CONNECTIONS Blog

Consona Corporation Announces Close on Acquisition of SupportSoft Enterprise Software Assets

2009-07-09T13:34:00.003-05:00

Consona Corporation, a worldwide leader in providing customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and services for companies of all sizes, announced that it has closed on its acquisition of the enterprise software related assets of SupportSoft, Inc., a leading support automation software company in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $20 million.

As of the close, SupportSoft’s enterprise products are now offerings from Consona, specifically under the management of the Consona CRM division headed by General Manager Tom Millay. Consona remains committed to supporting, maintaining and enhancing each of the SupportSoft products as they are today for existing customers.

For the full press release, click here.

Sigma Design Joins HomeGrid Forum Board of Directors

2009-07-09T10:50:00.003-05:00

HomeGrid Forum announced that Sigma Designs, Inc. has joined its Board of Directors.

Sigma Designs brings additional semiconductor industry expertise to the group, which also includes representatives from leading retailers, service providers, PC manufacturers and consumer electronics companies – all supporting the development and delivery of next-generation wired home networking products based on G.hn technology.

Sigma Designs is part of a growing list of industry-leading organizations that are part of HomeGrid Forum. Global leaders in the service provider, computing, and consumer electronics industries also support the adoption of G.hn through their participation in the ITU-T.

For a complete list of HomeGrid Forum members, visit http://www.homegridforum.org/.

For the full press release, click here.

Cloakware Opens New Research Center to Drive Security Technology Development

2009-07-08T10:40:00.004-05:00

Cloakware, an Irdeto company, providing proven security solutions protecting software and content on more than one billion PCs, set-top boxes, mobile phones and media players worldwide, recently launched the Cloakware Advanced Research Center (CARC). Working with renowned academic institutions across the globe, the CARC will bring together world-class researchers to advance software security technology and foster innovation.

Led by Cloakware's Chief Architect and founder Yuan Xiang Gu, Chief Scientist and founder Harold Johnson, and System Architect and Team Lead Clifford Liem, as well as a team of respected experts from Cloakware and premier global universities, CARC’s research program will focus on developing advancements in software security and protection technology to address the myriad of modern day software security challenges. Beyond core research, the CARC will also issue external technical publications, and organize and promote international forums and workshops. In addition, the CARC will also offer research grants to some of the brightest minds in the industry, as part of the center’s ongoing mission to advance the science and technology of software security. Moreover, the CARC will partner with government agencies and universities to establish regular internship programs and provide an industry oriented research platform for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

The launch of the Cloakware Advanced Research Center further demonstrates Irdeto’s commitment to R&D, as well as the importance of continued innovation to protect software and content across a variety of devices – from PCs to set-top boxes, and from mobile phones to media players.

For the full press release, click here.

2Wire Follows up on Residential Gateways

2009-07-06T13:30:00.005-05:00

As CONNECTIONS™ was originally designated as "The Residential Gateway Conference" in its inaugural year (1997), it's great to bring leaders in this space together every year for a refresh and a look ahead. This is exactly what we did in Santa Clara last month, with a panel titled Service Provider Home Networking Strategies: RGs and Services.

The residential gateway's role for telecom services has become better defined with each year, and the rollout of advanced broadband services, bundles, and telco/IPTV will continue to drive growth. From our recent report Home Networks for Consumer Electronics, we anticipate that residential gateawy deployments will grow from 36% in 2009 to 52% in 2013. The nature of residential gateway deployments among cable operators is a really interesting area to watch right now, with debate on both sides to the merit and need as of this point. However, it's clear that - at least for certain service providers - the reliance of advanced customer premise equipment in faciliating both consumer-facing and backend services and actions - is critical.

Jayant Dasari led a conversation at CONNECTIONS with a number of leading vendors. We have some follow-up responses to share from Jaime Fink, Vice President of Technology and Strategy at 2Wire.

Parks Associates: What are the key hardware and middleware components that need to fall into place for the RG to take on the role of media center in the home?

Jaime Fink: We see two clear gaps that need to be filled for the residential gateway to assume the role of media center in the home:

The first gap is the lack of clearly a defined home networking standard for distribution of media to fixed devices (TVs and STBs) and mobile devices. The race is on, with competition heating up between a variety of wired technologies – none of which have captured either retail or service provider acceptance in a unified fashion – and the increasingly popular wireless technologies. With recent advances in wired technologies like ITU G.hn, as well as the silicon advances in the 5GHz spectrum of wireless 802.11n by expanding up to 4x4 radio implementations, it appears that both wired and wireless technologies will benefit from significant improvements in the very near future. While it’s too early to call a winner in this race, it is safe to say, if the market continues moving toward support for connected TVs and DLNA devices, that wireless is the more desirable approach, especially in areas of the world where wiring quality remains substandard.

The second gap is the lack of a unified user experience for access to multiple content sources and next generation digital home applications. While DLNA has achieved some success in this area, it has not been fully embraced by the public, due to shortcomings in both user experience and legal accessibility of desirable content, including broadcast television, DVR, and over-the-top content. A new approach to user experience must be introduced – one that enables the home media hub to integrate all of these content sources and next generation applications into a single, consistent user experience for television, mobility, and digital home applications. It also means that an acceptable approach to DRM within the home must be established to prevent the various renderers (TVs/STBs, IP-connected Blu-Ray players, etc.) from implementing multiple divergent DRM techniques.

Parks Associates: What will be the major cost drivers? Is there an industry consensus on what the price point needs to be at in order to promote a wider acceptance of RG for all residential services?

Jaime Fink: In determining price points, consumer demand will play a larger role than production costs, as residential gateways and other CPE are typically subsidized by the service provider. However, the intention of gateway manufacturers such as 2Wire is to gradually add only incremental cost to the gateway as more processing power and home networking technologies are added. This will serve to keep the cost basis relatively competitive with other gateway technologies, while aligning today’s costs with tomorrow’s services.

It is important to note, however, that additional peripheral home products and technologies will likely be required, including a very large hard disk, and perhaps technologies such as Zigbee for home automation and home monitoring. Service providers are leaning toward requiring that consumers determine – and pay for – the size of hard disk that corresponds to the amount of storage they require, and this disk must be easily attachable to the gateway (via cable, snap-on SATA, or USB 3.0 connections). This modular approach to the hardware keeps the base gateway systems reasonably affordable, allowing them to be given away or largely subsidized, letting consumers add hardware features as needed to support desired applications and services.

Parks Associates: What are some of the concerns that operators have in deploying an RG that is capable of serving as a multi-service delivery platform?

Jaime Fink: The biggest concern seems to be the lack of a single standard that could be used to manage services. There are several management approaches and service architectures available (TR-069, OMA-DM, OSGi), but none provide a common approach that solves all the needs of the multi-service platform in the home. There are several efforts in standards bodies to align these approaches, facilitating the addition of new APIs to encourage the development of next generation services, but this will take some time to achieve. In the meantime, it is important to begin implementing solutions that prove the value proposition and ease-of-integration with the service provider’s architecture. Only by establishing such proof points can we promise a true turnkey solution that enables services and content from any source in the service provider’s architecture.

Parks Associates: What value added services do you envision the service providers introducing via an RG in the next 12-18 months?

Jaime Fink: The initial demand is for a whole-home storage and backup solution for multiple PCs in the home, including ‘super-backup’ of the most valuable content to a secured Internet-based storage disk. Additionally, there is strong demand for home monitoring solutions, including a variety of camera and other ‘lifestyle’ sensors which provide peace of mind and limit damage in emergencies.

Parks Associates: Will embedded storage be an important component in RGs?

Jaime Fink: YES! The residential gateway is ideally positioned for embedded storage, as it is the center of the home network, accessible to every device, with typically fast link speeds with each device. With cloud-based storage, average users are limited by very slow uplink speeds – sometimes upwards of two months! By contrast, in-home networked storage provides superior speed and user experience, and can even help organize the user’s media library. In the future, as IPTV and IP-connected televisions increase in popularity, the home network storage disk will be the logical solution for caching VoD content and live broadcast TV for availability to all the television sets in the home.

Follow-up with Valens Semiconductor

2009-07-06T12:00:00.004-05:00

Micha Risling, vice president of marketing at Valens Semiconductor, was kind enough to respond to some follow-up questions from the panel Extending the Reach of Wired Networks and Interfaces.

Parks Associates: During the panel, I had expressed skepticism about seeing a really large market opportunity for whole-house HDMI solutions, and I asked Micha about this.

