Brad Rinklin Akamai
Akamai to Launch HD Portal on Monday with Dramatic Video from the BBC, NBA, MTV & CBS as High Def Era Dawns Online A new era of high definition online video will begin on Monday when Akamai launches a showcase portal for videos from customers including the BBC, NBA, MTV and others. The term HD has been bantered about quite a lot in the context of Web video. But by our understanding, “true” high def means full-sized, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. As far as I know, these files have not been distributed via stream or downloads. All this is about to change. Earlier this week, Limelight Networks, another major CDN player, announced the introduction of an HD product. Its not live yet, but will be up on Fox.com for the new seasons of “24″ and “Prison Break.” On Wednesday in Manhattan, I interviewed Brad Rinklin, Vice President of Marketing at Akamai. Brad filled me in on the plans for the new HD site. Akamai is not getting into the destination business. The site, called HDWeb, is a showcase that will be up for two weeks. Visitors will see images in quality flash, but the files are downloaded to be played in Quicktime or Microsoft Media Player. The HD don’t yet work in Flash player, but this is being solved, I am told. More than a showcase, Akamai has several customers who will be streaming programming in HD in the weeks ahead. I’ve visited the Akamai beta site over my Verizon DSL line and the files download quickly and play well in both 720 and 1080. The videos from the BBC are …