Recently in Video Hardware & Software Category

Arcosoft Inc., those same rascals that built 8 simultaneous video streams only Star Trek's Data could love, today announced the release of TeVeStream FrameSeeker. According to Arcosoft, "Surveillance video, such as those captured for security, paranormal investigation, and wildlife study, often contains many frames that are essentially static. Without FrameSeeker, a reviewer must spend many tedious hours watching the video completely to find interesting events. FrameSeeker reduces the effort by scanning for changes frame by frame. The search stops when a frame differs significantly from the previous."

If you have multiple roommates, now you can catch who's been stealing your Diet Coke from the fridge or capture those pesky spirits that are haunting your abode. If you believe in that sort of thing anyway.

In any event, according to Arcosoft, the sensitivity setting allows the detection of change such as something entering an area, or even a brief flash of light.

FrameSeeker runs on Windows Vista, XP, and 2003. Price is $99 USD, with an evaluation download available from www.TeVeStream.com

The HD DVD vs. Blue-Ray high-definition DVD format war is over. In case you missed it, Toshiba made a statement saying, "it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders." As a result, Amazon and other online retailers have been having a fire sale trying to offload the Toshiba HD DVD players. You can pick one up for $79 or less.

In a further humiliation, according to TechRadar.com, instead of being listed as HD DVD players, they are now being displayed as upscaling DVD players. You know, the ability to "upscale" standard DVDs to higher resolution - albeit not as good as HD DVD resolution, err. I mean Blue-ray resolution. After all, HD DVD is now dead.

The biggest winner in all this is obviously Sony. The biggest loser in the consumer. While standardizing on a single standard is good for the consumer, Toshiba's HD DVD format and the HD DVD players have been consistently much cheaper than Blue-ray players - $150 vs. $400. Consumers have been slow to adopt HD players not only because of the preceding format war, but also because of the expensive price-tag. Toshiba saw a surge of consumers buying their HD DVD players over the Christmas season because they dropped the price-tag. Sony has stuck to their guns by continuing to offer standalone Blue-ray players for a whopping $400.

I expect consumers to not rapidly adopt Blue-ray players unless Sony drops the price to less than $300. Even $299 might get more consumers to bite. I will say this though - you can buy a Blue-ray DVD player included within a Sony PlayStation 3 also for $400. If I do buy a Blue-ray player I might just buy a Sony PlayStation 3 instead since it's the same price as a standalone player and you get a ton more features, including obviously video games. So the second biggest loser in all this might just be Microsoft and their XBox 360 console. I expect there will be a lot of consumers like me that aren't heavy gamers but will buy a PlayStation 3 just to get the Blue-ray DVD player. No wonder Sony isn't lowering their price - their trying to shuffle people into buying a PS3.

Sony may have lost the VCR vs. Sony BetaMax analog video format war but 23 years later Sony won the more important high-definition digital format war. Well played Sony... Well played...

Oh and if you want to see the most popular / best selling Blue-ray movies, check this out.

Yesterday, I discussed some cool (free) video utilities for converting & downloading video on your Microsoft Media Center PC to your Microsoft Zune. Today, I just learned about another cool video application called MyNetflix for Vista Media Center. The plug-in's "Watch Now" streaming ability is perhaps the coolest feature. Simply using your Media Center remote control you can have the 10' experience of streaming Netflix movies on-demand from your sofa. I always have trouble returning my DVDs, so having the instant gratification of watching a Netflix movie on my 65" TV using my MCE remote control would be great. Other features include:

• View Netflix queue
• Browse movies
• View your history/recommendations
• Add/remove/move movies to your queue
• Browse “Watch now” movies
• Play “Watch now” movies

It says it's for Vista Media Center, but I wonder if it works with Microsoft Media Center Edition 2005, which I have on my home PC. Otherwise I might have to bit the bullet and upgrade my home PC to Vista to get this cool app. I've been dreading the upgrade since I'm not sure if al my drivers will work, especially the TV tuner card driver. In any case, you can download the free beta download here.

