CDs are being outplayed by MP3s; before long, DVDs could well be replaced by high-definition streaming online video, even for feature-length films. That’s the world in which Minneapolis-based Swarmcast plans to have a solid foothold.
“The physical product will always be around in some form, but 2010 is when I foresee the switch happening,” says Kelly Egan, who jumped to Swarmcast from Richfield-based Best Buy Company last March to become Swarmcast’s vice president of business development. “The digital medium will replace the availability and the readiness of physical media, and that’s when demand for digital will go through the roof.”
Look for Swarmcast to be there when that happens. The company enables content providers to stream high-definition video over broadband connections, using a technology invented by founder Justin Chapweske called “file swarming.” This “multisource” method of data transfer breaks large files into small pieces, distributes them to multiple locations with unused network capacity (including servers, network routers, and personal computers) on the Internet, then reassembles them in real time so that the video can be watched as it streams. Swarmcast’s online-content customers include Major League Baseball’s broadband subscription service, mlb.com.
Swarmcast also has developed a secure and fast system to distribute high-definition digital versions of Hollywood movies—the file sizes of which run about 200 gigabytes per hour of film—directly to digitally equipped movie theaters. This delivery system began operation in 2006. Last December, Swarmcast received $5 million in funding from two Japanese investment funds to further refine that technology.
Swarmcast also hopes to be on board when movies are routinely streamed by consumers via broadband connections. Egan says the delivery of movies on line will not only be a convenience for viewers, but will also open up new avenues of distribution for independent filmmakers who want to bypass studio distribution. “We’re making a lot of headway in long-form entertainment on line,” Egan says. “Studios and filmmakers want to exhibit their work on line in HD.”
Swarmcast—which employs 50 people between its locations in Minneapolis and Tokyo—sees direct distribution of movies as an obvious outgrowth of the You-Tube generation. It recently released Autobahn Accelerator, a free tool that boosts download and streaming speeds for content from iTunes and a YouTube challenger called MySpaceTV.
Egan believes that it’s only a matter of time before fully integrated online digital video systems are a staple of homes, just as standard TVs used to be. “That’s where the future is going,” he says.
