Catching up with Slingbox's CEO for a Q&A

                    

	Blake Krikorian invented the Slingbox to fuel his passion for sports. Photo courtesy of Sling Media
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LAS VEGAS -- It's the fourth quarter of a particularly dreadful Las Vegas Bowl game between BYU and Oregon and the Cougars are looking to add to their 24-0 lead. Me? Well, I'm just looking for some semblance of salvation from this torturous affair. While the dozen television screens sprawled across Sam Boyd Stadium press box amplify the action on the field, I find a diversion on my computer screen; tuning into a live feed of the Vikings-Packers game on the NFL Network.

So what if the stadium televisions don't get the NFL Network? My television at home does and that's all that matters. Now I don't exactly know how Slingbox works, I just know that it does and it is quite possibly the greatest invention ever.

I first met Blake Krikorian, the CEO of Sling Media, in February and as he showed off his tiny silver invention and what it was capable of, I literally laughed. The mini box, about the size of a six-inch sub, with perforated words such as, "My DVR, My Satellite, My Music, Anywhere" on the top, was nice but it couldn't possibly change the way I watched television. At best, I thought, it might make a cool little doorstop.

Krikorian then pulled out his laptop and started watching live television and controlling his home DVR on it. Despite being in a hotel ballroom in Houston, some 2,000 miles away from his home in Northern California, he was basically controlling his home theater system. He then pulled out his phone and started doing the same on the tiny screen. He said that I could watch my local news in New Zealand, the Super Bowl in Singapore, the World Series in Syria, the Stanley Cup in, well, you get the picture. All I had to do was hook up the Slingbox to my cable or satellite receiver at home and connect it to my home router and I was basically set. I would never have to miss another important game, no matter where I was.

It's been nearly a year since I've been slinged in by Krikorian, a four-year men's water polo player (1986-89) at UCLA and the brother of current men's and women's water polo head coach Adam, and I recently caught up with him to talk to him about his invention and how it will change sports television viewing in 2007.

SI.com: How did you come up with the idea for Slingbox?

Krikorian: My brother Jason and I are huge San Francisco Giants fans and in the summer and early fall of 2002 we wanted to watch as much of the stretch and playoff run towards the World Series as we possibly could. We were both traveling quite a bit so I purchased a subscription to view all the baseball games via an online video streaming site in the summer. It was 20 bucks a month, but we were at the office late so often and traveling so much I felt it would be worth it, that season, online. Big surprise to find that all home games were blacked out so even though we were paying for the game on our home TV, we couldn't watch it while at the office or on the road. I knew there had to be a better way.

SI.com: So watching sports was the catalyst for Slingbox.

Krikorian: No dude wants to miss a big game and sports fans are always passionate about their home team. The Slingbox concept was created out of fan frustration for the simple reason that Jason and I wanted to be able to view the television content we had already paid for at home. Sports was definitely the catalyst for the Slingbox.

SI.com: How involved have you become with the sports world since Slingbox was launched?

Krikorian: Many of our marketing efforts are targeted to the sports fan and we work with several sports teams to bring visibility to the Slingbox. Specifically we do co-marketing efforts with the San Jose Sharks, San Francisco 49ers, San Francisco Giants and the California Bears and some of those teams have embraced the technology and adopted it for use within their organizations. I also spoke at the NBA All-Star game this past February and we've had dialogues with a majority of the sports leagues in the U.S. We are more and more involved every day as new uses for our technology are being implemented by sports organizations, players and, of course, rabid sports fans.

SI.com: Tell me about that NBA Technology Summit you spoke at during All-Star Weekend. What was that experience like and what was the reaction you got from the attendees?

Krikorian: Awesome! This was an overwhelming experience. Slingbox definitely stood out during the Summit. It was a total fantasy weekend. In fact, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Bill Walton who I can proudly say is now a big fan. It doesn't hurt that we share the same alma mater too. Go Bruins! David Stern, whom I met in late 2005 was kind enough to invite me to the Summit and more than anything else it gave me the opportunity to present the benefits of our technology to a very influential community. I'm a firm believer that education is key. Understanding what the product can and can't do and how it is being used goes a long way to helping different entities feel better about what we bring to the table.