Viodi View – May 11th, 2005 Issue – Go to Viodi.com and Viodi.tv for current posts

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Viodi View Newsletter – May 11th, 2005

Local Content Workshop

IPTV 2005 – What is Personal TV?
Upload This!
Local Content Workshop – May 23rd, 2005 – Register Today
The Interactive Bathroom
Is IPTV Enough?
The USTA Small Company Caucus – Online!
Ideas on Demand
This Just In!
The Korner – How About Farmer’s Appreciation Day?

The answer is several types of beans, blueberries, cucumbers, flowering hanging baskets, Geraniums, Impatiens, Niagra Grapes, Petunias and Tart cherries. The question; “in 2003, Michigan was the number one producer of what agricultural commodities?” By the time this email goes out, I will be in Michigan at the Telecommunication Association of Michigan’s PoliTech 2005. There will be more about that slice of Michigan in the next issue of the Viodi View and more about cherry crops and the challenges farmers face in the current Krazy Ken’s Korner.

IPTV 2005 – What is Personal TV?

Fortunately, I did not have to go to far from home to visit the IPTV 2005 conference, produced by S2 Data. Held in San Jose, this conference provided a comprehensive view of the current state of IPTV and where it is going. One take-away from this conference is that the technology is transforming television into a “personal TV” experience. Mark Gray, CEO of Kasenna, put it well when he suggested that all people really want is only one channel which has the content they want, when they want. This event’s technology demos, particularly the one by Digisoft.tv, convinced me that much of this content is going to be generated by consumers. Click here for some more observations from this intense day of presentation and demonstrations.

Upload This!

The concept of individuals creating video content is going to become a reality, even if there is great deal of current hype surrounding the topic and almost daily announcements of industry heavyweights jumping into the fray. I am still waiting on Google to “verify” the videos I have posted to their web site [mentioned in the last issue of the Viodi View]. What they are offering holds great promise for the independent video producer, but, obviously, the verification process needs to be streamlined.

Maybe a better way is promised by the peer-to-peer folks. Marty Lafferty, of the Distributed Computing Industry Association, discusses the DCIA’s newest member, Cybersky, in his latest newsletter. Cybersky-TV has developed an approach, Byte-Tornado, which allows streaming of video using peer to peer technology. A full suite of applications have been developed, including electronic program guides, online personal video recording and interactive chat running in conjunction with the video program. The upshot is that Byte-Tornado promises to be much more efficient than the typical client-to-server streaming approach for streaming video.

Local Content Workshop – May 23rd, 2005 – Register Today

How independent telcos could use Peer to Peer for legitimate, commercial application is one of the many things that are discussed in the Local Content Workshop. We will be holding the next Local Content Workshop in Portland on May 23rd. I encourage telcos that have not yet deployed video to go to this forum. It is a great way to learn from other telcos that already have video as well as get ideas as to how to add video to an existing ISP operation. For more information, please go to http://www.viodi.com/local

The Interactive Bathroom

It is becoming imperative that operators have an offering that is consistent between the online and television worlds. Julian Smith wrote a good article about the importance of online video for advertisers. One advertiser that wipes away the barriers between the television and online media is Georgia Pacific and their Angel Soft brand of toilet paper. They ran two 15 second spots back to back on Sunday night with a link to their web site.

http://www.angelsoft.com/bathroommoments/fishfuneralhigh.html

The television ads lured me to their web site where I reviewed the rest of their ads and entered their sweepstakes (grand prize winner gets a bathroom makeover).

The point is that advertising is sometimes the compelling content. I really wanted to watch these short snippets and was hoping the on-demand, online versions were a little longer and told a bit more of a story. In short, I was looking to be entertained by the advertisement. At the same time, I sort of longed for the ability to have a “red button” on the remote that would allow me to jump to the ad or see it again (I know, I should get a DVR) on the television without having to use my trusty lap-top. Of course, the advantage of the lap-top is that I can do the interactive thing, while my wife continues to watch her show.

Is IPTV Enough?

Probably one of the reasons I was so sensitive to interactivity and advertising is I had a series of conference calls last week with many of the speakers who will be participating in the IP Video @ Supercomm conference. The IP Video @ Supercomm conference will have panels on just about every topic associated with IPTV, including interactive television and advertising. I always feel very fortunate to participate in the panel planning conference calls, as I learn a great deal from speakers. To get a sneak preview of some of the things they will talk about and why speakers from companies, such as 2Wire, Insight, Intel and PCWW should be of interest to anyone involved with IPTV, please click here.

