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Quick Jump Menu to this Issue’s ArticlesNovember 3rd, 2004 OverviewHeads California, Tails Carolina:A Real Interesting Approach to Streaming:Don’t Like the News? Go Out and Make Your Own!:
THE VIODI VIEW
by Ken Pyle ([email protected]), Viodi, LLC
In this Issue: ITV & Election, Wish, Real News & More……..
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November 3, 2004 Issue
- Heads California, Tails Carolina
- IP Video @ Telecom04 – Wrap Up Almost
- A Real Interesting Approach to Streaming
- Don’t Like the News? Go Out and Make Your Own!
- Secure This and Some New Numbers
- A New Middleware in Town…
- Interactive Television and Yesterday’s Election
- Give Me Some Initiative
- The Korner – Make a Wish in Action
One of the reasons I stay in California is the weather. The Mediterranean climate of San Jose is arguably better than the Mediterranean. The resulting high real estate taxes have even been described as, “the weather tax”. So, it is not too surprising that I forgot that it is a wise thing to have a jacket when traveling to the East coast at this time of the year. Fortunately, my destination was North Carolina, which shares many parallels with the golden state, including a mild climate.
Heads California, Tails Carolina
A high concentration of technology firms is another thing these States share. The Raleigh-Durham area is sort of Silicon Valley for the Southeast, with its mix of start-ups and established technology players. I had a chance to spend some “quality time” last week with a company that is well established, but has the can-do attitude of a start-up. To read more about the NeoNova User’s Group meeting and some of the innovative Voice over IP and other Internet solutions they are helping independent telcos provide, please click here.
IP Video at Telecom 04 Wrap-up – Almost:
As mentioned in the last issue of the Viodi View, there was too much good information at the IP Video @ Telecom 04 conference for my information-overloaded cranium to absorb. Fortunately, the recordings are proving a useful way for me to sort out the gems provided by the 31 speakers; and there are some good gems.
To purchase these recordings, please email Sean Sullivan at [email protected]. Pricing is only $49 for USTA members who attended the conference and $79 for all others who attended the conference. Pricing for USTA members and non-USTA members who did not attend the conference is $69 and $99, respectively.
A Real Interesting Approach to Streaming
With all of the activity surrounding new start-ups involved in streaming and downloading video and other sorts of content to Internet-connected hard-drive set-tops and PCs, it is easy to overlook one of the veteran streaming media players, Real Networks. I had a chance to sit in on a free workshop they spearheaded with several of their partner companies. I recommend taking the time to attend this seminar, but since it may not be coming to a city near you, you can click here to see why Real’s products should be of interest to an independent telco.
Don’t Like the News? Go Out and Make Your Own!
NeoNova brought Viodi to their facility to lead the Local Content Workshop for their customers. These workshops are one of my favorite Viodi activities, as they provide a great way to connect with the IOC community. I am always amazed at the different methods independent telcos use to connect and strengthen their communities. My conversation with one of the attendees, Larry Taylor of Moundville Telephone, opened my eyes as to a unique approach for a telephone company to strengthen the ties that bind it to the community. Click here to get the scoop. (Club Viodi Members Only)
Secure This and Some New Numbers
Congratulations to Widevine Technologies on their deal with Motorola to secure their Next Level platform. A few years ago, just having a proprietary access system and set-top would be enough security for programmers, but the very success of IPTV in terms of attracting subscribers is also its undoing in that it is that much more likely that hackers will find it appealing; enter Widevine and its content protection solution.
Regarding security, please join me on a NTCA webcast next week, where Andy Mathieson of Latens and I will be discussing the importance of security in the context of IPTV deployments.
Finally, recent reports of Motorola having 700k ports of “IPTV” seem way out of line. In email conversations with friends, we have determined that the 700k may refer to three ports per residential gateway (or more like 230k residential gateways in the field). Thoughts anyone?
