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Written by Ben Homer
Posted Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 12:14 PM PT

Hiltons to Hawk Perfume on the Web

Paris Hilton never met a camera lens she didn’t like. But this time the lens isn’t for a reality television show, the paparazzi, or even a jail mugshot — it’s that of New York-based startup For Your Imagination, which is debuting a new, branded web series tomorrow featuring Paris, her mom Kathy and her sister, Nicky.

The six-part series A Day With the Hiltons will follow a mother-daughter duo that won an all expenses-paid trip to L.A. to spend the day with Paris, Kathy and Nicky “while they visit a salon, attend an intimate brunch and spend the afternoon shopping.” Not exactly my thing, but an interesting example of a new media distribution partnership nonetheless.

Swarmcast Releases Autobahn HD for Flash

Swarmcast today released Autobahn HD for Flash, a network accelerator that provides seamless playback of Flash content using adaptive bitrate streaming to specifically tailor video quality to a user’s connection. The company will also open up their source code, giving developers the tools to take advantage of Swarmcast technology, which makes it possible to significantly improve viewer experience for very little cost.

“We just want to get the technology into people’s hands,” Swarmcast CEO Justin Chapweske said in a phone interview. “I hope that with this product we can provide the platform that solves the quality problem for online video and allows developers to focus on innovating the user experience itself.”

Above: Full Screen 720P Video Using Autobahn HD for Flash

UGTV Draws an Old Media Crowd

Attendance last night at the UGTV conference in New York showed traditional media is taking user-generated content seriously.

Representatives from Disney/ABC, NBC, CBS, MTV, and the BBC joined new media companies including Heavy Joost and blip.tv in a discussion over the disrupted industry that is television and where new media is taking us. Questions abound as to how UGC will be monetized — especially since it seems ad companies are most interested in servicing professional video.

The key, according to MTV’s Kenny Miller, is that UGTV needs to be good TV. Most content consumed online is professionally produced. Joey Jodar of Heavy.com said that the TV category remains the most viewed area of that site.