December 20, 2007
Jacked Wins NBC Partnership; Reveals Funding.
Santa Monica-based Jacked will power the NBCSports.com Play Action for "Sunday Night Football" broadcasts. NBC will use Jacked's publishing platform, to provide statistics and other real-time content to the site which is used by fans who look at the site while watching corresponding games on TV.
Jacked further says that it has raised $6.5M from Provenance Ventures, Core Capital Partners, and Gabriel Venture Partners. Jacked is led by Bryan Biniak who is Managing Director of Provenance Ventures. Biniak was GM at American Greetings.
Jacked's software displays play-by-play information, player profiles, and other statistics and information in real time. Jacked trots out stats that the more than 102M US consumers watch TV while surfing the web simultaneously, Jacked analyzes live broadcasts to aggregate and deliver contextually relevant content to online users in real-time.
View - site
Jacked, Inc. and NBC Sports Launch TV SPORTSTOP™ for ''Sunday Night Football'' Broadcasts
“NBCSports.com Play Action” Provides SNF Fans with a Personal Sportscaster Powered by Jacked’s Real-Time Two-Screen Interactivity
SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jacked, Inc.™ (www.jacked.com), developer of a new Webtop publishing platform designed to operate with broadcast media, expanded its partnership with NBC Sports and NBCSports.com to power NBCSports.com Play Action for “Sunday Night Football” broadcasts. The service is an extension of the Jacked SPORTSTOP™ created for NBC Sports’ Notre Dame football broadcasts. Jacked’s TVTOP™ publishing platform is a market leading technology and product that brings the power of the web to television via a multi-patent platform that combines a proprietary rich Internet application with a library of media, statistics, information, commerce, communication, community and advertising widgets. The company, which secured $6.5 million in venture funding earlier this year, has filed ten patents on the unique approach, designed as a real-time dynamic complement to the television broadcast experience.
Embracing the more than 102 million U.S. consumers watching television and surfing the web simultaneously, Jacked analyzes live broadcasts to aggregate and deliver contextually relevant content to online users in real-time. NBCSports.com users will be able to access a customizable dashboard and suite of fully configurable widgets synchronized with the live NBC broadcast to have an immersive viewing experience from anywhere in the world.
“With more than half of viewers using a PC or mobile device while watching TV, it’s clear that we don’t live inside the television box anymore,” said Bryan Biniak, CEO of Jacked. “Jacked is the perfect game companion, incorporating the abundance of content online to create a dynamic experience that’s relevant to what viewers are watching at that moment. This connection between the TV and PC is a powerful proposition that not only benefits consumers, but brands and networks alike because it keeps the viewers engaged. We are thrilled to launch our brand with NBCSports.com and look forward to providing 'Sunday Night Football' football fans with a viewing experience that will keep them coming back for more.”
“At NBCSports.com, we know that NFL fans are among the most demanding sports fans in the country,” said Perkins Miller, SVP Digital Media, NBC Sports & Olympics. “With this new offering from Jacked, they can have an even richer 'Sunday Night Football' experience with real-time scores and statistics, player bios and photos in sync with the broadcast, and the ability to chat with other NFL fans.”
Through the Jacked/NBC Sports partnership, viewers will be provided with an interactive companion to “Sunday Night Football” including fully configurable NFL dashboard with 19 unique widgets including real-time statistics and scores, in game photos from Getty Images and the Associated Press, Yahoo Flickr fan photos, player profiles, play-by-play, and chat. Jacked provides fans with complete control of their sporting experience with the convenience of everything on one page and the ability to customize and save their personalized dashboard for future games.
Through the Jacked experience, every football drive, every blocked pass, and every injury report is at consumers’ fingertips in real-time. Not just a football experience, Jacked plans to enable fans of all sports to “jack” into its enhanced networks, eventually moving beyond sports to embrace all of television. Jacked.com operates with broadcast media to combine the visual excitement of television with the limitless information available online in a single browser dashboard.
