Live Video Streaming
Steve Garfield talks about live video streaming from his mobile phone.
Good Morning Vietnam
As I rolled out of the airport on my way to downtown Hanoi, the rice paddies and lush green vegetation were familiar images from the past. Vietnam is peaceful and thriving these days, but as you get closer to downtown Hanoi, it is clear there is a new war going on – and the weapon of choice is mobile phones. Vietnam has a population of nearly 90 million, and while 75% still live in rural areas, the country has more than 80 million mobile phone subscribers, with many people holding multiple numbers. Eight service providers are battling for the hearts and wallets of the people of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The rural areas are largely untapped, which means that many city dwellers have multiple phones and subscriptions.
A throng of motorcycles and bicycles choke the bustling streets of Hanoi, and the drivers have one hand on the handlebar, and the other on a mobile phone pressed to their ears. While these drivers are making voice calls as they drive, Vietnam, like India and the Philippines is dominated by non- voice traffic, particularly SMS. This is why the next battleground in Vietnam revolves around the imminent launch of 3G Value Added Services, as it will be a natural for consumers to migrate from text to multimedia services.
Multimedia services such as live TV, portal access, video ringback tones, video blogging, and video surveillance will be rolled out over the next 6 months initially in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang, and then nationwide. Smartphone and netbook vendors as well as VAS providers are elbowing for position, as Vietnam is one of the top 15 most populous countries in the world. While inflation has recently become a problem and slowed the high growth rates of the last few years, the outlook remains strong and growth is still projected at 5%+ this year.
In Vietnam, the government controls the service providers and has granted four 3G licenses: Mobifone (mostly state owned by Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corporation), Viettel (run by the military), Vinaphone (which will be the first to launch and is also state owned), and a joint venture between Hanoi Telecom and Electricity Vietnam Telecom. Expect fierce competition between these four operators as they compete to hold existing subscribers and capture new ones through the offering of a range of multimedia services at very competitive prices. Subscriber growth is booming, but ARPU continues to drop sharply. Vietnam is poised to become one of the largest mobile markets in Asia, as well as one of the most innovative.
Global and Local Market Trends
When people talk about the latest market trends with regards to multimedia, they often speak in terms of global or macro usage. One of the things that we have seen is that while there are broad changes and usage patterns for video services that are driven by devices, networks and applications, most of the real news comes from individual markets.
From a global perspective, we can look at the increasing number of 3G subscribers and especially relative to the total number of mobile customers. The percentage of 3G subscribers is almost reaching 20% which is the point where people start to say there is a tipping point. New smartphones from iPhone to G1 to RIM’s Blackberry are showing people how easy it is to access quality video on a daily basis. Prices for these services are generally falling and all-you-can-eat pricing plans are making multimedia more accessible to the masses. New codecs such as H.264 are providing a near-HD experience which helps to promote increased usage.
Then we have the local markets driving local services. It’s easy to point to India and China where more than a billion people will eventually have access to next-generation mobile broadband, and their networks are being built out now – but these services are yet to be launched – though there are high hopes. We see very specific applications tailored to a country in markets such as the Middle East and in South East Asia. There are also cultural norms that have be followed – including the allowance of adult services in Western and Northern Europe (UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria for example), which would obviously not be permissible in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Bahrain.
What do you think and see? Which markets are truly leading this revolution? How much do global trends apply to local markets?
Video Conviction
I’m blasted daily with mega-numbers for the kazillion apps downloaded and new, improved ways to deliver TV to every screen on the planet. But, I want to focus on a niche, Emergency Video.
Grab your mobile, close your eyes and tune in to that ‘feel-good, give-back’ little voice in your head. It’s coming from your 3G video-enabled handset. Alas, it’s faint, but there. Your handset longs to be a hero if only for a day. That shiny red rectangle would much rather be risking it all in the grimy hands of an emergency first-responder than buried in your purse or hanging off a bulging size 44 belt. It dreams of being thrust right up front, streaming life-saving footage (do we still use that term) to medics and police. So small with such a noble cause.
Yes, I’m shouting out that video has purpose! Humanitarian purpose when pointed at the right thing… and backed up by infrastructure that puts technology to ‘good’ use. None of that silly UGC for me and my handset.
There are projects under discussion to bring real-time mobile video into 999/911 response centers. Put video in 911 systems and E-911 operators can service a much wider array of people in distress. The injured, deaf mutes or victims in unfolding criminal events can’t always afford or manage to utter a peep but they may can use video!
Look what’s going on over at Google’s Project 10100 with Emergency Video ( http://sites.google.com/site/emergencyvideo/). The idea is to get video in emergency response centers. (Google’s project 10100 home: http://www.project10tothe100.com )
Video medicine is growing, putting mobile video in the paramedics hands giving the emergency room a better, faster, preview of what’s on the scene.
Emergency Video is coming. It all depends on getting a critical mass of mobile video handsets out there. Then government will step up and plug in.
Government Value Added Services application? Sure, they already do it in law enforcement and surveillance but Emergency Video catches people at their most sensitive and sometimes final moments hanging between life and death. That could spark a little debate over privacy. But, it’s going to be a mute point when it serves humankind – and precedent is set since its already in law enforcement vehicles. Or how about rights for the disabled? Will human rights groups pick up the charge for putting video in the emergency centers like they did for equal access?
While Emergency Video can never be called a KILLER app (intentional cheap shot) in this industry, it can catch one. That’s a ‘video conviction’.
Dr. Marwan Jabri – video interview
Dr. Marwan Jabri interview with TMCnet at CTIA2009