Industry Standard Streaming Protocol (OR ISSP let’s call it) is just another concept that I’ve been dreaming about. Like many of my ideas & passions this is a huge concept, and I often struggle in breaking down my ideas so I can built them. However, I always try my best. And this time my invention is called the “ClusterBox”.
The ClusterBox is a custom-built home theater system I’ve built on top of Apple’s OSX. It allows the user to enjoy Movies, TV, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Spotify, Google + Hangouts, and more, all via the highly configured touchscreen remote from your couch. Users can also enjoy content streamed from the Clusterbox on their web browsers, iPhones, Androids, Google TVs, Rokus, Apple TVs.. The list goes on and on thanks to plex.tv.
Today my personal ClusterBox automatically downloads content from the internet via usenet and API queries to NZB indexing sites. Yes, some of the content my ClusterBox downloads is breaking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and many other laws, but the technologies and methods used to find and download this content is completely legal and that’s where my passion is. Please don’t hunt me down. I’ve never sold, setup, or even taught in detail how to build these things. I taught myself how because other people taught me. I want to solve pirating, not encourage it!)
So, why build all this? Because as you now know I’ve always dreamt about an industry standard streaming protocol that handles global digital media distribution and payments. That’s a lot of words, let me elaborate a bit.
Using the typical client server model, imagine a free software anyone could install on their server(s) to distribute digital media through the web. This means movie production studios (large & small), TV networks (Discovery, Fox, HBO, etc.), radio stations (XM, Pandora, Spotify), personal video/music blogs, could all install this software in their datacenter, or pay a 3rd party company *cough *cough Comcast, DirectTV, to leverage the ISSP protocol and broadcast media to the world using an industry standard method for content distribution. Very cool, right? Well how does that work? How would the business work? I’ll share my thoughts.
First, an example of the URL:
issp://name_of_owner_domain/subcategory/item
OR
issp://HBO.com/Game_Of_Thrones/Season_2/The_Ghost_of_Harrenhal
OR
issp://Sony.com/Alicia_Keys/Songs_In_A_Minor/A_Woman’s_Worth
OR
issp://bradsmusic.com/Brad_Davis/my_new_album/I_want_to_be_a_star
Now, when a client web-browser, mobile app, Android, Samsung TV, even your future Tesla’s infotainment system, makes an ISSP request they will receive only metadata in return. i.e. Type_of_media, Media_Location, Release_date, Unique_Request_ID, and most importantly, Cost. If Cost is 0 then the client software will send a second request to the Media_Location and with it’s validated Unique_Request_ID. Boom! HTML5 does it’s thing from there. Enjoy your free content hosted from issp://bradsmusic.com/Brad_Davis/my_new_album/I_want_to_be_a_star!
If cost is not free than it’s the responsibility of the client-software to ask for payment from the user where a secure transaction can be completed. Payment goes directly to the content owner where they can configure their servers to automatically payout royalties and distribute the money however the contract specifies. Payment will take milliseconds and a validated key to access that content is handed back to the client software. If the user has a subscription to the content provider this could be quickly validated too so they don’t have to pay-as-they-go. Hopefully you get the idea by now. Perhaps I should draw a diagram for this? Hrmmm…
issp://Bradsmusic.com could go viral and make me famous overnight. I could host it from my laptop at home and I wouldn’t have to worry about marketing, distribution of physical product, or if my media is being shared on the best platform(s) for visibility. I could easily monetize my work and distribute my profits how ever I see fit. Not to mention, this effectively replace the very out-dated Nielsen TV/Radio rating system as well as leave room for someone like Google to do some very creative things.
I would love to take part in any efforts to build this something like this. Yes, this product could cripple billion-dollar ‘middle men’ corporations, but then again they could also hire me, a bunch of smart engineers, and fund a new R&D department. 🙂
Whomever builds a free industry standard system like this will forever change the entertainment industry and potentially ease digital copyright complexities. I wish I was smart enough to build this stuff from scratch, but I’m not. Nor do I have the time because I gotta pay rent and put food on the table. I’m a small guy with big ideas and trapped in a giant world.
Someday though! Someday…
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