Risling: He notes that this skepticism isn't totally unwarranted, but he also indicates that we should expect to see consumer electronics vendors adopt solutions such as HDBaseT™ due to a number of factors:

The desire by consumers to distribute very high-quality video from one consumer electronics platform to another;
The rise of the connected TV, where Internet capabilities are more prevalent. Risling indicates that HDBaseT will allow televisions to take advantage of Web services as "thinner" clients. In other words, the televisions may not have to account for all of the internal requirements for Web capability (browsers, etc.), but could take advantage of such capabilities provided by one advanced CE platform or perhaps the home computer. HDBaseT would provide the IP backbone to send the Web services to the TVs.
A desire by television manufacturers to provide for more advanced interfaces.
A "clean" solution that enables televisions and other consumer electronics to receive Web and other content in the whole-home environment without necessarily being co-located to control devices.

Parks Associates: This looks to be a highly competitive field, as a number of vendors (including other participants on the CONNECTIONS panel) are targeting similar applications. I asked Risling to describe the key differentiators for HDBaseT. Here is his response:

Risling: The main difference is easy to say or should I say measure. We can send the same video quality as HDMI (uncompressed 1080P, 60Hz, 48bits) over much-longer cables. We can do it over a 100m standard Cat5e cable and a standard RJ45 connector where other solutions are limited to few meters using a special cable and a special connector. But it is not just the cable; we are the only technology that enables a friendly installation. We support standard passive connectors and field terminated connectors that enables you to easily install it. This is something that you can’t achieve with the other solutions, and the reason is that both need high quality shielded cables with pre-soldered connectors. The cost of deploying these high-quality cables is by far more expensive then using either an existing CAT5e installation or installing a new cable which is the cheapest cable in the market. And that can be the main essence when comparing the other solutions.

HDBaseT was developed from the first place in such way that it fits the specification of an existing cable/connector and thus it is the most reliable solution with the lowest cost. Other solutions are based on a similar implementation that requires very expensive cable and connector and are limited in terms of distance.

Due to its unique implementation, HDBaseT is better prepared for supporting the future needs of the industry including supporting 2K/4K resolution and 3D. In fact, we can assure that our next generation will be able to support 20Gbps. Although other solutions indicate that they support video and Internet signaling, HDBaseT supports "5Play," which adds control signaling and support for power to source CE devices on top of the distributed video, audio, and Internet the ability of sending controls and more importantly a unique capability of sending enough power to source CE devices .

Parks Associates: What do you see as some of the key advantages to HDBaseT over other solutions?

Risling: Performance, distance, friendly installation, the 5Play convergence at the lowest system cost, standard cable/connector, reliability, future upgradability and power of cable.

Parks Associates: Can you explain more about what special requirements HDBase-T needs in order to extend the protection afforded by HDCP over the whole-home?

Risling: Unfortunately I’m not able to disclose it at the moment. It will be announced once the specification is released.

HomeToys releases June/July 2009 Issue

2009-07-01T13:59:00.003-05:00

Home Toys, a CONNECTIONS supporting media organization, released their June/July issue of Home Technology eMagazine.

Articles include:

>> Will RF4CE be the Killer App for ZigBee? - Cees Links, CEO & Founder of GreenPeak
>> Online Marketing Generates Sales - Leslie Stevens, Eclipse Marketing
>> Forget Your Title. Focus on the Job - G.A. "Andy" Marken, Marken Communications Inc
>> Choosing The Right Projector Mount - Rob Buehl, ImportAdvantage, Inc.
>> Programmable Logic Controller - Features - Eugene Kowch, P.I.D. Consultants Inc.
>> An Experiment In Home Automation in Brasil - Jose Roberto Muratori, Brazilian Home Automation Association
>> Give Your Home Office a Wireless Makeover - Courtesy of ComputerTV
>> Classic Home Toys #22 - The Rebirth of 3-D: Part 2 - James Russo

Recent interviews include:

>> Smart Homes for Disabled People in the UK, Guy Dewsbury
>> CE from an Etailer Point of View, Jerry Chapman
>> Multi Room Audio, David Rodarte
>> Open Air Cinema, Brandon Purdie
>> Tony Pelura of Centronics

To read these topics in depth, please click here to view this month's issue.

For more information about HomeToys, visit http://www.hometoys.com/ .

Unitech Wireless selects Telcordia Prepaid Mobile Services Platform for Pan-India GSM Network to Serve Millions of Subscribers

2009-07-01T11:11:00.003-05:00

Telcordia Real-Time Charging Solution Enables State-of-the-Art Communications Network to Support Advanced Wireless Voice and Data Services across India --

Telcordia announced that it has been selected by Delhi-based Unitech Wireless as part of its build-out of a pan-India GSM network to serve millions of subscribers. The Telcordia® Real-Time Charging solution will enable Unitech Wireless to reduce time-to-market in offering sophisticated and innovative services for advanced wireless voice and data, in all 22 circles across India.

The Telcordia Real-Time Charging solution offers Unitech Wireless a flexible, affordable convergent charging solution that can handle the demands of prepaid-postpaid, voice-data-content, and circuit-packet convergence. While reducing time-to-market for new advanced services, the solution will also help Unitech Wireless reap major cost savings and drive revenue by consolidating charging on a convergent platform while increasing customer loyalty, usage and retention.

For the full press release, click here.

Zilog introduces enhanced, low-voltage serial communications controller

2009-07-01T10:09:00.003-05:00

Based on Popular Zilog Serial Communications Controller, New Solution Is Ideal for Computer Peripherals and Other Applications Requiring Lower Power--

Zilog, Inc. announced a new enhanced low-voltage serial communications controller (SCC) for a variety of computing applications requiring increased performance and lower power consumption.

The Zilog Z8523L Enhanced SCC (ESCC) builds on Zilog’s popular and original discrete SCC, providing a low-power solution that reduces the voltage from 5 to 3.3 volts. The ESCC also features performance improvements that allow applications including computer peripherals, networking equipment and routers to experience faster data rates and increased processor bandwidth.

The Zilog 3.3 volt ESCC has deeper FIFOs and other features that significantly reduce the software overhead for each channel. This allows for more channels per system, faster data rates with more CPU bandwidth and overall lower CPU costs. The ESCC can support multiple channel and multiple protocols that easily interface to 8/16 bit addressable non-multiplexed address/data buses. The ESCC can be configured to satisfy a wide variety of serial communications applications. On-chip features include baud rate generators, digital PLLs and crystal oscillators to reduce external logic. Additional features may include optimized FIFOs to support high speed SDLC transfers using DMA controllers.

The Zilog Z8523L Enhanced SCC is in production and now available to ship to customers that place orders through distributors. For more information, visit http://www.zilog.com/.

For the full press release, click here.

Macrovision Announces Intent to Change Name to Rovi

2009-06-22T12:32:00.003-05:00

Macrovision Solutions Corporation, a digital entertainment technology leader, announced its intention to formally change its name to Rovi. The Rovi brand is part of the company's new brand identity that includes a new corporate visual design. Macrovision will continue to operate under the Macrovision name until the annual meeting of stockholders being held on July 15, 2009, at which time the name change will be considered for approval. If the stockholders approve the change of the company name, the company's trading symbol on the NASDAQ Global Select Market would also be changed at that time.

Macrovision has transformed the company to be a leader in enabling the rapid adoption of digital entertainment. They have accomplished this by a series of strategic acquisitions, divestitures and continued innovation of our product portfolio, and as a result, the company is dramatically different then it was just a year ago.

As Rovi, they will unite their technology and people under one shared identity that speaks to who they have become and how they will drive our strategy moving forward as a technology leader that powers the discovery and enjoyment of digital entertainment.

For more information, read this press release.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe announces call for papers to address new challenges, opportunities in changing product and service landscape

2009-06-19T12:24:00.002-05:00

CONNECTIONS™ Europe has announced the call for papers for its upcoming Summit, November 4, 2009, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, hosted by international research firm Parks Associates, is dedicated to the discussion and analysis of new business models for emerging services, applications, and advanced digital technologies. The event will take place at the Mövenpick Hotel Amsterdam City Centre.

“There will be over 180 million households in Western Europe subscribing to TV services in 2013,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president, principal analyst, Parks Associates. “These consumers will drive demand for advanced entertainment products and services, including DVRs, VOD services, and advanced set-tops. There will also be considerable competition for these consumers. CONNECTIONS™ Europe will address these challenges and examine the right business plans necessary for companies to succeed in this changing service environment.”

CONNECTIONS™ Europe is accepting speaker submissions within five main topic categories.Adding Value to Access Services examines the impact of broadband value-added services and the role and design of connected CE enabling these services.
Digital Home Tech Services examines consumer demand and new revenue opportunities for installation, troubleshooting, and service plans.

