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Created in 2007, some videos may not play |
Who’s building Babelgum?
Babelgum is software developed by Babel Networks, a venture of Silvio Scaglia (one of the founders of FASTWEB) started in 2005 with the aim to develop interactive software for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the internet using peer-to-peer TV technology. Babelgum has raised $13.2 million, that entire sum has come directly from its founder and Chairman, Silvio Scaglia.
Erik Lumer – Founder
Mallku Caballero – CTO
Michael O’Callaghan – COO
Silvio Scaglia – Founder and Chairman of the Board
Valerio Zingarelli – CEO
Whats Babelgum
Babelgum is a new way of conceiving television, a free on-demand TV over the Internet that lets you watch whatever you want, whenever you want as often as you want.
Technology
As the platform uses peer-to-peer technology, the quality and reliability of the streaming remains consistent regardless of how many users are currently watching, each serving as a node, simultaneously uploading and downloading content to peers in the network.
Goal
Is it possible to build a web based application that does not require any downloads, that is comparable to the downloadable executable Babelgum application. This mashup has been done with 1 flash file as compared to Babelgum which requires 100′s of files. The following are screens of Babelgum vs. my Flash version. As compared to Joost taking one month to develop, this application was completed in one week, is 40% the size of Joost and more functionality.
Browser support overview
Babelgum does not support browser based viewing, to use the application it must be downloaded and installed and only works on Windows. The flash based version works in all browsers on all operating systems and plays immediately. All enhancements and upgrades are transparent to the user and the application continues to retain the user preferences since the application is hosted on a server.
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Menu overview The Babelgum menu supports 3 options – “TV”, “Video” , “Close”. The flash version supports the 3 options available on Babelgum and also “Favorites” and “History”, users are able to click a plus sign on the menu list and also the details page to add a “Favorite”. “History” is transparent to the user and gets added when the user views a video,both options are continued between sessions. All the graphics for the Babelgum flash application has been created in flash and is vector based. This will allow the ability for this application to be ported to mobile devices, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP to be made seamlessly. |
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Controller overview The Babelgum application controller resembles a DVD device. It has the capabilities of play, pause, next, previous, mute, volume up/down, fullscreen, maximixe video and real-time video, and the ability to sort thru different sections. The flash version has all the capabilities as the Babelgum application. |
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Content overview A major drawback to Babelum is the limited content available to it’s users since it’s model is to distribute videos through content deals. The flash version utilizes RSS feeds from the top web sharing sites such as YouTube, Veoh, Google, MySpace, Digg, BlipTV, MetaCafe, IFilm, Pornotube, DailyMotion, Break, Grouper, Heavy and Guba. With archiving capabilities, the number of available videos are in the hundreds of thousands. Since the videos for the flash version are derived from multiple web sources the content is growing exponentially. |
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Favorites & History overview Babelgum does not have a concept of Favorites or History, the flash version does. On the flash version users are able to add favories and a history list is built while users view videos. |
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Video overview The video view of Babelgum without the main menu is identical to the flash version. |
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Fullscreen overview Babelgum does not allow the dynamic resizing of itself, it only has 2 size states. The flash version has no performance issues and resizing happens in real-time. This screen here shows on a monitor of 30 inches and looks as crisp as it would on a mobile device, and unlike Babelgum supports all sizes in between. |
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Mute Capabilities Babelgum provides the abilty to mute the video. The flash version has the same functionality. |
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Volume Capabilities Babelgum allows the ability to control the volume in the controller. The display of the volume in shown in the middle of the application. The flash version has the same capabilities. |
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Video overview The Babelgum video setion is mapped to my Categories section. The Babelgum video section is not a list of videos but a hack at a favorites list. I saw a better opportunity to have a “Categories” list which contains the following – Classic TV, |
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Video details overview Babelgum has basic features in its video details page, the flash version has all the capabilties as Babelgum plus a link to the original html page and a download link to the video, etc. |
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TV overview The “TV” section of Babelgum maps to “Babel Picks”, |
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Loading screen overview The loading screens of both applications are identical. |
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