News Stories

Lifecasting P2P from Dyyno

1.9.2010

In a little booth in the corner of Central Hall, Dyyno, a venture-backed company in Palo Alto, was showing a live-streaming P2P application that allows anyone with a webcam to start streaming live to 1 or 100,000 people simultaneously at zero marginal cost.   The company’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution is built on technology developed at Stanford.  After first meeting Dyyno’s CEO, Raj Jaswa, at a CES dinner, I sat down to see their product today – it’s something to stop and think about.

Some showgoer streaming live on Dyyno

Some showgoer streaming live on Dyyno

According to Dyyno, “entities currently using the Dyyno platform include individuals, small and medium sized businesses, social, faith-based and other types of communities, and large business organizations that want to instantly broadcast live camcorder streams, videos, presentations, or any other rich media content from their desktop.”  And live streams can be saved for access later as VOD.

It works surprisingly well.  The image below is me being broadcast live at about 20 frames per second.  They claim to be able to broadcast 1080p content, though I doubt we’ll be seeing a lot of people trying to do that.

Dyyno also has a plug-in for WebEx that allows you to stream your video directly to your meeting guests.  We will see if they overcome all the inherent issues with firewalls and (especially corporate) P2P, and how they work to ensure legitimacy of the content being broadcast, but assuming they solve those issues, this will be something to watch – the next wave of user-generated content.

YouTube meets Reality TV…

Microvision makes cool, curved Polarized 3D Glasses

1.9.2010

Microvision has developed a line of curved-lens circular polarized glasses for theater and home 3D viewing.  Their patented curved lens design greatly reduces the amount of reflected images from objects behind the wearer.  Reflected light from doors opening or people walking behind the wearer can be very distracting.

The curved lens also makes them look cool (check them out here).

glasses_1Microvision is currently showing seven styles with five frame colors for each style, including custom frames in ‘Avatar blue’ given out at the movie’s premiere events.  They will soon offer clip-on polarized glasses as well as glasses designed specifically to go over corrective glasses.  In three months they plan to release circular polarized lenses that can be processed for prescription optics.

The glasses are manufactured in Maritius in a plant that complies with the studios’ labor and environment guidelines.  The MSRP is $40.

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Specification for Naming VFX Image Sequences Released

ETC’s VFX Working Group has published a specification for best practices naming image sequences such as plates and comps. File naming is an essential tool for organizing the multitude of frames that are inputs and outputs from the VFX process. Prior to the publication of this specification, each organization had its own naming scheme, requiring custom processes for each partner, which often resulted in confusion and miscommunication.

The new ETC@USC specification focuses primarily on sequences of individual images. The initial use case was VFX plates, typically delivered as OpenEXR or DPX files. However, the team soon realized that the same naming conventions can apply to virtually any image sequence. Consequently, the specification was written to handle a wide array of assets and use cases.

To ensure all requirements are represented, the working group included over 2 dozen participants representing studios, VFX houses, tool creators, creatives and others.  The ETC@USC also worked closely with MovieLabs to ensure that the specification could be integrated as part of their 2030 Vision.

A key design criteria for this specification is compatibility with existing practices.  Chair of the VFX working group, Horst Sarubin of Universal Pictures, said: “Our studio is committed to being at the forefront of designing best industry practices to modernize and simplify workflows, and we believe this white paper succeeded in building a new foundation for tools to transfer files in the most efficient manner.”

This specification is compatible with other initiatives such as the Visual Effects Society (VES) Transfer Specifications. “We wanted to make it as seamless as possible for everyone to adopt this specification,” said working group co-chair and ETC@USC’s Erik Weaver. “To ensure all perspectives were represented we created a team of industry experts familiar with the handling of these materials and collaborated with a number of industry groups.”

“Collaboration between MovieLabs and important industry groups like the ETC is critical to implementing the 2030 Vision,” said Craig Seidel, SVP of MovieLabs. “This specification is a key step in defining the foundations for better software-defined workflows. We look forward to continued partnership with the ETC on implementing other critical elements of the 2030 Vision.”

The specification is available online for anyone to use.

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