Can IPTV Be Deployed Fast Enough?

Operational & Business Support Challenges

Telco Success Cases

The Local Content Difference

The USTA Small Company Caucus – Online!

USTA’s 2005 Small Company Caucus was reviewed in this publication last month. Now, the audio and associated presentations from this conference are available online at no charge, so anyone with a high-speed connection can hear what they missed. The speakers, which included industry leaders, such as Gene South, Walt Clay and Raymond Henagan, discussed the present and future of the independent telco industry. These are must see and hear for anyone wanting to learn more about independent telcos.

Ideas on Demand!

Another conference which promises to have an outstanding line-up of speakers is C-Cor’s Ideas on Demand summit, on June 28th and 29th in Barcelona, Spain. Speakers include David Fellows, CTO of Comcast, Tony Werner, CTO of Liberty Media and Michael Fries of United Globalcom (10 million+ subscribers worldwide). I am extremely honored to be speaking at this truly international conference.

This Just In!

Congratulations to long-time Viodi View sponsor, Entone for winning the business of Pioneer Telephone Long Distance (subsidiary of the 3rd largest telco cooperative in the United States). This win by Entone points to the continued growth in the independent telco market and the renewed interest among independent telcos for providing on-demand offerings.

An announcement that I missed, but that could be important is from ATIS. ATIS has put together a working group to explore the challenges of deploying IPTV. More on this later….

Real interesting announcement from Philips and Microsoft announcing that Philips “Nexperia” chipsets, which are used in things such as IP set-top boxes, Personal Video Recorders and video phones, will have integrated support of Windows Media 10 decoding and Digital Rights Management capabilities. From the press release, it is not clear when these will be available, but for telcos who need to squeeze bandwidth and dollars from their legacy copper networks, it cannot be soon enough.

The Korner: How About Farmer’s Appreciation Day?

Long before it was known as Silicon Valley, the berg I call home was known as the “Valley of the Hearts Delight.” This moniker was bestowed upon this area due to its once bountiful harvests of fruits and vegetables. I was reminded of these roots this weekend, as I rushed to pick cherries from some of the last vestiges of Silicon Valley’s agricultural past. Picking cherries brings me back to the days when I was a little boy and orchards still dominated the valley floor.

This simple task of plucking this ripened fruit off gives me an appreciation for how challenging it is for farmers to make a consistent living. Rain at the wrong time, an infestation of ants or any number of things can devastate the cherry crop. I have also learned that the fruit ripens on its own timetable and when it is ready, I have to be ready, even if it means picking cherries until 8:30 at night.

I can only imagine the challenges I would face if I were trying to do this professionally. For instance, the dollar value of Michigan’s Tart Cherry crop dropped 84% between 2001 and 2002. In short, farming is not easy as it requires hard work in combination with smarts in order to battle successfully things beyond one’s control, such as weather, disease and long growing cycles. What really amazes me is that farmers have become such good stewards of the land that less than one is needed to feed every 100 Americans.

Clearly, farming is the lifeblood of many of the rural communities, while giving life to the people in the urban and suburban areas. Of course, farming is second nature to most of the independent telcos, as many farmers sit on their boards (some even started independent telcos), so I may be preaching to the choir when I suggest a National Farmer’s Appreciation Day.

Hopefully, this little bit of humor that follows will remind us why we need to be thankful to those hardworking folks who are at the beginning of the food-chain.

A man owned a small farm in Iowa. The Iowa Wage and Hour Department claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him.
“I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them,” demanded the agent.
“Well, there are my hired hands. One has been with me for four years; the other for three. I pay them each $600 a week, plus free room and board. The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $500 a month plus free room and board. Then there’s the half-wit that works here about 18 hours a day. He makes $10 a week and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every week,” replied the farmer.
“That’s the guy I want to talk to; the half-wit,” said the agent.”
The farmer said, “That would be me.”

[Thanks Jerry]

[Correction to the 4/27 issue of the Viodi View: In the last issue, the acronym DCIA was incorrectly identified. It is the Distributed Computing Industry Association.]

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