Blog articles from 10/2010

It's good to see companies like Wyplay getting design wins in the digital television space. Broadband TV News reports that the company's software has been chosen to power Vodafone's new hybrid television service in Spain and Italy, and SFR in France has also chosen it for its new offering. Time was when networked "middleware" players such as Wyplay were relegated to a specific market, such as home NAS/media servers. Companies such as Rovi and PacketVideo ( Twonky ) have...

I had discussed some initial thoughts about Cisco ?mi™ telepresence in an earlier post, and I had mentioned that the high price of the equipment and monthly fee would be a large deterrent to mass-market acceptance. However, what about the broadband infrastructure required? If you read the requirements that Cisco has, it's a broadband upload speed of at least 1.5 Mbps to accomodate a 720p resolution, and 3.5 Mbps for 1080p. That got us thinking about the number of homes in the U.S. that...

Brett Sappington , Senior Reseach Analyst at Parks Associates will be presenting at the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA ). MoCA is hosting an interactive workshop being held at TelcoTV in Las Vegas, on Tuesday, November 9, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Speakers and case study presentations will feature pay TV operators and integrated service providers including Verizon, Comcast, Cox and DirecTV. Parks Associates will provide an overview of integrated service provider and...

I had talked about some of the recent announcements that point to the evolution of TV Everywehre services beyond authentication and online channel availability. The recent announcements (here and here) point to wider availability of premium content (TV shows and movies) on more connected devices. Although Verizon hasn't yet announced services that extend pay-TV offerings to devices such as connected game consoles or televisions, its Flex View feature is a start. It's a video store...

Western Digital announced WD Photos™ (photo), the newest release of its photo viewer app, which is now optimized for iPad™ and iPhone®4. Available as a free download from iTunes®, the WD Photos app provides remote access to photos stored on a WD network hard drive including My Book® World Edition™, My Book Live™ and WD ShareSpace™. The images are displayed in native iPad and iPhone resolution, and users can access up to 285,000 of their favorite photos anywhere they can...

Logitech unveiled its Google TV accessories today, centered on the Revue™ companion box. The additional products showcased include: * Logitech Mini Controller : a compact palm-sized keyboard/ touch pad/remote control combo. * Logitech TV Cam and Logitech Vid™ HD : Plugs into the Revue compansion box and allows HD video calls (up to 720p). * Logitech Google TV Apps: Logitech will offer two downloadable smartphone apps: the Logitech Harmony for iPhone and the...

Cisco has made its poorly-kept secret official - it has introduced Cisco ?mi™ telepresence , a consumer videoconferencing product and service. The product (which comes with an HD camera, a console, and a remote control) will cost $599 and there is a $24.99 monthly service. In addition to some high-profile positioning at Best Buy Magnolia Home Theatre stores, Cisco is also spending major marketing dollars in Q4, with positioning on the Oprah Winfrey show, new commercials with Juno...

The word from Light Reading comes that Comcast has made its XFINITY™ Home Security service available to the Houston market. This is another example of mobile and broadband service providers expanding their value-added services offerings into home, health, safety, energy, and security monitoring. What is the demand for home and health management solutions from broadband providers. In Customer Support in the Digital Home, we found 15% of consumers in U.S. broadband households...