Sling Media launches place-shifting for BlackBerry and HD content
By Leah McBride Mensching, Friday 4 January 2008 at 21:25 :: World Digital Media Trends :: #1055 :: rss
Sling Media Inc. announced Friday the launch of two new place-shifting products that stream live television to BlackBerry smartphones and stream high-definition video to broadband-connected computers.
The digital lifestyle products company will debut its SlingPlayer Mobile software running on RIM BlackBerry handhelds and the SlingBox PRO-HD set-top box at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday through Thursday.
The devices take streaming media content from various sources and “sling” them over the Internet, making media content from home available anywhere, PC World reported Friday.
The SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry will cost US $30, and will be available later this year. Slingbox PRO-HD will be available in the third quarter of 2008 and cost US $400.
According to the company's Web site, Sling Media products are available in the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Taiwan.
The PRO-HD version is the company's first high-definition streamer, as prior Slingboxes would compress video before sending it over the Internet. The HD version slings video at a full 1080i resolution, but makes a high-speed connection necessary to utilize the content, according to PC World.
The SlingPlayer for BlackBerry extends streaming capabilities to nearly any smartphone, and is already compatible with Windows Mobile, Palm Treo and Symbian mobile operating systems. The iPhone does not yet support the SlingPlayer, “but the lack of 3G data speeds put a significant burden on that porting process,” PC World reported.
The SlingPlayer also requires a high-speed Internet connection at both ends.
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