Pando is an increasingly popular destination for people wanting to share bulky files via email using a well-designed interface that makes it effortless to onpass content that used to be chancy to get through the typical email server's size restrictions. Pando's technology leverages infrastructure provided by BitTorrent, a popular file downloading service that makes it easy to get high-bandwidth content onto the your destktop. When Pando presented at January's SIIA Previews event I asked about whether they had thought about positioning the service for onpassing video and other forms of multimedia via a content serving model. The reps from Pando said "yes" in a rather strange and quizzical way, so I assumed that something was up.

Pando's recent announcement of media-serving capabilities seems to have confirmed my hunches - and opened up some interesting doors for those wanting to share podcasts, music and video with the world. The new Pando media tools enable media to be served up in client-side or server-side applications, kind of a NewsGator for multimedia approach to integration that will enable high-bandwidth content to integrate cleanly into any site or application design. While the underlying BitTorrent technology is nothing new, Pando's tools are making it easier than ever for publishers of any size to push out rich multimedia content without worrying about scaling issues. It's an interesting way to leverage the "that's easy" appeal of Pando's core functions into a much higher value-add relationship with content producers.

While folks like Viacom fret about the YouTubes of the world as threats there is a widening range of opportunities to work with vendors like Pando to develop publisher-friendly distribution channels for audo and video that can appeal to users who would like something better than the sometimes herky-jerky performance of the typical clip portals. What's the best way to deal with YouTube? Offer something that has more appeal and ease of use. Hmm, actually give audiences what they want in a convenient form. How novel. Pando's hardly the only game in town for good multimedia serving technology but they're lowering the bar quickly for publishers wanting to take a step into high-bandwidth services.

Labels: BitTorrent, Pando, podcasts, SIIA Previews, Trends, video