A Look Back and Forward – Our Interviews with John Rose
Thanks to the fall in the cost of communications, the death of distance was pronounced years ago. Still, and maybe this is a generational thing, there is something to be said for meeting face-to-face. We will miss our friends who are meeting at next week’s joint NTCA/OPASTCO Rural Telecom Meeting and Expo in Orlando. We will especially miss being able to congratulate John Rose on his accomplishments at OPASTCO and to be able to wish him well in retirement. In honor of John, Roger Bindl compiled years of video interviews into the playlist found at this link.
Have You Been Served?
In the beginning of January, reports suggested that a patent licensing firm, Brandywine Communications Technologies, sued over 39 ISPs for certain echo cancellation and pre-distortion technology integrated into DSL equipment. In an unrelated, but possibly significant action, Vercury CTO, Jun Zhang has just created a petition on White House.gov to urge Congress to pass and the White House to sign the Saving High-tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act introduced by Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and co-sponsored by Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) to protect American tech companies from frivolous patent lawsuits. Click here to read more.
Multi-Screen Video Presents Challenges & Opportunities for Global Service Providers by Alan Weissberger
Multi-screen video content and capabilities are becoming ever more important to pay TV operators, such as AT&T U-Verse. Multi-screen video content is usually transmitted over IP networks (often referred to as Over The Top or OTT video). The video content is received by multiple devices, such as notebooks, tablets, and smart phones. Second screen apps, which we covered in this article, also offer TV control, guide and navigation functions. Click here to read more.
600 FPS for <$1,000
At 600 Frames per Second for less than $1,000, JVC seems to be positioning its GC-PX100 as a low-cost camcorder for capturing sports events. To this end, Ryan Vogelsong, San Francisco Giant’s pitching ace, was the spokesperson for this camera at CES and was featured in a promotional video that demonstrated the features of the GC-PX100. Click here to read more and see a brief video from International CES 2013 on soon-to-be-released, relatively inexpensive prosumer camcorder.
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:
- Genesis Technologies announced their 400 Mb/s DSL ring product is ready and will be demonstrating at the NTCA/OPASTCO Rural Telecom Meeting and Expo. Here is an interview we did with them when they first introduced the concept.
- Trekking About at CES – a combination walking stick, mono pod and tripod caught my eye at CES 2013.
- Take a number. Is this the DMV? Can’t believe that Comcast hasn’t figured out retail.
- Good Screenplays Magazine interview with ACA’s Matt Polka discussing challenges and opportunities for small cable in 2013.
Sparc Lights a Spark
Providing a spark to the technology community of Charleston, South Carolina is exactly what Sparc is doing. This three-year old privately held company is more than technology, however, as it is introducing a whole new culture to business and other institutions. With a mix of software products and services for government and business, Sparc helps its partners rethink and re-engineer their processes and, in turn, the way they do business.
Click here to read how one OPASTCO member company is walking the walk that John Rose espoused in so many of our ViodiTV interviews by providing fiber to the building reliability and bandwidth; helping this innovative start-up create a culture of innovation.
