Streaming media company Rawflow has appointed the former co-founder of the Babelgum broadband video platform as its chief executive. Erik Lumer is charged with developing the Rawflow Selfcast service which enables users to broadcast over the internet from their own personal computer.
Erik Lumer was the co-founder of Babelgum, a competitor to Joost. He left Babelgum following the appointment of its new chief executive, Valerio Zingarelli, as a result of what co-founder Silvio Scaglia referred to as a “changing focus” in the expansion of the company.
He joins Rawflow, another company that has been using peer network technology to deliver video over broadband. It has recently been focussing on the development of Selfcast, enabling users to broadcast live streams to large audiences.
“We are evolving from being a pure streaming technology provider to pioneering a new global media for live events,” said Mikkel Dissing, the co-founder and now president of Rawflow. He added that the appointment of Erik Lumer “reflects this transformation, as he brings considerable experience in building online brand visibility and driving product strategy which will help grow Selfcast as a major player in this new space”. He also presumably brings considerable insight into the strategic plans of Babelgum.
“I am really excited to come on board at this stage,” said the new Rawflow chief executive. “Selfcast is uniquely positioned to create a new kind of instant TV available to broadcast local live events — from music gigs to niche and grass root sports — that draw communities of interests and viewer participation. In order to make this happen, we will be sharpening our platform features and growing our team over the coming months.”
Users can download and install the Selfcast software, which will allow them to broadcast live at no cost over the internet using peer-to-peer streaming. Rawflow recently released a ‘widget’ to allow anyone to embed such live video channels in their web pages.
“If a band have a popular Myspace page then they can put their live gig broadcast there. If a council committee have a planning meeting that the whole town is interested in but can’t attend, they can broadcast it live on their council website,” said Mikkel Dissing when it was announced. “This is not just useful for social networking sites but can be used to organically to spread the Selfcast message of democratizing live internet broadcasting”.