Despite the proliferation of over the top video services, consumers still want the convenience of traditional TV. This was a recurring theme of last week’s broadbandTV event in Nashville. Another implication of this increasingly on demand world, will be a continued growth in bandwidth and will mean the role of regional fiber networks and caching represented by INDATEL even more important. Stay tuned over the coming months for ViodiTV coverage of these two events. In the meantime, it may not be long until operators have to consider that the big screen TV of the future will be virtual and integrated into smart glasses as was seen at the recent Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2016.
A Fiber Reality – Working from Home in Rural Michigan’s UP
Normally, ViodiTV travels across the fruited plain to help tell the stories of how robust broadband can transform rural communities. In the above interview, rural America traveled to Silicon Valley in the person of Jonathan Gennick. Gennick hails from Munising, MI and was in Silicon Valley at the Augmented World Expo 2016 searching for authors to write about the technical aspects of augmented, virtual and mixed reality technologies. In the above interview Gennick explains how he went from cable to DSL to Fiber to Home customer and how the experience with FTTH is unmatched.
Smart Energy Opportunities in the Smart Home
“The analytics, just like the network and all the technology, should just fade away into the background,” says Tom Kerber, Director, Research Energy and Home Controls of Parks Associates. Kerber was speaking to the idea that customers want smart energy features to work in the background, providing comfort and efficiency without having to be in control. Kerber talks about the potential opportunities for both telecom operators, as well as energy providers to include energy production (e.g. solar) and efficiency (e.g. smart thermostats) as part of a smart home offering.
Make Things More Convenient for People
Creating better mobility solutions, while reducing the environmental impact of moving people, are the seemingly contradictory goals laid out by Gil Friend, the Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Palo Alto. Friend was part of a panel of experts at ProspectSV’s Connected and Charged conference at the SAP campus in Palo Alto who discussed the shift from ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) to ACES (Autonomous, Connected, Electrified and Shared). There were many examples of ACES from the myriad of start-ups and established companies at the Connected and Charged event.
Picking the Swiftest Way to Travel
Lack of information represents friction to an economy and makes it less efficient than it could be. A source of friction for commuters is not knowing the fastest and most cost-efficient way to reach their destination. Swiftly, with its data platform, are able to get an aggregate idea of real-time and historic traffic patterns as well as origination and destination information, reducing friction. This is the sort of information that is of great value to public entities, such as cities and transit agencies. Private entities also find the data of great value, as it provides a good understanding of how people move and could help determine where to locate businesses and how to develop given properties.
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:
- “Frontier: Excited at the Prospects of DSL and IPTV” a snippet of last week’s excellent
#broadbandtvevent - Autonomous vehicles like this will change the built environment –Local Motors Launches 3D-printed, Olli, an autonous shuttle.
- RT @AjitPaiFCC “My colleague
@JRosenworcel on FCC set-top box proposal: “it has become clear the original proposal has real flaws.’”
The Conference Whisperer
One of the exhilarating, some would say stressful, aspects of organizing a conference is adjusting to last-minute speaker cancellations. In the case of last February’s Winter Education Conference, NCTC did an amazing job of finding a replacement luncheon keynote after the original speaker had to bow out after inclement weather ruined his travel plans. Mark Cordes was eating breakfast and contemplating the day when he got the phone call asking if he could take the stage later that day.
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