computer science

Monsoon Multimedia

Monsoon Multimedia is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Monsoon Multimedia rather than just read about it. In short: Monsoon Multimedia was a company that manufactured, developed and sold video streaming and place-shifting devices that allowed consumers to view and control live television on PCs connected to a local (home) network or remotely from a broadband-connected PC or mobile phone. On the event of Cisco acquiring Monsoon in 2017, EchoStar, the new parent of Sling sued Monsoon for patent infringement (of the Japanese patents…

Key takeaways

Monsoon Multimedia belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Monsoon Multimedia to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Monsoon Multimedia from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Monsoon Multimedia was a company that manufactured, developed and sold video streaming and place-shifting devices that allowed consumers to view and control live television on PCs connected to a local (home) network or remotely from a broadband-connected PC or mobile phone. On the event of Cisco acquiring Monsoon in 2017, EchoStar, the new parent of Sling sued Monsoon for patent infringement (of the Japanese patents), having obtained confidential information about the date of the acquisition by Cisco from a Monsoon employee under murky circumstances. Monsoon settled the lawsuit by agreeing not to sell its products in the USA simply because it did not have the legal funds to fight mighty Echostar's legal maneuvers. EchoStar thus successfully removed its only competitor from the market place. This meant Monsoon's death knell. The devices enabled streaming and recording of video content from video sources including live TV, DVD players, video game consoles, and TiVo to multiple PCs wirelessly. Multiple users could connect to the HAVA from any Internet connection simultaneously with channel-changing capabilities and full operation of the video source. The devices allowed a PC to operate as a personal video recorder with pause, fast forward and rewind functions. The HAVA device also worked as a TV tuner for Windows Media Center-enabled PCs without being directly connected to a video source. In 2018 the Monsoon Website was suddenly closed with no placeholder left to advise of closure, and the company's central server (which coordinated all remote access to Hava and Vulkano devices), ceased to respond at the company IP address coded in the device firmware and remote viewing software. As of late 2018, Downloads of iPad and iPhone software for remote viewing are no longer available on Apple's iTunes App Store. As of early 2019 it is not known if there are any active projects to restore functionality of these devices remotely, since the company's server closed. However, they continue to function on a local network.

History Monsoon Multimedia was created in 2004 by the founders of Dazzle and Emuzed. HAVA's main engineering and development operations are based in Tomsk, Russia, and New Delhi, India. In 1996, the founder of Monsoon Multimedia, Prabhat Jain, founded Dazzle, where he developed the PC hardware and software products to compress video based on MPEG standards. In 2000, he founded Emuzed, where Prabhat Jain created a TiVo-type product for the PC based on Microsoft's Media Center Edition PC operating system. In November 2008, Prabhat Jain announced the appointment of consumer technology industry veteran William Loesch as CEO of the company. Loesch brought 30 years of experience in the computer software and hardware industries, primarily in the consumer digital video sector. Loesch is not currently listed on the company website as an active member of the team (11/2/2011).

GPL and Patent lawsuits What was claimed to be the first US lawsuit over a GPL violation concerned use of BusyBox in an embedded device. The lawsuit, case 07-CV-8205 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York was filed on 20 September 2007 by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) on behalf of the Busybox developers against Monsoon Multimedia Inc., after BusyBox code was discovered in a firmware upgrade and attempts to contact the company had apparently failed. The case was settled with release of the Monsoon version of the source and payment of an undisclosed amount of money to Andersen and Landley. In January 2013 Sling Media filed suit alleging infringement of five patents, against both Belkin International and Monsoon Multimedia in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The Belkin part of the suit was settled in May 2013, and in December 2013 the United States International Trade Commission found that Monsoon was indeed violating the patents. The commission issued cease-and-desist orders and banned the importation of Monsoon Multimedia products into the United States.

Devices

Monsoon Multimedia's line of place-shifting devices enabled multiple networked PCs within the home to simultaneously view live TV or DVR content. The number of PCs and mobile device that could connect to a single Monsoon device were limited only by the bandwidth of the network or broadband connection. Only one remote client at a time could view a place-shifted program, but the remote device could be watching while multiple home PCs watched the same program.

Vulkano Released in August 2010, the Vulkano added an electronic program guide to its PC software, as well as support for YouTube video streaming on TV with an included remote control, as well as future support for Netflix and other streaming video services. Future Google TV web-browsing support was planned for 2011. There was also a Vulkano model that included a 500 GB external hard drive for DVR recordings, which could be accessed from mobile devices. The Vulkano did not support Windows Media Center integration as the previous HAVA models did, but included UPnP technology for photo, music, and video streaming from PCs and mobile devices. In November 2010, Monsoon added a Vulkano Platinum model, which did not include any storage drive, program guide, or recording capabilities.

Vulkano Flow Announced at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, the Vulkano Flow was a mobile accessory. When connected to any set-top box the Vulkano Flow could stream TV content to mobile devices inside or outside of the home. It was to be available for $99.

Vulkano Blast Also announced at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, the Vulkano Blast integrated DVR, web video, placeshifting, Universal Plug and Play streaming UPnP, Mobile Video Recording and 160 GB internal storage. Its approximate price was $200.

HAVA Gold Controlled digital cable, satellite, or DVR TV programming on any PC or mobile device.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Monsoon Multimedia

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Monsoon Multimedia claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Monsoon Multimedia before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Monsoon Multimedia ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Monsoon Multimedia

In research: Monsoon Multimedia appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Monsoon Multimedia in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Monsoon Multimedia is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies based in Noida, Computer companies of India, Indian companies established in 2004, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Monsoon Multimedia outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Monsoon Multimedia in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Monsoon Multimedia means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Monsoon Multimedia out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Monsoon Multimedia in simple terms?

Why does Monsoon Multimedia matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Monsoon Multimedia?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Monsoon Multimedia.