Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 30, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Video-streaming services on the web are becoming increasingly popular, not least thanks to the rapid spread of broadband internet access. To enable people without such fast access to enjoy high-quality online video, British provider FilmOn has now introduced a new technical process. “We have developed a technology called ‘HDi’ that is capable of revolutionizing transmission technology in general,” Alki David, founder of the video-streaming site, tells Times Online. The transmission system uses a cloud-computing approach in which a cluster of several web-based computers compresses the large volumes of HD video data to a level that slower internet connections can process without difficulty.
“The FilmOn Network Operation Centre uses cloud-computing technology similar to that employed by CERN and government agencies,” software developer Richard Crosby, who helped build the network system, told the BBC. He and his team had already spent around 15 years implementing the new transmission method. “Instead of concentrating processing power on a single server, the FilmOn system distributes it across the globe,” Crosby explains. In this way, streaming content—including HD material—can be compressed very efficiently and made usable on slower internet connections. “Initially, only a few servers are deployed at specific locations. As user demand rises, fresh computing clusters are added,” Crosby says.
“The way people consume films is changing. In the past, people had to dress up and go to the cinema; today, they stay at home in front of their large-screen televisions and internet-connected computers,” FilmOn founder David observes. The only problem is that the broadband access required for high-quality video content is not available everywhere. Slower internet connections frequently suffer unwelcome interruptions during video-stream playback, especially with larger HD movie files, negatively affecting playback or making it entirely impossible. The newly introduced cluster system is intended to make this problem a thing of the past. “We want to create the next natural evolutionary step toward high-quality transmission technology for streaming content,” says David.
The developed transmission system is currently used exclusively to broadcast FilmOn content. According to David, the “virtual cable-TV service” will soon be available not only on computers but also on conventional televisions through a special set-top box and later even on mobile phones. The future will show how the new development progresses. A presentation of the technology to British telecommunications company British Telecom is planned no later than spring 2009.
