While the BLOBbox from Telsey was the first major introduction of the TVBlob system, the company has been around for nearly six years trying to get Internet video content to the TV, and TVBlob’s focus goes much deeper than just one box.
The Blob system currently works with broadcast TV and a variety of Internet streaming and download content. The system can directly access a variety of content, including HDTV broadcasts and just about any video Web site – looks like Hulu might have someone else to block if this service makes it to the States.
The most important part of the service right off the bat is the fact that it offers a full Web browser and the platform works with Java, Ajax and HTML, among others. A flash integration or downloadable player – the current box has a 160GB hard drive – could help this service fully simulate a PC browser.
That means every single video site could work with the box without the need for a dedicated channel or widget. Good night, walled garden.
The sites are not optimized for viewing on the TV, but most sites offer a full-screen or wide-screen mode, which display pretty well on the TV set. Sites that offer HD content look good on the TV.
The BLOBbox from Telsey is the first OEM manufactured box based on the TVBLOB technology. The box works with VOD, YouTube, BitTorrent, Last.fm, podcasts, RSS feeds, content on a home network and digital TV signals, and it can access Web content using a full Web browser.
The Telsey box also features a double tuner for digital TV, allowing users to watch and record different content at the same time. The “Reeplay.it” feature is something that doesn’t seem to appear on other set-top boxes. The feature works with social and video bookmarks on the PC, giving the user the option to save a bookmark that sends the content to the box for viewing. It gives access to a personal library, socially shared media and even supports some friend management features. This looks to be one of the first social Web services developed for the TV set.
An interesting thing about the platform in the Telsey box is the ability to schedule and control downloads. Most set-top boxes basically work on a VoD principal; content is searched for and queued up for viewing immediately. Some services allow for download and later watching of content, but that is largely restricted to pay-for content and the user must usually start the download immediately instead of setting a time for it.
The Telsey box allows a user to schedule and control downloads and it can also be set to automatically update and download certain content – looks like podcasts and RSS feeds at the beginning.
In a sharing method that would make AppleTV a little jealous, the current Blob platform allows easy access to hard disks with an UPnP network, allowing copying of files from a networked PC to the box. The remote lets the user record programs, copy and play content from the PC chair.
The box is available in the European market currently, with Asia slated as the next release.
TVBlob has released a developers kit and has set a developers forum called the BLOBforge for the creation of services and Web sites geared toward the box. The service helps creators use Web-based technologies to create the TV experience, which should mean that portals and apps developed for the system will work no matter which country the system is in.
Developers are encouraged to make portals and apps using all of the features of the platform. Users will access these services individually and while there currently is no app store, the process wouldn’t be that hard even if it were more of a promotional tool. In this case, however, TVBlob would be different from just about every other app store since it will not take any share of revenues from portal developers, whether the services are ad-supported or pay-for.
Unlike Yahoo and other services, content developed for the Blob platform is more akin to a Web site than a widget. Since the platform has full Web-browsing capabilities, services can access, link to and move throughout the Web, removing the main barriers associated with widgets.
The service does have a slightly nostalgic feature that will remind users of one of the more popular walled gardens. BLOBwords, basically the next-generation AOL keywords, allow users to search for a specific term or shortcut to access a certain TV portal. These are registered and paid for by the portal and it looks like they must also promote the keyword.
As for the future, TVBlob could turn out to be more appropriately named than anyone expected. “I originally fought the name,” said Lisa Morris, VP of sales and marketing. But the service has turned into an “amorphous aggregator” with the ability to keep growing and grabbing more and more content.
Morris said the future of the Blob system is set for Asia right now. The company has an office in Japan and will work on making its box compatible with Japanese broadcast standards. The company wants to push into the USA, but TVBlob faces the obstacles all of these CE device makers do – “there’s no one standard.”
TVBlob is also working on bi-directional video streaming from the box and a TV-to- TV communication system. It’s expected to fully announce the feature in three to six months when it will unveil a USB key for the Telsey box that gives these communication abilities.
The service also hopes to expand its Reeplay.it feature to add indexing from mobile devices. Morris also hinted that the service might consider pushing VOD content to a mobile device through the TVBlob system – perhaps an iPhone app is in the works somewhere.
The product appears easy to navigate and the system is innovative and overly inclusive. While there are a lot of places a system like this could go, Morris pointed to one that isn’t at the top of many lists in the tech world. “Getting video blogs on the TV” is a “big hope” for the service, he said. It’s an application that seems easy to develop for and there’s already a large market for it, so expect it soon.
The article was written by Charlie Hall at Rider Research in the US and ran first in his publication The Online Reporter