Infogate Online, an Israeli company, just announced a deployment with Citizens Cablevision in Virginia. Citizens Cablevision is a subsidiary of Citizens Telephone Cooperative and has had a traditional RF cable system for a number of years. Infogate has partnered with a number of companies, such as Tandberg, Optibase and Bast, to provide both on-demand and streaming content. One of the interesting things about their approach is that MPEG-2 will be used for broadcast and Windows Media 9 will be used for on-demand content. This is a development to watch.
Interactive Television and Yesterday’s Election
Just in time for this year’s election, DISH Network rolled out an interesting application using their Open TV middleware on channel 100. This channel featured thumbnails of six channels (CNN, Fox News, CSPAN, MSNBC, MTV and Comedy Central) with audio from one of the user highlighted channels. This feature allows one to rapidly select between channels (during commercial breaks for instance). A good summary of this service can be found at Dish’s web site.
DISH also had a poll of sorts. For $0.50 a text message, viewers could vote via their cell phones as to who would win the presidency. As of this morning, President Bush, Senator Kerry and Ralph Nader had 49%, 49% and 2% of the votes from the DISH poll, respectively. The only winner in this poll is Echostar who made money on each sap who paid to have their opinion seen on the DISH Network application.
The California Ballot Initiative is out of control. I would say it has forced the people to become the defacto legislature, but I don’t know if that is a legitimate statement, as that body is writing thousands of laws every year. With the convoluted way the California Initiatives are written, it is difficult to understand if no means no, yes means yes and is means is. Yesterday’s ballot and its sixteen initiatives are just too many for the average voter like me to contemplate.
But, the initiative process has occasionally kept the legislators in check, so it should definitely be kept in some form. Maybe, more signatures should be required in order to get an initiative on the ballot. I would start an initiative to require more votes to bring an initiative to the ballot, but, alas, I don’t have the initiative.
The Korner – Make a Wish in Action
Something that is called “special” could also be termed, out of the routine. One of the benefits of travel is it jars a person out of their usual routine. One’s schedule becomes controlled by departure times of airlines and the uncertainties of navigating unfamiliar cities and their unique traffic patterns. These factors played into my arrival at the Raleigh-Durham airport in the wee hours of the morning last week.
So, I didn’t think it was too unusual, given that it was the start of the Halloween weekend, to see one of the American Airline employees wearing Mickey Mouse ears. But when I saw the gate decorated in a Halloween theme and populated with costumed employees, it was obvious to even this seasoned traveler that something special was happening. As it turns out, the Make-a-Wish Foundation was sponsoring a Halloween trip for a little boy named Dashon.
The Make-a-Wish Foundation does exactly what its name suggests. In a nutshell, this foundation provides terminally ill kids with the opportunity to fulfill a dream. To some extent, I was introduced to this organization through Dave Hood, an icon among many children. On his web site, he has a compelling testimonial of the positive impact this organization makes on terminally ill children, as well as the people involved with making the wish a reality.
I felt obligated to document a bit of this special event in the video found at,
http://www.viodi.com/newsletter/041100/wish.wmv
since it turned a routine travel day into something special. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to see the little boy whose wish was coming true, as the pilot was giving him a personal tour of the plane when I happened by. Kudos to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, American Airlines and all of the other organizations involved in making this event happen.
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Job Board
This is a bit of an experiment to help match jobs with Viodi View readers. Not certain how it will evolve, but here goes.
Entone has several opportunities ranging from sales engineering to development positions. Check out their website for details. Tell them that you saw the opportunity in the Viodi View.
Another opportunity is for an ad sales position. Actually, this will be more of a partnership as opposed to a job as it is a ground floor opportunity and the company is looking for someone who is willing to work on 100% commission, at least initially. Interested parties can send an email to [email protected].
This may take a few minutes to download. Thanks to my friend, Kurt Iverson for the use of his music, “When Morn’ Comes”. More of his music can be found at www.sincemonday.com.