Flumotion Streams Open Video Conference 2010 Live in Open Formats

On 1-2 October we will be streaming the Open Video Conference live and joining the largest open video movement for the use of free and open standards for watching, creating, and sharing online video.This will be the first live streaming of its kind in North America using the open format WebM and the first worldwide using WebM and Ogg / Vorbis / Theora simultaneously.

The OVC is an annual summit organized and hosted by the Open Video Alliance (OVA), a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to the idea that the power of moving image should belong to everyone. The conference draws a broad and unique audience of connected creatives and change makers, who all share the vision of an open video ecosystem.

Speakers at this year’s OVC include Susan Crawford, former science, technology, and innovation policy advisor to Barack Obama. Crawford’s keynote will explore the importance of network neutrality rules for the web. The youngest member of the European Parliament and Pirate Party member, Amelia Andersdotter will be presenting a talk on copyright, while Damian Kulash from ‘OK Go’ will share how one creative video can catapult a creative’s career. Flumotion CTO and Co-founder, Thomas Vander Stichele will be hosting a session entitled ‘Streaming in Open Formats’ and will explore the network architecture of Flumotion and how it enables fast integration of any new format or device. The talk will also touch on browser native HTML5 streaming solutions using WebM, Ogg, Theora and H.264.

“We believe in the importance of free and open formats, which help to create a more democratic media system. This is crucial for the use of video in the same freedom as text,” says Flumotion CTO and Co-founder, Thomas Vander Stichele. The need for non-proprietary formats in online video has driven the development of new and open alternatives, including the new WebM standard. When Google open sourced WebM earlier this year, the development team at Flumotion integrated support into Flumotion’s streaming services in under 48 hours. “Companies like Flumotion demonstrate how agile open source development can be,” comments Ben Moskowitz, General Coordinator of the Open Video Alliance. “The commitment of Flumotion and other leading software companies to open video standards is strengthening the web.”

All the keynotes and sessions at the conference will be streamed live from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) via both the Open Video Conference and Flumotion websites in open formats Webm and Ogg / Vorbis / Theora. The live streams are supported with the latest versions of Firefox 4 Beta, Chrome or Opera. All details about the streaming and browser compatibility can be found on the official OVA Wiki.

Two months after the release of WebM, Flumotion made online history streaming the GUADEC Conference, the first live transmission of an event using WebM. Flumotion is the only major Content Delivery Network (CDN) to support open formats such as WebM and Ogg / Vorbis / Theora for both live and on demand. The OVA and others are on the record stating that Flumotion is the world’s easiest and most powerful software and platform for open streaming. “Our free software-based technology has enabled video to be distributed to more people and on an individual level without increasing costs, while also providing streaming technology to major international broadcasters,” explains Thomas Vander Stichele.