Although not exactly the most appropriate technology and home video streaming Box Boxee, the Mobile World Congress gave us the opportunity to chat with Luigi Ong, director of marketing and sales for Southern Europe from D-Link, the Boxee company marketing. During our conversation, Wen told us how he is running Boxee Box in Spain, and what are the future plans for this free platform, especially in these dark days in which anything that smacks to share video content online is at the point of look.
Tech News Buzz: The first question is almost obligatory, how is running Boxee Box in Spain? Salmoiragui Luigi: It's working very well. In fact, we are so good that we could almost use the term 'Dying of success. " Boxee Box was presented at CES in Las Vegas, 2010. Months later we made a series of changes in the labor Chipset Intel to improve the interface and user experience.
The product went on sale last quarter of last year. The campaign launch in Europe has been so successful that we had problems with stock because, in fact, we did not think to have a very good host. We are now recovering from delays in delivery arising precisely from this success. Tech News Buzz: With so many active social networks How well is the social component of Boxee? At first it seemed one of the strengths of the platform and now seems to have been Relagen into the background.
Wen Luigi: With so many tablets, mobile phones, laptops or desktops, and Boxee now, yes there is a saturation of 2.0 experiences. In this sense, I like to talk about 2.2, which is 2.0, with an additional 10% common sense for each user. Everyone should use the social component in their best interests.
In the case of Box Boxee, the social component is a differential value, but is not strictly necessary. Some people use it a lot and people who do not use it at all. Today we have no specifics on how this has affected sales of the device. Tech News Buzz: Do you intend to integrate social platform Boxee Box with other existing networks such as Facebook or Twitter? Luigi Wen: At this time, the development team in the U.S.
Boxee is being carried out contacts in terms of software and content. I can tell you he is talking about, but can not tell you dates or networks. One should also take into account where Europe is a different market, both in content and in the manner of access to social networks. Tech News Buzz: It is said that in Europe and especially in Spain, the IPTV experience is of much lower quality than in the United States What is your experience like? Wen Luigi: Here I speak as a user and consumer of content.
For me it was a very pleasant surprise to find that many applications of local television stations such as TVE, Antena 3, and the Sixth and were developed before it hit stores Boxee Spanish. As you know, Boxee is an open platform and its contents are more dependent than they think of us.
Thanks to the work of independent developers or the strings themselves, Boxee can be used similarly to traditional TDT device with the advantage that you can regulate the use of television to your taste, either to watch a particular program off the clock or for recording. This has helped us to sell the product in Spain.
Tech News Buzz: Boxee is an open platform and as such, is offering applications created by users, such as changing the current rules could fall outside the law, such as Direct Red or SeriesYonkis. For you it is an uncomfortable position to apply Are you thinking about Boxee control mechanisms to limit such uses? Wen Luigi: No, not at all.
Com born Boxee open platform and will remain an open platform until someone forbid. Boxee was born in the Linux environment and both the platform and its code, the SDK, is available worldwide from their website. We have no control over the Boxee software and so far we will continue supporting an open platform.
Tech News Buzz: Are you going to develop some integration with the mobile world, is to use the phone as a remote control to access or Boxee on mobile platforms? Wen Luigi: Boxee Box and can be controlled from the iPhone and secure as we speak, there is someone to develop the code to do the same in Android or other platforms.
The tablet market is growing fast and secure Boxee will not overlook the opportunity, but I can not give more specific information yet. Tech News Buzz: There is still some difficulty to access the Internet from the TV. We're far from the days when conectábamos the PC directly to the TV, but the experience remains incomplete or complicated for many users, How are you trying to facilitate this integration Boxee? Luigi Ong: The integration between TV, internet and computer is still a problem.
Boxee command tries to make navigation as simple as possible, but for an audience of more than 45 or 50 years can be my mother, Boxee remains problematic due to lack of computer knowledge. Many older people found the platform too complex to implement. Fortunately, those who buy Boxee not usually elderly or little stuck in the technological world, but quite the opposite.
Sometimes young people are recommending Boxee their parents or grandparents, who are responsible for system configuration at home. This problem is a generational issue and eventually the barrier of entry to Boxee will become lower. In five years there will be no problem. Tech News Buzz: Have you had any legal problems arising from copyright or administrative obstacles to implement Boxee in Spain? Luigi Ong: We have not had any problems, but we do not sell content, sell hardware.
We have not even had problems with the private copying levy because Boxee has no hard disk. Everything is in the cloud and depends on users. Tech News Buzz: For many people it is important that the Streaming platform they choose to have good access to local content. In Spain, these contents are still few, but emerging and small projects such as slides.
Are you going to ensure access to this type of content? Wen Luigi: Of course. Boxee has two ways of accessing content. The first is the free browser device that supports Flash without any problems and lets you access any web page, provide the service you offer. The second way is that the provider believes the implementation of Boxee.