DVRMSToolbox For Vista 1.2.1.1 was just released. DVRMSToolbox is a very cool video converter utility for converting TV programs (in Microsoft DVR-MS format) on your Vista PC to .wmv for playback on the Zune video player. Even cooler it can auto-detect and strip out the commercials. With the proper profile setting it converts to a .wmv file with the proper settings such that the Zune software doesn't need to transcode the .wmv video file again (time-consuming). There's also a Windows XP version available that runs on Windows MCE 2005, the first version of Windows with Media Center Edition (MCE) built-in for capturing & playing bck TV programs, but that version is a little older. Looks like Vista is getting priority in development.

Relatedly, ZuneTVWatcher is another cool of software that also automatically converts DVD-MS and removes commericals and it sets the correct meta tags (TV, movies, etc). Encode360 is one of my favorite utilities for converting videos. I can rip a DVD into a single .VOB file and then use Encode360 to convert the .vob file to .wmv (with Zune bitrate settings) so I can sync it to my Zune. One final cool utility is dCut which lets you manually cut out commercials using the MCE remote control and then compress the DVD-MS format to .wmv, which can also have a profile set to download to a Zune.

Anyway, here's what's new in the latest version of DVRMSToolbox:

Along with the new features in bold below, a regression bug was fixed when writing meta data.

Version 1.2.1.1
- Key handling is only triggered while recorded tv is played back.  Should address sluggish UI issues.
- More attempts to detect playing file are made before giving up
- Addin will fall back to using Restart Manager if unable to detect the file using prefered method
- Changed wording on file can't be detected message to be more accurate given new detection method
- Waiting to process messages more descriptive
- Status writing is more timely
- Fixed a problem with DVR2WMV usage, should [finally] resolve hanging issues
- Added reprocess functionality to the addin (press 4 on the remote)
- Fixed meta data not available during recording issue
- Added FileName to meta data returned, will not be persisted in file
- Removed dependancy on Toub dll
- Removed m71 support
- Migrated all DirectShow code to use DirectShow.Net interfaces
- Fixed lost status messages when process ends quickly
- FindCommercials action waits one minute before scanning file.  
- Added ChangeRecordedDate action to MceActions.  Action sets record date to original air date; useful for series recordings on "Marathon" showings
- Added ChangeMCMetaData action to MceActions.  Alters meta data used by MC to display runtime slider none destructively (i.e. doesn't alter tracking ids); hopefully will allow spliced shows to be managed as series by MC for recording limits.
- OOTB mpeg "conversion" using DShow method deprecated
- Comskip 0.79.113 included and configured for live detection
- Added FixDvrmsDuration action
- Added resolution meta data attributes

Mork over at Trademork informed me about LG Electronics filing a patent filing a patent for FaceFon.

On January 29, 2008, electronics behemoth LG Electronics filed to protect the trademark FaceFon in relation to “telephones; videophones; cellular telephones; wireless local loop telephones; telephone handsets; computer telephony software (enables telephone activities to be performed through a computer); computer terminals”.

I'm going to assume from the name which sounds like "face phone" that this is some sort of face-to-face video phone. Even the two letter F's face each other with one of them backwards. And lest we forget, I wrote about the LG-Nortel Microsoft OCS phones here.

Here's a photo of the LG-Nortel 8540, which already sports a nice color LCD display, so adding video wouldn't be a stretch:


So my friends, is this (FaceFon) going to be another LG-Nortel phone for the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS) platform? Or is this going to be a SIP-compliant video phone that works on any SIP-compliant PBX? Or will this be tied specifically to Nortel PBX? So many questions, so little time...

I've been monitoring Worldgate Communications, makers of the cool looking Ojo videophone for the past several days. I received word that their service was down for a few days and I attempted to reach them, but got a general mailbox. I didn't leave a message, but instead waited to see how this would pan out.

