September 15th, 2004 – Viodi View – Go to Viodi.com and Viodi.tv for current posts

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Quick Jump Menu to this Issue’s ArticlesSeptember 14th, 2004 OverviewMore About Content Protection:Are IP Networks Suitable for Voice?:IOC – Cable Television Market Summary:

THE VIODI VIEW

by Ken Pyle ([email protected]), Viodi, LLC

In this Issue: SVP Alliance, Magic, Is IP Suitable & More……

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September 15, 2004 Issue

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SVP Alliance
IP @ Telecom 04 Discounted Pricing Extended
More About Content Protection
Are IP Networks Suitable for Voice?
Another Way of Distributing Content?
Another Independent Telco’s Success
This Magic Is Serious
Upcoming Conferences
IOC – Cable Television Market Summary
The Korner – How About Entrepreneur’s Day?

The waning days of summer are with us; the days are getting shorter, the kids are back in school and the conference season is in full swing. We are seeing all sorts of interesting announcements at this week’s IBC conference in Amsterdam, including a portable Digital Video Recorder from Pace, a one rack unit encryption system from Latens and the announcement of the SVP (Secure Video Processor) Alliance led by NDS and Thomson to promote the adoption of content protection technology.

SVP Alliance

What the SVP Alliance is proposing is a content protection scheme that seems to bridge the chasm between IT and CATV content protection solutions. The SVP Alliance is attempting to addresses consumers’ desire for content portability (e.g. watch a movie in any room or take it on the road), while meeting the needs of the content owner. It will be interesting to see how this effort fares and whether it is competitive or complementary with the Advanced Access Content System License Administrator (AACS LA) that was founded by high tech and content licensor heavyweights that include Microsoft, Sony and Walt Disney. At a high-level view, it seems like there could be a great deal of overlap between these two groups.

Discount Pricing for IP Video @ Telecom 04 Extended

I am very pleased with the line-up for the IP Video @ Telecom 04, which Viodi is co-producing. There will be a variety of view points on all topics. One of the latest additions is Don Dulchinos, Vice President of Advanced Platforms at Cable Labs. I am looking forward to hearing his perspective on the direction of standards within the digital home. Discount pricing ends this Friday, September 17th.

More About Content Protection

Content protection is currently a hot topic among independent telcos right now, as without it, it will be impossible to deploy Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) systems. As Steve Curran of Vice President of Sales at ViewNow stated, “Implementation of content protection might be a little painful right now, but, in reality, it is a good thing as it allows providers to potentially acquire favorable programming availability dates if the content is protected.” In other words, if telcos or any other entities hope to receive product that is competitive with alternative media, then they have to be willing to provide a level of protection that is second to none. To read some other comments from programmers and content licensors regarding this important subject, please click here.

Regarding content protection, another interesting announcement at the IBC was by Latens and their introduction of a one rack unit, PC-based encryption solution that promises to be low-cost and scalable, which sounds ideal for an independent telco application. At a high-level, it sounds similar to solutions provided by Widevine Technologies (they just announced integration with the Amino Set-top box) and Secure Media (they just announced integration with Entone’s server). This is a good trend, as the industry is going to need cost-effective and proven solutions to prove in the IPTV business model and convince programmers that their content will be adequately protected.

Are IP Networks Suitable for Voice?

Bruce Threewitt of Omnivergent Communications has penned a very thought provoking article on the economic, performance and security weaknesses of the Internet as a way of transporting voice, data and video services. Whether you agree or disagree with his positions, Bruce and his colleagues at Ominvergent have been doing a great deal of research into the challenges carriers will face as they try to use the Internet for things it was not necessarily designed to do. Their view flies in the face of what is becoming conventional wisdom, spouted off by parrots like me, that, with IP, “applications can be decoupled from the network.” Click here to read his view on these shortcomings.

Another Way of Distributing Content?