In addition to its deal with NBC Sports for “Sunday Night Football,” the Jacked SPORTSTOP on Jacked.com offers an immersive real-time broadcast companion for NBA, NFL and NCAA football games. Fans can look forward to support for NCAA Basketball and NHL games in the coming months.
This weekend, Redskins and Vikings fans can experience the Jacked SPORTSTOP on www.nbcsports.com/playction for Sunday Night Football at 8 p.m. EST when Washington takes on Minnesota at the Metrodome. On Sunday, Dec. 30, Jacked will be available for the faceoff between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets at 8:15 p.m. EST from Giants Stadium.
About Jacked, Inc.
Jacked™ is the developer of the first Webtop for broadcast media. The company’s initial product is the Jacked SPORTSTOP™, which provides sports fans with an immersive real-time broadcast companion. The SPORTSTOP is a unique browser-based virtual desktop that uses the company’s multi-patent technology allowing sports fans to customize and personalize their game experience according to their own tastes and interests through a dashboard of dynamic, content widgets, which they can add, delete, mix, match and resize. Jacked is a venture backed company with funding from Provenance Ventures, Core Capital Partners, and Gabriel Venture Partners. Jacked was founded in June 2006 and is based in Santa Monica, CA.
Posted at 02:52 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
September 19, 2007
Real's Stealth Startup Codling Building Another eHome System
Seattle's RealNetworks says in its extensive job placements descriptions that it has recently formed a new consumer media platform team code named “Codling.” They cast it is a "a game-changing home entertainment system." Codling team is being led by one of the founders of RealNetworks, Phil Barrett.
Barrett is running the Codling show
Posted at 08:42 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
September 16, 2007
China Digital TV Files $150M IPO
Beijing-based China Digital TV has filed to raise a IPO. China Digital TV plans to list its shares on the NYSE as "STV."The company says it had revenues last year of $41M and net income of $22M. China Digital TV develops software for pay TV platforms, and set-top boxes for digital TV subscribers.
View - site
Posted at 05:34 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
August 02, 2007
Stealth Mode TuneUp Media Raises VC Funding To Help You Manage Your Music Files
Gabe Adiv, who previously worked the biz dev levers at Gracenote, has a new startup in stealth mode called TuneUp Media, that he claims has raised VC funding, the a:c has learned from job postings (TuneUp also notes the VC funding on its home page without ellaboration). What problem will the startup address? Our digital music lives are too complex the company finds and needs a better system.
View - site
Posted at 11:15 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
June 18, 2007
Smart Sprinkler System Cyber-Rain Wins Funding
When we tell our grand kids that we used hoses to water our grass it will seem like the middle ages. For less than $300 Cyber-Rain will sell you a wireless controller for your sprinklers.
The product lets you:
+ Adjust the schedule based on the weather, humidity, temperature, and change of seasons.
+ Program your schedule from your PC with an easy to use interface.
+ Reduce your watering times in winter and fall and increases them automatically in spring and summer.
Cyber-rain today says that it has received a undisclosed amount of venture capital from Momentum Venture Management.
View - site
Posted at 05:33 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
May 25, 2007
Ultra High End Home Theater's Runco Bought For $37M
Planar Systems has acquired elite home theater display manufacturer Runco International for $36.7M in cash. Runco systems cost anywhere from $3K to $250K. The company sold a $220M in products last year .
View - site
Posted at 11:05 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
May 21, 2007
Chinese Interactive TV Content Startup C9 Media Seed Funded
C9 Media, which plans to produce interactive TV content for China, has raised a $750K in seed financing from Dragonvest Partners. C9 Media has partnered with a European supplier of participation TV, Ostrich Media, which says it operates the most successful participation TV model in Germany, Spain and the UK. Ostrich Media is a British company, best known as the owner of interactive quiz show Quiz Call. It has been purchased by iTouch, a provider of interactive television services.
