Gesture and Voice control of Electronic Devices–This seems to be a wave (ahem) of the future.  Samsung showed off a gorgeous TV that used gesture and voice control rather than the conventional remote.  Microsoft Kinect for Windows seems to be gaining some traction as well.  Apple is rumored to be developing a television with a “Siri-like” interface.  All of this actually makes sense.  If we can talk to our cars and our smartphones, it’s just a matter of time before this technology is commoditized to other devices as well.  I will give my personal “tech editor” award to the first company that makes a voice command driven remote that will translate to IR/RF and with older home theatre components.  Now that would be a “universal” remote!  And you wouldn’t have to search for the “light” button!

OLED Televisions–”Organic Light Emitting Diode” sets debuted in several booths this year.  This display technology is very power efficient and allows the design of very thin displays.  This technology has been used in smartphones and tablets for a number of years, and has found its way into the design of large displays.  In theory, display panels could be manufactured less than 1/4″ thick-certainly a conversation piece in anyone’s living room.  I question the practical advantages of such a thin display, in terms of shipping, set up, connectorization, etc.  There are no inherent quality advantages of OLED over currently available technologies, but that said, my sense is that we will see more of this technology in larger displays as manufacturing/logistical challenges are conquered.

Thunderbolt–The Intel “Thunderbolt” connectivity standard appears to be gaining mainstream acceptance.  Thunderbolt boasts incredibly fast data transfer rates, as well as the ability to connect multiple devices with different functions; i.e. an external disc drive and a display monitor in the same I/O port, for example.  Throughput is over 20 times faster than USB 2.0.  Apple’s new laptop line has had Thunderbolt connectivity for a while now, but peripherals and Wintel computers hosting the standard were pretty scarce.  Acer has embraced the standard with its new Aspire Ultrabook computer and both Seagate and Western Digital showed new external drives with the standard embedded. This particular technology becoming more ubiquitous  is a good thing IMHO as this is  a really, really good technology–very user friendly and highly capable.

A couple of notable points–3DTV was not generating the buzz that it did last year, although Samsung and LG, among others, still seem to be committed to the technology.  Most set companies appear to be pushing internet apps into their more mainstream (read: “cheaper”) televisions.  The show was again awash in tablets, just as it was last year.  But market penetration numbers have not changed much.

A great time to be alive, if you’re a gadget guy!

Until next time…

1)  TiVo or DVR–regardless of who your video service provider is, a digital video recorder is one of the best inventions on the planet.  Being able to “time-shift” video material from its broadcast slot to a time convenient to you is priceless.  Being able to fast scan through “commercial interruptions” saves time and aggravation.  If you don’t have one, you need one

2)  Tablet computers–I’ve had a lot of folks ask me about how I use my iPad, and what it helps me do, in anticipation of buying one for themselves or a spouse for the Holidays.  These are wonderful devices, limited only by your imagination and wallet.  There are thousands of really good, useful apps that can enhance your brain, creativity, and “joie de vivre”.  While I think the iOS versions are the very best choice, there are a number of alternatives out there this year that are viable, including the Android based Samsung Galaxy and Amazon Fire.

3)  Voice Command Technology–The new Apple iPone 4S is a marvel of engineering, taking vocal commands and creating digital events as a result.  Ford has improved the Microsoft based “Sync” technology in its products as well.  Talking to machines?  Better than talking to yourself, I suppose, but it will be interesting to see where this technology leads.  From a technical standpoint, though, this technology is getting better and has some genuine usefulness as our brains become more and more loaded with minutiae.

4)  Universal Remotes–There are some great universal remotes out there which are reasonably priced and can control almost every type of media center device.  The latest models use a Web based interface to program the nuances of “what you want the thing to do”, rather than sit there with a book full of codes trying to tie things together with a “button” interface.  My favorite?  The Logitech Harmony 650.

Well, that’s a couple of ideas that may make your holiday shopping a bit easier for the techie in your life.  May you all have a wonderful Holiday Season surrounded by those you love, and may you have the spirit of giving and reverence that the Season invites us to enjoy.

Until next time….

• Cars 2
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2

Those of you who have invested in 3D technology in your homes may give these a whirl.  I personally have seen none of these films, so can’t comment on the respective artistic application of the technology.  All three films certainly hail from successful franchises, so they will likely do well in whatever format shown.  I’d be interested in hearing about your 3D experience with these films (and other content, for that matter).  This is WOW’s first foray into the technology as a distributor, and we are always interested in feedback regarding any new offering.  Because consumer adoption of 3D has been “glacial” according to industry pundits, we are certainly interested to know where this is going, and what matters most to our valued customers.

