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Microsoft Microsoft Research with UK based Skinkers are showing off a new Silverlight based product that is designed to bring TV to your computer. Calling it a “SlingBox without the Box”, Livestation is a peer to peer video distribution system (think Joost) that puts control back in the hands of network television providers.

LiveStation is built on two research technologies, Pastry and SplitStream, from Microsoft’s Cambridge Research Lab. Pastry is a type of P2P system called a ‘distributed hash table,’ which makes it easier for computers to find and store information, and to organize themselves for collaborative tasks. Splitstream is an application built on top of Pastry which allows real-time streams such as live video to be robustly distributed peer-to-peer.

I think Microsoft is incorrectly targeting their competitor. Joost seems to be the more similar product, then Slingbox. Ok, Maybe this product isn’t designed to target Sling, according to friend of the site Dave Zatz who found this comment.

Thanks again for the support and interest but please dnot: “Microsoft is taking on Joost” or “Microsoft is taking on SlingBox”. The correct slogan is “Skinkers is trying to get TV working on the computer!”

Although the team denies it, I still think it is very similar to what Joost it trying to accomplish. The upcoming months will be interesting.

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