The trend to code name companies after the room or building that they were born in, has led to an announcement this week of Building B, which has done an impressive job of attractive talent from around the media and broadcasting industries, along with a first round funding of some $17.5 million. What Building B has not done well is say what it is actually planning to do, or at least which technology that it is planning to use.
What we’ve managed to work out so far is that it will announce its real name later this year and that it plans to offer High Definition TV straight to a set top, bypassing the PC, with signals that are delivered both wirelessly and over the internet (which could be the same thing).
There are so many ways of sending video through the airwaves that it seems pointless to speculate. Building B might offer a system for using the overly large guard bands between 700 MHz TV spectrum once it is re-auctioned in January 2008, and that’s pretty much what Microsoft and a group of other major technology corporate are suggesting and trying to facilitate. The Guard bands are too small to auction, but could be aggregated and deliver some unlicensed capacity, but then again why would Building B have any special claim over this. It could be that it will use the new WiMAX network being built by Sprint and Clearwire, but they already have TV clients that will be using it to complete a triple play. It might be aiming to harness MVDDS (Multichannel Video Distribution and Data System) but that requires spectrum and around $10 million per city and a bevy of patent royalties to pay.
Given the timing of when Building B will come into play, at the end of 2008, it seems likely that it relates to the 700 MHz UHF spectrum, but the company hasn’t get enough money to buy spectrum, nor has it enough money to build any kind of network which uses unlicensed spectrum. It doesn’t really have enough cash to lease a satellite platform for a US wide footprint. The emphasis appears to be in the set top design, so it strikes us that Building B is something like Akimbo, the internet DVR delivery system.
It has investment from Morgenthaler Ventures, the backers of Snocap and in-game advertising network IGA Worldwide and the placeshifting business, Orb Networks, all impressive properties in media, as well as Omni Capital a company that keeps its investments to itself, and Index ventures which has successes such as Betfair, Ofoto and Skype under its belt.
Building B says its management team has been carefully constructed to include key executives from each critical area of its business model, including prior senior executives from such entertainment companies as CBS, NBC, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Showtime and Viacom. Individuals on the management team have also led technology and market innovations while at Sony, Numerical Technologies, Liquid Audio, Clearwire and Bell Labs.
The board includes Andrew Lack, Sony BMG Music Entertainment chairman; Dr Arun Netravali, ex-Technology director at Bell Labs and now managing director of Omni Capital and one of the inventors of HDTV, and the president is Phil Wiser, a former Sony CTO and founder of digital music pioneer Liquid Audio.
This kind of heavyweight team is going to bring a fundamental shift in some technology or other, whether it is a DVR which is gradually filled just out of the air, or a P2P advance or a codec extension that puts the emphasis on computational power at the client end, and lowers the bit rate dramatically from where it is today for HD.
Building B says it will deliver HD content but also it will offer demographic and addressable advertising to fund it. The service consists of a turn-key home video entertainment system which integrates exiting HDTV content and adds on-demand premium content and Internet video.
The company says that advertisers will be able to take advantage of the platforms’ ability to deliver advertising that is more relevant and targeted to viewers’ interests. It could be that ALL Building B actually delivers is addressable advertising.
‘I am as excited about Building B as I was about Apple when I first invested in them,’ said Bob Pavey, partner, Morgenthaler Ventures. ‘When a company is driving a paradigm shift, they really stand out, and Building B is gathering the talent, vision, technology and partners to bring breakthrough television to life.’ Either Pavey is easier to get excited these days, or we will be hearing a lot more from Building B over the coming year.