Press Release: RemoTV’s “Channels™” Remote Social Media Platform

by Eric March on September 8, 2008 at 11:33 am

There is no shortage of technology trade shows that have increasingly been sporting stuff for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but the semi-annual DEMO show is pretty exclusive since the organizers pick what emerging technologies they want to showcase, and this year’s DEMOfall 08 features some intesting iPhone apps in the works.

One such product from newcomer RemoTV is a service called Channels™, a multifaceted social media platform that, in the main, allows you to stream media content stored on your home PC to any connected device either through a web interface or a dedicated app on the device itself. What makes it interesting is that it does this through an intermediary host app run on your home PC, which will scour your system for media (images, video, audio, etc.) and “cache” (upload) it to RemoTV’s servers so that you can view the media from anywhere. You can create channels (presumably thematic, genre-based, or whatever) to categorize your media, and you can even share your media with friends and family, even if your home PC is offline. But I’ll let the press release to most of the talking here:

SAN DIEGO and New Haven, Conn., Sept. 8
/PRNewswire/ — At today’s DEMO Conference, REMOTV announced that on
September 30, 2008 it will be launching a closed beta release of
Channels!, its new social media platform, which enables people to
stream video, music, photos and other media from any Internet connected
device. Channels! is a Personal Internet Media Publisher(TM), with
which people can not only easily access all of their media when they
are away from their PC, but can also allow their friends and family to
experience this media as well.

“Today, people’s media is usually trapped on their PCs, or at times
juggled between their PC and other devices using proprietary synching
technologies,” said Chris Penner, CEO of REMOTV. “REMOTV’s vision of
the future is different — people listening, viewing or otherwise
enjoying their media, and their friends and family’s media, anywhere,
on any Internet enabled device.”

Why REMOTV

Unlike file sharing technologies, the REMOTV platform does not host
any content or provide people with the ability to download copies of
the media they access to their individual PCs or other devices. Rather,
it uses advanced caching, encoding and streaming technologies to help
people extend the viewing and listening range of personal media beyond
the PC that contains it, allowing them to use Internet-connected
devices as if they were part of their own integrated home entertainment
center.

The REMOTV platform serves as an intermediary between the PC and
the devices people use to access the media on the PC. This makes it
easier to set- up and more secure than other competing technologies,
which directly connect these devices to people’s PCs. In addition, its
caching technologies even allow people to access their media when their
PC is off-line.

REMOTV Makes Personal Media Social

REMOTV Channels! also helps people integrate their media into their
social networks. With it, people can allow family members to access
their personal media right from their social networking profile. REMOTV
also makes it easy for people to search, discover and experience music,
videos, or other media that their friends or other people with similar
media interests own, helping them learn about and enjoy media that they
might not be familiar with.

“With REMOTV, people can not only tell other people about what
media they like or have created, but allow them to experience this
media as well, helping them form stronger, more intimate bonds with
friends, family, and others in their social network,” said Penner.

Using an ad-supported revenue model, REMOTV also provides brands
with unique opportunity to reach highly desirable, hard to reach
audiences, particularly those that do not often use other, traditional
ad-supported media distribution outlets, such as network television and
broadcast radio.

The closed beta release of REMOTV will support all major web
browsers, 3g multimedia phones and Windows Mobile smart phones, with
support planned for game counsels like Microsoft’s Xbox, the Apple
iPhone and other Internet enabled-devices in the next few months.
Support is also planned for Facebook before the end of the year and
other major social networks in early 2009.

Special Media Preview

Starting on Monday, September 15, REMOTV will offer members of the
press a special 2 week “sneak preview” of Channels! Interested media
should email REMOTV at demofall08@remotv.com. Spaces are limited, so REMOTV suggest that interested media reserve a spot as soon as possible.

About REMOTV

REMOTV Channels! is a Personal Internet Media Publisher which
allows people to stream video, music, photos and other personal media
from their PC to any Internet-enabled device. Easy to set up and use,
REMOTV enables people to access their personal media anywhere they want
and make their personal media social.

    Based in New Haven, Ct., REMOTV is a privately held company backed by
Connecticut Innovations.

     Contact:
     Evan Goldberg
     Horn Group
     646-202-9768
     egoldberg@horngroup.com

Website: http://www.remotv.com/

It sounds like an interesting service that could allow you to access any media you have at home from any device on the go — including the iPhone via a dedicated app in a few months. Of course, something like this is going to eat massive bandwidth while it shuttles whatever media it finds (presumably its search breadth can be limited or specified) to their servers for caching purposes, so this isn’t the sort of thing that users who are still on dialup, or users who have very restricted monthly bandwidth are going to want to fiddle with.

Despite the fact that it doesn’t allow viewers to download content — only stream — I’m left to wonder how the RIAA and MPAA are going to feel about such a service. Although it is no a P2P application, and while I assume (because it isn’t entirely clear here) broadcast will be limited only to people in your friends list, I suspect that those two whiners are going to have a few words to say about this.

Meanwhile, the service will go live at the end of September, but we’re going to see if we can’t squeeze into the sneak preview in order to bring you a taste of things to come.

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