A service that could be of interest to independent telcos is from a company called Entriq. Entriq provides a way for content owners to monetize their assets via streaming over the Internet. This company, which is part of the billion dollar-plus Naspers, Limited, provides all of the tools necessary for a content producer to market and sell content to consumers over the Internet. They have picked up some traction recently as NBC used their Digital Rights Management technology to restrict the transmission of Olympics content to only U.S. households (an on-going application can be found at the World Wide Wrestling Entertainment, where one can view live and recorded wrestling matches). This sort of technology could provide an interesting way for a telco to edge into the video business as a precursor to a network build-out capable of providing the full complement of video services.

Another Independent Telco’s Success

Kudos to Bascom Mutual Telephone for their success in achieving 90% penetration with their Fiber to the Home overbuilds in two small communities in Northern Ohio. The impressive thing about this penetration rate is that it has been accomplished in a little more than a year! Bascom Mutual is utilizing Optical Solutions’ FTTH equipment to implement an edge-out approach from their incumbent exchange area. One of the things that unique about their approach is that Ohio regulations allow them to serve these overbuild exchanges from their parent company; that is they don’t have to set up a separate subsidiary.

This Magic Is Serious

One of the competitive advantages of independent telcos is their closeness to their communities. This is a big reason why they are able to achieve such impressive penetration rates in spite of often stiff competition. I have been a big advocate of the creation of local content by independent telcos. A recently announced tool from a company called Serious Magic looks like it could be very helpful to telcos in the creation of cost-effective local content. Serious Magic’s DV Rack takes the place of equipment that would have probably cost $100,000 20 years ago. Their software solution offers the promise of a higher quality product with decreased post-production time. I look forward to reviewing it in a future issue.

A real live review of the DV Rack software will most likely be integrated into the next version of the Local Content Workshop. I am looking forward to trying out that software on an upcoming video project and to be able to share the results with the attendees of the Local Content Workshop. We will have some other new material in the workshop as well. I hope to have the web site for the local content workshop updated before the next issue of the Viodi View.

Upcoming Conferences

And the next issue of the Viodi View will have some interesting material from the Digital Hollywood conference. As reported in previous issues, this conference is always a great learning experience and is always a great way to learn what content producers, licensors and technology folks are thinking.

Following Digital Hollywood, is the Interactive Television Alliance’s Re-inventing Television Summit is being held in Long Beach. This is a great way for telcos and any other entity with a broadband network to meet first hand with advertisers and content publishers that view interactive television as the next step in getting closer to their customers. To paraphrase the ITA regarding the potential of interactive television, it is better to have 10,000 relationships, than one million eyeballs.

IOC – Cable Television Market Summary (Club Viodi Members only)

Lastly, Club Viodi members, check out a summary white paper of the IOC cable television market that has been added to the Club.Viodi web site. I look forward to any feedback regarding this paper.

The Korner – How About Entrepreneur’s Day?

On Labor Day weekend, I had the opportunity to hear a thinly-veiled political pitch from a labor activist. His talk got me thinking, but probably not about what the orator had intended. I was inspired to think about the oft-criticized, sometimes celebrated entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur is a pretty silly word; it has too many syllables, it is difficult to pronounce and really tough to spell. It just does not flow off the tip of the tongue like the word, “labor”. It has not been revered like labor; I am embarrassed to say that I did not know its definition until high school.

According to the Merriam Webster definition, an entrepreneur is

one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise

I submit that entrepreneurs are the ones that ultimately move society forward. I would also submit that, just as we are all laborers to some extent, we all have an innate entrepreneurial ability. Sometimes, however, society’s institutions do a pretty good job of crushing our entrepreneurial spirit.

So, what I propose is Entrepreneur Day, E-Day for short. This will be the day that we celebrate the entrepreneur in all of us. August 9th would be a great date since this is a holiday-free month (oh yeah, and it is my birthday). Since the typical entrepreneur would probably be working on this holiday, we won’t need Congressional approval for a day off. Hallmark, are you listening? Happy E-Day everyone.

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