Well, today, I learned that Worldgate is currently in a dispute with its largest customer over the payment of significant monies which the company believes are owed to it.

A Form 8-K was filed by Worldgate Communications claiming that its largest company has refused to pay. The 8-K states that the customer's refusal to pay such monies has contributed to a shortfall in the operating cash available to the Company to continue operations.

Accordingly, on January 30, 2008, the Company shut down its operations as a first step to winding down its business, which will occur if the Company is not able to secure payment of the monies believed to be owed and/or new financing. The Company continues to explore potential financing opportunities and is also pursuing legal recourse against the customer. Thus, bankruptcy may be coming shortly, which would be another black eye for the VoIP industry after Sunrocket ceased operations.

Worldgate would intend to resume operations if it can obtain financing or payment of the monies believed to be owed in a timely manner. Without such financing or the payment of monies believed to be owed, however, the Company will continue its plan to wind down the business.

It's too bad if Worldgate ceases, since this is one of the coolest looking video phones I've seen. Be a shame if these ended up in a landfill. I actually have a couple Ojos in the labs I've been meaning to test. I hooked up one and if I recall it has SIP settings, so in theory, someone like Packet8 could take over and provide service to existing Ojo customers. Packet8 is probably best suited for this, since they offer their own cool videophone.

Thanks to Sal Costello for the tip

Last week TMC held our very successful ITEXPO tradeshow covering various IP communications and contact center technologies. One thing we all need to keep in mind when it comes to voice over IP is that voice over IP is simply a dumb transport. What really gets customers excited and coming to various VoIP tradeshows is to learn about how they can leverage VoIP within their business processes, whether that's screenpop of customer data, remote agents using soft or hard phones, mobile phone capabilities, etc. Customers are looking to integrate all of their various communications - email, voice, CRM, etc. VoIP is definitely becoming less about saving on toll charges and more about the applications.

What's nice about this last ITEXPO was that it had a nice mix of IP communications companies and call center companies. Call centers are often at the forefront of communications technologies since they need to optimize their communications and make their agents as productive as possible. TMC's Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine is the premiere magazine discussing call center technologies and how VoIP is changing the game in the call center arena. So it certainly didn't hurt that CIS Magazine (through active promotion) helped bring call center companies and call center-related attendees to ITEXPO.

In any event, let me tell you what I found interesting at the show. One interesting company, and whom I know quite well, is Intuitive Voice Technology. I stopped by their booth at ITEXPO to check out their Asterisk-based Evolution PBX 3.0 platform. I like the Evolution PBX system a lot. It has some unique features that you won't find in any other Asterisk solution. At ITEXPO they were demoing the integration of Evolution PBX with a Citel Portico TVA gateway, which enables you to connect legacy digital phone handsets. Useful for instance if the receptionist has a legacy phone with lots of programmed extensions for quick transfers. Why buy a new expensive VoIP attendant console when the old one works just fine? You do pay about $139/port on the Citel gateways, but $139 is still cheaper than most VoIP phones, so there is some cost savings there.

Another cool feature in the Evolution PBX is that it supports call screening. Callers can be prompted for their name and then you can accept the call, send to voicemail, and I think they mentioned you can redirect to another number. I use call screening all the time since I get public relations pitches all day long. I wouldn't get anything done if I actually took every phone call. I inquired about the ability to screen a voice message being left and then 'pull' the caller out of voicemail if you deem it necessary. Similar to what you can do with most home answering machines. Evolution PBX doesn't currently have that capability. We discussed how the voicemail system in Asterisk v1.2 wasn't really designed for this level of customizing to add additional functionality. However, with Asterisk v1.4 the voicemail system has been revamped it is much easier to "hook" into the voicemail and develop powerful applications such as voicemail screening and pulling callers out of voicemail.

