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Viodi View Newsletter - November 29th, 2006

Click here to learn about Viodi's Local Content Workshops

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

• Click This!
• News Flash – Microsoft Uses Flash
• High Definition Quality – a DV West Panel
• Giddy Up –Off to the Races with M2B World
• Who Will Deploy WiMAX?
• New Rural Health Telecommunications Funding Source?
• It May Be Dumb Luck, But They Are Smart Enough to Exploit It
• Full Disclosure – We Do Accept Sponsorships/Advertisements
• The Korner – A Group Giving Thanks

Will Apple’s iTV be the device that finally bridges the Internet and the television? That thought kept going through my mind over the Thanksgiving holiday as I observed the so-called echo boomer generation close-up. Apple clearly has this generation’s mindshare, as 100% of the group I was observing has an iPOD. With such an installed base of both iPODs and the iTunes network, it is not hard to imagine Apple’s iTV box becoming the dominant way to move video from the Internet to the television.

Watching video on the Internet is as natural to this new generation as watching it on television. An image seared into my brain over the holiday is of my teenage niece and her friend sitting with my 7 year old watching Internet videos on a Mac portable. At the same time, the DVD for the movie Cars (which my son had never seen) was playing on the television. Interestingly, they paid closer attention to and seemed more entertained by the Internet videos as compared to the expensive Hollywood production.

Click This!

Another telling sign of this generation is the way they interact. Facebook or My Space accounts are a bigger must-have than a driver’s license these days. Both of these sites are big on allowing interaction with media. An interesting service that adds interactivity to video is called ClickTV. ClickTV is allows for comments to effectively be added within a video. This service is based on the premise that user generated comments will become as important as the actual media. Click here to read and view the way Viodi recently used this innovative service [club viodi members only].

News Flash – Microsoft Uses Flash

Will Law of Hostcast suggested at the DV West Expo that people are willing to watch inferior quality content, if it is something they really want to watch. He also suggested that the reason Flash is winning the Internet video wars is ubiquity and availability. That is, it works across platforms (Mac, PC) as well as across browser (FireFox, Internet Explorer, etc.). As evidence of its domination, even Microsoft is using it for applications like their Soap Box video sharing service, as well as their Live Spaces service.

Law also provided a tutorial of how to generate Flash videos and previewed some of the upcoming features that will be available, including full-screen Flash sometime next year. He also discussed the trade-offs between streaming and downloadable Flash. Club Viodi members, we will be focusing on the different ways Flash is being used over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Chroma-Keying at DV West Expo

I am always amazed by the quality of the reflecmedia chroma-keying product. It uses special fabric (the gray material shown above) for the background together with a special LED light ring (attached to the camera) to effectively create a perfect blue or green screen, despite poor lighting and or problems with shadows; fun stuff. Check out the monitor in the above picture to see how well the gray background is keyed out both in front of and behind the model.

High Definition Quality – a DV West Panel

It still costs money to make a high quality, high definition television program. That summarizes the DV West Expo panel, HD Post Production. One of the panelists suggested that, “We are in the dark ages in terms of H.D. production flow.” It was also suggested that this condition is quickly changing.

It is important to temper their words, as the panelists were coming from the perspective of production houses which work provide content to major cable networks. This is bit different situation, at least for now, that independent telcos and what they need for local content. They did admit that many people are capturing footage with HD or HDV for archival purposes (e.g. they output in Standard Definition for now, but have the original files to allow them to output to H.D. in the future).

Giddy Up –Off to the Races with M2B World

Who Will Deploy WiMAX? - By Alan Weissberger - alan at viodi.com

Alan Weissberger attended ISPCON (see last issue of Viodi View) and concludes that Mobile WiMAX will not be used by WISPs or Municipal Wireless networks anytime soon. And no one at ISPCON was talking about use of Mobile WiMAX to support mobile users. Please see his previous Viodi article: "Will the Real Mobile WiMAX Please Stand Up!".Click here to read more of Alan's observation from ISPCON.