The unfortunately named C9 Media has the same name as a Canadian producer of online porn.
Read - Dragonvest: C9 Media Inc Raises $0.75 Million in Preferred Seed Financing
Posted at 11:52 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
May 11, 2007
Amazon Grows A Startup In Cupertino - Lab126 - To Compete With iTunes?
Amazon is hiring up for a stealth startup in Cupertino that goes by Lab126. The startup says it is working on a "groundbreaking, highly integrated consumer product." So what do they have under their sleeve?
The start-up's President is Gregg Zehr who was VP of Hardware Engineering at palmOne, VP Engineering at VA Linux and VP PowerBook Engineering at Apple. Other staff come out of Apple and Palm. It seems that they are creating an iTunes competitor and one blogger speculates that they may even be creating an iPod competitor.
View - site
Posted at 07:49 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
May 03, 2007
Broadcom Buys Digital Home Chip Maker Ocatalica For $35M
Broadcom [Nasdaq:BRCM] has acquired Israeli start-up Octalica for $35M. Octalica sells semiconductors and software for the home multimedia networking market.
Octalica was founded in Israel 2001 and raised $10M in three financing rounds. The company’s investors include Cedar Fund as part of its pre-seed program in which it helped the company develop its product, Genesis Partners, Giza Venture Capital, Stage One Ventures, and Fishman Holdings subsidiary Globescom.
View - site
Posted at 02:04 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
March 29, 2007
Inside Building-B: Former Sony CTO's Startup To Bring US Affordable Premium Video
The a:c's cable bill is a killer. We'd love to have HBO and some premium sports channels so we could watch the European soccer league action but when we add up how much we would pay for that over a year we back-off.
Building-B is building a net-based premium video system that targets folks like us - they actually say they are going after middle America. It looks like this might require some kind of set-top box, which we hate - but this is not certain. The company is led by former Sony CTO and Liquid Audio co-founder Phil Wiser and CEO Buno Pati.
Wiser told PC Magazine: "We found this gap in the field within the last year. There are a few basic changes in the entertainment patterns of consumers overall. One of those is on-demand [video]. Anyone who has been able to access on-demand video, certainly will go back to that. The other element is mobility. Consumers have gotten used to having access to their entertainment on the go. And the other primary shift is the fragmentation between traditional TV viewing, Internet viewing, and gaming, so we're looking at these habits and optimizing the service to meet those."
Recently, Wiser and Pati surfaced as the board of directors of the recently funded Fliptrack, which enables personalized music video creation.
View - site
Posted at 12:13 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
March 28, 2007
Pre-Logo Loudspeaker Startup AudioPixels Raises $4M
Lightspeed Ventures, DCM and a group of private and strategic investors have invested $4M in thin loudspeaker developer AudioPixels, says Globes
AudioPixels' CEO Daniel Lewin founded the company six months ago. The company says that its technology enables the production of thin high-performance loudspeakers suitable for a wide range of devices.
We have posted on a few new age speaker companies that have received funding, including:
+ Gecko Audio
+ G-lab
+ Iosono
Read - Audiopixels raises $4M (Globes)
Posted at 05:52 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
November 07, 2006
Australia's Gecko Audio Funds Up For Wireless Home Audio
Pre-launch Gecko Audio, which is busy developing networked audio products out of Sydney, Australia, has raised $3M in Series A funding led by Technology Venture Partners, says PE Wire. You won't see Gecko photos on the cover of Gizmodo because it is still hammering out the product.
"Founded in 2004 by wireless networking pioneers and high-end audio specialists, Gecko has developed a radical new networked DSP platform that delivers unparalleled computational performance, exceptional audio quality and removes the majority of the limitations inherent in conventional audio systems."
Here at the a;c we are disgusted with the inherent limitation of our conventional audio systems, and hope Gecko can deliver.
