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College mates S. Anan’s & Balbinder Singh’s shared passion for multimedia led them into the emerging medium of web-based videos, joined by Daniel Dennis. Surf! speaks to the Interactive Pixel team.
What led you into this, Anan?
I graduated with Bachelor of Computing degree from UCSI in 1999 and worked in several companies including at my alma mater UCSI, where I developed its e-Advantage electronic-learning content before going to UK where I obtained a Masters in interactive multimedia.
I then worked for a company in London called Connectivity which developed eVideo Collaborative training videos. I also worked for electronic-learning software company Boardworks in Oxford and also lectured degree students at Westminster. I returned to Malaysia in 2006 and was still creating training videos for Connectivity from Malaysia.
How about you, Balbinder?
I studied telecommunications engineering in UCSI and after graduating in 2000, I worked for an audio-visual company, Invision Technology in Malaysia, then moved on to become site manager with Daito Eastern Engineering in Kuwait which maintained power sub-stations. I returned to Malaysia in 2005 and met Anan.
And you Daniel, why did you join Interactive Pixel?
When the guys first showed me the product I went home thinking that this was going to be something big. Having seen its success back home in the United States I was eager to get involved here in South East Asia where there is a lot more room for development and less saturation. After collaborating on some smaller projects we decided to work together full-time.
So when did you found Interactive Pixel Studios, Anan?
We founded it together in mid-2006. I became managing director and Balbinder is head of production. We originally produced videos for our customers which were between 60% and 70% cheaper than conventional production houses.
How do you manage to keep it that low?
We adopt a completely new approach or in industry parlance -- a ‘blue ocean strategy’ – by doing all the camera work, production, post-production and special effects in-house, while as much as possible using our client’s staff to conduct the interviews, hosting the show and so on. One benefit of this approach was that it encouraged us to identify emotionally with our projects. For example, we followed FIFA officials around tsunami struck areas such as Banda Aceh, the Maldives, Phuket and others to produce a video called Against All Odds as part of a project called Football for Hope. It was shown at the FIFA Annual Congress in Zurich as a fund raiser to support these stricken countries.
In 2007 we began experimenting with Web TV. It was an emerging opportunity and we decided to produce local Web TV content for consumers using Adobe Flash Media Server to stream the content. We aimed to provide customers with their own branded online TV channel which we thought is more professional than videos hosted on public video streaming sites.
Why Flash and not something else?
Flash players work and they are installed on 99% of web browsers and around 400 million mobile phones worldwide. On the other hand, while Windows Media Player may run slightly faster on Windows platforms, there are cross-platform and reliability issues. RealPlayer is very reliable but is not as widely installed as Flash, while Apple Quicktime is also not as widely installed, even though it has some nice video downloading, CD ripping and writing features.
Where are your video servers hosted?
We began with one server in Cyberjaya. We now also have servers in the UK and Chicago to facilitate faster streaming and the system intelligently identifies the location of the viewer and re-routes him or her to the nearest server. For special projects such as regional football events, we will temporarily host servers in key points across the region.
Who are your current customers?
Our major current customers are the FAM, UCSI, the Coral Vista property developer and Energistics – a technology provider, manufacturer and systems integrator. We are in ongoing negotiations with a couple of government agencies, large property developers and a foreign government tourist promotion agency.
Daniel, what do you do as strategic planner?
Strategic planning is mainly focused on how our WebTV services can turn a profit or add value to our clients. For example FAM wanted a means of increasing their tournament viewership. Our technology helped them make the footage available on-demand within 3 hours of each match’s conclusion. This allowed journalists and fans worldwide to enjoy the highlights of every match whenever they had free time.
How about video on mobile phones?
We’re conducting research & development into video on mobile videos and have come up with a working beta version which is being fine tuned.
We basically have two solutions. One is live or on-demand video viewed through the WAP browsers of mobile phones, where viewers click on links to begin streaming or downloading videos. Our technology is network-independent, faster than that of local telcos, is of better quality and work very well overseas. For example, MTV Italia - not our client – has a branded version of MTV on mobile phones, requiring a Flash client be installed.
Our second solution involves a downloadable client application which presents professional, branded, rich media Web TV over 3G or WiFi and enables viewing higher bit-rate videos than through WAP-browsers. We’re also working on a Bluetooth solution.
How many staff does Interactive Pixel have in all?
We have seven staff, including myself in our Malaysian headquarters, where our R&D activities are conducted. Two people in our London office handle our operations across Europe, mainly the UK and Spain for now. We outsource jobs from there and produce them here.
What are your future plans for Interactive Pixel?
We will identify more things which can be done with Web TV and mobile phones. The all new Flash Media Server 3.0 has opened doors to a more exciting Mobile Video development platform and we are already toying with the possibilities of LIVE user generated content and multi-camera switching sports viewing experience. The best is yet to come really.
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