On the eve of August, we are in the middle of the so-called dog days of summer. As such, many in the Viodi View audience may be reading this from gigabit vacation homes (at least if they are in a service territory of CoMo, which reportedly has a customer with gigabit access at his home in Kansas City and at his lake home in CoMo). Others may be sweating through the heat as they complete outside plant projects, during the short construction season. Others, like me, may be reflecting on some of the cool travels they have already made this summer.
Local Content, OTT and a Top 10 User Experience
Given the old saying about the weather being a topic of conversation of interest to all people, it stands to reason that micro weather forecasts would be a popular program on a local content channel. Clint Carter, Director | Technology and New Service Introduction for North Central Telephone Cooperative, talks about how they tap into the popularity of the weather through the creation of a customized weather channel that defaults to channel 1 of their customers’ set-tops in this exclusive video interview filmed at NCTC’s Tennessee site.
Click here to read more and to view.
Entone – Thanks for Your Support – Congratulations on Acquisition by Amino
It was a pleasure producing the four videos featuring North Central Telephone Cooperative for Entone. Entone believed it was important to get the opinions of a thought-leader and set me off to spend the afternoon with Mr. Carter, where we had the free-ranging conversations documented on ViodiTV. Last week, it was announced that Amino has a definitive agreement to acquire Entone in Q3 2015. As this story continues to unfold, best wishes to the entire Entone team who have been supportive of Viodi through the years.
Local Content Without Boundaries
Speaking of local content, it was a treat to catch up with Ken Budd of Nemont/Nemont.TV, as well as Edward Hinson of Skyline Membership Corp./The Video Exchange at the BroadbandTV Event. In this interview, they provide tips and ideas about how to create a successful local content channel; a channel that can extend beyond traditional IPTV, as well as exchange boundaries. Hinson talks about local content creating “social currency”; another way of saying that local content equals great marketing.
Click here to view and read more (Telecompetitor site).
Does Content Caching Equal Prioritization?
Like a kitten with a string, once regulators implement a rule, there is no telling where things will end up as the real-world adjusts to take advantage of the new situation. In this interview from the BroadbandTV Event, Jimmy Todd, CEO of Nex-Tech suggests that it isn’t a stretch to think that the content caches that some streaming video services are installing into central offices could be considered a form of content prioritization.
Click here to view and read more (Telecompetitor site).
The Independent Show Overview with Matt Polka
From over-the-top video alternatives to the impact of regulations, The Independent Show provided a current look at the challenges faced by independent broadband operators. It is always fun to cover this show and this interview with ACA’s president and CEO, highlights take-aways from this 3+ day conference and exhibition in Beantown.
Title II is Price Regulation
What a privilege to interview esteemed analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson; particularly since it was a day before his testimony to Congress (a must-read). In a nutshell, he suggests TANSTAAFL (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch) and that as operators lose video subscribers to cord-cutting, they will inevitably have to raise broadband prices to pay for the infrastructure. His model suggests double-digit increases in broadband prices could result, which would lead to FCC oversight via Title II.
Click here to view.
Customer Experience Has Got to Be Part of the DNA
I knew the interview with WOW!’s Cathy Kuo would be a pleasure, as her title of COO includes the descriptors “Mom”, “Karaoke Fan” and Optimist”. These descriptors, along with those chosen by her senior management colleagues, are important as they set the tone for the culture of the company. And, as she points out in this interview, culture or a company’s DNA, is the foundation for customer experience. And she should she be listened to, as WOW! has collected multiple awards for outstanding customer service through the years.
Future of Networking: Pica8 Open Networking OS/Protocol Stacks on Bare Metal Switches by Alan Weissberger
Tired of all the SDN and network virtualization hype? And that “open” networking has morphed into the new term for “closed, vendor proprietary box with a bit of user programmability?” So am I! That’s why this inside look at SDN/Open Networking start-up Pica8 is so refreshingly different.This author believes the future of open networking is Open Source and networking OS company software running on bare metal/white box switches.
Click here to read why Weissberger thinks Pica8 is the “real deal”.
The Service Provider Flop
Using the high-jump and the initially unorthodox Fosbury Flop from the 1968 Olympics as a metaphor, Calix’s David Seda, the keynote speaker at the 2015 IP Possibilities Conference, suggested that it is time for the Service Provider Flop. That is, service providers must go from a network-centric way of looking at things to “Subscriber In”. This customer-centric view of things implies several things….
Click here to view and read more.
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:
While many of us were in Boston the Independent Show, Levi Maaia of Full Channel Communications was in San Francisco shooting this aerial video around SF and the North Bay. Very creative way he filmed using a GoPro camcorder- “…hard to be optimistic that they will do much better this time around,” Craig Moffett‘s congressional testimony on AT&T’s commitment to deploy fiber in exchange for winning approval of their DirecTV acquisition.
- RT @TomBamonte “Study: 75% of the UK population don’t want driverless car – I wonder how horseless carriages polled before intro.”
- Headline reads FTTH adds 3.1% to value of the house. Probably the better measure is the $5,437 figure cited in the study (pdf). This sort of number easliy justifies a $2k to $2.5k investment.
- Favorite picture from the Independent Show in Boston – this boat needs more than 2 Megs and it obviously needs FTTH (Fiber to the Harbor).
- Favorite picture of summer side trip to NYC – One World Trade Center “The foundation of this building is the people”.
The Korner – The Contractor’s Role in the Smart Home
The remodel market is huge with one estimate suggesting that the total annual revenue from professional-led (i.e. contractor, not Do It Yourself) remodels amounts to $176B. The contractor has a huge influence on the details of a home remodel and the product choices the homeowner makes. As consumers become more aware of the technologies that make the home smart, often, it will be the contractor who is the one they look to for direction.
In the above interview, filmed at the 2015 Parks Associates 2015 CONNECTIONS™ Conference, Amanda Parrilli, Director of Strategic Business Development, discusses the role of the contractor in educating consumers about the advantages of connected devices. She points out that Home Depot has programs to educate contractors. Still, the contractors are busy and technology choices are constantly changing, so it is a challenge to keep contractors current on the various options.
Click here to view and read more.
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