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HD Online Convergence

HD Online: We have the technology. We can build faster internet connections, with better delivery service than ever before. Better, stronger, faster.

The convergence of lower-cost HD prosumer camcorders, faster internet connections and improved content delivery networks (CDNs) is leading to a surge in HD video online. With that upswing come opportunities for videographers to bring their work to the masses and draw in more customers.

Want to share your HD videos and garner some feedback from other videographers? Upload your HD products to Vimeo.com. Do you have a programming idea and the gear to produce it on HD? Pitch that project to ON Networks. Want to offer streaming HD on your site? Turn to a CDN like Akamai.

All these possibilities now make perfect sense. Technological convergence is the reason. For example, I just installed new pipes in my home. Gone are the clunky 1Mbps (on good days) download speeds of DSL. Here today is 6Mbps cable. I now can enjoy full screen width, smooth playback, streaming 720p HD on my PC via the internet. I can even use a DVI-to-HDMI converter and watch online content on a home HDTV screen. The content selection is surprisingly vast, despite the infancy of the technologies needed to get to this point. And the offerings can only improve.

What's even more exciting is that just about anyone with HD video production equipment can take advantage of online HD. Unlike broadcast HD TV, which requires layers of expensive studio gear and transmission hardware, HD on the web is relatively simple and much less expe…