View - Gecko Audio Site
Posted at 06:57 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
October 19, 2006
$20M For Slim Devices' WiFi Audi Gear
Logitech has paid $20M for Slim Devices, which is best known for Squeezebox, a small hardware device that lets you listen to music stored on your computer over a network through your home entertainment or hi-fi system. Gagdet blogs have gone ga-ga for Slim Devices. Now the company will have Logitech to get it into Costcos and Circuit Cities.
Their high-end sucker retails for $1000.
Posted at 02:12 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
July 28, 2006
NetGear Buys SkipJam Media Center Co. For $9M
SkipJam's iMedia XStream Storage Server bundle with a SkipJam iMedia Center for $2499.
SkipJam was founded in 2002 and is based in Port Chester, NY. The SkipJam iMedia Center automates the recording of programs from from any broadcast source or networked device. Encoding is via MPEG-4 and can save about 5,000 hours of TV shows, or over half a million songs.
View - NetGear to Acquire SkipJam
Posted at 01:09 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
June 23, 2006
Tzero Takes $26M To Kill Your TV Cables
Sunnyvale's TZero Technologies has secured $22M of a $25.74M Series B round, says PE Wire led by OVP Venture Partners with return backers August Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and U.S. Venture Partners.
Its might be one of the great ironies of our age that wires were so call just a few years ago. Wired Magazine was on the vanguard of tech and Bill Gates' technology miracle home carries miles of wires. Now a primary drive in the tech community is to make those nasty wires obsolete.
The Vision of the Future Home, As Seen From Sunnyvale
Posted at 04:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
June 06, 2006
Interactive TV Controlled By Your Cell Phone
Israel-based interactive TV company InLiveTV has raised €5M in third-round funding co-led by Arts Alliance and 3i Group. With InLive, viewers dial in via any phone or cell and are connected to the system which is in turn connected to broadcasters. After that they can vote, poll, bet, etc.
Think American Idol or Eurovision contests where voters see their input live on TV. A number of broadcast companies from Germany to China have been in trials.
The company's founder is Frenchman Andrej Henkler, who got his start as the personal assistant to the CEO of Bertelsmann.
Posted at 08:28 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
April 09, 2006
MovieBeam Panned By Critics
It looks like we will have to wait for MovieBeam the sequel before we sign-up. MovieBeam is a start-up backed by Walt Disney, Cisco, Intel, Mayfield, and Norwest Venture Partners. The company was formed in January 2006, after being incubated by The Walt Disney Company for nearly four years, and launched its service in February 2006.
MovieBeam delivers video rentals via TV airwaves in compressed, encoded form, using capacity rented from public television stations in 29 US cities (at launch). They're picked up and stored in yet another $250 set-top box and rented at prices ranging from $1.99 to $4.99. The offer also suffers from very limited inventory compared to Netflix.
The MovieBeam Player
The MovieBeam experience reminds us how smart is Netflix. That company focused on the consumer and got it right. MovieBeam seems to have gotten giddy over a technology opportunity and then assumed it could figure out how to stoke consumers. MovieBeam may get there but they whiffed the first time up to bat.
Read - MovieBeam Proves a Novelty With Lukewarm Reception (WaPost)
Posted at 11:05 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
April 04, 2006
Personalized TV From Israel
Israel's Carmel Ventures has invested $4.5M into Natanya-based Imagine Communications. The company is in stealth mode but says that it will "enable video and broadcast processing of a higher quality than that currently offered by cable companies, via the Internet."
Posted at 12:30 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
February 27, 2006
Germany's Magix To Raise Up To $155M In IPO
The German multimedia software publisher Magix is expected to hold a significant IPO in the next couple of months. Reuters reports that the firm was expected to float at the end of March or the start of April and sell shares worth 100M to 130M euros ($119-155M).Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Cazenove are the banks that would manage the deal.
Magix sells shrinkwapped software to retail consumers who want to send photos or other multimedia files to friends. It also hosts a design your own ringtone and design your wallpaper for mobilephones service.The company boasts tennis great Boris Becker as an advertising partner.