Residential Gateways – Devices Enabling New Services examines hardware requirements and service opportunities as these devices enable enhanced bundled services and home connectivity applications.

Video Devices & Entertainment Platforms examines the new roles and functions for the television, the set-top, the game console, the PC, portable devices, and mobile phones as well as the software enabling these technologies.

Television, Digital Media Services, & Advanced Video examines next-generation entertainment applications and “go-to-TV” services and products.

CONNECTIONS™ Global Sponsors include HD-PLC Alliance, DSC, Macrovision, MoCA, Radialpoint, ActiveVideo Networks, Affinegy, Icron, Irdeto, NXP, ProVision Communications, Telcordia, and Zilog. CONNECTIONS™ Europe Advisory Sponsor is Eyecon Technologies. Visit http://www.connectionseurope.com for sponsorship information or to submit a speaking proposal. Deadline for submission is August 15, 2009.

For the full press release, click here.

Thomson Launches its Scientific Council

2009-06-19T10:51:00.004-05:00

Thomson, worldwide leader of services to content creators, announced Wednesday the creation of its Scientific Council. Its purpose is to reinforce technology leadership and drive innovation in the design of future products and services. The Scientific Council will issue recommendations regarding the Group’s technology strategy and help optimize the research projects portfolio.

The Scientific Council operates under the authority of Vince Pizzica, Head of Thomson Strategy, Technology and Marketing. Its members have been selected among the top experts worldwide in Thomson’s areas of excellence:

>> Internet security: Vern Paxson, Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley

>> Content coding and compression: Bernd Girod, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

>> Internet architecture: Jim Kurose, Professor of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

>> Internet applications and content search: Serge Abiteboul, Senior researcher, Institut National de la Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA)

>> Security: David Naccache, Senior researcher, Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) and Professor of Computer Science, University of Paris II Pantheon-Assas

>> Content production: Jim Mainard, Head of Production Development, DreamWorks Animation

This initiative marks a new phase in Thomson’s recent refocus on key Media & Entertainment industry technologies through three strategic research programs: Intelligent Media, Media Production and Media Distribution.

500+ executives from over 250 companies attended CONNECTIONS

2009-06-17T18:10:00.003-05:00

CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference & Showcase hosted 500+ attendees from over 250 companies during the conference on June 2-4 including executives representing service providers, CE companies, software and middleware developers, and many other members of the consumer technology value chain.

Companies participating at the event as speakers, sponsors, or attendees include:

2Wire
4Home
8 Alarm Marketing
Accedo Broadband
Aceurity Inc.
Actiontec Electronics, Inc.
ActiveVideo Networks
AdMob
Adobe
Affinegy
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent, Motive Product Division
Alco Electronics
Allegro Software Development Corporation
Altera
Alticast
Amahi
AMIMON & WHDI
AMIMON Inc.
Analog Devices
AnySource Media, LLC
Aopen America
AppMinute
AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets
Atheros
Austin Energy
Averlogic Tecnologies Inc,
Avtrex
AwoX
Bay Area News
bee.TV
Belkin
Best Buy
BitTorrent
BlackArrow, Inc.
BMW Group
boxee
Broadcast Engineering Mobile TV Update, Santa Clara Weekly
Broadcom Corporation
BT
Bunchball, Inc.
C2 Microsystems
Calix
Caregiver Omnimedia Inc
Carlson & Co Public Relations
CBS
CBS Interactive
CE Interactive, Inc.
Celeno
Chip Design Magazine
Cisco Systems
Cites Numeriques
Clearleap
Comcast
Communications Magazine/Grandsoft Information Inc.
Compliance Department News
Consumer Electronics Daily
Content Now
ContentGuard
Control4
Converge! Network Digest
CrossLoop
c't magazin/Heise Zeitschriften Verlag
CyberStates
Deutsche Telekom USA
DIGDIA
Digeo
Digital Security Controls
Digital Software Magazine
Digital Video & Multimedia News
DiiVA, LLC
Direct Energy
DivX
D-Link
Docomo Labs USA
Dolby Laboratories
Duchossois
EE Times
Embarq
EMBARQ
Engage PR
Entone
Entropic Communications
ETRI
Examiner.com
Exceptional Innovation
Eyecon Technologies, Inc.
Financial Times
Frame Media
France Telecom North America
Fraunhofer USA Digital Media Technologies
F-Secure
Fujitsu Microelectroncis America
GainSpan Corporation
Gefen
Gemini
Global 3C Newsletters/Topology
Global Startups
Granite Ventures
HD-PLC Alliance
HeyCoop
Hillcrest Labs
Home Theater Magazine
Hot Studio
HP
HTC, Inc.
Huawei Technologies
IBM
iControl Networks
Icron
Icron Technologies Corporation
IDG News Service
IEEE
I'm in Control
Indus Tech Reports
Infineon Technologies
Intel
Intel Corporation
Irdeto
ISP-Market
itaas Inc.
JETRO
Jungo
Kawasaki Microelectronics
KCSB 91.9FM
Las Vegas Woman Magazine
Lauder Partners
Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
LG Electronics
Light Reading
Ligos Corporation
Logitech
Macrovision
Marseille Networks
mBlox, Inc.
Media Claw
Microsoft Corporation
MoCA
Motorola, Inc.
MPOGD.com
MRG Inc
Multimedia Research Group
Nagravision
NCN Associates
NDS Americas
NETGEAR
NetShelter Technology Media
Newman Media
NewTeeVee
NexStep, Inc.
NTT COMWARE
NTT DATA AgileNet LLC
NTT MCL, Inc.
Nvidia
NXP
Occam Networks
Ogilvy PR (on behalf of Intel)
Olive
OpenTV
Orange
Ortiva Wireless
Pacific Vision Partners
PacketVideo
Palm, Inc.
Panasonic Communications Liaison Office America
Panasonic Electric Works Laboratory of America
Panasonic Electronic Devices Applications Center of America
Panasonic Strategic R&D Planning Office
Panasonic Venture Group
Pandora
Paramount Digital Entertainment
Parks Associates
Peak8 Holdings
Philips
Pie Digital, Inc.
Pivot Media
Platform A/AOL
PlumChoice, Inc.
PLX technology
POCO
Pond Venture Partners Ltd.
Porter Novelli
Premier Technical Sales Inc.
Provision
ProVision Communications
PUCC
Pulse~LINK, Inc.
Qualcomm, Inc.
Quantenna Communications
Radialpoint
Radiotime
Regulatory Consultant
Residential Systems Magazine
Retrevo, Inc
Retrevo.com
Rich Green, Ink
RISeT
Rural Telephone
Samsung
Samsung Electronics
SaskTel
ScreenPlays Magazine
Semantic Seed Blog, BlackWeb 2.0, Appfrica Blog
Sezmi Corporation
SiBEAM
Sigma Designs
Silicon Image, Inc.
Silicon Valley Journal
SingleClick Systems
SKT Americas
SmartBrief, Inc.
SmartSilvers
Sonic Solutions
Sony
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Southern Cross Venture Partners
SPD
ST Microelectronics
Stage Two Consulting
Streaming Media Magazine
Sumitomo Electric
support.com
SupportSoft, Inc.
SupportSpace
SureWest Communications
Syabas Technology
Symantec
Synacor, Inc.
Synerchip
TAG Networks
TANDBERG Television
Technologizer
TechWatch
Telcordia Technologies, Inc.
Telecom NZ
Tellus Venture Associates
Teridian
Tessera
The Economist
The French News Agency
The Sunnyvale Sun
The Viodi View
TiVo Inc.
Triggerbox Capital
Trinty Ventures
TVWorks
U.S. Department of Energy
uControl
Unboxed Media
Valens Semiconductor Ltd.
Venture Capital
Ventures Tech. Watch
Verizon
Via Licensing Corporation
ViaCube
VIZIO, Inc.
Wayve
Western Digital
Windstream Communications
Xanvi
Xeriton Corporation
Xeriton Corporation/BluePhone
Yahoo!
YouTube LLC
Zenverge
Zilog, Inc.
Zodiac Interactive
Z-Wave Alliance / Sigma Designs
Z-Wave North America
Zyxel

Next-gen Wireless Home Networking Solutions: A Follow-up

2009-06-17T11:18:00.018-05:00

Being the "home network analyst" at Parks Associates for 11 years, I've been involved in a few of these home networking PHY beauty contests that sometimes take on the form of high school hallway debates.

"The analyst likes so-and-so better than such-and-such!"
"He like so-and-so, but he doesn't "like-her/like-her!"
"The analyst took sides with so-and-so and says that such-and-such is [enter in derogatory statement here]!"

