Future Of Online Entertainment

I was thinking while I was on a run yesterday…nothing to do but think hehe. I was thinking about how much bandwidth streaming video consumes. In my apartment complexes, streaming video easily eats 60% of the bandwidth during peak hours.

I’ve developed some QoS polocies(which I sell and install for a small fee) that maximize all of their traffics and thus we can squeeze a LOT more out of each Mb.

What this really got me thinking on was how much video has taken over the web. I know I have little patience anymore (I blame my beautiful wife and wonderful kids 😉 ), so being spoon fed video is excellent. I know I’ve gotten so jaded that I get annoyed if there aren’t enough visuals in the articles I read.

Most people are watching youtube, hulu and netflix. Which is great, but I’m pretty much done with that. I get too bored. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t want canned entertainment. I want something new, different and interactive. One of our random apartment users was talking to me about connectivity issues when he mentioned Justin.tv.

What is Justin.tv? It is a site that allows you to stream live video. It is similar to Ustream, though it is more community focused. You have the main video stream on the left and on the right you have a chat window scrolling that allows you to interact with other users as well as with the broadcaster himself.

There are lots of different casting styles. Some will play a movie while commenting. Some play video games while casting (which is my favorite). Still others “lifecast”, which is basically them doing everyday things while casting… equivalent to a live journal.

In addition to genres of casting there are casting styles. Some people have complicated setups where they green screen themselves into the lower corner of their casts, while some hang a bed sheet behind them.

Now to plug my favorite caster…MANvsGame. This is a 30 something guy named Jayson who plays games while casting. His sense of humor is strikingly similar to mine which means he is completely ridiculous. One must also exercise caution as he uses a plethora of profanity. One of my favorite aspects of his cast is that he is constantly interacting with the chat. He riffs and expounds upon what you put in the chat. So you have live and entertaining content with someone who actually interacts with you. It makes it feel like he is sitting on the couch next to you because he will actually interact. It’s a little odd at first, but quickly becomes engaging.

I’m addicted to the interactivity and it seems difficult to go back. So how many of you guys want to see me sitting on the couch configuring routers?