Read - Germany's Magix considers IPO in first-half 2006 (Reuters)
Posted at 01:41 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
January 31, 2006
The Longest Running Failure In Silicon Valley
ICTV was founded back in the year 1990 to build the dream of interactive TV. The company was built and funded by Gary Lauder - scion to the Estee Lauder fortune and self-styled tech-video geek. We came across Lauder when he was hatching ICTV what seemed like a decade ago - actually it was more than a decade ago - and he's still at it!
Some in the business estimate that Lauder has funnelled north of $100M of his own cash into ICTV. That would be fine if he had something to show for it, but interactive TV has finally become a business and ICTV is not a strong contender.
What motives Lauder? Fear of having to acknowledge failure to his family? An inability to give up on his own ghost? Who knows. But we plan to look back in another decade to see if ICTV is still at it.
Posted at 09:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
January 27, 2006
Sling Media Does Another Round
SAP Ventures' Jeff Nolan announces that Sling Media has raised more money for its Web TV 2.0 device. It should come as no surprise as the company has been spending a lot of money on advertising - you have probably heard them on the radio. However, we wonder if Jeff spoke too soon as the announcement that he linked to has been taken down. Om and SiliconBeat speculate that this will be a large ticket round.
View Sling Closes Financing Round (Jeff Nolan)
Posted at 04:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
January 10, 2006
Riya Raises $15M From Bay Partners
Ubiquitously-discussed photo/facial recognition startup Riya has raised $15M from Bay Partners. If the rumors are true that Riya dismissed a buyout offer from Google, it will be very interesting to see if the gambit pays-off. Given the rise in stock at Google, Yahoo and elsewhere, most startups are willing to take the buyout offer when it comes in the mail. If Riya can parlay this $15M into a multi-hundred million dollar buyout within a year, others might consider Riya's route.
On its blog, Riya thanks its lawyers and notes:
"BTW we need to hire some absolute rockstars in Business Development, Finance (a Controller to mind the money), a Revenue Manager (CPC Advertising expert - if you have to ask what CPC is don't apply...;-), and a few additional researchers for our super smart Riya Labs which is now (unconfirmed) the largest team of computer vision Ph.Ds in any single company in the country."
Read - Going to The Moon Riya Blog
Posted at 04:16 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
December 19, 2005
Sequoia Leads Investment in China's UUSEE
Sequoia Capital and Susquehanna International Group's (SIG) have invested more than $10M in CCTV's IPTV partner UUSEE. IPTV has not taken off in a big way in the US, but it is becoming a juggernaut in China with numerous investments being made.
Read - SIG, Sequoia Fund IPTV Company UUSEE (Pacific Epoch)
Posted at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
November 16, 2005
Digital Home Co. VividLogic Gets $3M from BearStearns
With HQ in Fremont, CA VividLogic sells HDTV and set-top-box network infrastructure, with middleware deployed in products from Samsung, Mitsubishi, RCA, Pioneer, Hitachi and Scientific Atlanta. Bear Stearns legend Cliff Friedman joined the board.
Posted at 06:39 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
September 30, 2005
The Hut Computer Market
AT the MIT Technology Review event this week, Nick Negroponte unveiled the design of the $100 computer. This project is funded by AMD, Red Hat, Google, and News Corp. We can't believe they can make a color screen monitor with WiFi access for $100, but they seem to think they can. We'll believe it when we see it on Amazon for 100 bones. The most surprising feature is that it comes with a hand crank for users who lack electricity.
If these guys pull this off, we know it will have a positive impact on the lives of perhaps tens of millions of people. This might also have a big impact on the Internet itself. Anytime you add a huge new demographic the place is bound to look different.