In general observation during the small amount of shopping I’ve done lately, it appears the “cost of entry” for 3D has come down somewhat.  But then so has the equivalent flat panel 2D technology, whether LED or CFL backlighting.  Bottom line, there are some real deals out there for 2D technology this season, so it will be interesting to see whether folks will upspend to gain the 3D technology or not.  This season may be a pivotal point in the adoption cycle.

Until next time….

First, to set the framework–the FCC has promoted a public policy for some time that all Americans have the right to telephone services.  Obviously, in rural areas, the cost to provide that service has historically been quite high.  For nearly 80 years, rural telephone companies have been subsidized in these “high cost” areas through low cost loans from the government to build plant.  In 1997, Congress mandated an additional funding mechanism known as the “universal service fund”, where customers of telecommunications providers (including wireline, wireless, and VoIP) in “low cost” areas would contribute a percentage of the interstate services on their bill to the fund, which aggregation was used to subsidize customers in “high cost” areas.  Since 1997, the percentage of contribution has steadily grown and sits presently at 15.5% of interstate and end user services.

There are arguments on both sides as to whether this fund has been effective (or not) in promoting the public policy initiatives of the US government, but what is undeniably clear is that the fund is an expensive “tax” for 96% of the voice services customers in the country.  There has been a sense for some time that things needed to change.

Enter the “Connect America Fund”.  With this Order issued last week, the FCC has effectively created a fund to subsidize broadband deployment in the rural parts of the US, and is effectively transitioning the existing funding framework of the Universal Service Fund for the CAF.  Said another way, subsidies for voice services in rural areas are being phased out over the course of the next 5 to 9 years (depending on the company), and those same funds will be made available for rural telcos to deploy broadband data services to their customer base.  The fund will be “budgeted” at the same level it is presently, with the idea that the CAF fund will not grow beyond current funding levels.  In the summary of the order, there was language to suggest that the USF cum CAF would see attrition as the public policy goals associated with broadband deployment were achieved, reducing effective “communications tax” burdens on customers of telephone, cable, and wireless companies over time.

There were many other changes dictated by the Order, including an entire revamp of the intercarrier compensation system (the way companies compensate one another to reach end users on another network), jurisdiction policy (will State public service commissions continue to regulate “intrastate traffic”, or has VoIP made jurisdiction a moot point?), Interconnection Agreement framework (the standard agreements carriers sign with one another to exchange traffic), and so on.  Arcane indeed.

What is clear is that our users will continue for an indeterminate time to subsidize FCC public policy initiatives as they have in the past, but the tide may be turning.  Technology is making it easier and less expensive for all companies to provide voice and data services.  Over the course of the next few years, I hope and expect that all communication companies will become independent and self sustaining, reducing the subsidy burden on the industry as a whole.

Until next time…

My impression of him was that he was a complex man, with significant strengths and weaknesses like the rest of us.  Without a doubt, though he was passionate about the company that he created, and passionate about the customer experience.  Did he always do everything right?  Don’t think so, and if he were around he’d likely freely admit that.  But I have to say that I admired his passion.  Even the people whom he routinely offended had to admire his passion.

The company that he created built products that have always appealed to me–their elegance, and even more important, their “creation philosophy”, though I have to say that sometimes the execution fell short.  But the idea of digital tools that would do stuff intuitively and allow one to do things never done before was what Apple was all about.

I began working for a small telephone switch manufacturing company based in the Rocky Mountains in 1983 as Director of Customer Service.  I had a staff of three people, who were chartered with documentation, customer education (technical and operational), switch installation and maintenance, software configuration and control, and other tasks required to maintain a loyal customer base.  Our customers were some of the early pioneers in the interexchange carrier business–those companies competed with ATT to provide long distance services at discounted rates.  A number of these companies are still in business, though morphed significantly as the business has changed.

We began our efforts in documentation on a simple text editor associated with the OS we were using at the time.  To say it was basic was being generous–a single monospaced font, left hand justification only, fixed tab lengths–no enhanced features of any kind.  Illustrations were (literally) a cut and paste into a blank spot left in the text.

Along came Apple’s Lisa.  Proportional spaced fonts, real word processing and page layout functions, and an intuitive GUI that made everything happen.  Just slower than cold tar.  But we loved it, because the finished product looked professional, and Lisa allowed us to update information in that fast paced environment without breaking the bank in printing costs, which other high tech companies struggled with at the time.  I knew then that we were on the verge of something special.

When the “Fat Mac” came out (512K of ram memory, hence “fat” when compared to the 128K common in the computers of the time), I bought one of those for my personal use. In retrospect, it probably would have been a good thing to have invested that money in the company instead

Will Apple be alright without Jobs?  Sure.  Steve surrounded himself with good, capable people, and those who worked closely with him admired and emulated his strengths. In the years Apple has been in business, it has created a culture of creativity and customer focus which, if adhered to, will serve the company and its customers well into the future.  Not even John Scully could completely stamp out that seed.

