Reiter's Mobile TV Report

Qualcomm hosts free MediaFLO conference in Tokyo, March 19

Qualcomm MediaFLO will hold its second annual MediaFLO mobile television conference and exhibition at the Meiji Kinenkan in Tokyo on March 19, beginning at 2:30 p.m., according to the press release.  This is the first time this free event also will include exhibits. 

The release notes, “Japan is the home of two MediaFLO planning organizations led by KDDI and Softbank, two of the country's major wireless operators.”

The meeting will kick off with a brief introduction by Jun Yamada, the president of Qualcomm Japan, followed by a 40–minute presentation by Kamil Grajski, the president of the FLO Forum. 

Other presentations include: "For the mobile multimedia broadcasting service on VHF band in 2011," by Masahiko Yabuki, president of Mobile Media Planning and "Specified Ubiquitous Districts project in Shimane prefecture," by Mamoru Yano, executive officer of Media Scope. 

A reception and exhibition will begin at 5:30 p.m. with exhibits by Anritsu, Leader Electronics, Maspro Denkoh, Packet Video, Rohde & Schwarz, Roundbox/CTC and Qualcomm.

YouTube tells video blogger Sarah Meyers that live streaming video on the way

Video blogger Sarah Meyers of Pop17 has something of a scoop, I think, by getting Steve Chen, the one of the three founders and chief technology officer of YouTube, to briefly confirm that the video hosting service will offer live streaming videos in conjunction with Google (that owns YouTube, of course).

This isn’t a big surprise.  Frankly, it was inevitable.  Chen didn’t say much, and I don’t know if YouTube will facilitate live video streaming via cellular phones the way, for example, Qik, Flixwagon and ComVU, do.

YouTube has been busy enabling all the videos on its site to be viewed on cellular phones (see below).  The last I read, YouTube had encoded the majority of its videos, at least 75 percent, for phone viewing.

Panasonic promotes its Viera TV brand for new Viera P905i mobile TV phone

From “Boy Genius Report” I see that Panasonic is using its television brand, Viera, for a new mobile television phone, the Viera P905iTV.  Japan’s NTT DoCoMo has a section about the phone, in Japanese (see below).

The P905iTV features a 3.5–inch LCD with a resolution of 854 x 480 and an amazing contrast ratio of 4,000:1.  The phone includes a relatively poor resolution camera — two megapixels — but mobile TV is the big deal. 

Of course, don’t count on seeing this phone in the United States.  Cellular operators in the United States who moan about the lack of mobile TV subscribers should take a look at the quality available overseas and offer great mobile TV-centric handsets.  Hello Sprint, are you listening?  Naw, I don’t think you are.

Sony’s cellular branding

The Viera handset represents one of the relatively few times electronics companies are using their non-wireless brands for wireless products.  Sony previously began branding some of its phones with its “Bravia” TV moniker.

Sony also began capitalizing on its digital cameras’ popularity by branding Sony Ericsson camera-centric phones with the Cyber-shot name (see below).  Years ago, when I first started my camera phone weblog, I suggested that digital camera and cellular phone manufacturers should collaborate to offer camera phones with brands tied to digital cameras.

Except for Sony’s Cyber-shot, I don’t think we’ve seen any other camera manufacturer’s brand on a camera phone, but I could be mistaken.  However, in April 2005 Nokia began promoting its affiliation with Carl Zeiss for incorporating the German company’s lenses into camera phones.

BBC editor realizes pros, cons of Nokia N95 for videos, blogging

Darren Waters, technology editor for the BBC’s technology Web section, has spent a week testing the Nokia N95’s photo, video and text capabilities and is mostly impressed, he writes in the BBC News’ dot.life weblog.

Waters says, “The original aim was to use the phone to test the limits of what was possible with these devices and examine how the web can be used as a vehicle for delivering content more quickly to the blog.”

He likes the N95’s video quality — in good lighting conditions and when the handset is kept steady while recording.  I agree.  If you know what you’re doing — good lighting conditions, the correct settings and not shaking the phone, the videos are good enough not just for consumers but also for broadcasting on television.

Waters also likes the application Shozu for easily transmitting photos and videos to multiple weblogs and video sites as well as the BBC’s ftp servers.  Shozu has generated quite a following for its ease of use.

The value for breaking news

Waters writes, “The ability to file to a third party website, like Blip.TV, means we can get video from the phone and on the blog often within 30 minutes.  It's not always the case that we will need that sort of speed but having the option gives us more flexibility.