Read - Print A Hundred-Dollar Laptop for Hungry Minds (TechnologyReview)
Posted at 08:44 PM | Permalink
May 19, 2005
AgileTV - Profile
HQ: Menlo Park, CA
Founded: April 2000
Management: Paul Cook is Chairman and CEO. Prior to founding AgileTV, he served as chairman of the board of SRI International and chairman of the board of the Sarnoff Corporation (formerly RCA Labs), SRI’s wholly owned subsidiary. He was also the chairman of Nuance, a speech technology company. In 1957 (yes, 1957!!) Cook founded Raychem Corporation, where he was CEO for 33 years and the company to one billion dollars in annual sales.
Investors: Recently raised $22 million Series B from Valence Capital Management LC, which led the round. Insight Communications and Lauder Partners also participated.
Business Model: The company is developing a television remote control that uses speech recognition. A TV-watcher can use voice commands to search through broadcast television, program guides, On-Demand listings, and DVR content. The serivce, called Promptu, uses a database exceeding more than 100,000 phrases. No more scrolling through those snail-like program guides to find out when the O.C. is on.
Competitors: We're not aware of any companies developing this specific technology, but we suspect some of the cable operators have looked at doing this.
Dirt: You know those start-ups that are hatched as the result of business school competitions? AgileTV feels like the opposite; a company that was hatched by a bunch of retirees on a Scottsdale golf course. This management team has some serious combined experience. We actually think this is a pretty intriguing idea - but why has it been in tests for two years now? We know the cable operators move pretty slowly, but two years? This doesn't strike us as particularly "agile" deployment, but then again, good things come to those who wait.
Posted at 09:25 AM | Comments (25) | Permalink
March 21, 2005
Snapfish Acquired Again - This time by HP
OK, so the a:c was caught flat-footed by the news that HP acquired 80-person San Francisco start-up Snapfish, but we think that's because nobody could get excited enough to leak the story. The terms of the deal are not disclosed at this time, but we expect it is a very nice windfall for the owner of Snapfish - District Photo - a Washington, DC photomat founded in 1949. District Photo bought Snapfish for a song back when valuations were lousy, but now everyone wants their photo service and there are few significant independents left. Snapfish.com still lists Raj Kapoor as President, but we understand he announced months ago that he was off to Mayfield to become a VC and that the current guy in charge is Ben Nelson.
The move is a typical me-too move by HP. Snapfish has a fair number of users, but it lacks the buzz that Picasa and Flickr had before they were acquired by Google and Yahoo, respectively, as well as the size enjoyed by Shutterfly and Ofoto.
Posted at 10:23 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink
February 28, 2005
Turning Up The Heat On iBiquity
The Washington Post profiles iBiquity, describing the company as being in an extremely hot seat. iBiquity was founded 15 years ago, and has raised more than $135M, and that doesn't count the years and cash that the company burned through when it was incubated by Lucent and Westinghouse. iBiquity has raised what it calls the final round - $20M - and it's now finally bringing its digital radio products to market. We wouldn't want to be part of the management team if the products don't get early traction. We also are not convinced that iBiquity's products will take off as quickly as those of XM and Sirius. Say what you will about VCs' short timelines, iBiquity's corporate partners have done the company a disservice by giving it so long to get its products to market. Such companies can develop an unhealthy, wait-and-see culture.
Read - IBiquity Digital's Make-or-Break Point Approaches (Washington Post)
Read - iBiquity Profile (The a:c)
Posted at 02:16 PM | Comments (5) | Permalink
February 18, 2005
iBiquity Digital - Profile
HQ: Columbia, MD
Founded: 1996. The company was previously USA Digital Radio and was spun out of CBS.
Management: Robert Struble is President/CEO/Chairman. He has run the company since 1996. He was previously President of Westinghouse Communications and Westinghouse Wireless Solutions. He has the MIT/HBS/Baker Scholar/McKinsey pedigree.