XORCOM is another interesting Asterisk-based solution called Astribank. I've nicknamed them the Analog Asterisk due to their main "claim to fame" of supporting the most analog trunks in a single Asterisk appliance. They support FXO & FXS ports, but they also support BRI (ISDN) and PRI as well. They actually leverage the USB channel to daisy-chain multiple appliances to add additional scalability. Neat idea! Astribank comes in two flavors - a compact chassis and a standard 1U 19" rackmount or wall mount chassis.

Now let me get off my Asterisk kick for a moment and tell you about MobileMax, one of the coolest mobile applications you've never heard of. I kept trying to stop by their booth, but every time I did their was several people talking to just a single guy manning the booth. It wasn't until the very final hour of the show that I was able to stop and check out MobileMax. First, let me point out that one of the main challenges when using Jajah, Rebtel, Talkster, and all the other mobile apps that aim to reduce costs is "usability". In some cases, you have to install an application, while in others you have to go to a web browser. In either case, you are forcing users to use another interface to initiate dialing. Why can't you simply dial a phone number and let the phone figure out the best way to dial and route the number?

Well, with MobileMax, you can do just that. Using MobileMax’s technology, mobile subscribers can dial international calls directly from their mobile handset — with no additional keystrokes and automatically enjoy reduced-rate services. Their solution allows end users to dial with their cell phones as they are used to through their address book or call log. Their application will then route the call to a specific access number on a PBX or IVR. The MobileMax client resides on the cell phone and will intercept your dial string based on pre-defined criteria such as destination number, caller location (in/out home country/home area code), connectivity (WiFi or 3G availability & quality), VoIP provider plan (QoS, termination cost), and more.

Perry Nalevka, Director of Business Development gave me a demo of the application in action. From his personal cell phone he initiated an outbound phone call like he would normally do. After pressing the Talk button, the phone call is initiated (said 'calling'), but a second later, the phone call was stopped in its tracks by the MobileMax application and then the call was placed through the MobileMax application. Service providers, pre-paid carriers, etc. using MobileMax can divert the call to their platform's access number, send the PIN tones and the required destination number. All of this is seamless to the mobile phone user. Currently, MobileMax supports over 300 mobile phone models.

Another interesting company I saw at ITEXPO was iKNOWWARE, a web-based on demand process management/CRM solution that can be accesses from PCs, PDAs, mobile, and VoIP telephony products. Just like your typical SaaS hosted CRM platform, iKNOWWARE includes contact management and case management, but they also integrate inventory control, order entry, and project management. They showed me how well their application works even on small mobile phone screens.

GVSC USA was demoing some cool VoIP/videophones in their booth, including the Leadtek BVP8882 videophone and the Leadtek NetWork Care Phone NCP3680 surveillance camera. They demonstrated how the BVP8882 could not only be used as a videophone, but it can be used to watch TV channels over the Internet and even remotely change the channel. Benny Shea, the President showed me how he was able to change the channel on a TV tuner located in South Korea. The quality was pretty good and it supports H.261 and H.262. The Leadtek NetWork Care Phone NCP3680 is a very thin camerphone designed to stick outside your door. It has a built-in speakerphone and two way audio plus one-way video, along with a one-touch button to initiate audio/video communication with a PC-based softphone application.

Here are the phones if curious.

Leadtek BVP8882 videophone

Leadtek NetWork Care Phone NCP3680

All in all, it was a great show and everyone was ecstatic with the attendance. I saw some other cool stuff like the new Adtran 706 and the Adtran 712, which marks Adtran's entry into the VoIP phone biz. The phones are SIP-based, feature PoE (Power over Ethernet), dual RJ45 network ports, and more. SmithOnVoIP took a photo (below) of the phones at ITEXPO and has some insights on these new phones worth checking out.