“I can also envisage a time when for breaking news purposes the ability to shoot video and deliver it back to the BBC quickly and in reasonable quality -- without the use of a satellite connection -- is very useful indeed.  I have resolved to always have this equipment with me.”

Well, duh.  This is a no-brainer.  I’ve been writing for years that every journalist, especially every broadcaster, should carry a good video-enabled camera phone — and the N95 is one of the best. 

Instant broadcasting

Again and again I write that the future of journalism (I have an M.S. in Journalism with a major in broadcasting) is the ability to instantaneously transmit video and photos — and the camera phone is the key.

Waters is also pleased that most people aren’t concerned by his using a camera phone to shoot video.  “I had expected people to be horrified but in fact most people were extremely receptive and many were impressed by the novelty.”

Today it’s a novelty that’s mostly the province of early adopters using such real-time mobile video blogging platforms as Qik and Flixwagon.  Tomorrow — perhaps by 2010 or 2012, if journalists and their editors aren’t too prehistoric to understand the value — live streaming camera phone videos will be common.

Poor audio quality

Waters is dead on when he complains about the N95’s poor audio quality.  As he notes, the handset’s microphone is designed for making phone calls, not for picking up voices in videos.

The BBC had asked Nokia to provide a a special adapter for a commercial-quality external microphone, but the handset manufacturer wasn’t able to comply within the time required.  To be fair, Nokia has developed such an adapter that it has given to Reuters as part of the “mobile journalism toolkit” (see below) that Reuters reporters are testing for camera phone videos, photos and text entry, as I’ve written.

So why doesn’t Nokia offer an adapter for an external mic for its video-centric Nseries phones?  This isn’t just a nice-to-have accessory; if your audio quality is awful, your video is often ruined.  Live streaming video blogger extraordinaire, Robert Scoble, often uses his N95 with Qik, but also often complains about the poor audio.

If Nokia really wants to market its new handsets, such as the just-introduced N96 (see below), as the ne plus ultra of today’s video recording phones — and it does! — why doesn’t the company offer a way to get excellent audio into videos?

NOTE:  Panera, the sandwich shop/bakery — of which I’m rather fond — is blocking me from accessing Robert’s Qik feeds via WiFi (see below).  In fact, it’s blocking me from accessing the entire Qik site.  The company doing the blocking is Sonic Wall.  I am not amused.

Fast Company.TV director Robert Scoble discusses value of real-time Qik comments

Robert Scoble, who recently joined Fast Company, discusses in the podcast “This Week in Tech” (TWIT) (see below) the value of being able to view user comments while video recording via Qik on his Nokia N95 camera phone.

Qik, that’s still in beta testing, enables specific camera phones to broadcast live streaming videos — a technology I believe will be revolutionary.  Robert has been a pioneer in this and has shot numerous videos with his Nokia N95, including a brief interview with me last year during a reception before the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment conference in San Francisco.

Robert discusses Qik about 4:40 minutes into the TWIT podcast.  He says one of the major advantages of using Qik is being able to view user comments on his phone’s screen at the same time he’s shooting the video.  I’ve viewed a variety of Robert’s Qik videos with technologists, journalists and others where he’s asked questions based on the questions he’s seen from people viewing the broadcast in real time on the Qik Web site.

Robert’s Fast Company.TV videos

Robert has joined a new venture at Fast Company, Fast Company.TV, and will be managing director.  He says during TWIT that he will be producing two video programs for Fast Company.TV, one where he uses a camera phone and one with a traditional camcorder. 

I assume the latter will be filmed by Rocky Barbinaca, the cameraman with whom he worked when they were both at PodTech.

Nokia N96 camera phone to offer complete Flash video player

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Nokia introduced several cellular phones, including the N96 five megapixel camera phone (see below) that has the complete Flash video software package, not just Flash Lite as some cellular phones offer.

Nokia is following a trend I discussed in my latest weekly "Thinkernet" column for CMP's "Internet Evolution" Web site:  This year we'll see great browsers for cellular phones.

For example, as I wrote in my column, the Skyfire browser -- still in beta testing that's by invitation only -- is able to display Flash.  Skyfire promotes its browser as duplicating the desktop experience in a cellular browser.

The N96, that sports a 2.8-inch screen, also supports MPEG-4 and Windows Media Video and can record videos at 30 frames per second.  It comes standard with 16 GB of internal storage space and can accept an 8 GB microSD card.  In addition, certain models of the N96 will incorporate the DVB-H protocol for mobile television.

