Viodi View - November 7th, 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.

All displayed trademarks, logos and service marks are the property of their respective owners. © 2007 Viodi, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Viodi View Newsletter - November 7th, 2007

Click here to learn how Viodi can help your organization with Local Content

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

“I am going to Jacksonville”. I cannot seem to get the June Carter/Johnny Cash song out of my head (OK, it was Jackson, not Jacksonville). Roger and I will in Jacksonville next week producing ViodiTV for the RICA/RTG conference, so stop by and say hello if you are attending this event. This should be an interesting event, as it is about competition in rural areas.

Rockin' Local Content

Two weeks ago, Roger and I were Atlanta at the TelcoTV conference. Unfortunately, there was so much activity on the tradeshow floor that neither Roger nor I attended any of the sessions. Thanks to our sponsors, we were able to provide coverage of the 2007 TelcoTV. The following video provides a glimpse of the 3-hour Viodi-produced reception held at the Hard Rock Café and brought to you by the following sponsors:

Accedo Broadband | Conklin-Intracom | Latens | MoCA

Ringgold Telephone at Rockin' Local Content

The theme of the Viodi-produced reception at TelcoTV was local content produced by independent telcos and we were fortunate to have Terry McGregor and Kim Correll of Ringgold Telephone providing insight as to how to create local content. They emphasized the need for telcos to be resourceful and look for talent hidden in their communities and within their own organizations. Watch the entire video to see who won the iPod Nanos we raffled away.

Is that an "F" Connector on My Router

An “F” connector on a router caught my eye when I was at the MoCA booth. Verizon has been one of the biggest drivers of home networking and the MoCA approach. Check this video interview with Phil Coady of Entropic to learn why there is an “F” connector on this router.

Quality of Experience

Quality of Experience is a term that has received some buzz over the past year. As IPTV deployments have matured the importance of operations and customer care have increased. Curtis Howe, President of Mariner Partners, talks about what Quality of Experience means in this impromptu interview at TelcoTV. Howe’s background is perfect for this as he was involved in some of the first IPTV deployments.

From ATM to IP

In this brief interview Paul Cox, President of Manti Telephone and an early video over copper service pioneer, talks about his company’s recent transition from an ATM-based video service to one that is IP-based. In addition to IPTV, Manti is also transitioning to a Fiber to the Home network for both their Greenfield and existing customers. Club Viodi members will see future video posts where Cox talks about how they have used local content as a differentiator.

Trends of Wireless World by Alan J. Weissberger

Alan Weissberger reports on the 2007 UTHF Annual Conference: Trends of the Wireless World at this link. Topics of this conference included Telco 2.0, converged mobility and wireless healthcare from speakers representing companies, such as Microsoft, Google and Nokia. Click here.

Photo Phone

Packet8 announced that their Tango video phone adaptor is now capable of displaying user provided pictures, like a digital picture frame. Packet8 CEO Bryan Martin hinted at this capability in our video interview earlier in the year.

Writer’s Strike - A Watershed Moment?

The timing of this strike is interesting given the rise of new media alternatives, like Google, and the democratization of content production. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a watershed moment, where the power of the union and the traditional media empires are diminished similar to how the U.S. steel industry was in the 1970s by foreign competition……more later…

Roger's Reports


Roger has an interesting interview with a guy who mixes biking and video blogging. This interview is another example of the democratization of content production.	While he was in Minneapolis for the OPASTCO Tech Conference, he put together this video that was used to open day 2 of the conference.

Calendar Events of Interest – Click Here

Bookmark http://www.viodi.com/calendar.htm for the events that Viodi will either be participating in or covering. Two events not on this calendar are:

MOCA Technology Conference & Open House
November 14-15, 2007, Austin, TX
Telcos in the Northwest - we are looking at the week of December 3rd for our next Local Content Workshop - it will be held in the State of Washington. Contact us at ken dot pyle at viodi.com, if you are interested in attending.

Club Viodi Posts - More TelcoTV Insight & Content

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.

People on the Move

You will soon see more of Peter Lowten’s name on these pages, as he will be contributing articles and offering consulting help to clients on all things video. Peter’s telecom and video background is unique. What is amazing is that he predicted the DTV transition date to the day (if not the year), back when the FCC was still suggesting the transition would occur in 2006. Want proof of his wisdom; listen here to his 2003 presentation regarding the tipping point for HDTV. You can reach him at peter at viodi dot com

Steve Schuh is a name that DemandVideo folks will remember. With his advertising and cable operations background, Steve would be a good fit for any independent telco looking to move into video. Contact Steve at fourschuhs at charter dot net

The Korner - To Good to Be True?

I normally ignore chain emails; the kind that ask me to forward them to my friends. Most of them are phony at some level and just add to the noise of the Internet. A friend of mine sent me an email the other day that she had already “snoped” it to verify its authenticity. Snope says by going to the following link and clicking on the “click here to give” link 75% of the advertising revenue will go to fund mammograms for women who cannot afford them.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

The remaining 25% goes to the for-profit entity, Charity-USA. Charity-USA also runs sites that use advertising to raise funds for hunger, child health and literacy. An online shop with generates even more revenue.

According to figures from Charity-USA’s the 71 million clicks in 2006 yielded 2,612 mammograms, while purchases from their online shop accounted for another 2,955 mammograms. The site only counts one click per visitor per day, but they encourage people to click daily.

By my rough calculations, if all of the independent telcos that are Viodi View subscribers put the following banner ad on their web site and all of their subscribers clicked on the ad every day clicked on the following banner every day, we would easily double the number of mammograms given away per year. So, pass this email on to your friends.

Please feel free to forward the Viodi View to anyone who may be interested in our unique 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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