Comments on: Q&A with Livestation CEO Matteo Berlucchi

By: Microsoft Builds CDN to Handle Massive Online Video Growth

Microsoft Builds CDN to Handle Massive Online Video Growth — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:16:42 +0000

[...] were talking abut delivering cricket match results, and not online video. However, Redmond has been experimenting with P2P video delivery before, and it’s own researchers have found P2P to be a viable solution for VoD. I personally [...]

By: deadstation

deadstation — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:43:35 +0000

"Why not Livestation to watch/listen to what’s happening around the world?"

Because you can get the same stuff on Zipityzap. And no download required.

By: Dave Jones

Dave Jones — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:30:27 +0000

Thanks Matteo… as I said no successful media P2P plays (reason there is no compelling argument to download the player skype = free calls).. good luck, tough market but you never know someone might crack it if they have compelling enough media & or service……

By: jessie

jessie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:35:04 +0000

im in baltimore and i cant get bbc world news on livestation WHY???

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:48:28 +0000

Matteo - Aside from the 8 or so partners you are working with, you completely stealing content by asking users to "add" streams of broadcasters without their permission, and displaying their content out of context inside a Media Player on your own site.

It's an entirely inappropriate use of an Akamai/other CDN reflector.

It makes you no different than any of the other sites out there that are pirating that content without permission.

Other companies are paying bandwith bills and using display advertising next to their streams to support them - and you are using their bandwidth to put the streams on your site without the accompanying advertising.

Putting it off to your users to do the dirty work (by having them add the streams) isn't legally defensible either.

Stay classy and develop a killer application broadcasters can't say no to and you've got a win, and stop using other people content and bandwidth to make your service look better than it is today.

Mark

By: John

John — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:45:56 +0000

just have to say i was shocked to hear they were the number 2 download. but when i went to apple.com i was as equally shocked that 'Solar System Icons" was the number 6 most downloaded item.

this begs the question: are apple.com downloads the best measure of the live event online viewing demographic? not trying to imply anything-- just asking the question.

By: Steve Garfield

Steve Garfield — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:56:04 +0000

Wow. Easy install on my Macbook Pro. Turned on France 24 and the first show is about a woman who shared everything about her life and the B-Roll includes nude shots. France 24 on Livestation is a cross between CNN and Naked News. Ha. Actually France 24 looks like a great channel.

By: Matteo

Matteo — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:40:46 +0000

Dave,

that's true mostly in the past. We do live, not on demand, and as such we don't need to steal anything. Live P2P simply utilizes some of the spare upstream capacity of people who are watching the same stream, at the same time. The concurrency - which btw is the biggest challange from a technical point of view - means that only those who are watching something are participating in the uploading (of live data). The moment you stop watching, no more data is shipped anywhere. Live P2P is all about forwarding, not storing.

On using CDNs, I am afraid everyone will have to carry on using them as a safety net/backbone as P2P is unpredictable by definition ("Who's going to be online watching this stream right now?"). The CDN is a safe and reliable starting point.

One successful non stealing P2P service is Skype, not quite media, but using P2P in the same way we do. Can't talk about the others though ;-)

By: Dave Jones

Dave Jones — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:21:09 +0000

These guys use a CDN for their service and cannot scale without one. P2P is a play for stealing content and does not work for commercial organizations. Name 1 successful (non stealing) P2P Media service...