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Viodi View Newsletter - December 21st, 2005

Click here to learn more about Viodi's Local Content Workshop

By Ken Pyle, ken.pyle@viodi.com, Managing Editor, Viodi View

• Internet TV Prospects - A Brief Video Interview with Mary Coller
• Watch the Video - Get the Telecom 05 CD - a $150 Value
• Telco Video - But Wait, There's More
• From California to Carolina - High Definition in the News
• But Why Do People Really Buy High Definition Televisions?
• High Definition Starts Here
• Some Feedback and Correction
• Some New Links
• Krazy Ken's Korner - Beam Me Up Santa

In race for holiday shopping dollars, it seems like FedEx and UPS are always winners. With their symbiotic relationship to the online and catalog merchants, these carriers have become more important than Santa Claus and the post-office in bringing toys of all shapes and sizes to the good little boys and girls of the world. Their continuous innovations in shipping and logistics have been instrumental in the growth of Internet shopping.

Do these transport companies provide a lesson for carriers of electronic bits? Fed Ex and UPS clearly are not providing content, but they are always improving the flow and the ability to monitor the traffic that transits their respective networks. UPS’s purchase of Mail Box Etc. and Fed Ex’s purchase of Kinkos have extended their respective businesses to make it easier for their customers to use their networks (e.g., everything you need to ship a package is right there) to ship and create content for distribution over their networks (e.g., how about making a nice calendar of the kids to send to Grandma).

Is there a model for a telco to provide bundled services as a “smart pipe”? Like a Fed Ex or UPS, the value add of the telco would be to provide a network that encourages all providers to share their content on the telco’s network and would provide these content owners reports and clearinghouse services. If the Telcos don’t do this, will a Fed Ex, UPS or some other entity someday augment their existing physical infrastructure with a wireless network to extend their existing transport products to the virtual world?

Internet TV Prospects - A Brief Video Interview with Mary Coller-Albert

Telco Video - But Wait There's More

Since this is the time of the year for retail commerce, it seems appropriate to share an article I penned a few months back regarding the impact of IPTV on direct retailers. These are the folks that sell directly to customers, often through infomercials, long-form advertisements, etc. This article was originally published in Direct Retailer. The Direct Retailer segment is going to be increasingly important for operators that are deploying broadband networks, as enabling direct retailer commerce could be a critical revenue stream for recouping the associated investments. Click here to read the article.

From California to Carolina - High Definition in the News

Back in the mid-1980s, Oceanic Cablevision in Hawaii and Suburban Cablevision in New Jersey were always well known for implementing new technologies and being on the leading edge of the cable television industry. I was reminded of them by the recent announcements from SureWest Communications and Comporium regarding their moves in making HDTV over IPTV a reality. Like, Oceanic and Suburban, these two mid-size telcos represent a west coast/east coast dynamic, whereby they are continually showing the way for the industry in terms of the deployment of new services over advanced networks.

Within the past few weeks, they have both made major announcements regarding HDTV over Fiber to the Home systems. SureWest just announced more cable network carriage, in the form of TNT, while Comporium deployed the Digeo set-top box that essentially acts as a multi-room, High Definition Digital Video Recorderr, (centralized encoding/storage/control and subtending set-tops to allow multiple television access from one device). The interesting thing is that the same box could work with both HFC and IPTV configurations and is compatible with Motorola and SA headends. It will be interesting to see how Digeo attacks the telco market given their product’s ability to operate over multiple networks.

But Why Do People Really Buy High Definition Televisions?

It should be pretty much a given by now that H.D. is a must-have for any operator providing video services. With the cost of the sets dropping so much and a transition date almost set, consumers are finally getting behind the concept of H.D. But do they know what H.D. is? A recent survey by Scientific Atlanta suggests that most people with H.D. sets think they have H.D, even though most do not receive H.D through their off-air antenna, cable operator or direct broadcast satellite provider. The standard line from industry experts is that people need to be “educated”. While this is probably true, does the ordinary viewer really notice a difference between H.D. and really good standard definition signals?

