Project Rethink

Have you heard about Move Networks?  Chances are good you haven’t, but chances are even better you have used their product. ABC started using Move Networks to handle their on demand video streaming service last year; FOX, CBS, and many others followed suit.  But what are the advantages of Move Networks?  Why does it deserve the title TV 2.0?

On Demand

There’s no doubt that as the Internet grows in popularity, so does On Demand service. The problems are not with the ideas or the media, but with their implementation.  The worst bottleneck in On Demand service is client side; bandwidth, system resources, etc.  High quality multimedia is out there, but often crippled to address the majority population, or full force to address only high bandwidth customers.

The nature of this blog is to find innovative solutions, and Move Networks has done just that. Move Networks has developed a product that lets anyone watch what they want when they want it with minimal effort from both the user and publisher–that is TV 2.0.

They are not using Adobe’s Flash Media Server, Apple’s Quicktime Streaming, or even Microsoft Silverlight. Move Networks is using standard HTTP requests over multiple TCP sessions between the client and the Web server.  In layman’s terms, you don’t need a special license–just a standard HTTP web server.

Making it easy to do more with less?  Absolutely.  The Move Networks streaming service removes the ambiguity of variable bitrate media files, or third-party streaming technologies and media servers.  With less effort from all parties involved you can deliver the most optimized media.  If your bandwidth conditions change, real time dynamic streaming prevents the “buffering” screen.

Move Networks’ technology divides the video content into smaller files called “streamlets” which are delivered continuously as the viewer watches content. Because streamlet delivery stays just ahead of the video display, you don’t have to pay for content delivered that might not be watched, such as when a viewer exits a video stream early.  No wasted bandwidth, no wasted time for the user.

– Move Networks

Bottom Line

How can you provide the best experience to your users?  Move Networks created a system that optimized the media experience to the user without the need for any additional services. Everything happens behind the scenes, and everyone is better off for it.  

Talk about rethinking the box, this is a perfect case where people stepped back and really looked at the problem:

http://hardknoxlife.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/lessons-of-the-square-watermelon/

This article also has some good truths about steps to innovation:

1. Don’t Assume
2. Question Habits
3. Be Creative
4. Look for a better way
5. Impossibilities often aren’t

More-Less-Easy

True innovation makes it easier to to more with less. Remember these words when you are approaching your next problem. First figure out what you are trying to do, then step back and make sure you are not “stuck in a box”.

Are you doing things now because that’s the way you’ve always done them? Because you don’t know how to do it another way? Because there isn’t a better way?

There is always a better way, sometimes it just hasn’t been invented yet.

A couple of years ago I was walking to a coffee shop using my iPod.  I turned it on in my pocket and it blared in my ears.  I instinctively turned it down with a quick circular motion of my thumb (iPod still in my pocket).  I cycled through a few songs before I realized the current playlist failed capture my interest, so I pulled my iPod out of my pocket and changed from “Acoustic” to “Alternative” (The sounds of U2, Coldplay, and Radiohead where the perfect backdrop to a cold February morning).

After I changed my playlist I stared at my iPod realizing I had just accomplished something remarkable.  I just filtered through 3,000+ songs to find the perfect sound track for my short walk to the coffee shop.  What amazed me even further was how complacent I had grown to the task; I expected it to be easy, and it was.  

Not only was my iPod incredibly simple, but it was incredibly powerful.  It had everything I needed with nothing left over.  No superfluous feature that 5% of a user group just had to have.  The iPod innovated my music experience.

John Maeda in “The Laws of Simplicity” said:

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.” 

The iPod epitomized that concept.  Everything I needed was at my fingertips.  Everything I didn’t need was hidden or simply not present. More importantly however, the iPod was intuitive.  I was able to operate it instinctively when it was too loud and by touch when I wanted to change songs; every button had a function, nothing was wasted.   

I expanded my understanding of Maeda’s statement when I realized that it was easy to design a product with minimal controls but extremely difficult to design a product with minimal controls that makes the user feel uninhibited.

Innovative products remove the obvious and add the meaningful without being complicated.