Improving upon their line of Squeezebox (& Transporter) music network devices, Logitech recently introduced the Squeezebox Duet.
The Squeezebox Duet sports a cool new remote controller with a full-color 2.4 inch LCD screen and a receiver that utilizes 802.11g WiFi. the Duet allows users to stream music from any computer to any room with an audio receiver, browse your music collection with full color album art, and even stream Internet radio stations. In addition to playing songs stored on your computer, you can also connect to online services such as Pandora and Rhapsody. Rich Tehrani came to me a couple of weeks ago looking for a device that streams Internet radio, and Pandora so he can work out and listen to music. At the time I couldn't think of anything, but the Squeezebox Duet sounds like it might fit the bill. (Rich also found Webot as a possible solution today)


I like how the multi-room controller with its scroll-wheel navigation makes it easy to browse, select, and play music. After registering the Squeezebox Duet’s receiver, users can use the receiver and remote control to browse Internet radio stations, and subscription-based music services, all while their PC is off. Your personal library of music can be also uploaded to the open-source SqueezeNetwork so that no computer is required for playback. You can also add an MP3tunes.com music locker and listen to your personal music collection without turning on your computer.

For multiple rooms, additional receivers can be added. Simply connect the Squeezebox Receiver to a stereo system or powered speakers. You can also set it up so it plays different music or is synced so that every room is playing the same music. Logitech stated that people already using the older Squeezebox (and Transporter) system, can purchase controllers and integrated into the network.

The beauty of the Logitech Squeezebox Duet network music system, is that music lovers can listen to their personal digital music collection, Internet radio and subscription services on their high-end home-entertainment system anywhere in their house where they have stereo equipment. The scroll-wheel controller also makes it easy to workout on your home treadmill, elliptical, etc. and change music on-the-fly like you would do with your iPod or other MP3 player. That was another one of Rich's features he was looking for - the ability to change music while working out.

My only complaint with this device is that although the remote controller has a full color LCD screen, it doesn't support video for watching streaming video content. What? No Video? (What no gravy?)



Now that would be killer! Logitech makes plenty of video products, including being the #1 web cam manufacturer, so it shouldn't be that hard. Get on it, will ya?

Squeezebox Duet Network Music System Feature overview:
- Unlimited access to digital music: Play songs from your personal collection, tune in to thousands of Internet radio stations, or connect to online services such as Pandora and Rhapsody.
- Multi-room controller: Browse, select and play songs — all from the palm of your hand. 2.4-inch color display, convenient scroll wheel, familiar menus and intuitive buttons make navigation easy.

Performance
- Unsurpassed sound quality: High-fidelity 24-bit DAC, sophisticated audio rendering technology, and digital outputs provide crystal clear CD-quality sound.
- Reliable connectivity: Wired ethernet and true 802.11G Wi-Fi support provide excellent range and connectivity.

The Squeezebox Duet Receiver
Building on the control and audio quality of the classic Squeezebox, the new compact wireless receiver easily fits in any room in the house. Expert engineering and sophisticated audio rendering technology helps provide enhanced sound clarity. Advanced 802.11g wireless technology eliminates the need to string wires everywhere just to listen to music from the computer. And Squeezebox owners who want to control multiple music sources all over the house can easily add more receivers, allowing them to listen to a different song in each room, or synchronize their receivers to hear the same tune throughout the house. Multiple receivers can all be controlled by one Squeezebox Duet Controller.

Pricing and Availability
The Logitech Squeezebox Duet network music system is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe beginning in January for a suggested retail price of $399.99 (U.S.). For people who want to set up additional rooms to play music, additional receivers can be purchased separately for a suggested retail price of $149.99 (U.S.). A stand-alone controller can be purchased for a suggested retail price of $299.99 (U.S.).

