Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the founders of Skype, are set to launch a global broadband television service in 2007, promising viewers, content owners, advertisers the best of the internet coupled with the best of TV. The project is The Venice Project.
The project is a type of IPTV where a digital television service is delivered using the Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure. The advantages of IPTV include interactive and personalized service, video-on-demand (VOD) and convergence of ICT services.
Traditionally, there are two main hurdles for IPTV - bandwidth and content protection. Friis and Zennstrom believe they have pretty good answer to these problems.
IPTV is very sensitive to packet loss and delays. The bandwidth demand for IPTV is a huge leap as compared to VOIP. On average, Skype only uses 3-16 kbps while IPTV starts with hundreds of kbps. However, Friis believes that the bandwidth available to the general household has reached a point where IPTV is ready for the prime time.
Continue reading ‘Skype Founders to Capitalize on Online Video’
Jaxtr is a social communications company based in Palo Alto, CA. The company was founded in October 2005 by Phillip Mobin and Touraj Parang to bring voice to social networks and blogs. Jaxtr expects to earn revenue from power users, advertising and enhanced calling features.
The main product of the startup - Jaxtr delivered in the form of widget popularized by YouTube, enables all level of online users to leave a contact number online without worrying about privacy. Jaxtr will do the rest to keep your existing phone numbers private. The widget can be added to social networks like MySpace, a blog in Blogger or even as an email signature.
When another online user clicks on the widget, enters her phone number and then her phone rings. Jaxtr will setup the call to the online user that registers the widget. Both parties talk over normal phone and not a headset attached to your PC’s sound card.