Recently in video Category

As stated previously, as telcos spend billions to deliver TelcoTV to the masses, the masses decided they don't want it.

The cellular companies want to deliver some kind of TV content exclusively to their uses. This makes no sense because these guys bitch a storm when you actually use your EVDO/High speed Internet card, but streaming video to my handset is fine? Schizophrenic much?

Also, these same companies - ATT and VZW - are building out telco TV networks and 4G networks. Can you say redundant billions?

Why they didn't just stick with the satellite TV partnership instead of their current play is beyond me. On top of all this fiber and VDSL deployment, there are head-ends, set-top boxes, ONT's, and disappointed customers everywhere. Plus they have to fight with cable for access rights to sports networks. Oh, and DirecTV and DISH have sweet DVR software. Others not so much.

But does it matter? No. Because people are moving to the Internet as their home entertainment network. Hulu, NetFlix, DirecTV, Joost, and so much more.

So it becomes a fight to be the best dumb pipe to the home - at an ever increasing customer acquisition cost due to a flat market that requires taking customers from each other. 

Here's the latest Report: TV Networks Should Be Afraid -- Very Afraid -- of Hulu. Even the TV Networks are in trouble. They will need exclusive content to keep viewers, because Content is still King.

At IT EXPO WEST I will be moderating a panel on Leveraging Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to Maximize Network Efficiency. Our panelists will be Zeugma Systems, Voxeo and Voxel dot Net.

While we hear discussions all the time about CDN, not many folks know what they are, how they are designed, or what it means to the customer experience.

The session description explains that "the network throughput has become the bottleneck in delivering high quality video. A variety of solutions to these challenges are being developed today, however, there's room for significant debate on which solutions are best."

We will be talking about CDN as a Network Optimizer and What the Business Models are for CDN beyond how it changes the Customer experience.

Join us Wednesday, 09/02/09 at 11:30-12:15pm for this discussion.

 Thanks to the Arkansas Democratic Gazette for the chart.

Despite a big drop in earnings and revenue for the first quarter 2009, Windstream still managed to buy some more lines and customers by snatching up D&E Comm.

D&E Communications is an ICP, an  integrated communications provider, offering residential Voice, Video, Broadband and On-Site Computer Support services as well as business-class Networking, Business Continuity, IT, Security, Voice and Training solutions. D&E is an ILEC and a CLEC.

This stock-and-cash deal (worth about $330M)  "nearly doubles the company's operating presence in Pennsylvania with the addition of approximately 165,000 access lines and about 44,000 high-speed Internet customers."  That's about $2000 per subscriber.

"D&E Communications generated $148 million in revenue and $64 million in operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) in the twelve months ended March 31, 2009."  So the buy is about 2x Annual Revenue for those hoping to play at home.

"The transaction also includes six wireless licenses for 700 MHz spectrum covering a population of approximately 1.3 million in central Pennsylvania," according to the press release. 

While Windstream isn't having a strong quarter with dipping revenue, it is doing okay selling Internet and TV. It passed 1 million high-speed Internet subs by adding net 31,000 this quarter. In addition, more than 21,000 digital TV customers were added, bringing the total TV count to about 295,000. "It also recently finalized an agreement with DISH Network to sell digital TV to Windstream's commercial customers, Gardner said."

 

We hear a lot about Unified Communications today. UC this and UC that. Even Cloud Telephony and UCaaS. It's kind of crazy.

The main buzz is around the savings from UC. If you have a distributed workforce, then Unifying on a Communications platform with a collaboration module can improve productivity.  "IT leaders argue the technology can help businesses increase productivity, cut costs and reduce their carbon footprint," according to a NetworldWorld article.

The productivity gains only come if the technology is easy to use, reliable, and intuitive. By intuitive, I mean, that unlike some CRM and telco software platforms, the software was created with the user in mind and doesn't require a lot of thinking on how to do something. It needs to be like WYSIWYG. "Getting people to change the way they work required his team to pay special attention to training," states Mike Close, CTO of Danone, from the same NW article. Danone rolled out a UC system globally.

Anything done by committee means it will be drawn out and frustrating. The current collaboration software I have seen are really just document sharing applications and some white boarding online.  Users need something like Bud Light's Drinkability and Drawing.  Maybe a desktop sharing app or white board where everyone can "take control".  But I digress.

UC's benefits come from a geographically dispersed workforce or a virtual office setting. It's similar with VoIP. If you are making a lot of in-state calls to other branches, the cost savings from VoIP diminish. When people are working on the same project but aren't in the same building or city, making progress is tricking because audio conference calls, IM/chat and email are one-dimensional. Video conferencing, webinars, document sharing, white boarding - all can lead to productive gains.  It isn't a monetary gain per se, but what company doesn't want to be more productive? Plus when you are getting stuff done, employees are more satisfied. No one likes being stuck on the perverbial treadmill.

