Mermaid - Video streaming over P2P Network
With the growing adoption of Web 2.0 and user generate content, a clear change is visible in the behavior of online media consumption by end users. User generated content is taking traditional entertainment sources head-on and people are getting more inclined to view their regular media as per their own convenience rather than when the broadcaster plans to air it. Needless to say, online video streaming is hot.
But content distribution is inherently expensive. It takes massive costs in terms of bandwidth and infrastructure to maintain huge setups like YouTube and other similar services. Talking about the corporate environment which also has a lot of media to share in terms of corporate training videos etc., sites like YouTube don’t fit the bill, no matter how much privacy measures they claim to have implemented.
MetaASO Solutions is a startup based out of New Delhi, India which has a lineup of 5 major products collectively called Mermaid. Mermaid is a line of real time P2P products, which include Mermaid Meeting, Multisource, Movie, Webcam and News.
Mermaid allows broadcasting of audio/video content directly from a user’s PC to other computers connected on the LAN. Broadcasting can also be carried out to the Internet and needs a mere 256 kbps home connection. Mermaid claims to have specially designed algorithms to serve content to multiple users even despite the severe bandwidth restrictions. HD video is also supported on faster networks.
Here is a brief of all their 5 products in the Mermaid series -
Meeting - A meeting, text/audio/video chat software
Multisource - connects to any audio/video device connected to your computer, ex. webcam, mic., TV tuner card etc. and broadcasts it
Mermaid Movie - Specifically designed to broadcast and receive pre recorded movies
Webcam - Single click webcam sharing
News - Push based delivery model. Unlike the pull model used by RSS feeds, news item is instantaneously broadcasted around the globe
One major feature of Mermaid is that the basic setup requires absolutely no configurations. The basic installation package should get it up and running in no time. Advanced configuration is possible, but somewhat geeky as the process requires some knowledge of XML and HTML to tweak the configuration files.
Mermaid’s basic setup is currently free to the end user and they plan to keep it that way. Revenue model for this product is mainly advertising based and they also plan to generate revenue from customized software needs, branding etc. For now, Mermaid is available for Windows XP and Vista. Linux and Mac versions are not yet available.
Review posted by Gaurav Gupta
Ad on May 27, 2008
Check streamsoft for p2p platform for live video streaming. Michael Iron, the CEO of StreamSoft announce for launchinf few months ago.
Daniel Holliman on May 29, 2008
There are a lot of differences in what most companies are doing. 99.99% of streaming systems even so called P2P ones are not globally scalable.
Apart from Mermaid no known systems work on a LAN Without the internet. Have 100% up times.
Web 2.0 might be a fad today but think a few years into the future. The internet would go back to its original motto. Everyone connected to each other directly.
I’m a casual observer !!! but I think I know when I can see that Mermaid has the potential to be on every computer on the planet in 2-3 years.
Everyone’s gungho about Twitter which is great because it proves a collaborative communication
need. But how many have you seen Mermaid News? Its algorithm works with groups of million users and above and there can be a billion groups. Thats what I say is group communication
Mermaid promises uncensored, unmonitored freedom of speech. Its one of many applications are just a way of kickstarting a free world.
Most of these things are not visible on the first look. Everyone’s mother father and sister is into Video Sharing. Which is good for the business.
Bharat on Jun 11, 2008
i liked your post