I've accepted that this comes with the territory. In the end, what I'm trying to do when I write a report, an article, or lead a moderated discussion among highly competitive players vying for pieces of the same pie is to put myself in the shoes of a home network vendor, a consumer electronics manufacturer, or a service provider and do my best to evaluate technology solutions as consistently as possible. This means that I get to ask a lot of "dumb" questions - often multiple times, and often over a multiple period of briefings over multiple years to the same companies.

To the home networking companies that have endured the questions and shared your perspective, thanks!

The stakes for next-generation wireless networking solutions are really high these days, as silicon companies target the embedded market well beyond the router, access point, and notebook computer space. Our recently-completed Home Networks for Consumer Electronics report forecasts that worldwide sales/shipments of network-connected (and in most cases Web-enabled) consumer electronics products will double between 2009 and 2010. That's a chipset opportunity well north of 100 million units in 2013, so it's no insignificant market. If you add in embedded home networking in devices like residential gateways, home computers, and pay TV set-top boxes, you're adding at least another 50-60 million units each year during the forecast period. So, the pressure is on, and with a reported $300 million in funding having gone into next-generation wireless chipset companies over years, folks want to make sure that they make the right calls.

We had a really great wireless networking panel at our CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES in January (where panelists from AMIMON, Celeno, ProVision, TZero Technologies, and WirelessHD spoke), and the feedback was positive in terms of the information that was covered. TWICE provided an excellent summary of the panel. As we started planning for CONNECTIONS in June, we decided that it would be well worth it to bring some of the main players in next-generation wireless networking back for a reprise. Besides, I had plenty of dumb questions left to ask! So, we asked six companies to participate on a panel discussion titled Wireless Networking & Video Consumption in the Home.

First, I want to thank the participants - Vijay Desai from Aceurity, Noam Geri from AMIMON, Lior Weiss from Celeno, Ian Walsh from Provision Communications, Andrea Goldsmith from Quantenna Communications, and Sheung Li from SIBEAM - for competing with food and beverages in the Showcase Theater, and generating a lively debate about the respective merits of their solutions! Who knew that one simple question would lead us down the 75-minute road we took?

Several of our panelists have agreed to answer some follow-up questions, so I've captured their responses. My hope is to get some additional perspective from all of the panelists.

Who's Gonna "Win" in Wireless?

To set the stage, the looming question that I think is out there is "Can any wireless solution successfully unseat Wi-Fi® as the wireless choice for delivering high-quality video streams in either one room or multiple rooms of the house?" A lot of folks look at the hype and the eventual downfall of UWB solutions as a cautionary tale to those who want to work outside the boundaries of Wi-Fi to deliver high-performance. They argue that Wi-Fi's performance-to-price ratio is more than adequate for most connected CE use cases.

Wi-Fi's clear success to date has been on the enterprise and consumer router side of the business, but its CE business is no slouch. Both stationary (gaming consoles, digital televisions, set-top boxes, and printers) and mobile/portable (handheld games, cameras, and portable music players) consumer electronics rather than PCs provided the fastest growth for Wi-Fi chipsets in 2008, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance. Among the more than 4,000 Wi-Fi certified products, consumer electronics products – and those particularly aimed at entertainment – represent a very low percentage of the total (less than ten percent), but are a growing percentage of annual shipments, according to the Alliance.

But is Wi-Fi (and specifically 802.11n) sufficient for the needs of consumer electronics manufacturers and service providers that are seeking to facilitate the movement of several high-definition streams of content around the home? Upstarts like AMIMON and SiBEAM developed their own solutions to address this issue, and they've had some success. Noam Geri at AMIMON reminds me that they sold more than 100,000 chipsets in 2008, and their customers include:

Hisense wireless HDTVs.
SONY shipped TVs in Europe and in Japan embedded with AMIMON’s chipset, including the world’s thinnest LCD TV – The SONY ZX1 which does not have any connectors on the thin panel – only wireless.
In the U.S., SONY is shipping the SONY BRAVIA Wireless link based on AMIMON’s technology. This is a wireless video accessory for BRAVIA TVs (you can get it on Amazon.com).
Sharp is selling a wireless kit based on AMIMON chipset in Japan, and Mitsubishi is selling a wireless TV with embedded AMIMON chipset.
In the U.S., Gefen is selling dongles based on AMIMON’s chipset, and most recently Philips announced a wireless dongle based on AMIMON.
There are also customers in the professional and Medical spec like Stryker and IDX (professional wireless HD camera system).

On the SiBEAM side, products include:

Panasonic Z1 Series - NeoPDP HDTV;
Toshiba REGZA LINK;
LG LHX and LH85 LCD TVs; and
GefenTV Wireless for HDMI 60Ghz Extender

At the same time, companies like Celeno and ProVision have their own design wins. Celeno's announced customers include a Cavium Networks reference design; Comtrend Wireless Video Adapters for distribution of multiple HD IPTV content from any Ethernet-equipped home gateway or DVR to IP set top boxes; and SerComm Corp. IP902CL, a Wireless HD IPTV networking solution.

ProVision's announced customers include the AXAR Media AXAR 1000, a Sender and Receiver kit that enables HD video, from set-top boxes, DVRs or Blu-ray players, to be securely distributed over Wi-Fi.

The Compressed/Uncompressed Debate

During the panel, SiBEAM's Sheung Li was ... how shall we put this ... forceful ... in his argument that a 60 GHz uncompressed solution was the only way to provide consumer electronics manufacturers and content owners with assurances that the quality of their 1080p high-def video wouldn't be compromised. We had just started digging into this subject during the CES panel, so I wanted to better understand the sentiments of the other companies in this regard.

Lior Weiss, Celeno: Indicates that H.264 encoding is sufficient for what he calls "perceived lossless compression," where the human mind cannot distinguish the video quality of an uncompressed versus a compressed stream. He notes that encoding companies and video experts have indicated that a solution that facilitiates the distribution of 720p60 quality video at 12 Mbps or 1080p60 at 30Mbps can be considered "lossless" according to the companies with whom he's speaking. He gives credit to the 60 GHz solution providers for developing a true uncompressed solution, but questions the robustness of the 60 GHz link to provide a consistent high-quality experience. Weiss notes that an examination of the quality of the radio link is a critical factor in evaluating a solution's effectiveness, noting that compression that is otherwise not detectable by the human eye allows for a solution that can operate at a lower bitrate and enjoy higher robustness overall.

Noam Geri, AMIMON: Noam appears to agree with Lior in the sense that the design of the radio link itself is a critical factor in determining the type of quality of experience a wireless networking solution can deliver.

"Trying to deliver all the information in a brute-force approach will actually result in very poor quality because when the channel degrades the link will break and picture will be lost, and even occasional breaks in the link are very annoying," he notes. "A better approach is to design a solution that is tolerant to errors and loss due to degradation in channel conditions."

Cost Considerations

I asked our panelists to provide some perspective on the costs for implementing their solutions, and received some interesting responses.

Lior Weiss, Celeno: The Celeno solution is based on a Transmitter chipset (i.e. Access Point) and a Receiver chipset (i.e. client). The uniqueness of the Celeno technology (vs. other Wi-Fi solutions) that our powerful “sauce” can yield HD performance even if the receiver chipset is not Celeno’s. That helps us with the price curve of the solution.

Weiss notes that the Celeno solution is receiver-agnostics, so as long as the transmitter used their solution, then connected CE devices could use other Wi-Fi chipsets. The transmitter side could be an over-the-top STB bundled with the TV, it could be a Tuner in case of a “two-piece” TV model, etc.

"On the transmitter side, Weiss notes,"the Celeno chip has about 25% premium over plain-vanilla Wi-Fi. “By working on the client side with Wi-Fi price leaders we achieve end to end attractive price points, especially when multiple clients are involved." Weiss notes, however, that this wouldn't preclude Celeno from working with other Wi-Fi chipset vendors. "In fact, he notes, "keeping open architecture is a great advantage and is perceived well with the tier 1 OEM’s."

For example, a big TV manufacturer who is bundling USB Wi-Fi adaptors on the TV side with Media server device for DVR functionality complained about the performance and the reach of the solution between rooms for video streaming. After plunking in a Celeno CL1300 into the Media server side (and still with the same USB Wi-Fi adaptor) performance was improved dramatically and became a true multi-room solution. Lastly, The Celeno solution is standard Wi-Fi based. We are interoperating with other 802.11n chipsets. I would call it a 'novel' implementation of Wi-Fi."

