Rapid decompression can cause complications. The rapid jump in video consumption that began a couple of years back took some service providers by surprise. What are the odds of another similar surprise? The exaflood Cisco has been talking about doesn’t qualify. That prediction is predicated largely on some prosaic assumptions: more people connected, all consuming […]
Transcoding: Presto Change-O!
Transcoders, those magical devices that transmute video from one format to another, are turning out to be the linchpins enabling many of the trends in video today – TV Everywhere, smartphones, tablets, content delivery networks – by ensuring that content can be quickly and inexpensively reformatted so that it can be delivered to any electronic […]
In Perspective – Big League Chew
Comcast is now a $50 billion company. Right after the Comcast-NBC Universal deal got final approval, for the first time in, like, forever, financial analysts publicly stated that a cable company might be undervalued. That’s Wall Street’s way of saying that the conditions the Federal Communications Commission imposed were inconsequential. Thus encouraged, Wall Street will […]
The Swiss Army Knife of Wireless
Once too unreliable to build a business upon, Wi-Fi technology is becoming an effective multi-purpose tool for service providers As recently as a year ago, “wireless broadband” meant cellular networks. But recent developments are making Wi-Fi an attractive option for everything from traditional hotspot networks to business-grade WLANs (wireless local area networks). Because Wi-Fi operates […]
The Party’s Over: The end of The Bandwidth Buffet
As the consumption of video on broadband accelerates, moving to consumption billing is the only option. Arguments over consumption billing and network neutrality flared up again this summer. The associative connector of the two issues is their technical underpinning: Consumption billing is based on the ability to measure, meter and/or monitor bits as they flow […]
IN PERSPECTIVE – Personalized Creepiness
Somewhere along the continuum, there’s a line. One of the benefits that derive from the ability to meter and measure network traffic is personalization. People will appreciate the opportunity to see what their usage patterns are so they can decide what package of bandwidth allowances, latency guarantees, services and applications best suit them – especially […]
The Greening of Cable
Saving energy is one thing, but there has to be an economic payback, and money – some in the cable industry are calling that combination. Rough estimates are that the cable industry is spending in excess of $1 billion a year on energy. Cable companies might be able to reduce their energy expenses by 10 […]
IN PERSPECTIVE – Actual News
I love this job. Not just horsing around: RFD-TV just ponied up $266,000 to buy Trigger, Roy Rogers’ late stuffed horse, at an auction at Christie’s. Rogers’ stuffed dog, Bullet, was also sold – for $35,000 – as was Dale Evans’ stuffed steed, Buttermilk – for $25,000. Rogers rode Trigger in some of his movies […]
Putting EBIF and Tru2way to the test
With so much manual testing, test automation becomes an issue Service providers are beginning to roll out EBIF and tru2way applications, but the pace, by necessity, is deliberate. There’s a whole lot of test activity that has to go on first to make sure that all of these various apps – program guides, interactive advertising, […]
In Perspective – How old are you?
You’re engineers Semiconductor companies are bitter competitors, and yet you’ll find engineers from Intel, Hynix, AMD, Samsung, Toshiba, Infineon, STMicroelectronics and more comfortably attending the same conventions and conferences. CE makers are bitter competitors, and yet you’ll find engineers from LG, Sharp, Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Thomson, Nokia and more comfortably attending the same conventions and […]