System Requirements

• Windows® 2000, Windows® XP, Windows Vista®
• Mac OS® X (10.3.5 or later)
• Linux/BSD/Solaris
• Ethernet or Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) home network
• Broadband Internet connection required

Technical Specifications Squeezebox™ Controller

• 2.4-inch color LCD TFT display with backlight
• Rechargeable Li-ion battery
• Built-in 802.11b/g wireless

Squeezebox™ Receiver

• Digital optical, coax, and analog connectors
• High-fidelity 24-bit Wolfson DAC
• Plays MP3, AAC, WMA, Ogg, FLAC, Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless, and WAV music files
• Built-in 802.11b/g wireless
• 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port
• Connects to SqueezeCenter™ software, providing access to music libraries on local computers
• Connects to SqueezeNetwork™ for access to Internet radio and online music services

There has been a lot of hype behind Flash VoIP, including Adobe's formerly top-secret Flash VoIP project, which Om Malik (get well soon) and I broke the story back in 2006. Other players have come along in that time, including Ribbit (covered here), Flashphone (covered here), PushCall, and Wengo. I've been very pro-Flash VoIP apps since the vast majority of PCs, Macs, PockePCs, Windows Mobile, and other operating systems all have Flash installed. This enables easy cross-platform VoIP calls simply by visiting a website with a Flash VoIP applet embedded. Flash applets automatically download in the background without requiring a separate installer or administrator rights.

The obvious question that came to my mind when I was thinking about embedded Flash VoIP applets is "what about Flash video conferencing applets that do both voice & video?" Imagine simply visiting a website, and initiating an ad-hoc videoconference with other visitors to that same site. I should mention that there already exists tons of Flash video applications used by popular sites such as YouTube and LiveLeak. The video codecs at least exist within the Flash player. Though, YouTube uses buffering that isn't real-time, so Flash-based videoconferencing would most likely use a different codec that performs better during real-time communication.

In any event, I knew it wouldn't be long before someone took Flash VoIP to the next level and offered Flash videoconferencing. Apparently, SightSpeed is the first company to do so with an announcement being made today. At CES SightSpeed will announce an easy-to-use, no-download version of its video chat service, called "SightSpeed Light," that will run on a variety of online social networks, including those based on Google's forthcoming OpenSocial platform. This has a lot of implications and possibilities for any type of social networking site, interactive blogs, dating sites, political sites, online forums, and more.

Imagine going to a very popular news article on NYTimes.com about Obama overtaking Hillary in the national polls. Naturally both Obama and Hillary supporters will visit this web page. The Flash application could allow for instant ad-hoc videoconferences between the web visitors to trash talk about Obama's recent surge. Obama supporters can gloat and Hillary supporters can point to why Obama doesn't have the experience to try and woo some Obama supporters to Hillary's side. Or the web page could simply create separate video chat rooms to keep the two sides from having a "videoconferencing flame war". I'm sure someone will come up with a slang term for that one. Having ad-hoc video conferences based on the specific article/web page would require large web sites with tons of visitors, but that's just one possible use of Flash videoconferencing. Websites could have "general" video chat rooms that are not specific to a particular webpage. Of course, online forums with a special interest (cars, sports, etc.) are an obvious good fit, as are dating sites where you want to have 1-on-1 video conversations.

Here's the press release:

SIGHTSPEED INTRODUCES VIDEO-CHAT WIDGET FOR OPENSOCIAL WEB SITES

"SightSpeed Light" Will Provide Simple, No-Download Version Entry Point to Award-Winning SightSpeed Services

Will Run on OpenSocial Sites Like MySpace, Salesforce.com, Hi5, LinkedIn, etc.

BERKELEY, Calif. - Jan. 7, 2008 - SightSpeed Inc., the leading provider of Internet video communications, has announced it is developing a new addition to its award-winning portfolio of services: an easy-to-use, no-download version of its video chat service, called "SightSpeed Light," that will run on a variety of online social networks, including those based on Google's forthcoming OpenSocial platform.

SightSpeed developers are creating the application using Adobe Flash, one of the most widely adopted multimedia viewing and creation tools, making SightSpeed Light simple to integrate on a variety of platforms and enhancing its accessibility and usability.

Furthermore, in anticipation of greater opportunities for cross-application collaboration through OpenSocial, SightSpeed is inviting other developers who are building new applications with Google's APIs to work with SightSpeed to create a fully immersed video experience within the applications they are developing.

