts. The other 2 are able to do so.
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Mike said:
I couldn’t agree more, DON. I tried and Reeltime and Gridnetworks is the best in the market place so far.
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Michael Gersh said:
Don, you must be confusing ReelTime.com in the U.S.A. with reeltime.tv from Australia. Reeltime.com is the exact same thing as GridNetworks, using the same player and delivery system.
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john said:
You should try jetcast.com. It’s live grid broadcasting at its best. It’s simple and there are a lot of channels and they are all free. They add new ones every day. It’s free for the broadcasters too. I guess that is why they are getting so many channels up. Try the Fight TV channel or StreetRacers channel.
3 Trackbacks
10:24 pm
GridNetworks « Technically Speaking said:
[...] GridNetworks is a Seattle startup that wants to take some thunder as well as some more of the huge video market. It aims to compete with the upcoming Venice Project, which is the company started by the Skype co-founders. Venice is supposed to launch in New York at the Television conference Thurs. or Friday. [...]
8:31 am
VentureBeat » GridNetworks, raises $9.5M to take on Joost, BitTorrent, others said:
[...] wrote about the company a year ago. It faces tough competition, but has its own technology that it says delivers high-quality video [...]
12:07 am
Roundup: File-sharing Pando gets funding, FCC may go after Comcast, Disney expects $1B from online » VentureBeat said:
[...] Cisco backs hi-definition streaming video company GridNetworks –Cisco participated in the Seattle company’s $9.5 million first round, part of the giant San Jose company’s effort to move into digital media to grow traffic on its infrastructure. GridNetworks competes against other content delivery networks, such as Akamai or Limelight, using a peer-to-peer client. We covered the company here. [...]