Both WISPs and municipalities speaking at ISPCON made no mention of using Mobile WiMAX. Instead they are deploying outdoor WiFi/ mesh WiFi or proprietary broadband wireless technologies (primarily from Motorola) for wireless Internet access. Some are considering Fixed WiMAX for backhaul - from a Base Station to the telco central office. But that backhaul is on a point to point wireless link - not the point to multipoint links being promoted for WiMAX. None are looking at mobile WiMAX to support mobility.

One big problem is that WiMAX is intended for licensed spectrum. In the US, the 3.5GHz band is allocated for military use, while SPRINT-Nextel holds most of the licenses for the 2.5GHz band. The WISPs and municipalities that spoke at ISPCON use mostly unlicensed spectrum.

A recent Network World article confirms the slow road ahead for Mobile WiMAX (except for SPRINT or Clearwire). See 'Waiting on mobile WiMAX'.

Yet there was one item of interest for WiMAX fans:

A Folsom, CA municipal wireless network trial will use WiMAX- but can you guess the reason why? Intel Corp is an anchor tenant in Folsom (with over 7,000 employees) and will be building the network at no cost to the city! What better showcase for WiMAX then in Intel's own backyard!

[Contact Weissberger at alan at viodi.com to inquire about his consulting services.]

New Rural Health Telecommunications Funding Source?

The FCC issued a notice last Friday (while most of the U.S. were camped at out their big box retailer and/or recovering from Thanksgiving feasts) on a new program intended to help finance rural health care initiatives. This program will pay up to 85% of the costs of constructing a broadband network to enable telemedicine applications. It favors regional and statewide solutions, so it seems like it could work hand-in-hand with the existing statewide and regional telco consortia. Applications must be filed 30 days after Office of Management and Budget approval, so check this out at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/rural/rhcp.html.

It May Be Dumb Luck, But They Are Smart Enough to Exploit It

In the last issue, I wondered who was behind the uverserusers.com web site. As it turns out, it is just a hobby for a guy who is extremely interested in AT&T’s uVerse IPTV rollout. He indicated that the site is in no way affiliated with AT&T or its vendors. To their credit, AT&T has been smart enough to let this site flourish, even though there are critical comments on the site (it seems like there also might be trademark violations). From a marketing person's perspective, this site is a dream, as it provides an authentic way to inform the public, while serving as a feedback mechanism to get real-time customer feedback on her service.

The Korner – A Group Giving Thanks

There is almost always that one uncovered gem that makes a tradeshow or conference worthwhile. At DV West Expo I expected I might find this gem on the tradeshow floor or in one of the many conference sessions. And, there were many good tips and tools for efficiently creating high quality video content. A booth that I almost overlooked turned out to be the highlight of the show.

The Quietly Working Foundation for The Children of Fallen Soldiers is, “a non-political, non-denominational, non-profit, organization focused on meeting the needs of children who have lost a parent serving in the United States Armed Forces.” Their programs are designed to help the child both directly, as well as indirectly through a program, Relocation & Reintegration Assistance program, which helps the surviving parent.

This group is looking for additional corporate sponsorship, such that they can get to the point where all overhead expenses are covered, allowing individual donations to flow directly to helping the children. There are non-monetary ways that individuals or corporations can help.

For instance, on December 14th, the Quietly Working Foundation is organizing a Holiday Gift Drop. They are encouraging church groups, civic organizations and corporations to organize Holiday Gift Drops in their area ([email protected] for more info).

Another simple thing that just about anyone can do is contribute a letter of appreciation on their web site. Quietly Working is planning on publishing a book of these letters and using the publishing proceeds to further their mission.

For those in the Washington D.C. area, you can get a closer look at this group at the Government Video Expo, December 5th-7th.

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The Video Business Case for Independent Telcos – The Report

Viodi’s report, Video Business Case provides results to a survey of independent telcos and their business case for video. Most of the telcos that responded to the survey have figured out a way to deploy video services. This survey provides insight from the independent telcos as well as several of their Engineering firms.

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