Net entrepreneur Allaire to unveil video-download company
Cambridge entrepreneur Jeremy Allaire, whose Cold Fusion software became a standard tool for website development in the 1990s, is unveiling a company that he hopes will make Internet movie downloads a standard feature on home TV sets.
''We're going to build a service that marries what the Internet does really well, with television," said Allaire about his new venture, Brightcove Inc., which launches today. Brightcove will offer an Internet service for use by consumers with computers or set-top boxes that can store hours of video programming on their hard drives. Users will be able to order programs and have them automatically sent to their hard drives, then view them whenever they choose.
The Brightcove business model is different from that of rivals like Akimbo Systems and Dave Networks Inc., which provide their own set-top devices for capturing and playing back the videos.
''We certainly didn't go to build a device, because that doesn't make a lot of sense, " Allaire said. Instead, he's counting on public acceptance of new computers based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Center PC software. This version of the Windows XP operating system is designed to work with multimedia devices like TV sets and stereo systems. The software is sold on PCs that contain output plugs that connect to TV sets. A number of manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard Co., are making Windows Media Center PCs especially for use as part of a living room entertainment system.
Allaire predicted that the Media Center standard will soon become common in home computers. ''When you go to buy a consumer edition of a Microsoft product next year, it will be a TV device," he said. Because the Brightcove service is based on the Internet, it could also work with any other TV-compatible Internet device, such as cable company set-top boxes.
Consumers with compatible hardware and a high-speed Internet connection will be able to subscribe to Brightcove, at a price that has not yet been disclosed. The system will let users either rent or purchase videos that are then downloaded onto the device. Purchased videos could be copied onto a computer's DVD burner to produce a disk that could be watched on any DVD player.
Allaire doesn't plan to offer big-time Hollywood films on Brightcove. Even though movie studios do offer some of their movies for Internet downloads over services like CinemaNow and Movielink, Allaire says the studios' hearts aren't in it. He estimated that some studios derive up to 65 percent of their revenues from retail sales of DVD disks.
''Cash is flowing in on DVD sales," Allaire said, ''and they have no interest at all in the Internet."
So Brightcove will offer independent films that cater to specialized tastes and aren't readily available through other channels. Allaire hopes his service will create a new way for film producers to deliver their work to the public.
Esther Dyson, editor of the technology newsletter Release 1.0, is impressed with the Brightcove concept.
''I think it's brilliant," said Dyson. She compared it to the way Amazon.com lets independent business people sell their products on their own websites by linking to the Amazon network. ''In the same way, I think, people will be using Brightcove for video."
Allaire's previous Net venture, Allaire Corp., was launched with the help of his brother J.J. in 1995. Its Web development product, Cold Fusion, became a major hit during the 1990s boom. In 2001, Allaire Corp. was acquired by Web software maker Macromedia Inc. for $360 million. Jeremy Allaire stayed on as Macromedia's chief technology officer, but left in 2003 to join General Catalyst, a Cambridge venture capital firm. Now General Catalyst, and another venture firm, Accel Partners, have teamed up to finance Brightcove.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com. 