The phone includes a kickstand to facilitate watching videos (see below).  I wouldn't be surprised if more video-centric handsets included ways to them from falling over.

The handset will retail for about 555 euros ($800) when it's available in the third quarter of 2008.

Stowe Boyd suggests Bluetooth microphone to improve cellular video audio

At a great “pre-conference” dinner (all sorts of tapas [see below], several wines, main course, deserts) sponsored by Nokia for a group of bloggers (including me) before the start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, I heard an interesting suggestion that, if implemented, could significantly improve cellular videos.

Stowe Boyd, social networking consultant at /Messages [no, the slash isn’t a typo] suggested to Nokia that they offer a Bluetooth microphone that connects to Nokia camera phones for improving the audio of videos.  The audio quality of cellular videos is often poor because the only microphone is built into the handset, which is often held too far from the subject(s) to produce good audio.

A video with poor picture quality but good audio is much better than great picture quality but poor audio.

How about it, Nokia?

If Nokia sold a small Bluetooth microphone for its camera phone, the mic be attached to the interviewee’s shirt, blouse or jacket.  That would be a huge help in improving audio quality.

Another blogger, Alec Saunders, who is CEO of VoIP startup iotum, noted that he has a wired microphone for his Sony camcorder.  A microphone attached via a camera phone via a cable is a bit more awkward, but the sound could be noticeably better than via WiFi.

Great idea.  Nokia, are you interested?

My new business cards for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

As I previously wrote, I'm attending the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and I needed new business cards because some of my URLs had changed so I ordered cards from Streetcards in London.

The front (or back, depending on your view) has an illustration by Hugh MacLeod (see above). He's a marketing consultant and blogger who has generated quite a lot of attention from bloggers and techies for the cartoons he draws on the back of business cards, and he has turned his hobby into a business.

The back (or front!) of the card has my contact information reversed out in white on a red background (see below). MacLeod typically draws about technology and human relationships.  I wish he drew cartoons about mobile communications, but the one I selected is appropriate -- much too appropriate <g> -- for me.

I paid extra for lamination, and the cards feel quite substantial and slick.  I like 'em.  I think they will go over well with the conference attendees I meet in Spain.

Heading to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Saturday

I'm heading to the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona (see below) on Saturday, arriving on Sunday.

I've been to Spain several times and to Barcelona twice, but never for the MWC.  In 2006 some 50,000 people attended the show, that used to be in held in Cannes.

I'm going as a guest of Nokia, through its "blogger relations program," and expect to receive a couple of great new toys -- that I certainly intend to put to good use during the conference.  I'm especially interested in attending panel discussions and exhibits about multimedia products and services, such as, duh, mobile television and mobile videos as well as camera phones for live streaming and.

Assuming I can get some good wireless data connections (hopefully free or Boingo-affiliated WiFi hotspots) I'm going to try some live streaming cellular videos.  Stay tuned next week.

Blogger, consultant, teacher Jeff Jarvis sees the light about live streaming cellular videos

Blogger, technology consultant and college teacher Jeff Jarvis sees the light about the value of taking videos with his Nokia N82 five megapixel camera phone as he discusses in a video interview with Andy Plesser of Beet.TV (see below).

Jarvis was one of a few dozen journalists and bloggers attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland who received an N82 from Reuters and Nokia.  He says in the interview that taking videos with the N82 changed his mind about the value of camera phone videos.

Jarvis says the cellular phone “fundamentally changes the architecture of news” because reports can be streamed live, rather than waiting for news organizations to post videos.  “This little device, I think, is a bigger deal than I thought….This really opened my eyes,” he says.

Welcome to the club of believers about the power of live streaming cellular video, Jeff.  The day is coming when any newsworthy event will be streamed live via cellular — often before professional journalists arrive — just as so many more camera phone photos and non-live videos are now taken by consumers.

Camera phones less intimidating

Jarvis also says people aren’t frightened by camera phones taking videos the way they can be intimidated by larger camcorders.  He shot many videos at the World Economic Forum, using his N82 as well as a small, portable and cheap camcorder, FlipVideo, that are posted on his “Buzz Machine” weblog.

One interview, using the N82, was with David Cameron, the Leader of the Conservative Party in the U.K. and a member of Parliament (see below).  Cameron discussed the Party’s Web videos; the Conservatives are posting a huge number of videos on their site.