Investors: The company has raised over $130M. Most recently in February 2005 it raised a Series C add-on round of $30M from Gannett, Grotech Capital Group, JPMorgan Partners, MidOcean Partners, New Venture Partners, Pequot Ventures, Waller-Sutton Media Partners, Whitney & Co. In addition, 14 of the 20 largest U.S. radio broadcasters, equipment and automobile manufacturers have made strategic investments.
Business Model: iBiquity lays claim to be the sole developer and licensor of HD radio technology in the US which digitizes traditional FM & AM content. The benefits are compression which allows more programming to be broadcast over the same frequency, as well as improved sound quality. Company has convinced traditional radio operators to begin broadcasting digitally, and is just now getting consumer electronics companies to create digital radio receivers. It is also working with car companies to get digital radio installed in cars.
Competitors: XM Satellite Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio.
Dirt: The company has successfully overcome a lot of big problems. The next ones on its plate are that the initial radios being sold by its manufacturing partners are expensive. Plus it has strong mind-share competition from Sirius and XM which are gaining strong momentum. iBiquity is a fix for the old way of doing business, whereas XM and Sirius represent a new way of doing business. The old business that iBiquity targets is still based on ad revenue and established radio programming, whereas Sirius and XM have commercial free radio and new types of premium programming. So it will be interesting to see which one consumers are drawn to.
Posted at 01:21 PM | Permalink
December 27, 2004
The New VoIP
With A:C babies en route, we are determined to make a go of personal videoconferencing in 2005 so that grand-mams & paps can see the first clucks and giggles. It has us wondering consumer teleconferencing is not a bigger trend. The SF Chron picks up the subject, focusing on Bay Area headquartered, VC-funded SightSpeed.com. The Chron quotes Sightspeed CEO's prognostication that 7M Webcams will be sold in 2005 - fairly small beans compared to say digital audio devices and it doesn't mean that these will be used for teleconferences. We'll keep you posted.
Read - Seeing the family over the Internet
Videoconferencing attracts growing number of users (San Francisco Chronicle)
Posted at 06:03 PM | Permalink
November 05, 2004
Roku - Profile
HQ: Palo Alto, CA
Founded: 2002
Management: CEO is Anthony Wood. He invented the digital video recorder (DVR) and this is his sixth start-up (Roku = six in Japanese). Sounds legit to us. CTO Don Woodward worked at Replay TV and Macromedia.
Investors: NA
Business Model: Roku has developed a digital media player and a music player that connect digital media files on your computer with home devices like your stereo and HDTV. If you've got 5,000 tunes sitting on your hard drive, Roku's SoundBridge device allows you to listen to those songs on your computer. Digital media player allows you to view photos on your HDTV - doesn't exactly strike us as a killer app.
Competitors: Mediabolic
Dirt: Roku is a privately-held consumer electronics company - this scares us. It takes time and money to build consumer products and then you've got to deal with retail channels. The management team looks well-suited to the challenge, but they've got to get an early hit to help underwrite growth. At least the top-of-the-line SoundBridge has a $500 price point - that should help.
Posted at 09:00 AM | Permalink
September 23, 2004
Mediabolic - Profile
HQ: San Francisco
Founded: 1999
Management: For CEO Daniel Putterman, this is his third Internet startup.
Investors: AsiaTech Management and Intel Capital invested unknown amount in September 2004. In 2002, the company had an investment from D&M Holdings (Denon & Marantz brands).
Business Model: Digital home middleware that should allow consumers to connect their digital and analog devices. Middleware bundles with chips that are then placed in media devices. The company now has deals with Pioneer, Fujitsu, Denon, HP, and Creative. To date, these media devices have not been big sellers, but Intel, for one, would like them to be.
Competitors: Innumerable options including Roku, Tivo Series2 Home Media Option.
Dirt: Convergence is a bitch. Founder Putterman probably didn't think that he was a visionary but after 4 years of blowing in the wind, he still might be early. We like Mediabolic's model - selling software to consumer electronics players and let them fight - better than those who will try to compete with Sony.
