Imagine watching an archived episode of a popular show like Desperate Housewives via the Internet and clicking onto Eva Longoria's sweater to find the name of the designer with an information bar that allows you to add the garment to a shopping bag, and purchase it when you're done watching the show.

"Popular TV shows generate significant income from product placement on their shows, but until now a viewer couldn't purchase clothes or get information on a new car without a significant amount of research," said Greg Nakagawa, BroadRamp's chief executive officer. "Now, with a click of a mouse, someone can someday purchase the same sweater that Eva Longoria wore on Desperate Housewives and have it shipped to their home within a couple of days."

Our take: The technology could definitely be cool, i.e. if I could see the artist and title of every song I heard throughout a show. However, there is a question in the back of my mind on how much work it would take to tag different products throughout an episode. This reminds me of the many content management workgroups I've attended where subject matter experts dream of tagging and chunking every piece of information in the enterprise. That sounds great in theory but would take thousands of man hours to even make a dent.

BroadRamp will be launching and demonstrating this new integrated video e-commerce platform, as well as what Nakagawa terms a stunning high definition streaming video solution at the nextMEDIA conference, June 8-10 in Banff, Canada. The BroadRamp chief executive said he believes media executives attending the conference will salivate over the content monetization possibilities this new technology enables. The San Antonio company will also make presentations in Edmonton, June 12, 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the University of Alberta's Stollery Executive Development Centre and in Calgary, June 13, noon to 2 p.m., at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Polytechnic, MA 102.

How Does BroadRamp's e-Video Commerce Technology Work?

The company has enabled interactivity within Internet video to enhance marketing of product placements within the video content. BroadRamp's video e-commerce delivers new levels of information and interactivity for product placements without interrupting the consumer's enjoyment of the online TV show they are viewing. For example, if an automobile manufacturer is providing its newest autos to a popular TV show, BroadRamp's video e-commerce platform could allow the interested viewer to interact with that model to support their buying decision process. "By clicking on the car, a person could get the location of dealers, availability, color and financing options," said Sean Darwish, BroadRamp's chief technology officer. "This capability enables content providers to garner revenue share for product placements or sell exclusive sponsorship positions to high-end retailers."

BroadRamp's e-video commerce solution can also act as an online catalog for items such as clothing, books or music. "A customer can listen to a song on a show and then either download it or order it from a web site that has our technology working in the background," he said.

How Will BroadRamp's HiDef CDS Streaming Video Impact the Internet?

The major TV networks as well as movie studios are moving to delivery of their offerings on the Internet as an alternate distribution channel to reach their target audiences. With the move toward high definition broadcast TV as well as the new HD-DVD and Blu-Ray high definition movie formats, a new challenge has been presented to bringing this richer content online. BroadRamp is the first to solve this problem with its revolutionary ability to bring high definition online, without the typical download and buffering time required of other media delivery platforms.

"We are able to quickly launch full-screen, high definition video online, delivering an unequalled user experience," said Darwish. "Our video compression is reducing file sizes by greater than 90% through a variable bit rate encoding capability, while still retaining a high definition experience online."

"We are offering the only full-screen, quick-launch, high definition video streaming capability on the Internet, effectively delivering IPTV without the costly IPTV infrastructure," stated Nakagawa. "This richer user experience, along with enabling new levels of interactivity and commerce, has profound implications on the future of video on the Internet."