Network Foundation Technologies

Last updated

Network Foundation Technologies
TypePrivately held company
IndustryOnline Broadcasting
Founded2001
Headquarters Ruston, Louisiana
Key people
Mike O'Neal, Chief Scientist; Marcus Morton, President
ProductsNiftyTV
Number of employees
40
Website niftytv.com

Network Foundation Technologies, LLC (NiFTy) is a U.S. based online broadcasting company founded by Dr. Mike O'Neal, [1] a computer scientist at Louisiana Tech University, and Marcus Morton, a music, film and multi-media entrepreneur. [2] The company pioneered an online broadcasting technology [3] that allows the computers and Internet connections of its audience to help deliver a broadcast on to other viewers. [3] An application, NiFTyTV, bypasses limitations inherent to online broadcasting by reducing bandwidth costs at the source. [4]

NiFTy is headquartered in Ruston, La., on the Louisiana Tech University campus. The company largely employs graduates and students of the university's computer science program. [5]

Background

Founded in 2001, NiFTy was the first online broadcaster to incorporate the "Free For View" model for professional sports leagues, [6] and provides online broadcasts for the Arena Football League [7] and the Professional Bull Riders. [8]

The company receives ongoing support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as well as private funding.[ citation needed ]

Technology

NiFTy's technology centers on a balanced binary tree design, where a broadcast stream is fed directly to a small number of viewers, who propagate the signal to more viewers. The audience grows as the signal repeats to more end-users, but only a few nodes remain directly connected to the server. The collective capacity of the viewers' computers and Internet connections then power a significant part of the online broadcast. [9] This technology overcomes the requirement that online broadcasters transmit a duplicate copy of each video stream to every viewer.

Board of Advisors

NiFTy's Board of Advisors includes music executive Clarence Avant, former chairman of Motown Records and board member of PolyGram Records and William J. MacDonald, creator and producer of the HBO series Rome .

Awards

On February 15, 2011, NiFTy received a Tibbetts Award from the Small Business Administration. [10] The company also won the Louisiana Technology Company of the Year in March 2010. [11] To date, the National Science Foundation has granted NiFTy $1.2 million in research funding. [12]

Related Research Articles

National Center for Supercomputing Applications Illinois-based applied supercomputing research organization

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is a state-federal partnership to develop and deploy national-scale cyberinfrastructure that advances research, science and engineering based in the United States of America. NCSA operates as a unit of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and provides high-performance computing resources to researchers across the country. Support for NCSA comes from the National Science Foundation, the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, business and industry partners, and other federal agencies.

Video on demand Systems which allow users to select and watch video or listen to audio content on demand

Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of over-the-air programming was the most common form of media distribution. As Internet and IPTV technologies continued to develop in the 1990s, consumers began to gravitate towards non-traditional modes of content consumption, which culminated in the arrival of VOD on televisions and personal computers.

National Science Foundation United States government agency

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health. With an annual budget of about $8.3 billion, the NSF funds approximately 25% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics, and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing.

TechTV is a defunct 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming. At the height of its six-year run, TechTV was broadcast in 70 countries, reached 43 million households, and claimed 1.9 million unique visitors monthly to its website. A focus on personality-driven product reviews and technical support made it a cultural hub for technology information worldwide, still existing today online through its former hosts' webcasts, most notably the TWiT Network.

Florida Institute of Technology Private research university in Melbourne, Florida

The Florida Institute of Technology is a private research university in Melbourne, Florida. The university comprises four academic colleges: Engineering & Science, Aeronautics, Psychology & Liberal Arts, and Business. Approximately half of FIT's students are enrolled in the College of Engineering. The university's 130-acre primary residential campus is near the Orlando Melbourne International Airport and the Florida Tech Research Park.

Streaming television Distribution of television content via the public internet

Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming TV stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable television, and/or satellite television systems. The use of streaming online video and streaming television is concentrated on streaming video on demand platforms such as Netflix, Tubi, Crackle, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Vudu, Peacock, Disney+, Apple TV+, BET+, and Paramount+.

Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation South Korean broadcasting channel

Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation is one of the leading South Korean television and radio network companies. Munhwa is the Sino-Korean word for "culture". Its flagship terrestrial television station MBC TV is Channel 11 (LCN) for Digital.

Hackathon Event in which groups of software developers work at an accelerated pace

A hackathon is a design sprint-like event; often, in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, domain experts, and others collaborate intensively on software projects.

MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) is a limited partnership of the club owners of Major League Baseball (MLB) based in New York City and is the Internet and interactive branch of the league.

<i>The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate</i> American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana

The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of The Times-Picayune by the New Orleans edition of The Advocate, which began publication in 2013 as a response to The Times-Picayune switching from a daily publication schedule to a Wednesday/Friday/Sunday schedule in October 2012.

Mobile television Television for handheld or mobile device

Mobile television is television watched on a small handheld or mobile device. It includes service delivered via mobile phone networks, received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations, or via satellite broadcast. Regular broadcast standards or special mobile TV transmission formats can be used. Additional features include downloading TV programs and podcasts from the Internet and storing programming for later viewing.

Luis von Ahn Guatemalan entrepreneur and computer scientist

Luis von Ahn is a Guatemalan entrepreneur and a Consulting Professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is known as one of the pioneers of crowdsourcing. He is the founder of the company reCAPTCHA, which was sold to Google in 2009, and the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, the world's most popular language-learning platform.

Don Valentine American venture capitalist

Donald Thomas Valentine was an American venture capitalist who concentrated mainly on technology companies in the United States. He had been referred to as the "grandfather of Silicon Valley venture capital". The Computer History Museum credited him as playing "a key role in the formation of a number of industries such as semiconductors, personal computers, personal computer software, digital entertainment and networking."

Kainos Group plc is a software company headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland that develops information technology solutions for businesses and organisations particularly in the public, healthcare and financial services sectors. Kainos has offices across the UK, Europe, the US and Canada, providing consulting and support services to its customers around the world.

Huddle (software)

Huddle is a privately held cloud-based collaboration software company founded in London in 2006 by Alastair Mitchell and Andy McLoughlin. The company is co-headquartered in London and San Francisco with additional offices in Washington D.C. and New York City.

A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features, which allows users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a technological convergence of computers, televisions, and digital media players. Besides the traditional functions of television sets provided through traditional broadcasting media, these devices can provide access to over-the-top media services such as streaming television and internet radio, along with home networking access.

Bambuser

Bambuser AB (publ) is a Swedish company, founded in 2007. Bambuser provides a platform for mobile live video streaming. In 2014, Bambuser shifted focus to their B2B offering, providing mobile live video for brands, organizations and app developers. Bambuser's HQ is situated in Stockholm, Sweden, with an office in Turku, Finland. The Swedish office concentrates on business development, marketing and European sales, while the Turku office focuses on technology and development. In May 2017, Bambuser was listed on Nasdaq First North stock exchange.

ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy is a subscription-based digital education program for children ages 2–8, created by Age of Learning, Inc. Subscribers can access learning activities on the ABCmouse.com website or mobile app. Subjects covered include reading and language arts, math, science, health, social studies, music, and art.

9Now

9Now is a video on demand, catch-up TV service run by the Nine Network in Australia. The service launched on 27 January 2016, replacing Nine's previous service 9Jumpin. 9Now offers online live streaming of Channel 9, 9Gem, 9Go!, 9Life and 9Rush, as well as live news via 9news.com.au.

References

  1. "mikeoneal.com". mikeoneal.com. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  2. imdb.com
  3. 1 2 "nsf.gov" (PDF). Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  4. "investing.businessweek.com". investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  5. louisianaeconomicdevelopment.com Archived March 1, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  6. "mediaweek.com". mediaweek.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  7. "arenafootball.com". arenafootball.com. Archived from the original on June 14, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  8. "pbrnow.com". pbrnow.com. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  9. Daily, Geoff (November 24, 2008). "app-rising.com". app-rising.com. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  10. "sba.gov". sba.gov. February 15, 2011. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  11. The Times-Picayune. "nola.com". nola.com. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  12. thenewsstar.com [ dead link ]

`