Viodi View - March 14th, 2007 Issue

In the previous issue of the Viodi View, I hinted that universal broadband is more important than universal postal service. Broadband, coupled with intelligent endpoint devices, is probably our best hope of educating our young and providing continuing education to our adult population. As a society, we should be shifting resources to create a broadband infrastructure, which includes innovative devices [instead, we are subsidizing people to watch TV] that will allow all citizens equal opportunity to succeed. [Note, Steve Hawley chimed in with some insightful comments on this topic – I would love to see some more comments from Viodi View readers regarding this topic – click here to chime in].

Those are easy words to write, but the challenge is finding a solution that works. I am sure big government organizations probably are not the right answer for allocating resources to ensure equality of opportunity, because, by nature, big government organizations are the antithesis of innovation and change. I would also argue, for similar reasons, that programs administered by large corporations are probably not effective, because the people responsible for the corporate bottom line are too far away from the customer.

The answer to creating a broadband nirvana lies with smaller organizations where upper management lives with the customer. Robert Keen, General Manager of Hancock Memorial Hospital indicated at the NTCA Annual Meeting, “that the 21st Century as a return to local.” He found the only way his facility could meet its goals was to with a carrier that had local management. Urban Communications in New York is another example of a community-driven organization that brought an area a level of broadband that it would not have had if not for them.

While Roger was in Minnesota, I was in San Jose attending S2 Data’s IPTV 2007. As mentioned in the previous issue of the Viodi View, this conference is unique because the audience consists largely of the people who make the chips for powering the devices associated with IPTV and broadband networks. A much talked about topic was the convergence of broadcast and IP and could be indicative that this type of approach to IPTV may catch on here in the U.S. the way it has in Europe. Click here for more tidbits from this conference.

On March 12th Alan Weissberger attended a seminar on IP Video Solutions from Industrial Video Control Corp (IV &C). Scalable IP video surveillance systems for various applications were described. The applications included: industrial security, marine and maritime surveillance, traffic monitoring, water works and other remote monitoring, homeland security, and surveillance of public buildings- including schools, hospitals, and prisons.

Weissberger was also an invited guest at Santa Clara University's prestigious Business Ethics Conference on India and China . The three day conference explored the cultural, economic, and social factors that form the ethical business practices in these countries and the challenges facing global business organizations in creating a consistent and effective ethical culture capable of crossing national boundaries.

On March 7th, Alan Weissberger attended a full day Light Reading seminar on ATCA, AMC, & MicroTCA 2007: Moving to Deployment. Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA) is a new series of industry standard specifications for components and sub-systems to be used in next generation carrier grade communications equipment. Instead of all the proprietary card and chasis interconnects, the objective here is to provide a common platform for high-availability telecom and computing applications. Click here to read summaries of the two seminars and the SCU conference.

For further details on the presentations and talks referenced above, please contact Alan directly at 408 247 9102 or alan at viodi.com.

Industry veteran, Mark Gray reports that he has been busy providing consulting on a strategic, financial or technical level to several start-ups and is on the board of EGT, Inc. and Giant Studios. His contact information is 650.265.0804 and markcgray at gmail.com.

Anthony Bontranger, another industry veteran and formerly with Broadstream, sent me a note letting me know that his company, Axis Partners, LLC, is busy providing consulting services on topics such as content and strategic positioning for telecom providers. You might get to see him at the IP Possibilities [early bird pricing for that event ends this week] or VON.

More information forthcoming as this fun conference makes its annual pilgrimage to my hometown of San Jose. Independent telco friends, contact me if you are going to be here for this event. ken.pyle at viodi.com or 408 551 0320.

The patent ruling in favor of Verizon and against Vonage promises to be a big topic of discussion at next week’s VON, especially at Monday’s VoIP Policy Summit. The affect of this ruling on small VoIP players - many of them are independent telcos - which have deployed VoIP is uncertain. Viodi caught up with Packet8 via email last week and got their impression of this ruling:

A digital picture frame: that was my first impression upon glancing at the Packet8’s latest generation video communications device, Tango. The sleek styling (less than 1 inch deep and approximately 6”x9”) and self-supporting base make it an attractive addition to any desktop. The second impression was how easy it was to set-up. In less than one television commercial break, I had removed it from the package and had made my first call (and I did not consult the manual).

Click here to read some more impressions of this new phone and watch Viodi’s exclusive video interview with Packet8 Chairman and CEO, Bryan Martin as he discusses how this phone uses h.264 encoding to produce remarkably high quality video at a relatively low price and discusses how, in future revisions, this picture phone may morph into an interactive picture frame.

What makes this video report somewhat entertaining is my recording technique, which provides some interesting effects – effects that are somewhat reminiscent of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Ok, these effects were unintended. As can be seen from this screenshot, my head kept moving in front of the camcorder creating natural transitions. This head movement wreaked havoc with my camcorder’s auto focus causing occasional blurriness and other “artistic effects.”

Click to View

The other accident is the unintended inclusion of multiple ad breaks. The intent was to split the video into multiple pieces to make it easier to find particular topics. As it turns out, this provided more opportunities for advertisements from the host video streaming service. The advertisements provided by the host video streaming service, for the most part, are contextual and some of them even advertise Packet8, which is about as contextual as you can get.

Lastly, I caught up with Martin as he was recovering from a bad cold. His minor coughing attack in the middle of our interview provides a real life demonstration of how a device like this could be used for telemedicine purposes.

Click here to view this exclusive video interview.