ibc 13 live streamingThis year’s Streaming Media East show was dominated by talk of the seemingly inevitable rise of HTML5 as well as the need to deliver video to multiple devices without having to encode for each individually. Other highlights — both on the exhibit floor and in the conference rooms at the New York Hilton this week — included the proliferation of over-the-top boxes and Internet-enabled game consoles and TVs, production and distribution techniques for live streaming, and the latest strategies for catering your video to mobile devices and tablets. However, with an entire track of the conference devoted to it, the topic that seemed to pique the most interest was HTML5.
As the latest proposed version of the language used to construct Web pages, many online-video producers see HTML5 as a true game-changer. However, the final specification, which could potentially allow programmers to stream and display video using just a few lines of code rather than proprietary plug-in–based video players, has yet to be fully fleshed out and remains in development. “At this point in time in terms of [video for HTML5], it’s time to call a vote. Decide what [the standard] is, and then everyone will follow it,” said MLB.com SVP Joe Inzerillo during an HTML5-focused panel that closed out the show. “Video has been the most hotly contested aspect [of the HTML5 specification]. If it can’t be a standard where you can do video in 15 different ways, then it’s never going to gain traction because everyone is going to be optimizing for different things. We have to just take a vote and stick with it.” Currently, a Mountain of Limitations
The current incarnation of the HTML5 specification remains extremely limited when it comes to video and is a far cry from the capabilities of proprietary video players like Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, which allow more-complex video experiences. However, Apple has refused to allow Flash on its iOS mobile operating system, which powers the rapidly growing iPhone and iPad devices, opening the door for HTML5 to forge ahead.
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