The online video venture backed by Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, known as the Venice Project, is coming out from under wraps and Business Week’s Steve Rosenbush got an exclusive look. One hundred people have been testing the system, with a wider beta test to follow in November and full access to anyone slated for the year-end.
The Venice Project (no other name has been revealed yet) is trying to persuade media companies to put their full-length videos online, and will accepted user contributed video, in an effort to turn the PC into something more akin to a TV. According to Rosenbush, it succeeds in creating “something far beyond anything you’ll experience in your den.”
To get started, users need to download a piece of software from the Web and install it on their PCs. When they boot up, the software will connect to the Web and open a full-screen window displaying “near high-definition” quality video images.
While the software turns your PC screen into something that looks a lot like your TV, the capabilities go far beyond anything you’ll experience in your den. Jiggle your computer mouse, and a variety of tools appear along the edges of the screen, even as the video continues to play. At the bottom of the screen, there are controls like those on a DVD player, including stop, pause, and fast-forward, as well as a search window to find new videos. An image on the left includes a menu of preset channels. And on the right, there’s a set of interactive tools that let you share video playlists with friends or family. An image at the top of the screen identifies the channel and the name of the clip you’re watching. All of the images can be expanded by clicking on them with a mouse.
Unlike Kazaa, also founded by Zennstrom and Friis, the Venice Project hopes to work out licensed deals with content providers beforehand. “This system is designed from the ground up with the content owner, the marketer and the consumer in mind,”Friis says in the article.
The two entrepreneurs are also talking to marketers and advertisers about coming onboard as sponsors at the outset.
Update: Om has this interesting interview today with Janus Friis. Check it out.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:48 AM|Comments(0)
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