LAS VEGAS, COMDEX – POPcast, founded in 1997 by veteran live-event streaming media service provider ITVnet, pioneered the personal broadcasting revolution as the first service provider to offer branded turnkey solutions over a secure, global network optimized for person-to-person video messaging and live personal broadcasting.
Through partnerships and a collaborative effort with MGI, rapidly growing POPcast Communications Corp. will provide MGI VideoWave 4 users with the ability to easily post and publish their videos and productions on the Web. Users will have access to free basic services and premium advanced services.
The announcement was made at the COMDEX/Fall 2000 event, which began on Monday in Las Vegas and continues through Friday, Nov. 17. Both POPcast and MGI are operating show exhibits within the Intel Pentium Pavilion, located at Booth 6135.
The resulting new site, which launches on Wednesday, November 15, at http://share.videowave.com, allows the publishing and posting of video clips which can then be streamed to friends, family, and colleagues. MGI is providing access to online video sharing as part of the video editing workflow in VideoWave 4, while POPcast is providing the back-end technology to facilitate management, hosting and on-demand streaming of posted video content.
“MGI continues to offer our users the latest in consumer video editing technologies and services by aligning with industry leaders such as POPcast,” said Ihor Petelycky, General Manager, Video Products, MGI. “Demand for these services is growing, and we are very excited to be able to offer our users a consistent, secure and reliable personal broadcasting service through POPcast.”
“As these enabling technologies become more available and affordable, people will produce more content, and they will naturally seek out services that will allow them to share this content in innovative and cost-effective ways,” said William Mutual, chairman and founder of POPcast. “We are happy to be selected by MGI, an industry leading software enabler, to offer such a compelling personal broadcasting service customized for MGI VideoWave 4 users.”
Growth is expected in online video-sharing, similar to the growth that was observed in the area of online photo-sharing in the past year. The foundation for this growth already exists: according to PC Data’s “Home
PC Portrait” survey, an estimated 57.2% of Internet users already watch
video clips, and 7.3% actually edit video clips on their PCs. But it
is the enabling hardware and software technologies that will facilitate
the popularization of video-sharing on the Web. InfoTrends Research
Group’s “Internet-Driven Imaging Opportunities” report suggests that the
year 2000 will see over 7 million retail and PC camera (webcam) unit
shipments, with that number increasing to over 26 million in 2002.
In its “Internet Household End User Survey Report” released in May 2000,
InfoTrends Research Group found that 44% of online US households have a
camcorder to capture video, and that 4.9% already have a digital
camcorder. According to a February 2000 Forrester Research report,
“Personal Rich Media Takes Off”, DV camcorders will become commodity
items by Christmas 2001 when prices fall as low as $499.
