"March Madness" was given new meaning when 300,000 fans -- many from their desks at work -- were simultaneously watching CBS' Web cast of the NCAA's Final Four showdown earlier this month.

"Think about how much bandwidth they used," said Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor and serial entrepreneur Hui Zhang.

College basketball fans were using so much "juice," said Dr. Zhang, CBS had to set up "cyber waiting rooms" for the unlucky wanna-be viewers who hadn't logged on in time to access the feed.

Rinera Networks, the startup Dr. Zhang launched last year with his former student-turned-partner, Berkeley Professor Ion Stoica, plans to unveil by the end of the year a top-secret product that aims to increase the number of people who can watch video online simultaneously. But right now, the two men aren't saying how.

They will say, however, that Rinera has raised $9 million from a pair of Silicon Valley venture capital firms, NEA and Foundation Capital. Last year, NEA and Foundation Capital laid down $1 million in "seed" money to get Rinera started.

Despite the investors' and Dr. Stoica's Golden State location, Dr. Zhang said he planned to stay in Pittsburgh, even adding to his current staff of six.

Maintaining two offices for the young company won't be a problem, Dr. Zhang said, because both "have tremendous talent" the company wants to tap into.

Dr. Zhang said his CMU connections -- colleagues such as CombineNet founder Tomas Sandholm and Panasas founder Garth Gibson -- lead to his link-up with the California investors.

The problem of distributing video over the Internet has been the "holy grail" of researchers for two decades, according to Dr. Zhang. It came to a head last year with the explosion of YouTube and phone companies' ambitions to offer TV.

Rinera's technology, currently in trials with undisclosed customers, will eliminate the annoying glitches, interruptions and poor picture quality often experienced by viewers of live, on-demand and user-generated Internet TV, Dr. Zhang said.

Kurt Buseck was in town this week to hammer out the details on his planned $20 million "early-stage" venture capital fund, Full Circle, which he said will sprinkle $1 million to $3 million on companies.

Mr. Buseck has lined-up a gang of investors from outside the region to put money into the fund that he will manage.

Before any young firm is ready for the likes of Mr. Buseck's Full Circle, it likely will need dollars from private "angels," economic development groups and others.

That's where Idea Foundry aims to help out. The public and privately-funded group that helps technologies turn into businesses, wants to broaden its reach beyond Pittsburgh. Led by CEO Michael Matesic, Idea Foundry wants to stretch to Erie and Central Pennsylvania to help startups showing the first signs of growth.

There's a real opportunity in Western Pennsylvania for an early-stage venture fund, Mr. Buseck said, since national venture capital funds, typically investing amounts of $5 million and up, shy away from startups without paying customers.

There are plenty of promising firms in the region in need of cash to get to that point -- a void Full Circle hopes to fill.

Mr. Buseck is among several local investors on the fund-raising trail. That list includes Catherine Mott and Tom Jones of Pine-based Blue Tree Capital and Ed Engler and Steve Robinson. Glen Meakem formerly of FreeMarkets, said he's close to the finish line and is expecting he and partner David Becker's maiden fund, known as "Meakem Becker Venture Capital I," will top the $70 million mark before its close later this spring.

If the Web's next generation -- chock-full of tell-all bloggers, show-all vloggers and podcasters -- eludes you, perhaps BootCampPGH will help.

This daylong introduction to the wonders of the latest in the Web world will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Downtown.

Blogging, podcasting and "social networking" -- the Web craze in which young and old make friends, love and business contacts using such Web sites as FaceBook or MySpace -- will be demystified, BootCamp planners say, leaving behind a new crop of "citizen journalists."

For more information and free registration, go to www.bootcamppgh.org.

The OpenCoffeeClub, a new take on bringing local startup people together gets its start at 9 a.m. April 20 at the Crazy Mocha on Beaver Street in Sewickley.

People can simply show up, or get details and RSVP at www.upcoming.org.

Eric Brown, Asi Burak and the team at ImpactGames were interviewed by Al Jazeera at their South Side offices this week.

Reporter Faadi Mansour flew to Pittsburgh to interview the startup about PeaceMaker, their peace-promoting flagship video game that simulates the conflict in the Middle East with the aim of encouraging understanding on both sides. The piece is expected to air today on Al Jazeera's Arab network.