Netflix, for example, has its own application and we are coming to an agreement to integrate the British service Lovefilm. We also have an application of the UEFA with summaries of all parties. The pay per view is not intregrado but depends only on the application. Tech News Buzz: Who are your top competitors? "Television channels, free handset manufacturers such as Blu: Sens, Western Digital or Iomega? Luigi Wen: We're still in a very embryonic stage in this type of technology and we are all learning on the fly.
Many compare us with a mediaplayer hard drive, but our concept is very different. Google TV is the one who could compete with us more directly, but has not yet gone on sale. We also talk a lot about Apple TV, but it is a proprietary platform. Our market position is clear: to provide free access to Internet content from the TV.
In addition to this access, Boxee can be a mediaplayer, connect to a PC or an external hard drive and provide streaming access to local files. I've seen that integrate Youtube mediaplayers and some other application, but none come close to the experience of free Internet access offered Boxee, especially for those who do not want any connection with a particular supplier.
Tech News Buzz: Many users complain about the performance of ADSL in Spain Boxee Have you adapted to this idiosyncrasy? Wen Luigi: No, the hardware is the same as in the rest of Europe. Where I live, for example, my phone operator connection only offers 2GB and that creates problems running some streaming files.
I guess that many users have the same problem. In Spain, pay expensive connections to exchange for a fairly normal. Tech News Buzz: Have you had contact with any operator to integrate the experience Boxee? Wen Luigi: Of course, we have had contacts with many operators, especially lately, but first question is whether an operator can change the look of Boxee with your logo and content.
In Boxee have a department that provides equipment to operations, but Box Boxee is free, and attach it to an operator would betray his philosophy. Tech News Buzz: planteareis At some point you get into the business of content distribution? Luigi Wen: We currently do not, at least for the information I have.
We are primarily a hardware vendor. In this sense what I like to apply for 'Shoemaker to his shoes. " We prefer to work with content providers who engage in it professionally. This is a very tough sector where the same can succeed in the most overwhelming that not getting anything clean.
Also, getting into content would radically change the structure of our R & D Some time ago I asked what he thought of the computer and say the same thing now, that within a few years computers will not exist as they are now. Be simply a point of access to services, applications and content in the cloud.
Boxee Box is the access point, but not who makes the contents. With this last comment we say goodbye to our partner and return to the maelstrom of the Mobile World Congress. We thank Luigi Salmoiraghi Boxee team and D-Link the opportunity to have conducted this interview.
Tech News Buzz: The first question is almost obligatory, how is running Boxee Box in Spain? Salmoiragui Luigi: It's working very well. In fact, we are so good that we could almost use the term 'Dying of success. " Boxee Box was presented at CES in Las Vegas, 2010. Months later we made a series of changes in the labor Chipset Intel to improve the interface and user experience.
The product went on sale last quarter of last year. The campaign launch in Europe has been so successful that we had problems with stock because, in fact, we did not think to have a very good host. We are now recovering from delays in delivery arising precisely from this success. Tech News Buzz: With so many active social networks How well is the social component of Boxee? At first it seemed one of the strengths of the platform and now seems to have been Relagen into the background.
Wen Luigi: With so many tablets, mobile phones, laptops or desktops, and Boxee now, yes there is a saturation of 2.0 experiences. In this sense, I like to talk about 2.2, which is 2.0, with an additional 10% common sense for each user. Everyone should use the social component in their best interests.
In the case of Box Boxee, the social component is a differential value, but is not strictly necessary. Some people use it a lot and people who do not use it at all. Today we have no specifics on how this has affected sales of the device. Tech News Buzz: Do you intend to integrate social platform Boxee Box with other existing networks such as Facebook or Twitter? Luigi Wen: At this time, the development team in the U.S.
Boxee is being carried out contacts in terms of software and content. I can tell you he is talking about, but can not tell you dates or networks. One should also take into account where Europe is a different market, both in content and in the manner of access to social networks. Tech News Buzz: It is said that in Europe and especially in Spain, the IPTV experience is of much lower quality than in the United States What is your experience like? Wen Luigi: Here I speak as a user and consumer of content.
For me it was a very pleasant surprise to find that many applications of local television stations such as TVE, Antena 3, and the Sixth and were developed before it hit stores Boxee Spanish. As you know, Boxee is an open platform and its contents are more dependent than they think of us.
Thanks to the work of independent developers or the strings themselves, Boxee can be used similarly to traditional TDT device with the advantage that you can regulate the use of television to your taste, either to watch a particular program off the clock or for recording. This has helped us to sell the product in Spain.
