So you invented the DVR. What's next? For the co-founders of TiVo, it's the Internet. Mike Ramsay and Jim Barton today launched Qplay, a consumer entertainment solution for Web video viewing.
Just as they did with early TiVo prototypes, the pair is looking to the future for inspiration—a future where Internet video is the rage, everyone owns a tablet, and people prefer watching programs from various screens.
Using Qplay, viewers just open their personalized Web content streams, or Qs, and the video starts to play.
"With TiVo, Jim and I focused on creating a great consumer experience that put the viewer in control of the video they watched," CEO Mike Ramsay said. "We're applying the same focus to Internet video with Qplay and are creating a new kind of consumer experience that exploits the full potential of the Internet to give users a unique way to control their video entertainment."
Reliant on the cloud and tablet devices, Ramsay and Qplay CTO Jim Barton are putting to use new technologies that didn't exist when they launched the TiVo 15 years ago.
"I have always been passionate about solving difficult technical problems in a way that enriches consumers' lives and can scale to a 'mass audience,'" Barton said. "The delivery of compelling video experiences to consumers presents some unique and important technical challenges, far beyond those of the broadcast world."
Their system, which runs an iPad app for discovery, playback, and control, communicates with the smaller-than-a-deck-of-cards Qplay TV adapter to push content to the connected TV. And, since programs are accessible via a cloud service, they continue playing even when the iPad is turned off or goes to sleep.
Viewers, meanwhile, have the option of tapping into the system's Qs—automated streams of popular videos that play without interruption—or creating their own curated channels. In a social media twist, Qplay also offers Social Qs, which leverage discovery via various networks to show what friends and tastemakers are watching.
Qplay, founded in the fall of 2012, was initially funded by Redpoint Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, and has cherry-picked a team of engineers from Apple, Google, and even TiVo.
"What they [Ramsay and Barton] accomplished at TiVo shook up the industry and gave consumers a new way to watch TV," Redpoint's Geoff Yang said. "We expect nothing less of them as they now target the Internet video space."
Qplay is available today in the early adopter phase, which includes the app, TV adapter, and cloud service bundled together. On a first-come, first-served basis, the Qplay TV adapter is available for purchase at qplay.co for the limited-time price of $49. A number of adapters will ship immediately; all other others will be treated as pre-orders and will ship when they are available.
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