Noam Geri, AMIMON: WHDI uses 5GHz, OFDM, MIMO – basically 80% of the WHDI solution is similar to 802.11n so the inherent costs of WHDI is about the same as 802.11n. Current offering of WHDI is more expensive than wi-fi, because of the volumes and the many cost reduction iterations that wi-fi underwent. Overtime WHDI should converge to the same price-points of wi-fi since it has similar complexity and uses the same RF technology.

It is worth noting that WHDI and Wi-Fi have different functionality so this is not an apples-to-apples comparison. WHDI can deliver uncompressed video and wi-fi chipset can deliver IP data (or compressed video). In order to build a solution based on wi-fi to deliver raw video, one would need to add a real time compression engine (e.g H.264 encoder). The compression engine not only degrades quality and adds latency, but also adds complexity and costs, so a solution to deliver uncompressed video based on wi-fi is actually be more expensive than WHDI.

In fact, the synergies between 802.11 and WHDI will lead within 2-3 years to single chip solutions that implement both WHDI and 802.11. Many systems need both. For example: a TV will need WHDI to connect to all the video sources in the home and 802.11 to connect to the Internet. With a single chip device the TV will get both for the price of one.

Power Considerations

A good deal of the analysis that focus on the wireless space target price and power as two major constraints to growth. I wanted to ask our panelists their take on the power consumption/output issues, with a specific eye on any potential regulatory concerns or the use of their solutions on more power-sensitive consumer electronics devices, such as mobile phones or portable multimedia players.

Lior Weiss, Celeno: We are fully compliant to ETSI and FCC regulations for 5GHZ radio transmission as far as power output, DFS, etc. No issue there. We are using standard power amplifier , the same as any other WiFi chipsets and transmit as per the regulated output power in the specific radio channel. Our OEM and ODM partners certify their Celeno based devices per ETSI and FCC regulations.

Noam Geri, AMIMON: WHDI is very suitable for portable applications. Current implementations of WHDI can be as lower than 2W which makes WHDI suitable for notebook computers. Granted, this is still too high for ultra-portable devices, but we can expect future versions of WHDI to enable modes of less than 1W enabling applications such as wireless portable gaming consoles and even WHDI in cell phones. This is one of the major advantages of using the 5GHz band as opposed to 60GHz which requires much higher output power levels because of the poor propagation qualities of the wireless channel.

The Fit for Wi-Fi

I received some input from Vijay Desai, the founder and CEO of ACEurity, regarding how Wi-Fi may be best positioned to support very high-quality video distribution for the home. Desai says that the use of so-called "4x4" MIMO configurations will increase coverage range and throughput. 4x4 MIMO configurations rely on four transmitting antennas and four receiving antennas that allow for four "spacial streams." Desai says that a focus on low latency will place emphasis on such enhancements as dynamic bandwidth adaption, recovery mechanisms for packet loss, and H.264 compression.

ACEurity's solution, Desai notes, is a HDQ™ (HD-ViMAC/XCoder), capable of handling real-time video at 4.5 Gbps and adapting bandwidth between 10 and 130 Mbps, even with 3 x 3 Spatial Multiplex MIMO configuration. This solution, he notes, is very resilient, capable of of withstanding greater than 50% packet loss in transit and rendering "visually losless" video with an extremly low latency (approximately one millisecond).

Desai also provided some helpful information in terms of the bill of material cost expectations for consumer electronics vendors considering a high-quality wireless video solution. He says that the desired pricing for a two-pair dongle would be $149, but with a clear path to $99. This means that the cost for the wireless solution itself should be no more than $20-$25, which he believes is achievable with volume production in 2010.

Creating a More Holistic Customer Support Environment: A Q&A with Alcatel-Lucent

2009-06-16T13:53:00.007-05:00

You know the golf adage "Drive for show; putt for dough?" I think that helps describe the digital lifestyles market today, where connected TVs, Apple's product introductions, and online video tend to dominate discussions, but where enhancements to customer support elements are more quietly being deployed and are having a sigificant impact on customer support cost reductions and in generating some serious revenue.

Case in point? Let's look at U.S. revenue estimates for 2008 for all online video (including that consumed at the Xbox)? A little over $1B. These estimates are from Internet Video: Direct-to-Consumer Services (Second Edition).

Now, 2008 revenues for digital home tech support services - including home computer and home network set-up and troubleshooting? For U.S. households, that figure comes in at $3.2B! This estimate is from our recently-completed report Digital Home Tech Support: Analysis and Forecasts.

Remote technical support is a very dynamic side of the home IT tech support business, and our recently-completed study Customer Support in the Digital Home finds that 3-4 million U.S. broadband households used remote technical support services in 2008, and reports growing interest in having their home computers and home networking remotely diagnosed and troubleshooted with remote experts. The interest in remote tech support services was notable, particularly compared to findings from our 2006 study Managing the Digital Home: Installation and Support Services. The message we're getting from consumers is "Fix my home technical problems as quickly and conveniently as possible, and I'll pay for it!" Indeed, our revenue forecasts for the entire home technical support market indicate that remote technical support services will account for a growing share of revenues - more than 40% by year-end 2013.

There are some exciting things occuring for consumer-facing IT support services, and in allowing service providers to reduce customer support costs and create new revenue-generating services wrapped around support. So, CONNECTIONS™ was an ideal venue to showcase sponsors (Alcatel-Lucent, Affinegy, BluePhone, Cisco, PlumChoice, Radialpoint, Retrevo, SingleClick Systems, Support.com, and Telcordia) and feature several panels that dive into tech support and customer support issues. Our panels included:

Driving the Next Dollar: The Role of VAS (with panelists from Affinegy, Calix, Radialpoint, SupportSoft, and Synacor);
Service Provider Home Networking Strategies: RGs and Services (with panelists from 2Wire, Alcatel-Lucent, Jungo, Motorola, and PUCC);
Truth in Networking (with panelists from Actiontec, Best Buy, D-Link, and NETGEAR);
Remote Technical Support (with panelists from BluePhone, CrossLoop, PlumChoice, Support.com, and Telcordia); and
Building the Holistic Support Environment (with panelists from Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, and Retrevo).

I enjoyed the Building the Holistic Support Environment as the penultimate session for CONNECTIONS 2009, as it gave us the opportunity to explore the "what's next" area of enhancements to customer support services. As with some of the other panels, I've asked our participants if they would be willing to answer some follow-up questions. Ben Geller, Senior Director of Marketing, Motive Product Group, Alcatel-Lucent, was kind enough to take some time to respond to a virtual interview. Here's the transcript:

Parks Associates: We've described a holistic customer support experience in which one or several entities extends the “break/fix” or troubleshooting relationship with a customer to additional services that could include 1) new product or service recommendations; and 2) the use of analytics to best match consumers with products or services that best suit their needs. How does Alcatel-Lucent describe its role in creating more holistic support between service providers and customers?

Ben Geller: Alcatel-Lucent offers a unique portfolio of digital life management solutions marketed under the Motive brand. These solutions will make it easier for service providers to offer, activate, support and manage a wide range of high-speed internet, VoIP, video, mobile and converged services. Motive digital life management technology gives service providers the tools they need to help customers set up and manage the services and devices that power their digital life while delivering a positive, consistent experience at home or on-the-go throughout the entire service lifecycle.

Parks Associates: What would you say are the key elements of what Alcatel-Lucent is offering its customers in the holistic support space? How would you classify your offerings?

Ben Geller: Key Elements of offerings from ALU’s Motive Product Division are:

The ability to go beyond basic network management and device management and provide a 360° view and extended management control across the elements of the entire service delivery ecosystem (customer premises, back office, network and partner domain).
Easy to use, intuitive self-service tools for consumers that leverage multiple contact channels – Portal, email, chat, IVR, and desktop client.
Easy-to-use tools for the help, designed to guide frontline call center agents through the problem triage, trouble shooting and resolution process.
Support for converged services via real-time visibility and control over fixed-line and mobile services and devices, deliver help desk a single UI that consolidates management visibility and control over fixed and mobile services and devices.
Multi-platform and multi-protocol support; support for a wide range of mobile platforms and PC operating systems and support for TR-069, OMA-DM, OMA-DS, UPnP, and proprietary protocols.

Parks Associates: There is lots of talk today about the amount of investment that a service provider needs to make in its customer support elements. What are you advising service providers to put in place insofar as the critical elements to enhancing the support experience?

Ben Geller: First, we are advising providers to look beyond device management and evolve toward true service management. Therefore part of our messaging and approach is based on helping providers leverage their current investments in device management, OSS/BSS, NMS and EMS systems. Currently, these systems offer providers “stove pipe or functional” views into their customers experience. There are management solutions within our portfolio (Motive ServiceView) that use critical information from these functional systems to deliver providers a real-time perspective of the customers service experience. These mean that help desk personnel do not have to swivel chair across multiple systems in an attempt to isolate a problem or determine root cause (which make the customer service experience better, faster and more effective) and providers can get more out of their existing service delivery and management investments.