Tech News Buzz: Boxee is an open platform and as such, is offering applications created by users, such as changing the current rules could fall outside the law, such as Direct Red or SeriesYonkis. For you it is an uncomfortable position to apply Are you thinking about Boxee control mechanisms to limit such uses? Wen Luigi: No, not at all.
Com born Boxee open platform and will remain an open platform until someone forbid. Boxee was born in the Linux environment and both the platform and its code, the SDK, is available worldwide from their website. We have no control over the Boxee software and so far we will continue supporting an open platform.
Tech News Buzz: Are you going to develop some integration with the mobile world, is to use the phone as a remote control to access or Boxee on mobile platforms? Wen Luigi: Boxee Box and can be controlled from the iPhone and secure as we speak, there is someone to develop the code to do the same in Android or other platforms.
The tablet market is growing fast and secure Boxee will not overlook the opportunity, but I can not give more specific information yet. Tech News Buzz: There is still some difficulty to access the Internet from the TV. We're far from the days when conectábamos the PC directly to the TV, but the experience remains incomplete or complicated for many users, How are you trying to facilitate this integration Boxee? Luigi Ong: The integration between TV, internet and computer is still a problem.
Boxee command tries to make navigation as simple as possible, but for an audience of more than 45 or 50 years can be my mother, Boxee remains problematic due to lack of computer knowledge. Many older people found the platform too complex to implement. Fortunately, those who buy Boxee not usually elderly or little stuck in the technological world, but quite the opposite.
Sometimes young people are recommending Boxee their parents or grandparents, who are responsible for system configuration at home. This problem is a generational issue and eventually the barrier of entry to Boxee will become lower. In five years there will be no problem. Tech News Buzz: Have you had any legal problems arising from copyright or administrative obstacles to implement Boxee in Spain? Luigi Ong: We have not had any problems, but we do not sell content, sell hardware.
We have not even had problems with the private copying levy because Boxee has no hard disk. Everything is in the cloud and depends on users. Tech News Buzz: For many people it is important that the Streaming platform they choose to have good access to local content. In Spain, these contents are still few, but emerging and small projects such as slides.
Are you going to ensure access to this type of content? Wen Luigi: Of course. Boxee has two ways of accessing content. The first is the free browser device that supports Flash without any problems and lets you access any web page, provide the service you offer. The second way is that the provider believes the implementation of Boxee.
Netflix, for example, has its own application and we are coming to an agreement to integrate the British service Lovefilm. We also have an application of the UEFA with summaries of all parties. The pay per view is not intregrado but depends only on the application. Tech News Buzz: Who are your top competitors? "Television channels, free handset manufacturers such as Blu: Sens, Western Digital or Iomega? Luigi Wen: We're still in a very embryonic stage in this type of technology and we are all learning on the fly.
Many compare us with a mediaplayer hard drive, but our concept is very different. Google TV is the one who could compete with us more directly, but has not yet gone on sale. We also talk a lot about Apple TV, but it is a proprietary platform. Our market position is clear: to provide free access to Internet content from the TV.
In addition to this access, Boxee can be a mediaplayer, connect to a PC or an external hard drive and provide streaming access to local files. I've seen that integrate Youtube mediaplayers and some other application, but none come close to the experience of free Internet access offered Boxee, especially for those who do not want any connection with a particular supplier.
Tech News Buzz: Many users complain about the performance of ADSL in Spain Boxee Have you adapted to this idiosyncrasy? Wen Luigi: No, the hardware is the same as in the rest of Europe. Where I live, for example, my phone operator connection only offers 2GB and that creates problems running some streaming files.
I guess that many users have the same problem. In Spain, pay expensive connections to exchange for a fairly normal. Tech News Buzz: Have you had contact with any operator to integrate the experience Boxee? Wen Luigi: Of course, we have had contacts with many operators, especially lately, but first question is whether an operator can change the look of Boxee with your logo and content.
In Boxee have a department that provides equipment to operations, but Box Boxee is free, and attach it to an operator would betray his philosophy. Tech News Buzz: planteareis At some point you get into the business of content distribution? Luigi Wen: We currently do not, at least for the information I have.
We are primarily a hardware vendor. In this sense what I like to apply for 'Shoemaker to his shoes. " We prefer to work with content providers who engage in it professionally. This is a very tough sector where the same can succeed in the most overwhelming that not getting anything clean.
Also, getting into content would radically change the structure of our R & D Some time ago I asked what he thought of the computer and say the same thing now, that within a few years computers will not exist as they are now. Be simply a point of access to services, applications and content in the cloud.
Boxee Box is the access point, but not who makes the contents. With this last comment we say goodbye to our partner and return to the maelstrom of the Mobile World Congress. We thank Luigi Salmoiraghi Boxee team and D-Link the opportunity to have conducted this interview.
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