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Viodi View

Viodi View – 02/08/12

Roger's Make-Shift Studio
Roger's Make-Shift Studio

The memories of a life time are marked by scenes of fleeting moments, some of which seem significant at the time, while others fade into a mush of images some real, some imagined.  The promise of the Facebook is to put one’s lifetime in a timeline.  Whether today’s string of posts fades into the background or a treasure trove of invaluable information for our descendents remains to be seen and the long-term value of Facebook will probably hinge upon the answer to that question.

In the meantime, we are trying to capture and preserve stories from the heartland in this newsletter and through our video “documonials”.   Here is an image of Roger Bindl filming one of those documonials in a make-shift studio that is in the exact opposite kind of building where this type of activity would normally take place.  The answer will be in the next issue of the Viodi View.


Chamber of Commerce in Madelia, MN
Chamber of Commerce in Madelia, MN

Award Winning Economic Development

A clue to the answer to the previous question can be found in this video interview with Everett Christensen of Christensen Communications.  This is one segment of a multi-part interview that started a couple of years ago when I reviewed his book, 60-40 or Fight.  We subsequently tracked him down at the MTA conference and then had an opportunity to meet him and see the impact he has had on his home town.  Click here to view why he was awarded the 2011 MTA Economic Development Award.


See ViodiTV @

We are looking forward to seeing our friends in MN next month.  Expect to see ViodiTV at the following events (unfortunately, Jury Duty will prevent me from going to the relatively nearby NTCA Annual Convention next week).

  • Feb 28-Mar 1, Parks Associates’ Smart Energy Summit in Austin – great event for understanding how CE, Telecom and Energy converge
  • Mar 13–Mar 15, the ACA Annual Summit.  With retransmission and sports programming such hot topics, this will be an extremely relevant conference.  We are looking for a sponsor so we can program ViodiTV on the hotel channel at this event.  Contact [email protected]  ([email protected])   for more info.
  • Mar 25-Mar 27, the MTA Annual Convention, the nation’s largest state telecom convention is always fun and informative.  Looking forward to showing some of the videos we produced in the upper Midwest at this event.
  • Apr 10-12, IP Possibilities – Like the Super Bowl, it is in Indianapolis, and will be an exciting event from start to finish.
  • Apr 24-26, Broadband Communities 2012 Summit – Always a great place for learning from a unique mix of municipal, private, telco, cable and government officials regarding the latest in broadband deployments and developments.
  • We also plan on producing new versions of the Viodi Local Content Workshop in the Spring, so let us know the topics you would like to see us cover and where we should go.

Verizon/Redbox – More than Meets the Eyeball

Louisa Shipnuck of Verizon Digital Media Services
Louisa Shipnuck of Verizon Digital Media Services

Verizon’s announcement of its partnership with RedBox isn’t much of a surprise given last year’s formation of their Verizon Digital Media Services (VDMS) unit.  At the Media Innovation Summit, Louisa Shipnuck explained VDMS and how it is an end-to-end content workflow and delivery solution; or as some would say content from camera to eyeball.  Shipnuck is clear in her explanation that their solution is a wholesale offering, separate from and a potential enabler of competition to Verizon’s consumer offerings.   Click here to read and view more.


Some Tweets and Short Thoughts

  • One of the 1st companies to deploy video over VDSL, now bringing together southeast Ohio into a mega regional network
  • @ROSSatACA “Like car manufacturers reporting fuel mileage, websites/applications should inform users of the average amount of bandwidth they consume.” @Viodi “sounds interesting on surface, but hard to implement in practice – how do you measure bw from 3rd party embeds (eg youtube)?”@ROSSatACA “Yes, coming up w/ common metrics 4 reporting bandwidth consumption by websites/apps may be complex, and participation should be voluntary.”
  • @jtoeman “I think I just saw a QR code on my tv… Either that or a really lousy crossword… Who thought that was a good idea???”   @Viodi “by the time i got my phone out and the app ready, the qr code was gone. Surprised that b-daddy didn’t consider that challenge.”

The Korner – Whoa, Whoa, It’s Magic to Me
David Jones of Shazam
David Jones of Shazam

The line between thoughts and reality becomes quite blurry with the passage of time.  I can recall the moment some six years ago, late at night, while working on the Viodi View in a hotel lobby, when I heard an old song and thought how useful it would be to have the meta-data associated with that song.  I thought I had woven this anecdote and the message of the increasing importance of meta-data for everyday media and everyday people into that issue, but, lo and behold, it must have been a thought that never was translated into my words until now.

I had to think of this story when I caught up with David Jones of Shazam at the Media Innovations Summit.  Their app complements those of who can’t quite, “name that tune.”  There are tens of companies with some sort of audio and/or video recognition technology, but, from a consumer perspective, Shazam is one of the most recognizable as they were early to the smart phone app market.

In this interview, Jones explains how Shazam monetizes their app through iTunes sales (over $100M in annual sales of music by the 8% of people who tag a song then purchase that song) and how they are receiving an increasing share of revenue from 2nd video screen advertising.  Jones suggests it is a more popular to interact with television than the popular Twitter and Facebook.

Now, if they just had an app for conversations, so I could remember what people say, I would be set.

Click here to view.

Author Ken Pyle, Managing Editor

By Ken Pyle, Managing Editor

Ken Pyle is Marketing Director for the Broadband Forum. The mission of this 25+-year-old non-profit “is to unlock the potential for new markets and profitable revenue growth by leveraging new technologies and standards in the home, intelligent small business, and multi-user infrastructure of the broadband network.”

He is also co-founder of Viodi, LLC and Managing Editor of the Viodi View, a publication focused on the rural broadband ecosystem, autonomous vehicles, and electric aviation. He has edited and produced numerous multimedia projects for NTCA, US Telecom and Viodi. Pyle is the producer of Viodi’s Local Content Workshop, the Video Production Crash Course at NAB, as well as ViodiTV. He has been intimately involved in Viodi’s consulting projects and has created processes for clients to use for their PPV and VOD operations, as well authored reports on the independent telco market.

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