Something is different this third week in January. No, I am not talking about the historic inauguration of the first U.S. President born in the 1960s, but I am referring to missing this week’s OPASTCO’s Winter Convention. Unfortunately, we did not get our act together and, consequently, did not produce ViodiTV at this OPASTCO Convention. The agenda and locations are always interesting at these events, but the most enjoyable part of the experience is meeting with the people of OPASTCO.
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Green Cell Tower – Efficient and Effective
To remind myself of how much fun we had at last summer’s event, I posted a video interview with Pat Riordan, President and CEO of Nsight. Riordan discusses the implementation of a ‘green’, off-the-grid, cell phone tower by its wireless subsidiary, Cellcom. Prior to Cellcom’s construction of this unique repeater site, cell service was not available in this rather remote area of the Eagle River of Northern Wisconsin.
And More Recently at this Week’s OPASTCO Winter Convention
John Rose, in his speech at the OPASTCO Winter convention this week, reinforced the idea that broadband is changing everything and that rural carriers need to address the desires of consumers who increasingly wish to access content in locations and on devices of their choosing. He indicated that the industry’s future prosperity is also dependent upon the right regulatory environment.
The one good thing about not producing ViodiTV at OPASTCO was it gave Roger to catch up on some earlier reviews as well complete part 3 of a series on over the top video.
Vudu On-Demand and On-Line by Roger Bindl
Well… it’s one step closer to better television over the Web. Vudu now has Network and Studio TV episodes for purchase and download, plus it now has Vudu Labs which consists of YouTube videos, On Demand TV, Flickr, Picasa, and a couple of on-line games.
Video and TV Over the Net – Part 3 in a Series by Roger Bindl
Voice narration isn’t necessary to make the point of this two minute video as it notes the progression of IP in telecom and the progression of Video and TV over the Net. IP displaced ATM in an industry that would have said "no way" ten years ago. And now, Video and Television over the Net have progressed to a point where few are questioning or doubting, but many are jumping on the band wagon to provide products and service.
Alan Weissberger added interesting commentary to his earlier article on Cisco’s plans to move into consumer electronics with a discussion of their plan to move into servers. Weissberger also wrote a very interesting piece about WiMAX MIDs. Ironically, I read the first draft of this piece on a Google Phone, which is 3G enabled and WiFi. Check out the article, as well as the associated comments.
Where Are the WiMAX MIDS? by Alan Weissberger
Did you notice the absence of any major WiMAX device announcements at CES? With all the talk by Sprint and Clearwire about mobile WiMAX at the show, we were expecting a raft of WiMAX capable Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) to be announced at CES. We were disappointed. Click here to read the rest of the article.
People on the Move:
Congratulations to Ron Strecker of Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Inc. for his OPASTCO Grassroots Advocacy Excellence Award.
Congratulations to Rob West of CoBank’s communications division and communications and energy banking group for his OPASTCO Associate Member Distinguished Service Award.
Congratulations and good luck to Jay Cuthrell, formerly CTO of Digitel and NeoNova Network Systems. Jay is providing his consulting services on a full-time basis to independent telcos and others entities. Operating from Raleigh and Missoula, his understanding of technology and the independent telco industry is unique and valuable for telcos in their transition to broadband providers.
Producing ViodiTV at an OPASTCO event or any other event is a great deal of work. Roger ends up doing most of this work when we produce these video compilations of telco conferences.
[Sponsor Alert – Viodi in the planning stages for the Minnesota Telecom Alliance Convention in March]
It is great fun and a great break, however, as it takes us away from our normal locales and puts us in places that are normally warm when it is cold everywhere else. I appreciate the nice weather, but given the fairly mild climate of the Valley of the Heart’s Delight (aka, Silicon Valley) that I call home, I don’t appreciate it nearly as much as does Roger.
I didn’t realize this until I watched a video that Roger created earlier this week. I call it Stir Krazy, because it is obvious that my friend needs to get away from the cold and snow and go where it’s warm. He co-produced this video with a collaborator who was a thousand-plus miles away in Portland.
Like a street corner rapper, who comes up with lyrics off the top of his head, Roger made this little ditty up as he went along. It has sort of a country feel. Country and Rap, I will let the reader do the math on that one. Seriously, it grows on you and it is quite clever. Help Roger go viral with this by passing it on to someone who needs a pick me up from the winter blues. Click here to watch his video.
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