With all the press releases and noise coming from the Consumer Electronic Show this week, I am reminded of Everett M. Christensen’s 23rd postulate, “What you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say.” I hope to be able to see through all of the hype and hyperbole at the show and bring some good insight for the Viodi View and ViodiTV from this enormous cornucopia of electronic gadgetry.
50/50 Isn’t Enough…….A Book Review
I have been thinking a great deal about Christensen’s Postulates, since reading Everett Christensen’s book, 60-40 or Fight. His book reminded me of “It’s a Wonderful Life”. A central thesis to his book is true happiness stems from the contributions one makes to others. This book transcends the typical business genre and is useful for anyone interested in having better relationships with family, friends or colleagues. Christensen is president of Christensen Communications, a Minnesota-based, independent telephone company. Click here to read the rest of the review.
3D – Not Just for the Movies or TV
The announcements from ESPN, Discovery and DirecTV regarding the creation of 3D networks has got to be music to those folks at CES who have a stake in seeing 3D in the living room. This Saturday, January 9, the MPEG Industry Forum will kick off the inaugural meeting for the 3DTV working group.
Chuck Van Dusen, an encoding expert and former CTO of Tut Systems, suggested that this is a positive development for the industry, “Standardization and and cost effective business methods will be key in the follow-on success of this technology for home use. I am glad to see the MPEGIF addressing this topic.”
Van Dusen pointed out that theatrical and television are not the only applications that may benefit from 3D technology. Chuck wrote, “There are many non-entertainment applications, such as digital signage, that can also benefit directly from these efforts, since many of these displays are network fed for the more common 2D HDTV resolution advertisements. I have been watching this space since early 2006 and the technology in the display and camera areas are much more mature that the player and distribution part of the ecosystem.”
3D will be on Tap at the Parks Associates Connections Summit at CES
3D will be one of the topics at tomorrow’s Parks Associates Connections Summit at CES, so I look forward to finding out directly from the panelists and analysts when network operators will have to start worrying about replacing their set-tops to meet this potentially disruptive technology.
Lights, Camera, Don’t Freeze Up
Roger and I will be running around with a camera and microphone interviewing speakers, analysts and anyone else we believe will be of interest to the ViodiTV audience. So, what do you do when preparing for an interview, especially one that may put you on the spot and with little or no preparation? Andy Marken of Marken Communications has written a nice piece giving some tips on what to do when the camera is facing you. Click here to read Marken’s tips.
This next post provides another reason for embedding videos in your web site, instead of simply linking to them from a third-party site. Click here to read this article.
Surprising Customer Service – One Might Call It Magic
Emmett Smith has a rather informative article about his experience with Magic Jack, when after a year of use, his Magic Jack unit failed. Magic Jack’s customer service was a pleasant surprise to someone who has dealt with telephone companies small and large. Click here to read his article.
A Lure and A Legend – My Interview with Dave Sumner
One of the downsides of the franchising of America is the resulting homogenization of our experience. The hotels, the restaurants, and the big box retailers are a far cry from the Americana of yesteryear.
Fortunately, there are still some things that cannot be franchised and are unique to certain areas. For instance, ice fishing is an abstract concept to a California native. Sure, ice fishing would appear in an occasional movie or television show, but it just didn’t seem real.
Then, last summer at the Lakeland Appreciation Day, I met the inventor of the Flirty Girty (over 2 million sold!). Dave Sumner is an entrepreneur, extraordinaire, as he owns several businesses including a cable installation operation. Sumner is also a champion ice fisherman.
In this brief video interview, Sumner discusses ice fishing, the ice-fishing community, and how technology, such as GPS, helps him position his ice-fishing house. He also explains some of the benefits of the Eskimo portable pop-up ice-fishing house. In these times of non-stop chatter, I can definitely see the appeal of the stillness of a Wisconsin frozen lake and the warmth of a ice fishing chateau.
Click here to watch the video.
Leave a Reply