Viodi View - March 2nd, 2005 Issue

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Viodi View Newsletter - March 2nd, 2005

Local Content Workshop

Down in Monterey
FCC - Listening and Leading
White Open Spaces
Digital Must-Carry & USDTV
Video Interview with Allison Dollar of ITA
Are New Technologies Ready for IPTV?
IPTV Training & More
NCTC - More of the Same
Krazy Ken's Korner: This Ain't Beans - the Video

Back in the 60s, when I was a kid, California used to be on the forefront of everything cool and avant-garde. To some kids, like my wife Jane, California represented a land of sunny skies and endless summers. To adults, it meant career opportunities, an educational system that was the envy of the U.S. and a physical infrastructure that included a modern freeway system and canals that stretched from north to south. Unfortunately, those once vaunted investments in the future are now somewhat stuck in the past.

Down in Monterey

Thus, it was heartening to be a part of California Telephone Association’s Annual meeting in Monterey last week, where a diverse group discussed how to advance California’s Telecom infrastructure to, once again, be the envy of the world. Margaret Felts, CTA’s President, and her staff did an outstanding job of setting the agenda and selecting speakers who spoke to the theme of Telecom in the Year 2025. Click here to read why Steve Bryan, President of Pinnacles Telephone, called this, “the best telecom conference I have attended.”

Independent Telcos – If you are going to next week’s VON, you have to check out Dave Berstein’s conference, Business Strategies for ILECs: The Quadruple Play? He has speakers from SureWest, Vermont Tel and Ringgold Telephone amongst others. To get a discount on registration, enter the following code dslp in the registration page. 5,000 people are expected to be at this year's VON.

FCC – Listening and Leading

Distance is dead! That was the clear message that came out of the FCC workshop that CTA organized in conjunction with their annual meeting. The combination of digital and software technologies is making wireless and broadband power line technologies viable alternatives to the traditional wired networks. Click here to see why I came away impressed with the FCC officials who led this workshop and their aggressive efforts to make telecommunications more affordable for everyone.

White Open Spaces (pdf)

Ed Thomas, the FCC’s Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, discussed an FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making that is worth a close review. This NPRM proposes to use the “white spaces” between broadcast channels for unlicensed wireless applications. This could be of great benefit to independent telcos that are looking for wireless solutions with propagation characteristics that could be well suited for rural areas. Click here (pdf) to look at this NPRM.

Digital Must Carry & USDTV

Regarding broadcasting and the broadcasting spectrum, in the last issue we touched upon the possible upside for independent telcos with regards to the recent ruling that stated that cable companies do not have to “must-carry” broadcasters’ digital signals. Of course, if Senator Stevens’ has his way, digital must-carry and standards for cable indecency could be the law. In this issue, we look at the impact of services like USDTV on digital must-carry and the independent telco [must be a club viodi member to view].

Video Interview with Allison Dollar of ITA

One of the big challenges faced by independent telcos is figuring out ways to monetize their huge capital investment in the physical infrastructure required to carrry video, data and telephony services. Interactive Television has the potential to provide additional revenue to help amortize the investment in these networks. In this issue of the Viodi View, Allison Dollar of the Interactive Television Alliance has some good advice for telcos interested in adding ITV to their service mix. Thanks to Packet 8 for providing the technology and service to power this video.

Click to see Video

Are New Technologies Ready for IPTV? (pdf)

A big challenge for other operators trying to deploy IPTV is the lack of standards and interoperability between network elements. Interoperability between different suppliers may be possible as long as they are in a particular eco-system, but go outside of that sphere and things may no longer work. In the following piece, Alan Weissberger poses some provocative questions that should be of interest to anyone looking at IPTV.

IPTV Training & More

The other element to a successful transition to new services is adequate training. Aligning all of the personality vectors in a company in the same direction is quite a challenge. Viodi has put together the Telco Video 101 workshop for telcos that are considering adding video services. This workshop primarily provides an overview of the cable television business, along with alternatives approaches. The intent is to put everyone in a company on the same page when it comes to the business aspects of adding video to a independent telcos’ offering.

I am pleased to announce that Viodi has partnered with Incremona Communications to offer their technical training courses to telcos that are Viodi View readers. Like the workshops produced by Viodi, Incremona Communications provides customized training at the customer’s location. Their workshops cover the range of technologies from IPTV to TCP/IP and Ethernet. Incremona provides technical training for a range of people from Managers to Technical Support people. Click here (pdf) to learn more about Incremona's workshops and get an idea of why they came highly recommended from SureWest. To contact Incremona, please send an email to incremona@viodi.com.

NCTC Update – More of the Same

Seems like the rumors surrounding NCTC and potential policy changes were just that; rumors. Dan Mulvenon, VP of Public Relations for NCTC reports that, “the NCTC membership moratorium is officially over. There has been no change in the membership requirements that have been defined in our bylaws since NCTC's inception twenty years ago. As we have always done we will thoroughly and carefully evaluate prospective members on a variety of business factors.”

We are informing prospective members that the membership eligibility assessment process could take 90 days or longer. The one-time membership fee has also been changed and is now more reflective of the value of NCTC membership on today's business climate and considerate of the actual time and resources involved in processing and educating new members.”

Krazy Ken’s Korner: This Ain’t Beans - the Music Video

About six months ago, I was introduced to a song that reminded me of the Tennessee Bird Walk, by Jack Blanchard and Misty Morgan. The Tennessee Bird Walk was a silly song about birds walking around in dirty underwear; just the sort of tune that an eight year old could enjoy. The harmonized vocals of Bill Fielding and his sister Jeanie and the light-hearted lyrics of This Ain’t Beans immediately brought me back to my youth when I heard it late last year.

Click to Play Video

Roger Bindl brings the song to life in the music video that can be seen by clicking here. It may take a few minutes to load, but it is definitely worth the wait. Using some clever video editing and animation techniques, Roger’s video is a perfect complement to Bill Fielding’s words. Roger is setting an example for independent telcos to follow in the creation of local content. Roger now has two half hour shows worth of short clips that he has compiled for his local public access channel. His web site, www.hem.com, is definitely worth a look if you want to see some content created in the heartland.

You will get a chance to meet Roger at the IP Video @ Supercomm show, where he will moderate the panel on local content. If you want to get the full CD of Bill’s music, send me an email and I will forward it on to Bill. Bill has created liner notes that provide the interesting background and his inspirations for his unique music.

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