The carbon footprint is a big issue today. All about Being Green. With video conferencing, especially tele-presence and UC, travel will shrink some. This has a tangible benefit in budget savings but don't discount the carbon footprint shrinkage. 

It looks like a lot of the UC hype is based on Productivity gains and time savings, not so much real actual dollars. Aspect rolled out Microsoft OCS globally and is seeing over $1M in real savings. (Read the story here). So there are real dollar benefits to UC if it is rolled out correctly with proper training.

What's the perfect VoIP Service?

I have seen so many VoIP Providers, I can't keep track. But that also means that the VoIP providers are not doing a very good job of Messaging, Positioning and Differentiating their offerings.

The only VoIP provider I know that has married Hosted Exchange with Broadsoft is Simple Signal. It makes to me because what is UM (unified messaging) but voicemail to email - everything in one box.

Unison Offers VoIP, E-Mail, IM to SMBs in New York City

Google Voice does it as well. One inbox for Gmail and Google Voice. And GV has some nice features like a transcript of your voicemail; recording calls;

Recently, I read that a company had instituted a who-is-calling-please response into every call before th ephone rings. I love this! No more dumb dialers. No more UNKNOWN or OUT OF AREA on the Caller ID.

Quick rant: I pay Verizon $22.35 for Worksmart which includes Caller ID, but most of the time it is Unknown. WTH? How does it not even known when AT&T calls me? Or almost any other CLEC? Lazy. That's why you are losing customers.

Presence (not to be confused with tele-presence) was supposed to integrate IM/chat, email, mobile and desktop phone. I haven't seen much of that in real world implementation. (I understand why, but I'm just pointing it out).  Skype does a decent job of video, voice or chat - plus recording.

Broadsoft has allowed many ITSP's to hook to SalesForce.com. Why not offer a hosted CRM software that is married to your PBX and email offering? VoIP is just one application.

• HD Voice
• conference-on-demand (web and video)
• call blocking
• Portal as easy as AT&T CallVantage
• call logs that can match up caller ID

Obvously, the usual features are still a must-have, including:

• simultaneous ring
• find-me-follow-me
• 3-way calling
• caller ID
• voicemail
• vm-to-email
• call forwarding
• Do Not Disturb

Chime in. I would love to hear from you:

• what you are doing
• who has the best message
• are you a cutting edge ITSP

UPDATE:
M5 announced that the marriage of the M5 Genband-based Hosted PBX with SalesForce.com and Call Metrics has been a hit.

The FCC assesses the competition in the video market on the same day that the FCC approves the acquisition of a de facto controlling interest in DIRECTV by Liberty Media Corp. and Liberty Entertainment Inc. (DA No. 09-780)

The FCC adopted a supplemental Notice of Inquiry to Congress On Video Competition for Years 2008 and 2009. The docket 07-269 can be commented on until 5/20/2009 (FCC No. 09-32).

At VoiceCon, Grandstream had some new SIP-based gadgets including the video telephony units that VidTel is using and video surveillance gear. As TMC's Erik Linask reports here, "The first products in the new line include one- and four-port video servers/encoders -- its GXV3501 and GXV3504 -- and an IP video camera -- the GXV3601.... All three products leverage Grandstream's experience with H.264 real-time video compression, providing clear video while optimizing bandwidth usage, and SIP-based VoIP technology for providing two-way audio and video streaming to mobile phones and desktop video phones."

But the other hardware surprise for me was Aastra's Clearspan. It's basically an Aastra branded version of Broadsoft on a blade server for enterprise. (One review here). Taqua is also reselling Broadsoft to smaller service providers but under the Broadsoft umbrella.

Meanwhile at CTIA, WiMax gadgets were launched, including the Nokia N810 tablet and the Samsung Mondi.WiMax gadgets WILL be key to WiMax actually taking off - although Nokia called WiMax BetaMax. I guess no one at Nokia knows that professional videographers and studios were using betamax up until the HD upgrade recently.  Anyway, if Sprint, Claerwire and others are going to get the most out of the billions in deployment money, there will need to be gadgets that consumers can use with WiMax (even at 3650 MHz). Why? Because handsets drive mobility - even if you define a handset as a Kindle or a mini-PC or other gadget.

This from Telephony online and the Convergence Consulting Group:

The latest in an annual study of the bundled services market shows US telecom service providers are losing wireline voice customers at a faster pace and being transformed in the process into companies that will look very different from their traditional telecom roots. The Battle for the American Couch Potato: Bundling, TV, Internet, Telephone, Wireless, released this week by the Convergence Consulting Group, shows maintaining a broadband connection is increasingly important to telecom providers, as wireline voice services become much less important.