Until next time….

Voice Mail customers should have received a letter from the general manager of their respective region regarding this change.  We understand that this change will bring some inconvenience (because ALL change is inconvenient!), but I’d like to explain why we feel such a change is needed at this juncture.

As a technologist, I love good technology, but the longer I’m around the more I realize that technology is only as good as the people behind it.  Our existing platform is relatively new, and it is great technology–it has been in service only since 2007, and it was a major investment for the company.  But here’s the thing.  Over the course of the 4 years we have owned and maintained this system, the company which manufactures and supports this equipment has undergone some major changes–none of them particularly positive.  Some very bright people that my engineers depended on to support this product have left this particular firm, and at the beginning of last year, we determined that this platform would be difficult to support going forward based on current circumstances.  Said much more simply, we felt our customers deserved better than they were likely to get in the future from this system and the drama surrounding its parent company.

So my engineering team has been busy placing an entirely new system in place, with the help of an extremely supportive and competent manufacturer.  It is our hope and expectation that the new system, and the people behind it, will provide superior service to our customers well into the future.

BTW, any of you have need of a lightly used, very large VM system? �

Until next time…

What this means for our customers is the availability of higher speed data connections, as well as more network availability during times of peak congestion.

Currently the maximum speed available is 15MPS down and 2MPS up with our Xtreme Turbo product–very fast by any standard, but by mid 4th quarter, two additional HSD tiers will be available in all markets.  They will feature download speeds of 30MPS and 50MPS, and upload speeds of 3MPS and 5MPS, respectively.  New modems will be required to support the DOCSIS 3.0 based products.

We have had a number of testers out there who have had the product for a while.  It has performed very well, and certainly is fast.  I spoke to one individual today though that offered some perspective on these upper speed tiers that is worth passing on to our readership.  Quote, “The way I use the internet, there isn’t much discernible difference between what I had (Xtreme Turbo) and what I have now.”  We discussed the “garden hose” metaphor of internet service, and that is that regardless of how large the opening is on the end of the hose, there is generally a narrower pipe on the far end server providing the requested data.

Now, lest I be accused of reducing the internet’s complexity down to a “series of tubes” as the late Senator Ted Stevens so infamously opined, there is, nonetheless, a component of truth to this “garden hose” analogy.  In practice, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and other video providers have practical limits on the stream they will send to any one customer, and all of these streams will fit very nicely into one of WOW!’s lower speed tiers, thank you very much.  Said another way, you may not see a lot of difference on most of the content downloads/streaming in the new superfast speed tiers, particularly at peak times when servers providing the requested content are sharing bandwidth to potentially thousands of customers.  It certainly will make a huge difference in non-peak times, or other types of traffic such as peer-to-peer, gaming, etc.  So it depends on how you use the internet, and how many users you have in your household that would be using the service simultaneously.

One thing is certain.  Bandwidth requirements will continue to rise as new services and applications become available through the internet.  DOCSIS 3.0 positions WOW! and our esteemed customers for the future.

Until next time….

Just this past week, Sony and Samsung announced a joint initiative to develop common standards for active shutter glasses that would allow interchangeability between televisions made by different manufacturers.  Implicit in this idea would be the potential availability of glasses manufactured by third parties, potentially driving the cost of 3D technology down over time.  In a jointly prepared statement, the companies revealed:

“Panasonic Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sony Corporation and X6D Limited (XPAND 3D) today announced their intent to collaborate on the development of a new technology standard for consumer 3D active glasses, under the name, “Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative.”

“With this new agreement, the companies intend to work together on the development and licensing of radio frequency (RF) system 3D active glasses technology, including RF system protocols between consumer 3D active glasses and 3D displays such as televisions, personal computers, projectors and 3D theaters with XPAND active shutter glasses.

“The standardization will also include multiple types of infrared (IR) system protocols between 3D active glasses and 3D displays, ranging from the protocols jointly developed by Panasonic and XPAND 3D*, to the proprietary protocols of Samsung and Sony, respectively.”

In my opinion, this is good news for 3D fans.  Certainly anything that standardizes 3D technologies is a positive development, primarily because this standardization potentially lowers the cost of entry.

From a non-technical perspective however, 3D remains a wild card.  Sales rates for 3D televisions this past year have been 1% for the United Kingdom, 2% in Canada, and 5% in the United States.  This is not very encouraging from an industry perspective.  There is some question as to whether these low numbers are the result of “early adopters” holding off for price decreases similar to what happened with HDTV sets, or whether there is just a general lack of enthusiasm for the technology.

