Broadband dreams and multicast 'beams'

Vint Cerf commentary: "Imagine you come home on a Friday evening after a hard week at work and simply want to spend time watching a movie you choose with your family. ¶ If technology pundits are to be believed, the most cutting-edge way to do this would be to fire up your home PC, download a movie (from a vast, legal online library of movies) and watch it via your wireless home network on your big-screen TV. The reality, however, is vastly different. ¶ Watching movies over the Internet requires time, planning, and a connection between your PC and TV (wireless or otherwise). It can take too long to download a complete movie from a legitimate Internet service like Movielink or CinemaNow. And when the movie arrives, it often does not look as good as the DVD version. ¶ What's the problem? Unfortunately, the Internet is not ready to be a true entertainment medium. It cannot provide the instant gratification and quality consumers have come to expect from DVDs--once you have the DVD, that is. As a result of its architecture, the Internet cannot cater to a vast number of people simultaneously asking for large files such as movies. ..." CNET News.com link