Streaming Bag Hunt 2000
Streaming
Media East 2000 show started at the New York Hilton, Monday. Paul Kostabi's
California oddessy continued Monday. The New Jersey Devils second day of
being Stanley Cup champions started Monday. KatKitty started getting ready
to come to New York for ArtCall
day, June 30th, a Monday. We wondered just how we could get streaming video
ready for all the ArtCall artists. And today, Monday Bloody Monday, we
were gonna' begin to get our answers.
Calmx
joined me at alt.coffee for the shebang. We bussed and trained our way
up to the Hilton and Towers on 54th and Avenue of the America's to get
ourselves registered. We got duly press badged and hit the pressroom. We
poured over press packet after press packet until there were no more press
packets to go over. We then began to do what East Villagers do best when
not trying to make ourselves famous, we went out and began to get all the
goodies. First, we needed to get our goodies bearings and yack.com had
the solution, a compass.
As we journeyed
through the aisles we had goals. These goals included finding things for
calmx's cat, practicality, topicality, uniqueness, trendiness and what
an East Villager is into most. On our search we were rounding a corner
and we saw some innocent looking manila bubblewrap envelopes, they were
from MaxVU Media in Cleveland, Ohio and had a coupon in them that if you
filled them out and sent them a tape, they would make a streaming video
of your content in two different bandwidths, one lowband version and a
high bandwidth version. This wins our Best of Show award.
Earthnoise.com,
of New York, Tel Aviv and San Francisco, had all kinds of promo's and presentations.
They had a VHS tape box and a girl handing our Laos in the lobby, they
win the Runner-Up Award. Now the only reason that this is
not a tie with MaxVu is that it was unclear if they would process the tape,
other than that this is a dandy promo item. I liked the little TV set on
MeTV.com biz card, Best Business Card Award goes to them. It wasn't
a fancy card by any standards and probably not the most powerful one that
we will get (we will want a second chance at John Sculley).
Cidera.com
has the most practical item from a reporter/writer standpoint. Their neo
post-modern coffee cup rendition earns the Editor's Fix Award. So
good an item it turned out to be, I decided to use it right away. I also
incurred my editrixs' wrath by not giving it to her (We'll try to get another
tomorrow). This is a very nice heavy, but not too heavy cup, it also holds
a big 12 oz. and keeps coffee warm a long time. We didn't see any other
cups during our spin on the floor for comparison, but if you can't tell
already, we personally just love coffee cups.
Along the
lines of practicality we also have the very helpful stress relievers, all
kinds of stress relievers were in attendance at a show, such as this one.
Streaming media is a stressful job, they might even be the most stressful
of all the computer jobs for they have the TV stress factor built into
them. Activate.com, www.com, medium4.com and inktomi.com all checked in
with the lovable squeezies. Inktomi's item is a colored square and you'll
see it later in this diary article.
The Celebrity
of the Day Award goes out to John Sculley. We at the ArtCall think
Mr. Sculley would be a great candidate for share redesigner. We would have
to wonder if he is up to raising a billion dollars in a day. We wonder
if he is up to making a whole new computer operating system. We wonder
if he is up to moving to the East Village/Lower East Side. He... is a candidate.
The kind of candidate we could want as a COO. But he would have to realize
that he just could never be board chair. So much for idle speculation.
Maybe we should bring him share 15 and sell it to him. We always have to
keep a keen eye out to potential investors.
Tats, that's
right, tats! Not permanent ones, but lightningcast.com gets the East
Village Award for its rendition of a temporary tattoo. We don't think
they had us in mind when they made them but all East Villagers alike will
agree they go straight to our hearts. Speculation abounds as to whether
anyone has a permanent one of the logo? The Food-Clothing-Shelter Award
goes out to NeTVideoNetworks.com (they also run the pressroom). The hat
and shirts both will keep the rain off our heads and keep us warm during
the winter. You also gotta love any black t-shirt. You also gotta love
the food in the pressroom. It is NeTVideoNetworks.com that is doing the
production work on this very conference. Now if that isn't the press calling
the press the press!
As you browse
the row upon row of exhibits something is gonna' catch your eye. These
light balls were just the ticket. Calmx's cat Football is going to be the
subject of many experiments to see how he plays with them. We like them
enough to make them the Trendy Item Award and the winners are iBEAM.com,
On2.com, and artesia.com, who all checked in with these delightful items.
They're great for walking up and down Avenue A with, they just look wonderful
when you strike them on the floor or a wall and watch them flash!
We haven't
yet asked anyone for the shirt off their backs, but we did ask John Ryan
from Incanta.net, for the hat off his head. For this act of kindness, we
bestow upon John the Hat's Off Award. It will also get us to exploring
just what personalized bandwidth is all about. This will also force me
to ask for another hat for my editrix is after one of these prize winning
gems. The Practicality Award goes out to Qpass.com and Sun Microsystems
for their phone cord extensions. These handy little items are good for
laptops, when you have to plug-in. The Qpass version gets a special mention
for the extra cord to cord plug tucked inside the box and the extra 3 feet
of length over the competition.
What's a
convention without pens? I defy a techie to come to a convention and leave
all the pens at home. You can get pens from the lowly Bics of Exodus.net
(not that Exodus.net is lowly), to the high grade pens of Winnov.com. For
pure style, the iTalk.com and Encode This! pens, came out on top. For the
feeling, the streamingmedia.com pens were the best. For color, the burst.com
pen attracted the most attention. There was also a rubber pencil from screamingmedia.com
that bent to your every wish. The Best Pen of Show Award goes out
to anystream.com for their pen with little window slots that change messages
with each pen click, their pen window revealed the company's phone number,
web address, slogan and what their software does. I was really impressed
with this pen.
The China
Club proved fertile grounds for souvenir hunting. This handy bottle opener/shoe
horn fit right in nicely with our burgeoning collection, the food was fantastic
and the open bar was also up to task. We also came away with a much needed
ashtray for headquarters.
Back in California,
home of the Intel Man, Poshboy Records A&R man Paul Kostabi, along
with Heidi Follin of Follin Gallery, were getting some needed R&R after
collaborating with DiDi Ramone over "some of the best paintings we have
ever made". You can bid on them on Ebay in the near future when Paul comes
back to New York. Paul also wears another hat as CEO of Kostabi World in
New York, Kostabi World is extremely interested in getting streaming
video out to their art patrons.
We
searched all day for the elusive Conference Kit and were rebuffed in our
efforts to get our hands on one. Press Relations staffer Bessie Delucchi
has promised to do her best to get us one tomorrow so we can get it into
tomorrow's coverage. Until then 'That's A Wrap!"
Jottings: Streaming Media East 2000 Hilton Towers Thru June14th All day. We are there both days. No Rio Benefit/Open House 6/24 all day, Tsaurah Litzky ABC No Rio June 25th 7-9, All times PM unless otherwise noted.
photos ©carol
braddock aka red ed, Heidi Follin
Artwork Permission of Webbittown Corporattion
artwork©artists too mumorous to mention.
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