The Live Earth concerts were not only broadcast on television around
the world but were also one of the first series of concerts to be
available in full online.
Microsoft had full rights to show the concert footage on MSN.com, and it seems that people took this option in droves.
Let me state right from the start that I am very, very skeptical
about the accuracy of the figure quoted by the organizers in
counting the event’s audience – both online and
offline.
Why? Well,
it’s hard to believe roughly 2 billion people visited the
arenas, tuned
in their televisions, and pointed their Web browsers to the sites
bearing video streams broadcasting the action from around the globe.
To
say the least, it appears far-fetched to assume a quarter to a third
of the world’s population was fortunate enough to partake in
the
sonically-backed global effort to raise awareness about climate change
throughout the 24 hours that comprised July 7, 2007.
Even when taking
into account the fact that more individuals are
“connected” today than
ever before.
Putting aside the event’s organizers’
estimate of an overall
statistic, however, let’s muse a bit about Live
Earth’s online presence
particularly.
9 Million Viewers Online
I felt compelled yesterday morning after reading a
snippet published by Reuters
about the event’s online viewership to write something
up.
Not just to
reiterate the quote of 9 million online viewers; nor to reiterate that
that number indeed ranks the Web effort for the Live Earth syndicate as
#1 in history, surpassing 2004’s
Live 8
global
concert and anything else that may have come before.
Instead, I’d like to say one thing. Really, one
thing. One thing to
sum my impression about the streaming of video in massive quantities on
the Web:
Finally.
We’ve finally been able to witness good
quality
live/almost-live captures of events happening most anywhere on Earth
through our cathode ray and LCD displays in reasonably good picture
quality. Finally.
Performance & Speed Is Improving All The Time
Finally, broadband has become ubiquitous enough that
companies/services/utilities/etc. can offer enough bits per second to
enough people that moving pictures on the Web can be something we enjoy
rather than tolerate. Finally.
Now, I must say I may have had a better-than-average
experience when
taking in the various concert streams available last Saturday.
Mostly
due to the better-than-average network service I enjoy here in the
northeastern region of the US. FTTH, or “Fiber To The
Home” definitely
does have its advantages.
But I have a strong suspicion that most of the other 9 million
purportedly said to experience Live Earth on the Web must have had
reasonably good, solid streams showing second after second, minute
after minute, even hour after hour on their monitors as well.
I think
about how well online programming is throttled to promote both
performance and efficiency today and deduce that most all of the 9
million other folks tuning in to Live Earth online must have had
similarly good experiences.
The Future Is Finally Here
So it looks like we’re getting very close to a point
at which the
dreams of the ‘90s are taking shape for real. And
that…well, that’s no
doubt a very cool proposition to play with right now.
To finish this off, I have a few questions for you: Did you
see Live
Earth? If not, you can do so right now, on-demand. What was/is your
experience like?
Are you excited about the prospect of experiencing
regular real-time good- to high-quality video streams via your PC – and
eventually via your Internet-connected “media
center”? Do you care?
Please, do let us know. We’d love to hear your musings on the
subject.
Paul Glazowski is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com