I was fortunate enough to see some pretty impressive flat-screen H.D. monitors that were installed in the DFW airport this past Sunday and caught a few minutes of the New York Giants crushing the Dallas Cowboys. The picture was good and I could see the blades of grass, but it was not a “wow” experience. In fact, I was a bit disappointed, as I noticed faint noise (pixilation, no doubt) when the camera panned the field. What really impressed me, however, was the fact that flat-screen televisions are finally a reality; some 30 years after my future brother-in-law told me that someday televisions would hang on the wall like a picture frame.

High Definition Starts Here

Another driver for high definition is coming from the production side of the business. DV West Expo in Los Angeles was abuzz with information regarding H.D. The big announcement at the show was the availability of Panasonic’s AG-AVX200 H.D. camcorder. This camcorder records in true H.D. format (as well as many other formats, like standard definition) and provides full 4:2:2 color resolution, unlike the lower cost HDV format (4:2:0 format).

One producer I talked to suggested this was a big deal, as higher-end cable channels, such as Discovery will not accept anything but 4:2:2. The other nifty thing is that it records directly on solid state memory. For less than $10k, a producer can have this camera and five solid state memory cards. The only major drawback is that it doesn’t have the capability to support interchangeable lenses. For independent telcos, this camera would be more than adequate for their basic local content production needs.

Some Feedback and Correction

In the last issue of the Viodi View, there were several references to telco valuations. David Irwin of Irwin, Campbell & Tannenwald, P.C. reminded me of an article he had written for an OPASTCO publication last year. In that article, A Modest Proposal: Devalue Your Plant and Cast off the Yoke of Regulation, he suggested that independent telcos will have to reinvent themselves to leverage the new technologies, offer new services and derive additional revenues in order to remain competitive. He also suggests that telcos cannot rely on regulation and support mechanisms going forward.

Oopps: Also, in the last issue, the company that Bernardin Arnason recently co-founded was incorrectly identified as Askpivot. Askpivot is the web domain. The real name is the Pivot Group.

Some New Links:

I am hoping to do a bit of a site rebuild over the next couple of weeks. Hope is the operative word in that sentence. In the meantime, a new link has been added called “Viodi Links”. This has links and images to most of the videos to the issues from the second half of 2005. Sponsors, please check this page out, as there are a number of unique sponsor opportunities available.

Another new link is called “Sales Training”. This link describes a sales training program from a company called Carol Holmes QUOTABUSTERS. They are leading a sales training effort for the California Telephone Association in January in Sacramento. This program has been customized for the independent telco. They have developed other programs for suppliers which have multi-channel sales efforts.

Lastly, the link called “Incremona Training" has been changed to the more descriptive title of “IPTV Training”. This will open a PDF that describes the fine technical training program assembled by Incremona. Incremona has classes meant for both non-technical and technical audiences covering topics such IPTV.

Krazy Ken’s Korner - Beam Me Up Santa

At some point, will it be possible to transmit physical bits via electronic means; what science fiction types would call teleportation? Will the electronic highway someday truly supplant the 20th century interstate highway system? Long before that that day occurs, organizations like Fed Ex and UPS will probably adapt and develop a telecommunications’ infrastructure to replace their delivery vehicles. What will become of Santa Claus in that future world? Will he also change his way of delivering gifts?

A sign of Kris Kringle’s future is provided by Packet 8 and the video phone connections they have set-up between hospitals and Santa Claus’ North Pole headquarters. Packet 8 is allowing ill children to use their video phone service to talk to and see Santa Claus directly from their hospital confines. Click here to see a brief news report regarding this program. And congratulations to 8x8, Inc. for their deal to private label their Packet8 service to Bell South.

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The TELECOM 05 CDs arrived and will be shipping this week.

Great Holiday Gift Idea

Hear and See What You Missed

The TELECOM 05 CD is a great gift for that hard to buy for telecom person. Call Sean Sullivan at 202 326 7260 to purchase or send an email to
telecom05cd@viodi.com.

IP Video Tracks at TELECOM 05

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CD-ROM Contents

Sunday, October 23rd

• On Demand Success Stories
• The Consumer as Producer

Monday, October 24th

• Standardize This! Can’t we work it out?
• Interactive TV: Is it IPTV’s Edge?
• Look Ma, No Headend

Tuesday, October 25th

• Next Generation Peer to Peer – Where do Telco’s fit?
  
• High Definition – A Must Have or a Must-Carry?

Wednesday, Oct. 26th

• Content Differentiation – What’s an operator to do?