Servers to time-shift TV for U.S. troops in Japan
U.S. personnel stationed at Yokota Air Base in Japan are getting a time-shifting server system that will broadcast U.S. television programs at the right time of day--meaning that prime-time shows will be on at the appropriate hour, despite the time difference.
The hardware and software acts as a computerized container, holding a show for nine hours before it's rebroadcast. One is required for each of the 33 channels available on the base.
"The time-shift servers work much like a very large TiVo," Keith Southard, chief executive of San Jose, Calif.-based Allied Telesis Capital, wrote in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. "They take content in, store it on large hard drives, and then replay the content at the designated time--nine hours later in a continuous stream."
I wonder if there is a way to use a combination of TiVo and Slingbox to get the same effect--though clearly, you couldn't do it on the same scale as you would need to in order to support a large amount of people.
Dave Rosenberg is currently working on a new stealth start-up based in San Francisco. He is Co-founder of MuleSource, an open source integration and infrastructure software company and is a recognized thought-leader in open source software and service-oriented architecture. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
