Viodi View - August 29th, 2007 Issue

In this on-line publication, we share our analysis, opinions and direction on the interactive television news and views that we believe will be of interest and use to our friends associated directly or indirectly with independent telephone companies. For more information as to the various ways Viodi works with independent telephone companies, please go to http://www.viodi.com/alliance/

Disclaimer:

The Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] and its associates used their best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, the Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.

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Viodi View Newsletter - August 29th, 2007

Click here to learn about Viodi's Local Content Workshops

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

Flying over the U.S. provides a perspective of how much of this land remains relatively rural. Driving across the great expanses of prairies– windshield time, as it is called - is even a better demonstration of how big this place is. This thought occurred to me as I made the circuitous trek from Silicon Valley to Mitchell, SD, an area that I call, Silicon Plains. Roger Bindl and I are reporting from the user group meeting of Innovative Systems, a big supporter and sponsor the Viodi View and ViodiTV.

Mitchell, South Dakota; AKA, Silicon Plains

Approximately 70 miles away from the Sioux Falls, SD regional airport and through seemingly endless cornfields, Mitchell, South Dakota is, at first glance, an unlikely place to find a concentration of telecommunications firms and Engineering brainpower. Home to Innovative Systems, Martin Group (incorrectly stated as Martin & Associates in the video) and Vantage Point Solutions, Mitchell has the largest concentration of technology firms dedicated solely to the independent telecom industry. Click here as we watch the secrets to success for this dynamic Midwestern community.

Agents of Change - Innovative Systems' 2007 User's Group Meeting

Roger Musick, CEO of Innovative Systems, implored the 230 attendees to the Innovative Systems Users’ Group meeting to be, “agents of change,” within their organizations. David Saxby of Measure-X emphasized the importance of individuals in creating dynamic sales-driven organizations. Richard Frankland of OpenTV gave their perspective on the worldwide view of IPTV.

Dave Jarzemsky of Nortel detailed the recently introduced CS1500 packet switch, which reduces power consumption by 75% over traditional circuit switches, while Ryan Tupper of Innovative Systems showed how their products break down the silos between voice, video and broadband. To see the video overview, click here.

Pining for San Jose – Join Me at US Telecom’s Executive Business Forum

Although Mitchell is a great community, as Dorothy said, there is no place like home. I will be back there on September 10th to 12th for USTA’s Executive Forum. Come join me at this excellent event, which features the leaders from the telecom industry. Let me know if you will be there and I will try to organize some sort of industry dinner of some kind. Click here to see the full agenda. ............(An in-kind advertisement)

To see other events in which Viodi will have some level or involvement or would, if there were enough hours in the day, please click this industry calendar.

Sneak Peek: Check out the RICA Blog for a preview of an interesting upcoming event involving ViodiTV…..

High Quality Productions on a Shoestring – A Soundbite from Producer Jessica Kizorek

Jessica Kizorek of Two Parrot Productions is an experienced producer having traveled the world to create content ranging from marketing pieces to documentaries. In this brief video from the Web Video Summit in San Jose, she provides tips on how to create high quality productions on a shoestring. Click here to this exclusive video interview.

Pick up a Wii and Drop Cable TV

Moowee.tv is a new service that, in its first incarnation, uses the ever-popular Nintendo Wii as a set-top box for viewing User Generated Content on a TV in a truly lean-back experience. In one sense, this service is not new, as astute Viodi View readers will remember an earlier article that alluded to BroadQ, a company with software that converts a Playstation into a set-top. Further, Sony’s announcement about turning a Playstation 3 into a sophisticated set-top/DVR through the addition of a DVB tuner and hard-drive, could be considered similar, although not applicable to the U.S at this time.

The Moowee.tv service is different in that there is no cost (other than unlocking the $5 Opera Web Browser embedded in the Wii) and the service is available now. Click here to see ViodiTV’s exclusive interview with the Founders of this Silicon Valley start-up and see why the Pyles might drop Cable TV and use the Wii instead.

Grazin' moowee.tv

In this 2nd part of a three-part story line, Kris Harikrishnan, CEO and Founder of Moowee, provides an overview of the features of the Moowee service. The posting of a video from ARPA demonstrated how the Wii has become a multi-generational game platform phenomenon. Click here to graze away on moowee.tv.

Not Enough Time to Write Much About These Important Stories:

Not a Flash in the Pan; Killer of Windows Media Player? The announcement from Adobe about its latest Flash player, which integrates MPEG-4 decoding, may be the biggest announcement so far this year regarding video. Click to read more analysis on this significant announcement.
A New IP Home Networking Standard – The announcement from Cable Labs, the DTLA and major studios regarding a new standard for the distribution of content through home IP networks could have a significant impact in the marketplace. Notably absent from this agreement were the vendors or their telco customers that are deploying IPTV networks.

Recent Club Viodi Posts

Here are some of the recent Club Viodi posts :

Note, to view this article, you must be a club.viodi member. Club.viodi membership is only open to independent telcos and is made available at the sole discretion of Viodi, LLC.

Comments, Comments, Comments – Here is the RSS Feed

Feedback, good or bad, is a big motivator for the continued to publication of the Viodi View and ViodiTV. It is very easy to add comments to the ViodiTV site (someday we will upgrade the Viodi View site to make it as easy – in the meantime, email your comments). If you want to comments to pop up automatically in your favorite RSS reader, put this URL in your feed and save it as ViodiTV Comments:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/vioditv-comments

People on the Move - Drew Lanza

I recently had a chance to catch up with Drew Lanza, partner in the venture capital firm of Morgenthaler. Of course, people from Raynet, E/O Networks and Mayan will remember Drew as one of those rare gems blessed with a brilliant technical and marketing mind. Meeting with Drew and his wife is like going back in time 16 years, as they look the same now as they did then. Drew’s focus these days is looking at companies that provide the chip-level technology that will provide tomorrow’s product and service innovation.

Given Drew’s renaissance personality, it is not surprising that he has thought through the ramifications to a world where it may someday be possible to record every vision and every sound (maybe every sense) ever seen or heard. He has been busy publishing some of those thoughts in a number of respected online magazines including Business Week and Lightreading and Byte and Switch. (must-read pieces on the role of fiber and storage, respectively). A key take-away from our informal interview was that storage is king, as compared to processor speed and communications’ technology. The next issue of the Viodi View will feature a video with Drew’s thoughts as to what the this means to IPTV.

Video on the Net Conference Discount for Viodi View Readers - Ends September 14th

The people behind the Video on the Net conference are giving Club Viodi members a special discount which reduces the price from $995 to $795. The VON conferences showcase the latest in cutting edge video distribution companies and services. This year, it will be held from October 29th to 31st in Boston, so there if you plan your travel right you can make both it and OPASTCO's Tech Symposium. This just in - the uber-cool, PodCamp will be held in conjunction with Video on the Net....(An in-kind advertisement)

The Korner - The Myth of the Corn Palace

For any of those who follow musical acts such as the Oakridge Boys, Blood Sweat and Tears and Weird Al Yanovic, you may have heard of the famous Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. Despite the corny name, the Corn Palace is sort of a cultural destination for folks in the Southeast part of South Dakota. In this brief video, we look at this icon of the Midwest and dispel a myth or, at least for me, a perception that some people may have of this well-known landmark.

[Another call for help – has anyone with Comcast.net accounts been experiencing problems getting onto Viodi.com or Viodi.TV? Please let me know if you have.]

Lastly, please feel free to forward the Viodi View to anyone who may be interested in our original and view of the intersection of the independent telecom, entertainment and technology industries.

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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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