SightSpeed Light will offer free video chat and integrated video mail between members of the same social network or anywhere on the Web. Because it's built entirely using Flash, SightSpeed Light will work on any computer through any standards-based Web browser, with no downloads or installation required. Chatting with friends using video-and recording and sending them video messages-will literally be one click away.

SightSpeed plans to implement SightSpeed Light on MySpace, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com, Plaxo, Orkut, Hi5 and many other OpenSocial social networking sites.

According to Google, OpenSocial is currently being developed in conjunction with members of the Web community. The project's ultimate goal is for any social Web site to be able to implement common APIs and host third-party social applications. As those APIs are released, SightSpeed Light will add them, as appropriate, to provide benefit to users.

"With SightSpeed Light, we're expanding our portfolio to make it easier than ever for people to get started with video chat or to send and receive video messages," said SightSpeed CEO Peter Csathy. "As growing numbers of people participate in online social-network sites, and with the proliferation of embedded webcams in PCs, Macs, mobile phones and other devices, video communications is quickly moving to the forefront of the social-networking experience. And because no one understands or delivers Internet-based video communications better than SightSpeed, you can expect that our widget-just like our other services-will raise the bar in terms of ease of use and overall performance."

SightSpeed Light joins the full range of video communication services from industry leader SightSpeed. Offering additional capabilities, the full-featured SightSpeed 6.0 delivers consumers best-in-class 30-frames-per-second video calling and high-quality video mail with a virtual inbox. Also available are VoIP-based phone service with phone-in and phone-out capability, custom click-to-call-me buttons, video community access with privacy features, unlimited text messaging and up to four-party video conferencing.

For the business user, SightSpeed now offers SightSpeed Business-the company's first business-focused videoconferencing service, providing a full suite of administrative and call-management options and collaboration tools that are essential for the business user. SightSpeed Business is the first high-quality, cost-effective and hardware-free videoconferencing solution accessible to every business.

All SightSpeed's award-winning services, including SightSpeed Light, are fully SIP-based and standards-compliant, which is essential for interoperability, security, stability and overall user flexibility and utility.

Today at CES, CopperGate Communications, a provider of home networking technology for triple play IPTV and MDU access over existing wiring, announced its CopperStream CG3210, the highest speed solution for networking entertainment data over existing coax and telephone wires. The CG3210 is the latest of CopperGate's HomePNA 3.1 compatible solutions and supports data rates of 320 Megabits per second enabling distribution of digital content in buildings and homes driven by emerging applications from satellite and telco service providers such as multi-room IPTV PVRs. Wow, with 320 Megabits per second, who needs fiber-to-the-home (FTTH)? Scratch that, since this is an in-home networking solution. You still need a fat pipe to the home. ADSL2+ is pretty impressive though using copper to get lots of bandwidth (25 Mbits/s) to the home.

I should point out that the CG3210 is double the rate of the previous CG3110 chipset which peaked at 160Mbps. CG is currently the sole supplier of HomePNA 3 chips. I should mention that AT&T Uverse uses CG and they are engaged with Alcatel, Microsoft, Motorola, Scientific Atlanta, and 2Wire. CopperGate claims to be the main supplier of chips for in-home connectivity.

"With millions of chipsets shipped, Coppergate has established the home networking standard for TelcoTV, said Gabi Hilevitz, CopperGate CEO. The CG3210 adds valuable capabilities to the CopperStream product line which is being deployed today by both large and small service providers worldwide for the distribution of IP services within the home and MDUs.

"With multiple HD streams and whole-home PVRs becoming a reality for commercial IPTV service, adequate bandwidth inside the home becomes critical", stated Gartner Research analyst, Van Baker. "The existing wiring inside the house is no longer just wiring; it is a high performance IP network critical to delivering differentiating features while driving down costs. Products are now required that deliver the high capacity and headroom needed by service providers for advanced applications."