Can a Facebook app help cable operators zero in on video glitches?
That's the premise of IneoQuest Technologies' Vloop venture, which aims to harvest viewers' feedback about the quality of their TV service.
Vloop iPhone app"The first thing you do when you lose power is, you look out the window to see if the rest of the block is affected," IneoQuest president and CEO Marc Todd said. In the same way, he said, Vloop will let users see if others in their area are experiencing video problems.
IneoQuest, which sells equipment to service providers for monitoring video quality and availability, will debut Vloop at the 2010 NAB Show, which runs April 12-15 in Las Vegas.
Vloop-which is free to consumers-uses Facebook's back-end system to let users chat with each other, rate TV shows and report problems with their service. The Vloop.com site will be supplemented with apps in development for Apple's iPhone and the Yahoo Widget platform for Internet-connected TVs. Vloop uses TV listings from Tribune Media Services to let viewers find shows.
Eventually Vloop (pronounced "va-LOOP") plans to sell metrics gathered from viewers to help operators troubleshoot issues. It also hopes to strike deals with cable networks looking to interact with their audience. "We think we have a good chance of going viral with the Facebook app on the front end, then making money on the back end," Todd said.
IneoQuest is looking for outside investment for Vloop, which has been established as an independent company, Todd added.