During the Google I/O Conference in San Francisco, Google announced a direct-to-TV video service called Google TV. Partners for Google TV are global industry heavyweights Intel, Sony, Logitech, Adobe, Best Buy, and DISH Network.

Google Owns YouTube
Google owns YouTube. No longer just a fun site featuring fuzzy videos of furry animals, Hollywood studios use it to launch marketing campaigns for blockbuster movies, and provide pay-per-view movie rentals. The worlds of professional comedy and music rely on YouTube for continuing exposure to their end-users. Major corporations are posting important marketing videos and news organizations post in-depth stories on the site. None of the other over-the-top (OTT) services owns content with the scale and depth of YouTube. Google TV positions YouTube to expand beyond PCs and mobile handsets into living rooms.

WebM Project and VP8 Will Expand YouTube’s Reach
Google's new free WebM-project video Coder/Decoder (CODEC), called VP8, will let YouTube content be re-purposed at different video resolutions. These video and audio files can be viewed directly by any WebM-capable browser, and it supports high quality viewing over congested final-mile connections. The Google TV extensions that bring Android into set top boxes and to TV sets create an ecosystem in which an Android phone will be able to send machine-to-machine messages to various connected devices in your home, or to your mobile computers. MIPS Technologies, a leading supplier of set top box processor architectures and cores, is already using Android and supports the WebM project’s new VP8 video and audio CODEC technology. Texas Instruments announced support for VP8 with their industry-leading OMAP cellular phone processors. ARM has also announced support for VP8.

DISH Network Pairs Pay-TV with Over-the-Top
In-Stat’s latest consumer research shows that most people want both high-quality HDTV programs and convenient access to content from the Internet. Later this year, DISH Network subscribers using Google TV will be able to simultaneously search for content across DISH Network, the Internet, and their DVRs using a single remote control. They will be able to overlay online content related to television shows, movies, actors, and more, and also hyperlink web content back to multichannel TV. DISH has been working with Google on Google TV Ads for some time, so this looks like a natural extension of that relationship.

Best Buy, home of The Geek Squad, has over 1,400 stores in the US and Canada, and another 2,600 in Europe. They are perfectly positioned to benefit by supporting Google TV. Over 180,000 Best Buy “blue shirt” personnel will be ready to welcome interested consumers and help them take a look. When Google TV launches, there should be a substantial amount of compelling content being packaged and presented for demonstrations at the point of sale.

Adobe, Sony, Logitech, and Intel Provide Major Name-Brand Support
Adobe announced that their new Flash Player 10.1 will soon be available for mobile phones running Android 2.2, as well as Google TV devices. The new version was designed with mobile in mind. Flash 10.1 supports touch-screen gestures and accelerometers that are built into Android phones. The Flash player will also support smart zoom, full-screen mode, and smart rendering. Flash Player 10.1 is designed to access and display all the same videos and applications on mobile devices that are available through web browsers.

Sony is already shipping TV sets that include built-in Ethernet and broadband capabilities. New Sony TV sets that include Intel's semiconductors and the Google TV software are planned to begin shipping later this year. With Google TV as a partner for aggregating online content, Sony will gain access to YouTube video “channels” that will differentiate Sony’s TV sets in the highly competitive consumer TV retail marketplace. Sony views their participation in Google TV as taking a leading position for the next generation of TV experiences. The Intel devices and the Google TV technology could readily be embedded into Sony's Blu-ray players and into a wide range of new set top boxes.

Logitech’s world-leading line of wireless keypads, mice, and universal remote controls are being adapted to provide the user connections to the Google TV service. Logitech’s Harmony remote control technology will interoperate with existing set top boxes in a consumer’s home, letting them use one remote control to tune-in broadcast and Pay-TV content, and instantly switch to Google TV services that come in via broadband. Future iterations of the hardware may also support non-keyboard inputs, such as sensors with software that recognize a person’s hand gestures or voice commands.

Intel is defining their participation in Google TV as a technology enabler. The Intel Consumer Electronic (CE) series of high-performance devices will be used inside new Sony-branded connected TV sets, and in an initial "Buddy Box" from Logitech that will provide broadband connections to early adopters.

