AT&T Invests $70 Million in Content Delivery Network

It looks like the battle to deliver media into our homes just got kicked up a notch. According to a recent article at xchangemag.com, AT&T is once again trying to take over the world. According to the article:

AT&T has added new partners and invested $70 million for its content delivery network. The goal is to fuel development of services aimed at helping companies package and deliver web content to the TV, PC and mobile device.

AT&T's Digital Media Solutions suite already includes services for content distribution and management as well as broadcast video and digital signage. The telco has teamed with software firms ExtendMedia, Qumu and Stratacache, that format and package content for streaming video, live and on-demand webcasting and the delivery of advertising.

By yearend, AT&T will complete its $70 million global CDN network infrastructure investment. In the coming months, the telco says it will work with the new software partners to provide "one-stop shopping and simplified network-based solutions to encode, deliver, manage and support video and multimedia files."

No suprise AT&T is making the move. The battle for to deliver multimedia content to consumers is getting ready to heat up and that's great news for consumers.

At xchangemag.com

AT&T Press Release

Study Shows Home Media Streaming Growing But Not There Yet

Not that it is much of a surprise to anyone that follows this area of technology, but the mainstream has yet to catch onto media streaming. We have seen a lot of headway with products like AppleTV and the Slingbox, but still most people listen to their music either with CDs or with a MP3 player and watch their movies via DVD. People haven't caught onto the world of streaming media. This is mostly because there is yet that killer product. The iPod single handedly brought MP3s to the masses. MP3 players existed before the iPod, but it was only techie geeks for the most part that used them. Well the media streaming market is still waiting for their iPod. Sure AppleTV has done a good job, but it still isn't taking off like some expected it to. Maybe with the addition of movie rentals it will, we'll see. I think it comes down to two things: no one has yet made a simple, elegant easy to use media streamer that just works and two the media companies have made it very difficult for people to use their content how they like.

The rental market will have to go through some growing pains as it tries to figure out the best model to give to their customers. I think it is still going to take at least 3 more years for truly great products to become available. We came across a very cool study over at ehomeupgrade about the projected rise of the in home media server market. It basically says that it is growing fast, but it still isn't there yet. They also mention that in the next 3 years we should see very rapid growth in the adoption of these technologies. Check out after the jump for the full press release.

via ehomeupgrade

Continue reading: "Study Shows Home Media Streaming Growing But Not There Yet"

High-End Multi-room Entertainment Centers to Double in Five Years

We all saw this one coming, but it is nice to see it in print. Parks Associates' has a report out that says the adoption of high end entertainment systems is on the rise and we should see a big change in the types of systems that are deployed. In the past installers were only doing installations in new homes because of the wiring requirements, but now with wireless and powerline technology growing at such a rapid pace things are changing. People with old homes that would otherwise not be able to either afford it or it would take to much retro-fitting to make it worth their while are able to enjoy these multi-room media streaming systems.

So while today these types of systems are out of the reach of most of us, it looks like installers are coming up to speed on using all this new technology and will be able to install these systems in all types of houses much easier. We look forward to the next 5-10 years when going into someone's house and enjoying their whole home media setup will be no big deal, as common as DVD players are now. A beautiful future if you ask us. Check after the jump for the full press release.

via ehomeupgrade

Continue reading: "High-End Multi-room Entertainment Centers to Double in Five Years"