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July 6, 2007

Microsoft LiveStation: Slingbox Without the Box

Michael Arrington

16 comments »


The video above shows a demo of a new product called Livestation, a peer-to-peer live television broadcasting application built on the Microsoft Silverlight platform. This is a Microsoft Research initiative, built in partnership with a London company called Skinkers.

In the demo, the presenter calls this a “Slingbox without the box,” and it is an apt comparison. However, the solution will require the broadcaster to work with Livestation, whereas the Slingbox allows users to broadcast their normal TV to IP connected devices.

In its current form, this is not a competitor to Joost, Babelgum and the other time-shifted TVIP startups we’ve covered. The service shows live television only, although presumably it could also be used to stream time-shifted content as well. And while it is certainly an excellent demonstration of the flexibility of Silverlight, its not even close to being productized and launched. For now, consider it little more than a pretty video.

If you’re looking for a deployed “Slingbox without the box” check out Orb, which we’ve covered here and on MobileCrunch. Or go buy a Slingbox.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 1:35 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. LiveStation Team

    July 6th, 2007 at 2:09 am

    Thanks for the post.

    I’d like to add an important comments:

    1. While Microsoft has a minority stake in Skinkers, this project is very much our own initiative. We are developing the platform on technology originally developed by Microsoft Research in Cambridge but now it’s fair to say that we are going forward with our own engineers (with the occasional phone-call to the MS researchers for hard-to-find answers!.

    Thanks again for the support and interest but please dnot: “Microsoft is taking on Joost” or “Microsoft is taking on SlingBox”. The correct slogan is “Skinkers is trying to get TV working on the computer!” and I can assure you, it is fun but hard!

    All the best.

    LiveStation Team

  2. Master William

    July 6th, 2007 at 2:35 am

    Yes I would probably edit the title of the post Michael - it isnt ‘Microsoft LiveStation’. Just LiveStation.

    And its pretty cool

  3. Salvatore Iozzia

    July 6th, 2007 at 6:00 am

    wow tv on computer it will be a great fun.

  4. Andy

    July 6th, 2007 at 7:10 am

    When will we get Tivo for LiveStation, so us video watchers don’t need to have our scheduled dictated by the media producer?

    In some respects, this is a step forward in on-line video like the fax machine was a step forward in the paperless office.

  5. captainsling

    July 6th, 2007 at 7:10 am

    This isn’t as optimized as Zattoo, which does exactly the same thing, uses less bandwidth, and is cross-platform. http://www.zattoo.com

    zattoo uses between 30-60k a sec bandwidth.

  6. Ian Bell

    July 6th, 2007 at 8:18 am

    Microsoft has always been really good at emulating a technology, giving it away for free or at an affordable value, and while in the process, destroying the original innovator (in this case Slingmedia, or Orb Networks could be the victim). And then of course Microsoft will screw up the product and cancel the project all together. Remember Spotwatch, or PlaysForSure?

    I really like the idea behind LiveStation, but would hate to see more established companies like Slingmedia lose market share to a “pet project” that could ultimately be shelved.

  7. Andy Arnott

    July 6th, 2007 at 9:19 am

    Sad to see that not even Microsoft’s partners are using Vista. Opps!

  8. steve

    July 6th, 2007 at 10:24 am

    After weeks of waiting, I finally got a chance to play with LiveStation. It’s promising. In the end it will, as ever, come down to content.

  9. Michael Arrington

    July 6th, 2007 at 11:08 am

    Livestations team:

    I’m using a quote from your own video re slingbox. You also compare it to Joost in the video. So you’re making your own comparisons.

    the site is clearly labeled Microsoft Research.

    If you want to control messaging, start with your own.

  10. Michael Arrington

    July 6th, 2007 at 11:49 am

    Calm down there Mr. Arrington …you seem a little hostile.

    To their defense, it didn’t really seem like a comparison, he was simply stating how it was different. Comparing would be listing things it can do that Joost can’t. It didn’t seem that was his motive for that statement. But of course what do I know.

    It’s definitely not really competing for the same space. To me it’s a totally different idea.

  11. David Scott Lewis

    July 6th, 2007 at 9:17 pm

    From China, Joost is AWFUL. Let me repeat: AWFUL. Did I say AWFUL? Bubblegum doesn’t impress me, either. (Yes, I know it’s not really named “Bubblegum”.)

    Let’s remember a TLA (three-letter acronym): QoS — Quality of Service.

    How is QoS in the States? Frankly, I don’t care since it doesn’t mean a thing to me. But I’m sick and tired to trying Joost and not getting a connection — and some of the most bizarre messages I’ve seen.

    I’m sure Joost will figure it out and I’m biased in favor of Joost because I’m a big fan of Skype. But if LiveStation can serve me better, guess who I’ll choose?

  12. David Scott Lewis

    July 6th, 2007 at 9:18 pm

    BTW, to the LiveStation team, “Slingbox … but without the box” is a great tag, at least for early adopters.

  13. Andy

    July 6th, 2007 at 11:11 pm

    “To their defense, it didn’t really seem like a comparison, he was simply stating how it was different. Comparing would be listing things it can do that Joost can’t.”

    Uh, yeah. Stating how something is different _is_ listing things that it can do that others can’t.

  14. ycyeoh

    July 10th, 2007 at 3:10 am

    There is a free service provided by http://www.sayatv.com that allows anyone to broadcast from Webcam, Tuner Capture Card, WMV File playlist and MMS streams using P2P Mesh Network Broadcasting Technology.

    SayaTV also provide some basic social network features that allows users to rate, comment and chatting on the live channel.

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