Intel’s Consumer Electronics devices provide a roadmap for continuing performance increases, and the ability to “slice and dice” a range of features to obtain the optimal price/performance mix for high-volume consumer products. Intel has also announced that their Atom CE Media Processors will be used in a new Internet Protocol (IP) set top box expected to launch in 2011 by Liberty Global, Europe’s second largest Cable TV service provider. This box will be manufactured by Samsung, and includes the NDS middleware and Nagravision's NAGRA Media Access Conditional Access (CA) technology. Set top boxes made by Metrological and Amino provide "real world" examples of the kind of horsepower and innovation that Intel is bringing to broadband-delivered video in the coming years.

MIPS  has made some announcements regarding the company's Android platform. MIPS is the first company to have ported Android on to processor cores for home entertainment systems - taking Android well beyond the cell phone market.

Here are the high-level points from today's MIPS announcements:

MIPS ANDROID @ CES: MIPS will bring Android 'home' at CES by demoing the world's first Android set-top boxes, Android running on a MIPS-based netbook and the world's first social media center for Android-based embedded platforms.

Adobe: MIPS has partnered with Adobe and joined the Open Screen Project to collaborate and optimize Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for the MIPS architecture. The partnership shows MIPS' commitment to supporting key platforms that will enable the next-generation of connected multimedia devices, and Adobe Flash Player is an essential element of the rich web experience in these products.

Ecosystem: MIPS is working with key semiconductor IP firms like Chips & Media, Discretix, Tensilica, Vivante Corp. and others to help customers meet cost/performance targets with solutions that optimize performance for devices based on the Android platform.

MStar: The company has licensed MIPS' multi-threaded processor for next generation devices, including DTV ICs.

ViXS: Has partnered with MIPS to enable advanced set-top box, connect TV, Blu-ray disc and video network processor applications using the MIPS 74k and 1004k platforms.

Silicon, OEM, Cable and Content Partners Embrace Adobe Flash Platform for Televisions, Set-Top Boxes and Blu-Ray Players 

At the 2009 NAB Show, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the extension of the Adobe® Flash® Platform to connected digital home devices with an optimized implementation of Flash technology that delivers high definition (HD) video and rich applications to Internet-connected televisions, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and other devices in the digital living room.

Major System on Chips (SoC) vendors, OEMs, cable operators and content providers including Atlantic Records, Broadcom, Comcast, Disney Interactive Media Group, Intel, Netflix, STMicroelectronics, The New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors, Sigma Designs, and others announced support for the optimized Flash technology today. The Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home is available immediately to OEMs and the first devices and SoC platforms with support for the optimized Flash technology are expected to ship in the second half of 2009.

The Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home now enables the delivery of HD Web videos to digital home devices via the Flash Video (FLV) file format. Consumers will be able to enjoy rich, interactive viewing experiences and amazing new ways to engage with HD content on televisions.

Flash technology-based applications will allow users to quickly switch between television programming and Web content outside the Web browser. With the optimized implementation of Flash technology, content providers are able to extend their reach to millions of connected digital home devices, and cable operators and device manufacturers are able to develop new services and powerful user interfaces that deliver immersive experiences.

Delivering Flash technology to the digital home builds on the vision of the Open Screen Project, a broad industry initiative to deliver a consistent runtime environment across devices. Announced in May 2008, the initiative is dedicated to enabling Web content and standalone applications across televisions, desktops, mobile devices and other consumer electronics that take advantage of capabilities of the Adobe Flash Platform. For more information, visit the site.

On2 Technologies, a leader in video compression solutions, announced that it has licensed its On2 VP6® video format and software to VisualOn Inc. VisualOn will optimize and integrate VP6 decoding software into its multimedia application suite for mobile platforms.

On2 VP6, through its inclusion in the Adobe Flash and Sun JavaFX application platforms, has become the de facto format for web video and a fundamental requirement for Internet-connected mobile devices.

When compared to H.264 Baseline profile (an emerging video format used in wireless applications) On2 VP6 content offers 10% to 20% better video compression performance while requiring less computing power to play. As a result, VP6 enables a wider range of mobile devices to play high-quality content without sacrificing battery life. For more information about On2 VP6 visit the site.

VisualOn's highly optimized software applications allow consumers to play rich multimedia content on mobile devices without expensive dedicated hardware. VisualOn's highly optimized power-efficient software codecs and multimedia applications offer everything needed to enable video, audio, and still image applications on mobile devices.

Could this technology be used in CAT-iq products, so that video content could be distributed via CAT-iq as well?