Parks Associates: What is Alcatel-Lucent able to show its customers in terms of the return on investment?

Ben Geller: The Motive Product Division conducts regular quarterly business reviews with customers for the sole purpose of evaluating actual results against expected results. These review offer both Motive and the service provider an opportunity to understand what’s working right and where possible course corrections are needed.

Parks Associates: Let's talk some specific data, which you've shared with us in the past. In the broadband service provider business, new service and product rollouts (like home networking) have tended to generate a big increase in support calls. Can you share some success stories in helping service providers reduce them?

Ben Geller: Our customers tell us time and time again that creating an easy, consistent, and personalized experience across service and devices throughout the purchase, installation, maintenance, and support phases of the customer service lifecycle is a key factor with respect to lowering support costs and ensuring customer satisfaction. In the context of service installation, Motive self-activation tools help providers increase their first-time install success rates. [Geller's specific examples include the following:]

One of our customers measured improvement in this area by realizing an increase in first-time install rate success from just under 60% to over 98%, while reducing ‘first-30 day’ supports call by 75%.
In the context of customer technical support, our customers tell us that subscribers who use Motive self-service technology to troubleshoot and resolve issues are five times less likely to call for help when compared to subscribers that do not use self help.
Finally, in the context of home device management we’ve helped service providers drive substantial cost savings via the ability to remotely manage and proactively push out device updates.

We heard of several instances when a provider has learned about a firmware flaw in a device that needed to be resolved immediately due to security or service instability concerns. In the past, the way to address this problem would be to replace the flawed modems. Correcting a problem of this magnitude would require a substantial investment in additional modems, shipping, managing the support calls, and loss of revenue due to service outages while the recall took place. From a customer satisfaction standpoint, most providers feel that addressing this type of support issue with a recall would further erode customer confidence and would negate any gains made in providing a seamless customer service experience.

Using Motive solutions providers are able to correct the issue without requiring subscriber interaction, technician visits and costly device swaps saving them millions of dollars. These results are indicative of the benefits being realized by the more than 100 service provides around the world who are using Motive service management solution.

Parks Associates: What tools do you see as critical in building a more holistic support environment? Beyond TR-069, what is needed?

Ben Geller: When it comes to device management specifically, having management technologies that support industry standards is certainly an important part of developing and executing delivery of a holistic support environment. However, standards can’t often keep pace with real-time requirements from the field. In the event device management standards do not go far enough, it is important to have the ability quickly extend management technology to leverage proprietary or custom functions exposed by CPE manufacturers. That’s why the Motive Product Division continues to remain vendor agnostic. We maintain interoperability relationships with over 70 of the world’s leading CPE and handset manufactures and have a proven track record of delivering custom device management functions in the absence of industry standards.

Parks Associates: Beyond broadband and home network management, what other things/services can be managed?

Ben Geller: That’s a pretty open ended question but I’ll offer a few perspectives. First, we think the future of broadband is mobile. Second, we also see providers (fixed and mobile) looking for new ways to work with 3rd party application and content providers to offer new services. Therefore, it is increasing more important to extend robust service management capabilities into the wireless world (for mobile operators) and extend management visibility and control deeper into the partner domain. Simply being able to manage a device (home of mobile) is not enough. Our service management capabilities are currently evolving from the ability to manage to the last ten feet of the last mile to managing the entire service delivery ecosystem. Solutions such as Motive ServiceView help providers get a real-time, accurate view of their customers service experience (beyond the home or devices they carry around in their hand) and subsequently offers the ability to automate corrective actions across the service delivery ecosystem when appropriate.

How Cisco is Marrying Online Video to Consumer Electronics

2009-06-16T13:12:00.006-05:00

A key theme that we explored at CONNECTIONS™ two weeks ago was how online video is going to impact both the consumer electronics and the service provider industries. We wanted to explore the technologies that are bringing Web and Web-like content and services to devices like the TV, the Blu-ray player, and the set-top box and discuss the business implications. So, we dedicated a significant portion of our panels to such topics. Our panels included:

The Marriage of Online Video to CE (with panelists from Cisco Systems, Qualcomm, TiVo, and YouTube);
Connected TV Strategies (with panelists from AnySource Media, IBM, VIZIO, and Yahoo!
The Future of the Set-top Box (with panelists from Exceptional Innovation, Irdeto, Microsoft, NDS, and NXP Semiconductors);
WebTV: Extreme TV Makeover? (with panelists from ActiveVideo Networks, Boxee, Cisco Systems, Intel, and Paramount Digital Entertainment); and
Bringing “Cloud Media” to Consumer Electronics Devices (with panelists from Accedo Broadband, Allegro Software Development Corp., Clearleap, Eyecon Technologies Inc., and Syabas).

In The Marriage of Online Video to CE, we unfortunately ran short of time, and we had a number of really interesting questions queued up for our speakers. So, I'm following up with them to get some additional perspective on what they're seeing in the connected CE space.

Ken Wirt, Cisco Systems' Vice President Consumer Marketing, was kind enough to respond to some questions. Here's a transcript of the Q&A:

Parks Associates: As Cisco looks at marrying online content to a variety of consumer electronics devices, what are the main tenets of your solution? Can you describe the work that Cisco has done/is doing to deliver these kind of content experiences to a growing number of devices?

Ken Wirt: Cisco sees the consumer market growing thru three phases:

Connected Home — This phase is nearing maturity. In this phase people get wireless routers in order to connect one (or several) computers to the Internet.
Media-Enabled Home — We’re in the early stages of this phase. This is about having multiple connected devices in the home and wanting to move media around among the devices and access the media from outside the home. Examples would be viewing photos stored on a computer on the TV, or viewing video on a PC, or streaming music to your mobile phone.
Visual Networking — This phase is on the (not too) distant horizon. In this phase there’s a combination of the social networking connections with video. Video is a huge step up from the text we use today because of the immediacy and the ability to communicate emotions (a real smile vs. an emoticon). An example of this type of product is consumer telepresence.

What Cisco is doing is becoming what we view as a new kind of CE company — where CE no longer stands for “consumer electronics,” but “consumer experience.” Historically, CE has been about silo’d devices which don’t interact with each other. What differentiates “consumer experience” is that it’s about the triumvirate of device+software+cloud services. A good example is Flip Video. While most people look at this as the device, it’s also the FlipShare software that runs on your computer that lets you edit and share the video, and FlipShare.com that provides a private “channel” for others (example family members) to stream your videos that are stored in the cloud.

Parks Associates: What work is Cisco doing to ensure a good quality video experience on the consumer electronics device? Does Cisco do any work in the backend to groom video for optimal viewing?

Ken Wirt: Cisco has a variety of technologies within the network that we refer to collectively as medianet. These technologies optimize the experience of all media (but especially video) for the capabilities of the network (bandwidth, traffic), the nature of the content (resolution, media type, etc.) as well as the endpoint (screen resolution, speed of connectivity, buffer size, etc). Within the home network, we also support technologies like VQE (video quality of experience). Finally, we are offering no cost licenses to our HNAP protocol that helps consumer electronics devices connect to the network, tell the network about their capabilities, and provide network administration for managed services.

Parks Associates: Will Cisco implement one solution for delivering Web content (or Web-like content) for both set-top boxes (Scientific-Atlanta) and retail-based products (like a connected TV)? Is Cisco's goal to develop a one-size-fits-all kind of solution for everyone?

Ken Wirt: Cisco already offers a solution that can work with STB’s, PC’s, mobile devices, and CE devices — it’s our combination of our MXE and CDS products. MXE can reformat any type of video for a desired frame rate and resolution – this let’s it adjust to different types of devices and bandwidth. The CDS can then distribute that content to different types of devices as well as insert ads.

Parks Associates: What kind of efforts is Cisco putting forth to help content owners, service providers, and CE vendors make money off the content? I would imagine that Eos is part of this, but what kind of advertising work is Cisco doing?

Ken Wirt: Cisco is working closely with all of these groups. Cisco works with content owners through its Eos service platform that combines social networking capabilities with short-form video distribution to create a network of content sites for media companies that will let them better manage the sites and better know their customers. This reduces costs and through targeted advertising, better monetizes those sites. Cisco works with service providers to both improve the quality of their networks, and through managed services to reduce costs and increase revenue. And finally, we are helping CE vendors to develop more connected products by offering no-cost licenses to the HNAP protocol (see above).