If you look at the numbers in that PDF report and you still think that the QBPP is a viable option or that the last 400K businesses in the BellSouth region will somehow see the light and convert, I have some land for you in South Florida.

I have written about this in years past: the telcos have finally hit the wall. Everything is flat or down now: TV, wireline, cellular, and broadband. Granted most numbers are for residential, not business accounts which agents sell, but this will affect the entire telco business. Telco moved from the most profitable service - Voice - to Internet (the 2nd most profitable) - into TV, which is te least profitable. Why? Set-top boxes cost $400 per pop. How do you recoup that $5 per month rental? Most of the pricing goes straight to the content. You know, Disney and ESPN want their dough. Then there's the network upgrade for TV (and high-speed internet), which although VZT says is under $900 per home passed, the numbers I see are closer to $2000. Let's factor in the advertising. I get something almost everyday from VZ. At even $0.75 per mailer that's $15 per month. Times how many homes passed?  See how that may slow the telco engine? Plus MSO's moved from the least profitable service (TV) to the most profitable (Voice). And MSO's are getting into mobile data and maybe cellular voice with Sprint.

When you look at the summary from Convergence Consulting Group, it looks bleak.

• We estimate Cable's double play base of TV and Internet subscribers YE2008 at 61% (we forecast 79% YE2011). The RBOC/Telcos residential telephone to broadband overlap was 33% at YE2008 (we forecast 54% YE2011). Hence, it's easier for Cable to add voice customers off this overlap than for the RBOC/Telcos to add TV customers.
• 2008 RBOC/Telcos residential wireline telephone line loss was 10%.
• Wireless Substitution was responsible for about half the loss and Cable for the other half.
• We forecast Cable will have 23% of residential telephone subscribers by YE2009.
• We estimate wireless-only households at 20% at YE2008.
• Wireless annual subscriber additions continue to slow, 2008 saw 15.6M (2007 saw 22.4M) and we forecast 13.9M in 2009.
• Data continues to drive wireless ARPU growth (voice ARPU is declining). We forecast that price competition, which intensified in 2008, will continue to increase going forward.

Telcos are building out high-speed networks for TV and Internet, which is costing a bundle, at the same time that they are forklift upgrading the cellular networks to 4G. Have they even paid off the debt from constructing the 2.5G and 3G systems? Meanwhile, Charter is bankrupt and the rest of the MSO's have to upgrade to DOCSIS 3.0 while also constructing WiMAX networks. All while the ARPU is decreasing and the customer acquisition costs are increasing.

With these kinds of pressures on the RBOCs, imagine the pressure on the ILECs without a cellular division like QWEST, Embarq, Windstream, Frontier and Fairpoint. Landline losses that cannot be off-set by TV or cellular revenues. Yikes! Basically, the EarthLink strategy right? Cost cutting as the primary executive decision. Right out the knitting until its over.

Where do you think Agents come into that play? With losses, an easy cost cutting measure is to stop paying agent commissions. Think about your Channel Partners in 2009.

Now here's where a niche really pays off. 

"Rivulet Communications, whose technology enables flawless HD medical video on the hospital IP network, has raised an $11.5 million round from ATA Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Performance Equity Management and Scorpion Capital Partners... The company won several patents for its technologies, which include its wide-area network Internet Protocol quality of service technology in 2008. ... Its technology helps high priority network traffic avoid bottlenecks, speeding real-time traffic and maintaining video quality. It can be used on existing networks."[TechJournal South]

Tele-Presence and Video Conferencing and HD Voice are services on the growth path, but certainly HD Medical Video is a specialization.

8x8 tried the Granny Vid-Phone for a while. (Demo is here). At dinner at IT Expo, we were talking about Video Calling and Scott Wharton's name came up because he is rolling out video calling with VidTel.

A name that didn't come up was Nathan Stratton who is at BlinkMind. The BlinkMind service uses the Grandstream GXV3000 Video Phone, which VidTel also uses.

It will be interesting to see where this goes because of the upstream bandwidth necessary for video telephony to work well.

"Videl is initially providing a plug-and-play, out of the box videophone solution built around GrandStream's GXV3000 video phone - the phone supports SIP, H.264, bandwidth from 32 Kbps to 1 Mbps, has a 5.6 inch TFTP LCD screen and VGA camera. [FierceVoIP]

I have tried services like Oovoo and SightSpeed with some disappointment. They are actually half-duplex - only one side can talk at a time. The video is choppy even on my BrightHouse 7MBx1MB connection.  Maybe I expect more at this point in time.

I would like to point out that many, many VoIP services that overlay on a Broadband connection have jitter, latency, low-quality service. And that's just audio, so I don't know what video will be like.

Also, since Oovoo is free and so is Skype - both of which do not require a $200 handset nor a separate monthly service - I have to wonder about the viability of the business model. Making it stupid easy for people to use and understand would certainly go along way in adoption though.