What do set-tops, wireless and Silicon Valley have in common? Besides being referenced in today’s Viodi View, they also represent opportunity in one form or another to one group or another.
More or Less Competition from FCC’s Approved “Open” Set Top Box Proposal? by Alan Weissberger
On Feb 18, 2016, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) narrowly approved a proposal by Chairman Tom Wheeler to let consumers swap their cable television boxes for cheaper devices and apps, a move that is intended to increase competition in the $20 billion set-top box rental market. The proposal passed on a 3-to-2 vote, with commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly dissenting.
FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, said of the measure: “Technology allows it,” but the cable industry is likely to challenge the ruling in court. During the FCC meeting, Wheeler reiterated that “nothing in this proposal slows down or stops cable innovation.
Worse Than a CableCARD?
“We are getting away from set-tops,” points out Matt Polka, president and CEO of the American Cable Association. Speaking at last week’s WEC 2016 conference, Polka was referring to the migration of his MVPD members’ licensed programming to IP set-top boxes, TVs and hand-held devices through the magic of Apps. He expresses concern that the proposed FCC changes (PDF) – that would require the decoupling of service discovery, entitlements and content delivery so they could be reassembled by a third-party device – would be especially costly to the smaller operators the ACA represents.
More Efficient TV White Spaces #CES2016
Eight times higher transmit power is what the new IEEE 1900.7-2015 TV White Space standard promises. According to LETI, a French research organization and contributor to the standard, this translates into 75% longer distance for a given data rate. It achieves this performance gain without interfering with adjacent TV channels. The extended range afforded by this new modulation standard opens up a potentially wider market for the TV White Space approach, allowing, for instance, broadband and machine-to-machine wireless connections in rural, suburban and urban locales.
A Protector from the Digital Dark Alleys of the Internet #CES2016
In the ironic file, a USA Today reporter explained how his computer was hacked while using a public WiFi hotspot to write a story about the Apple/FBI battle over access to a San Bernardino County owned-iPhone. Like this story suggests, even though many of us know we should have some sort of protection, the convenience of public WiFi access often outweighs the potential dangers of spoofing and sniffing that lurk around the digital dark alleys of the Internet. Amsterdam-based Keezel has come up with a one-button, simple to use device that goes between a public WiFi hotspot and up to 5 or 6 personal devices (it also has battery back-up to potentially power one of those devices), which protects the data flying across the airwaves by adding a layer of encryption.
Voices Inside Our Head #CES2016
The premise of The Six Million Dollar Man was that scientists could make a broken astronaut “better, stronger and faster,” after his nearly fatal crash. Fast-forward 40+ years and the ReSound hearing aid is helping out with the better part by improving hearing through a nearly invisible device. The LiNX2 hearing aid provides invisible insight into the surrounding world, thanks to its Bluetooth connectivity with Siri.
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:
- If ISPs released customer-specific usage, there would be huge fines. Why the double standard for public agencies [see article for how high-usage water customers are publicly shamed]
- By the end of the morning of the first day of NCTC’s WEC 2016, there were two mentions of self driving cars. It was pointed out that self-driving cars will give people more time fto watch TV. TV, other entertainment and telematics will drive new bandwidth demands thanks to connected vehicles.
- An excellent white paper from anyone marketing products and services to Millennials. TU-Automotive suggests that Millennials won’t get stuck on ownership and will embrace ridesharing:
“But perhaps what really separates Millennials from their predecessors is their cognitive ability to keep separate the idea of owning something with that of having access to the capability which that thing represents. The most obvious example might be with music. For Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers, recorded music isn’t really real unless it is in some tangible form, such as a CD, a cassette, or a vinyl LP……. Millennials don’t care about the object,they just want the capability.”
If Stefan Heck’s predictions are right and mobility can be provided for 8 cents/mile, then a lot of Baby Boomers will probably also get on board.
The Korner – Part 1: An Opportunity to Be a Model for the Rest of the World
The Joint Venture Silicon Valley (JVSV) 2016 State of the Valley Conference painted a picture of an extremely prosperous region, as shown by its high median income of $98,535 and housing prices with a median price of $830,000. As is common knowledge in Silicon Valley, this prosperity causes an “affordability” issue for the significant number of people on the lower end of the income or home ownership ladder. The JVSV data suggests that almost 30% of households in the 3+ million population region are below the self-sufficiency standard, meaning, although they may be above the national poverty level in terms of income, they need help to live in this very expensive area.
It also means people are getting creative in how they live, as approximately 5.1% of Silicon Valley citizens live in homes that include at least three generations of family members (see page 67 of this report – PDF), compared to less than 4% for the rest of the United States. Overall, the average household size has increased (from 2.98 in 2005 to 3.09 in 2014), which is another indicator that people are moving in together to afford housing. This “shared” living stresses parking and roadways designed for the single family residences that would have one or two cars and now may have three or four to accommodate multiple adults living in a household.
Addressing the long-term challenges is what JVSV does. Their 2016 State of the Valley Conference provided a venue to discuss the challenges, look into the future and present possible ways to move the valley forward.
The Korner – Part 2: Once in a Generation Opportunity
A once in a generation opportunity is how Stefan Heck characterizes the changes to the built-environment, thanks to ACES. ACES – Autonomous, Connected, Electrified and Shared – is the acronym that Heck – CEO and Co-Founder, NAUTO, and Consulting Professor, Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University – invented to describe the convergence of different technologies that will transform not only mobility, but the way we live. And this isn’t science fiction, as Heck suggests that different use-cases for ACES will be here in less than a decade, allowing us to begin reaping the benefits even before today’s cars go the way of yesterday’s horses.
Leave a Reply