I recently rambled on about how the StreamCast Player was the most elegant flash player I had ever seen. The guy behind this fluid browser based video player, Micro Pasqualini, also hinted to me he had another project in the works called WiTV, but that this was “top secret”.

Yesterday I managed to have a chat with Pasqualini, who shed a bit of light on what this whole WiTV thing is…

I have to say I am very intrigued by the talk of a browser based Joost and Apple TV compatibility.

WiTV consists of:

• CrossCast System – The platform/technology behind the delivery of the video content.
• WiTV – The program guide, video player and user interface. Assumingly this is the main name that WiTV will be known under. It has taken many of the slick properties of the StreamCast Player.
• Nomad Cast – This is the workflow for the video producer.

Main Features

The table below compares the main features of WiTV to Joost but there are two awesome features which have me very excited:

1. Browser Based and OS Agnostic: WiTV will be able to run directly from any web browser and work on Linux, Mac and Windows. It can also be run as a standalone player. Based on the StreamCast Player I am guessing it will be flash based meaning it shouldn’t require you to install anything giving it a huge advantage over competitors Joost and BabelGum.
2. Consumer Electronic Compatibility: The nature of WiTV should allow it to automatically integrate with third party media devices including Windows Media Center, the Apple TV, Xbox 360, and mobile devices. This is cool, but I’ll have to see it to believe it!

Who’s Behind WiTV

• Mr. Luca Valsecchi – CEO LSVmultimedia Srl / CrossCast Commercial & Sales Officier.
• Mr. Sergio Valsecchi – Director LSVmultimedia Srl / CrossCast Strategies
• Mr. Mirco Pasqualini – Innovator LSVmultimedia Srl / CrossCast Director

WiTV Concerns

Professional TV
While BabelGum did not want to go head on with Joost over attracting the media giants and looked towards independent producers, WiTV is planning a head on collision with Joost by competition for the media giants. I was told that WiTV met with Sony and Fox last week in Hollywood but haven’t heard anything in the way of TV content deals.

Location
CrossCast has its headquarters in Lecco, Italy. While this places the company in a better position for tying up deals in Europe it could leave CrossCast out of the loop in the U.S. The bad English on the CrossCast website doesn’t help either.

Not P2P
Unlike its competitors Joost and BabelGum, WiTV will not use peer-to-peer technology meaning it may have issues with scalability and bandwidth.

Conclusion

I’m definitely intrigued by WiTV and hope that it delivers on what it promises: compatibility with lots of devices, browser based, professional content, & OS agnostic.

This all sounds great… I hope WiTV can pull it off.

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