A recent study of 400 filmgoers by L Mark Carrier of California State University suggests that 3D technology does not allow viewers to experience more intense emotional reactions, more immersion, or any other potential advantages over their 2D counterparts.  Neither did viewers experience an enhanced ability to recall a film’s details.  Carrier’s study also suggested that watching films in 3D increased the risk of eyestrain, headache, or other vision trouble by a factor of 3.

“All other things being equal, I would say you’re increasing your chances of having some discomfort,” said Carrier at the America Psychological Association’s annual meeting on August 7th, 2011. “There aren’t going to be any benefits in terms of understanding the movie better or making the movie more meaningful, as far as we can tell,” he added.

This research potentially sheds light on why adoption rates for 3D have been so glacial.  I personally believe that another reason is simply that 3D should be an artistic tool for a gifted filmmaker to use with a light touch.  Implicit in that statement is the idea that not all films should use the technology–2D is the best choice for most of the quality content produced these days.  Simply shooting in 3D to get a short term financial hit from a theater release is a bad idea, and will backfire big time if the practice continues.  In fact, with one or two exceptions, 3D releases have not offered the box office boost producers were hoping for over the past 18 months or so.  It would be a shame if a potentially legitimate artistic tool would fall prey to misuse and overuse, souring a public already saturated in empty spectacle.

Until next time….

In an announcement made this afternoon, CableVision (another large cable player who had introduced a “TV Everywhere” service) and Viacom announced that they had settled this dispute to their mutual satisfaction.  In a joint statement, the companies said: “Viacom and Cablevision have agreed to resolve their pending litigation, and the Viacom programming will continue to appear on Cablevision’s Optimum Apps for iPad and other IP devices. In reaching the settlement agreement, Cablevision and Viacom were able to resolve the iPad matter and an unrelated business matter to their mutual satisfaction. Neither side is conceding its original legal position or will have further comment.”

Hmmm….wonder what that means.  At least one on line source opined that Viacom had indeed bowed to the legal opinion of Cablevision, but I’ve been unable to find any other corroboration of that possibility.

As I indicated in a previous post, the cat is out of the proverbial (technical) bag IMHO.  I do not believe that the content providers’ desire for more revenue based on screen size or portability is a sustainable model.

Case in point:

Several weeks ago I replaced one of my televisions with a Samsung 7000 series LED HDTV. Samsung calls it a “Smart TV”, and indeed, carries with it a full series of apps as well as a QWERTY remote and the ability to surf the net via its built in wifi.  Guess what else is part of the technology?  Yup…streaming all channels from the TV set to a second screen, the Samsung Galaxy tablet!  Now at present, there are some limitations on this paradigm if you are not using the built in digital QAM or ATSC tuners, but I suspect that it is only a matter of time before enterprising manufacturers increase the functionality of the app and extend the option to iOS devices as well as other screens using the Android OS.

The point is that this idea has consumer inertia that will push continued development of multiple screen access to content.  Try as they might, content providers have historically had little control over the consumer electronics industry generally, and I don’t believe that they will bear sway here either.

These developments in the industry should help the content providers realize that forcing distributors of content to pay additional freight for implementing elegant solutions to “TV Everywhere” makes little sense, and is not a sustainable business model.

Until next time…

I admit that I’m a selective TV viewer–part of this selectivity is that I seldom watch a program that isn’t in Hi-Def anymore.  Just can’t hardly bring myself to do it.  I relax that standard, obviously, as I enjoy some older content that didn’t have the benefit of HD technology when it was filmed, but even here, there are some pretty amazing HD transfers of older, film-based content.  The stuff that can’t be helped much is that which was shot  with analog standard-def video production techniques in the 70’s and 80’s.

Interestingly, video took a significant uptick in quality in the 90’s, driven by improvements in professional video gear that supported upwards of 540 scan lines.  Most of the video produced in the 20 years previous to that was between 240 and 300 scan lines–read: “not that great”.  These aforementioned production upgrades may have been as a result of anticipated demand for analog “Laserdisc” recordings that were offered to consumers in the 90’s.

Considered obsolete in this digital age, Laserdiscs looked pretty amazing on “enhanced definition” sets of the time.  Based on optical disc technology, the Laserdisc was, nonetheless, an analog format that had been refined to a “fare-thee-well”, and it still looks pretty good on present day HD sets, for that matter.  It was the pinnacle of analog-based consumer media.  I still have, though do not use, a Sony player and about 20 discs–big 12 inch diameter numbers that could be used as lethal weapons if thrown like a frisbee at an unsuspecting target.  DVD’s and Blu-ray are much more convenient–and safer

So as WOW! officially retires its analog lineup with the completion of the digital transition, I may put my LaserDisc collection up on ebay to celebrate.  I hope that you find a way to celebrate the new HD content and viewing options this transition enables.

Until next time….