Categories
Viodi View

Viodi View – 10/19/12

Panels and presentations provide the skeleton for a conference, but sometimes the hallway conversations, sparked by something a speaker said or didn’t say, are the real meat of a conference. This thought occurred to me at last week’s TV Next 2012 conference, as organizer Greg Fawson did an excellent job of bringing together the various players from the interactive TV ecosystem into many good conversations. We will be providing a glimpse of those conversations with several video interviews over the next few weeks.


Second Screen Apps Enhance Viewing Experience & Offer Additional Capabilities – TVNEXT 2012 Conference Highlights by Alan Weissberger

There were many interesting exhibits, presentations and panel sessions at the 6th annual TVNEXT conference, held October 10-11th in Santa Clara, CA. Over-the-Top video, quality of experience, voice activated TV interfaces and multi-screen viewing and second screen apps were some of the topics of discussion. Due to time and space constraints, this article will focus on Second Screen Apps by reviewing selected presentations. Click here to read more.


Last Chance to Give Your Opinion about Local Content

A typical citizen journalist camera

Rural broadband operators – reply in the comment section below to get a link to our latest survey on local content. An Executive Summary will be provided to those who complete the survey. We will be sharing the results at the local content panel at the Calix User’s Group, on Sunday October 28th at 3:30 pm. This panel will also feature marketing experts sharing how they are making their communities and service offering better through their production of local content.


What Carriers Must Do to Accelerate Innovation-Summary of Telecom Council TC3, Part 3 by Alan Weissberger

Part three of this three-part series of the Telecom Council TC3 conference focuses on an Informa analyst presentation suggesting what carriers must do to innovate (or die). Consider that wireless carriers are more than ever in danger of being reduced to purveyors of “dumb pipes,” with little or no financial participation in the mobile network value chain. A link is also provided to innovation priorities from selected carriers; i.e. what they are looking for from suppliers and vendors (especially start-ups). Click here to read the entire post.


Verizon Close to Launching a Video Streaming Service with Redbox; More than 250M covered by VZW LTE Network by Alan Weissberger

In its third-quarter financial report, Verizon Communications profit margins grew as it added 136,000 FiOS broadband customers and 119,000 FiOS TV subscribers — about the same as in the prior quarter.   More importantly,  Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said the giant telco was “very close to launching” its video-streaming service with Redbox this quarter. Click here to read more.


Operational Savings and New Revenue

Kevin Larson, GM & CEO of CTC in Minnesota, provides insight on ways independent rural broadband operators can stay competitive in ever more challenging times. He discusses the importance of a fiber to the home network infrastructure in reducing ongoing operational and maintenance costs, while providing a more reliable network for the end customers. He also suggests that communications providers need to start charging the customers for things that typically provide with no charge.

Stay tuned for the other three parts of this exclusive interview, where Larson looks at the challenges and opportunities facing rural broadband providers. Click here to view part 1.


US ITC – Don’t Turn Out the Lights [Opinion]

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) have been a 50 year overnight success. One supplier now threatens that progress, at least in the niche of videography and perhaps beyond, given the broad nature of its patents. Anyone involved in local content should take a minute to read this, as the number of choices of LED lights for videography could be greatly diminished and the prices will most likely increase, depending upon the final ruling of the United States International Trade Commission in mid-October. Click here to read more.


Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:


The Korner -The Video Generation

Click here to view video interview

Revision3 has demonstrated what the next generation TV network looks like for several years now and its success led to its recent acquisition by Discovery Communications. Revision3 is a complement to Discovery programming and there is even some cross-pollination between the programming of the two networks (think Shark Week meets tech, gaming and entertainment).

In this interview, filmed at TV NEXT 2012, Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback provides insight that is useful to anyone who is producing local content. Similar to a local content producer, Revision3 has found that authenticity has been a key to Revision3?s programming success. Louderback points out that they create a relationship between the on-air personalities and the viewers.

Louderback also explains that the younger generation has a way of learning that is different from most adults, who typically learn through reading. As former Editor in Chief of PC Magazine, Louderback certainly understands the power of the written word, but he points out, through a personal anecdote, that children now view video as the way to learn.

One implication of Louderback’s comments is that the importance of video will continue to grow, as the younger generations age. This shift to a video-centric world will have a profound impact on the network, as instead of thinking of multi-streams per home, service providers will have to think in terms of multi-streams per person.

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.

Linked In Profile

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.