Video Footage from CONNECTIONS

2009-06-15T16:38:00.003-05:00

The video footage from the CONNECTIONS Conference from June 2-4, 2009 is now live.

Individual video interviews available:
4Home
Accedo Broadband
Affinegy
Allegro Software Development
Austin Energy
BlackArrow
BluePhone
BunchBall
Celeno
Direct Energy
Entone
Exceptional Innovation
Eyecon Technologies
Icron
Irdeto
Ortiva Wireless
PlumChoice
Popcorn Hour
Qualcomm
Sigma Design/Z-Wave
Silicon Image
SingleClick
Sony/DECE
SupportSoft
Synacor
Telcordia
uControl
Valens Semiconductor
ViaCube
Via Licensing
Zilog
Zodiac Interactive

Click here to view all videos.

Thanks again to Ken and Roger for helping us capture this event on video!

Following up with Icron after CONNECTIONS

2009-06-15T08:37:00.001-05:00

In reflecting on some of the highlights of an outstanding CONNECTIONS™ 2009 event June 2-June 4, the introduction of new solutions to enhance the way in which entertainment content is enjoyed was a significant theme. I moderated a panel titled Extending the Reach of Wired Networks and Interfaces that showcased recent efforts in powerline networking, developing extensions to HDMI over twisted-pair, and Icron’s PC-on-TV solution. Rick Merritt at EE Times attended that session and wrote an article discussing the potential fit for the solutions offered by Icron Technologies, Silicon Image, Synerchip, and Valens Semiconductor.

When I was introduced to the Icron solution last September, I was intrigued by the solution that can basically extend a home computer desktop onto a high-definition TV using different types of standard networking solutions (be they Ethernet, “no-new-wires,” or wireless). I think that there’s good potential for products that allow consumers to access Web content on their TVs without going through devices like the digital media adapter or expensive solutions that don’t seem to work quite right.

Brian Donnelly, Icron’s vice president of sales and marketing, who walked me through a demonstration at CONNECTIONS last week, followed up on that article with some notes he wanted to clarify. Brian notes that Icron would be complementary to Valens or Synerchip, as their customers might implement Icron’s solution for whole-home video+USB-type of extensions. He also notes that Icron uses other company’s video chipsets (uncompressed and H.264 encoders/decoders) as part of their solution. So, they’re not looking to create a new video compression chip, but rather work with the solutions that are out there already and add remote USB functionality to enable a true PC on TV experience.

Icron’s “special sauce” – in wonky parlance – they multiplex all the data channels together (video, audio, USB) and perform various QoS and flow control optimizations as well as overall system optimization – this means that Icron has figured out how to ensure priority of the different data types so that your keyboard and mouse (and other USB I/O devices) are immediately recognized and processed as well as ensuring that video/audio are delivered in a very high quality format.

Brian says that products using the Icron PC-on-TV solution will be available in Q1 of 2010. I’ll look forward to seeing how the solution gets implemented.

CONNECTIONS™ identifies key growth areas, obstacles, and opportunities for industry players

2009-06-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference & Showcase, hosted by international research firm Parks Associates, featured three days, June 2-4, of presentations and panel discussions from service providers, CE companies, software and middleware developers, and many other members of the consumer technology value chain.

Glenn Lurie, President of Emerging Devices and Resale, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, delivered the opening keynote “Embedding Wireless in Consumer Electronics” on June 2. In the following session, executives from Qualcomm, TiVo, YouTube, and Cisco addressed efforts from CE companies and content providers to deliver new video experiences to end users. PlumChoice hosted the evening networking reception.

Tricia Parks, CEO, Parks Associates, and Retrevo’s CEO Vipin Jain opened the conference on June 3 with “Navigating the Changing CE Purchase Process.” The presentation offered insight into 2008 CE purchase patterns, which showed consumers shifting away from spontaneity in their purchase decisions. Then, Kurt Scherf, VP, Parks Associates, moderated the session “Connected TV Strategies,” featuring IBM, AnySource Media, VIZIO, and Yahoo!, who discussed the implications of adding Internet connectivity to the televisions.

Joseph Ambeault, Director, Product Development and Management, Video Services, Verizon, provided the morning keynote, where he discussed the disruptive force of IP and the evolution of FiOS TV services to deliver a more personalized video experience. Eyecon Technologies sponsored the networking break.

The afternoon sessions featured speakers from Paramount Digital Entertainment, 2Wire, Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, uControl, Macrovision, and more. The sessions focused on service provider strategies, WebTV, home monitoring, connected CE, and interactive services. MoCA hosted the session “Truth in Networking,” featuring executives from Actiontec Electronics, NETGEAR, Best Buy, and D-Link.

Mitch Singer, CTO, Executive Vice President of New Media and Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., and President of Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), delivered the day’s closing keynote “Entertainment 2.0: The Future of Entertainment.” He discussed DECE’s efforts to remove the barriers for digital distribution of content. The final session of the day, “Wireless Networking & Video Consumption,” featured executives from Aceurity, AMIMON, Quantenna Communications, SiBEAM, ProVision Communications, and Celeno.

Via Licensing opened Thursday with the presentation “Ideas for addressing IPR issues for technology standards,” which described the collaboration between Via Licensing and IEEE and discussed the benefits of patent pools in helping technology companies deploy digital lifestyle solutions.

Bill Ablondi, Director, Home Systems Research, Parks Associates, presented the firm’s residential energy management research and moderated a session featuring executives from Cisco, Direct Energy, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Andres Carvallo, CIO, Austin Energy, presented the morning keynote “Building the Smart Grid,” discussing efforts in Austin, Texas, to deploy intelligent electrical systems that benefit utilities and consumers.

Thursday’s sessions featured topics on remote technical support, mobile multimedia, and wireless home controls, with participants from support.com, Telcordia, Pandora, Ortiva Wireless, Sigma Designs, and Control4, among others.

The afternoon session “Building the Holistic Support Environment” featured executives from Retrevo, Alcatel-Lucent, and Cisco Systems and discussed the expansion of customer care services for PCs and other electronics. The conference ended with the session “What’s Coming Next?”, featuring venture capitalists for the tech industry who discussed the challenging economic climate and current solutions with the best long-term outlook.

Thursday's Opening Session, Bringing the Smart Grid to the Smart Home

2009-06-04T12:27:00.003-05:00

Bringing the Smart Grid to the Smart Home was the opening panel session on Thursday, June 4th.

Utilities and their partners are adding Smart Grid capabilities so they can shed load, accommodate alternative energy sources, and pinpoint outages. For consumers, benefits include reduced energy bills, enhanced comfort and convenience, and a smaller carbon footprint. This panel brings together companies leading Smart Grid initiatives through new technologies, systems, and business models.

Panel speakers include:
Sanket Amberkar, Marketing Manager, Network Systems Solutions, Cisco
Christopher Deutschen, Senior Manager, Product & Business Development, Direct Energy
Dr. Kenneth Wacks, Member, GridWise Architecture Council, U.S. Department of Energy
Bill Ablondi, Director, Home Systems Research, Parks Associates; panel moderator

Thursday Morning Presentation by IEEE and Via Licensing

2009-06-04T11:30:00.003-05:00

The IEEE and Via Licensing Corporation presented ideas for addressing IPR issues for technology standards.

The IEEE and Via Licensing Corporation are writing a new chapter in IP licensing by bridging the gap between standards settings activities and the formation of patent pool programs aimed at facilitating those standards. This is a first-of-its kind collaboration from two leaders in IP management that is bound to have a significant impact on the future of standards and joint licensing efforts. Patent pools allow multiple licensors of patents that read on a technology to provide their essential patents under a single license to implementers of the technology. The creation of a patent pool can save licensors and licensees time and money and allow new technologies to hit the market faster by reducing IP obstacles.

Ortiva Wireless to Discuss Mobile Video at CONNECTIONS 2009

2009-06-04T09:38:00.002-05:00

CONNECTIONS The Digital Living Conference & Showcase 2009

Craig Lee, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development for Ortiva Wireless, will present to mobile operators, service providers, entertainment executives, and solution providers at CONNECTIONS 2009 The Digital Living Conference and Showcase today, Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 11:15 a.m. PT .

Lee has more than 20 years of experience in corporate marketing, product management and business development. Currently, he leads Ortiva’s strategic marketing, business development and partner initiatives as the company grows its global customer base of wireless service providers. Prior to joining Ortiva, Lee held a number of executive roles, including Vice President, Marketing, and Vice President, Sales for Nuera Communications (acquired by AudioCodes Ltd.), provider of packet voice equipment. He holds a BA in economics from Williams College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

In the “Multimedia on Mobile Devices” panel, Lee will join other wireless experts to discuss the market’s most promising multimedia applications, including those driving the mobile TV/video market forward. Lee will detail how mobile operators can grow mobile TV/video viewing communities by meeting stringent consumer expectations for smooth video and clear audio. Panelists will discuss the latest mobile multimedia trends and technology, and their impact on carriers, device manufacturers and application companies.

