(Mark Welch, CEO of FiNETra, discusses his company's Website CheckItLive.com offering live video streams, like the one below from Widemouth Bay, Cornwall, England, from throughout the UK and soon the world.)
Q: Tell us a bit about how CheckItLive got started. What was the impetus for the site?
A: The site started about 3 years ago when I had the idea of putting TV quality live video feeds all on one site as all the other live sites (most not even live) were directory sites or very poorly constructed sites. When I came up with the idea people could not really understand what i was talking about and the best way was to describe the site as people watching – as in when you are on holiday you sit in a cafe and watch the world go by – now you can do that on CheckItLive.
Q: About how many video feeds are there so far and what new feeds and maybe even new categories might we eventually see?
A: We have 50 live feeds and more and more going on every week. We are looking at more surf beaches, golf, watersports, sailing, birds, steam trains, air displays and may many more catergories. We have just started to build an animal blog where the animals talk to themselves – this should be live this week.
Q: Many of the video feeds seem concentrated in the UK right now. Are there plans to go more global with the locations down the road?
A: We have our first camera in Ecuador and have identified 50 global locations – ranging from Panama, Peru, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Africa and all over the globe – the roll out should start in September.
Q: CheckItLive seems in many ways to do for live video feed what YouTube did for compressed video playback a few years ago. Do you see a similar movement toward live video content in the future and how do you see the site evolving?
A: Yes we want to be the Live Version of YouTube as thats where the market is being driven.
Q: Another important aspect of CheckItLive is the social networking component which, of course, works in concert with other social networking sites like Facebook and bookmarking sites like del.icio.us. How do you see that aspect of the site developing for CheckItLive and live video in general on the Web?
A: We want people to spread the word so that we get some suggestions on what new features people want to see on the site.