Ortiva Wireless offers the industry's most advanced commercial solution for proactive management of mobile video, allowing service providers to dramatically improve control, quality, and efficiency of rich media content delivery. Ortiva's mobile Video Optimization Gateway (mVOG) extends service reach, increases network efficiency, and improves video coverage density for mobile operators, while dynamically shaping the content to give subscribers the smoothest video and clearest audio experience possible – all regardless of fluctuating and hostile wireless network conditions.

To learn more about how Ortiva is accelerating mobile video delivery, visit www.ortivawireless.com.

Navigating the Consumer Purchase Process

2009-06-03T15:12:00.003-05:00

Tricia Parks and Vipin Jain (CEO, Retrevo) presented their findings on 'Navigating the Consumer Purchase Process' in the research presentation today morning at the conference. They promised to follow up with Q&A on the blog, so please post your questions/comments here, and we look forward to continuing the conversation. Parts of today's presentation data are already available on Retrevo's Pulse Report.

ViaCube Sponsors CONNECTIONS 2009

2009-06-02T19:57:00.003-05:00

CONNECTIONS Conference welcomes ViaCube as a 2009 Emerging Technologies Pavilion Sponsor.

ViaCube is a global technology development company committed to delivering innovation. Our teams are comprised of people from a wide range of cultural, educational and geographic backgrounds - people who are passionate, driven and competitive, who are able to challenge conventional thought, offer unique perspectives and generate innovative ideas. The result is a portfolio of innovative Internet related products and suite of software and hardware applications designed to increase productivity and enhance the human experience.

The emergence of the true 24x7 global economy has put an increasing spotlight on the need for personal and professional productivity and communication tools. The increased mobility of people and dramatically reduced barriers for conducting business on a global scale has transformed the traditional structure of businesses and families alike, making the demand for convenient, powerful data and communication management tools greater than ever before. Committed to delivering innovation, ViaCube provides industry leading products to help our customers increase productivity and efficiency so that they can remain focused on running their business, managing their organization, leading their household and enjoying their lives.

For more information about ViaCube, visit www.viacube.com .

Interview with 4Home's Speaker

2009-06-02T19:45:00.004-05:00

Jim Hunter, CTO and Chief Architect of 4Home, shares more about his organization...

What is your company's/division's newest initiative?

4Home is new in the area of conservation management, but we are quickly establishing ourselves as a leader. Conservation management not only encompasses the SmartGrid as defined by NIST standards today like electricity, and soon gas, but also water management. Our platform allows us to easily add these new services that equip utilities, property managers, and home dwellers alike with usable interfaces and information necessary to make a positive impact on this planet. We’ve been working with some of the brightest minds in high-tech and look forward announcing some of our partners and trials shortly.

What is your company's biggest challenge?

The fact that 4Home is a software-only ingredient platform is both a great advantage, as well as a source of big challenges. Our platform is used across multiple markets, protocols, and applications. For this reason we must have both a wide and deep level of support for devices in these various ecosystems. We are consistently pushing our ecosystem partners to bring more energy, health, and home control devices to the market.

What are your company's long term goals?

Our goal at 4Home is really simple. We are striving to make technology more usable to the average consumer, by equipping mass market providers with affordable and intuitive services.

What is your company's most successful product/service?

Our most successful product is the one that everything is built on top of, the 4Home FLUID platform. A great deal of thought and design went into our platform architecture. Because of this, we are able to provide a lightweight software solution that can easily be leveraged anytime a service is needed to connect an end user to information in an intuitive way, be that setting a thermostat in the their home from their PC at work or a notification to a mobile device to warn the user that they are about to exceed the daily energy usage setpoint they determined for themselves.

What do you perceive as your company's greatest strength?

That’s a tough question, hard to pick only one. As I mentioned before, the ability of the 4Home product to remain a pure software offering has proven to be a tremendous advantage against many of our competitors. However, I think our biggest strength is the quality of our team. We’ve brought together an eclectic and talented team with proven track records at leading high-tech companies such as Polycomm, Intel, Motorola, Covad, and 3Com. Each day I am excited to come to work to be involved in the planning, strategy, debate, and ultimately execution of our vision. We work hard but we also take time to celebrate our victories.

Jim will be speaking on June 3rd at 1:30 PM on the panel, New Applications and Services in Home Monitoring & Controls.

Qualcomm Enables Whole-House Media Streaming with Industry's First 4x4 MIMO Wireless Network Solution

2009-06-02T17:26:00.004-05:00

New N-Stream Solution Delivers up to Four 802.11n Spatial Streams to Provide Exceptional Range and Bandwidth without Performance Degradation -

Qualcomm Incorporated, a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies, products and services, today introduced the N-Stream Wireless LAN WCN1320 chip, the industry's first dual-band 802.11n standards-based wireless local-area networking (WLAN) solution with 4x4 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. Offering industry-leading performance of 600 Mbps, the new chip is designed to enable users to distribute multiple simultaneous streams of high-definition video, voice and data throughout the home, without the hassle and cost of installing cables or the interference and range problems of previous wireless technologies.

Qualcomm's N-Stream WLAN solution is being demonstrated this week at Computex Taipei and at Connections 2009 in Santa Clara.

"Qualcomm's advanced 4x4 MIMO technology sets a new performance milestone for home media streaming devices," said Mike Concannon, senior vice president of Connectivity and Wireless Modules for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "Our N-Stream solution delivers a new level of performance and range, enabling next-generation whole-house wireless LAN coverage."
Qualcomm has created WLAN reference module designs to enable manufacturers to quickly integrate WCN1320 into a wide range of media streaming consumer electronic devices such as access points, set-top boxes, and media-centric devices. The WCN1320 chip includes an internal high-speed application processor to run the WLAN software within the chip which provides OEMs the flexibility to use lower cost host processors in their design, easing integration, and reducing development costs for adding WLAN to their products.

"Qualcomm's WCN1320 chip opens up new possibilities for the digital home, and we have been collaborating closely to bring this technology to market, paired with our set-top box solutions," said Mark Samuel, general manager Cable and IP STB business, NXP Semiconductors. "We are very excited about the progress we have made in jointly enabling a new level of whole-house wireless media streaming coverage with exceptionally high bandwidth for multiple media streams."

"AppliedMicro, a global leader in energy conscious computing and communications solutions for enterprise applications, is pleased to work with Qualcomm to complement our multimedia networking expertise with this new WLAN technology," said Gopi Sirineni, AppliedMicro's vice president of consumer and SMB business. "The combination of Qualcomm's WCN1320 WLAN and AppliedMicro's Power Architecture embedded processor technology in access points, NAS, and gateways enables end-to-end solutions that accelerate the deployment of wireless media streaming for both consumer and enterprise applications."

WCN1320's advanced 4x4 MIMO technology uses four spatial streams to distribute multiple streams of concurrent voice, video and data in either the 5GHz or 2.4 GHz radio bands. Qualcomm has developed sophisticated algorithms which take advantage of the multiple transmitters and receivers to increase data throughput, extend range and overcome interference with a spectrally efficient solution. Qualcomm's WCN1320 solution is backward compatible with existing 802.11a, b, and g devices.

The highly integrated N-Stream WCN1320 solution utilizes a 65-nanometer CMOS process technology to combine an embedded applications processor, media-access controller, digital baseband, radio-frequency transceiver and system power-management in a single compact 12x12 mm package.

Qualcomm's N-Stream WLAN WCN1320 solution is expected to begin sampling in the second quarter of 2009. The WCN1320 is part of a complete end-to-end solution for 802.11n from Qualcomm, which also includes the WCN1312(TM) solution for handsets and other mobile devices.

Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM) is a leader in developing and delivering innovative digital wireless communications products and services based on CDMA and other advanced technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Qualcomm is included in the S&P 100 Index, the S&P 500 Index and is a 2009 FORTUNE 500(R) company. For more information, please visit www.qualcomm.com.

Except for the historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the Company's ability to successfully design and have manufactured significant quantities of the WCN1320 chip on a timely and profitable basis, the extent and speed to which 802.11n-compliant wireless local-area networking is adopted and deployed, change in economic conditions of the various markets the Company serves, as well as the other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports, including the report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 28, 2008, and most recent Form 10-Q.

Qualcomm is a registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. N-Stream, WCN1312 and WCN1320 are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.