Highlights from the 2009 WSTA Annual Convention. This edition of ViodiTV at WSTA was sponsored by Solarus and Central Cable Contractors. Highlights include Wisconsin PSC Commissioner Mark Meyer, Daniel Hardy and Judd Genda of Axley Brynelson, Gary Evans of Hiawatha Broadband, Jerry Wilke of RTG, Rob Riordan of Nsight, Andrew Walding of CellStream, Ann Anderson of Lemonweir Valley Tel, and Matt Eversmann of Freeman Phillips LLC. The video wraps up with bagels, brunch, golf, and fish. Check ViodiTV for full interviews with Jerry Wilke on femtocells, Rob Riordan on femtocell applications, Andrew Walding on Evolving TDM to IP, and Matt Eversmann on leadership. A special thanks to Margaret Hines of Inspire Marketing for assisting with interviews.
Posts Tagged cable
ViodiTV at WSTA 2009
May 26
Evolving TDM to IP
May 21
An interview with Andrew Walding, CellStream, at the WSTA 2009 Annual Convention. Andrew talks about moving from TDM voice to IP voice, and how we’re not really inventing a new wheel, but adapting it. We talk a bit on the flexibility of SIP and his favorite new application and gadget. ViodiTV at WSTA was sponsored by Solarus and Central Cable Contractors.
Rob Riordan, Nsight, talks about Femtocells. Margaret Hines – Inspire Marketing – interviews Rob at the WSTA 2009 Annual Convention for ViodiTV. Riordan suggests some innovative uses of femtocells, including as a sort of location detection device to remind teenagers to do their chores and homework when they arrive home from school. Beyond improving signal quality, femtocells could facilitate personalized advertisements. Riordan also discusses how femtocells combined with an IP backbone can extend wireless into applications for 1/10 the price of traditional methods. This edition was sponsored by Solarus and Central Cable Contractors.
Download from the ITA
Apr 28
Ben Mendelson, President of the Interactive Television Alliance, provides highlights from their press breakfast at NAB 2008. He speaks of some of the direct video to consumer plays, as well the OCAP efforts of cable television operators.
Introductory pricing for telecom services has caused this author extreme frustration. Warren Lee, President and CEO of NeoNova, explains how one cable operator gradually gets their customers to pay more for services they might not have ordered in the first place. The operator has something like an 88% retention rate of its customers using this technique. Lee also implores telcos to look at bundles as more than just speed and to shape bundles to meet customers’ lifestyles and needs.
ViodiTV at IP Possibilities 2008 is being brought to you by Entone. 
Broadcast quality video for less than $100, not quite. But, if you are looking for a low cost way to capture moments that would otherwise be lost because of the inconvenience of a larger video camcorder or the expense of a multi-purpose device, such as a cellphone, then the Pure Digital’s Flip Video Camera is for you. NOTE, the DISTORTED AUDIO seems to be a function of the camcorder and how close I was to the microphone.
The Flip Video camcorder is the source of the above videos. Unfortunately, one feature this camcorder does not seem to support is third-party editing programs. The above videos are unedited and don’t have the overlay graphics and other images that would help tell the story of this low-cost camcorder. Hopefully, the combination of videos and text below will give you an idea of what this camcorder is like.
Priced as low as $79, the Flip Video camera from Pure Digital makes it easy for anyone to capture video at a moment’s notice. The simplicity of this digital camcorder masks technology that, a few years ago would have cost thousands of dollars.
Video is recorded in 640×480 resolution, compressed via MPEG-4 and stored on integrated flash memory, which allows up to 30 minutes or 60 minutes of video depending upon the version.
A built-in microphone captures audio and works surprisingly well in terms of directionality and sensitivity. There is no adjustment for audio and in some of the video clips its sounds like it is clipping. Additionally, in high noise areas, such as a basketball game, it is definitely distorted.
The screen serves as a viewfinder and as a way of instantly reviewing your masterpieces. Simple up/down buttons are used for zooming up to two times. Playback is simple and instantaneous. Segments are easily deleted, essentially allowing editing while shooting. 
When it comes to getting the video and audio out of the device there are several ways, including standard Audio/Video via a supplied RCA adapter cable
Another option for reviewing your work is to have a one of Pure Digital’s retail partners create a DVD. The top port on the camera is reserved for Pure Digital’s retail partners that will create a DVD out of the files that reside on the Flip Video Camera
A USB 2.0 port, which conveniently flips out when needed, makes the device appear like another hard-drive when connected to a PC. Better yet, it receives power via the USB port, preserving battery life.
Two each, AA batteries are all that is required to power. We experienced about 1.5 to 2.5 hours or so of recording/viewing from the batteries that were included with the unit. The specification on the web site suggests approximately 2.5 hours.
One of the cool things is that it has a very simple to use video editing software built into the camera. It comes integrated with hooks to Grouper and YouTube (although I haven’t been able to upload directly to YouTube from the camcorder), making it extremely easy to show off your works of art on a public or private basis. Adding a video to the web is as easy as sending an email with the Flip Video camcorder. This makes for a very portable capture and editing machine (great for when you have to borrow a computer to make a deadline).
The built-in editor is very simple, however, and if you want to have multiple timelines fancy transitions and full 640×480 resolution, then you will have to transfer the files to your PC and edit using a traditional Non Linear Editor. Unfortunately, it did not work with the NLEs I tried (Adobe Premiere Pro, Premiere Elements, Vegas 6, 7 or 8). I spoke to a friend and he could not make it work with Apple’s iMovie.
Remembering that this camera often retails from $80 to $130, there are some inherent limitations. First, as mentioned above, it may not work with all non-linear editors. The audio is definitely not broadcast quality level, but for its application works well.
Because of the rigid nature of its USB connector, the unit doesn’t always plug into a PC’s existing USB port. In the case of my lap-top, I had to wedge some paper under the lap-top to get it to fit. The manual does suggest that a USB extender cable is sometimes necessary. These can be ordered from Pure Digital’s web site. 
There is no tripod fitting. Generally, this shouldn’t be an issue, as the way I envision most people using this is for short duration events and in locations where they might not otherwise want to bring a more expensive camera.
The screen itself is difficult to view in extremely bright, outdoor conditions. I envision a combination hood/holder that might take care of both the screen viewing and tripod issues.
The new and slightly more expensive ($149 to $179) Flip Ultra addresses most of these limitations, although I do not know if the Ultra supports traditional NLEs.
Overall, the limitations are minor for the value one gets with this camera. The reason to get this camera is its simplicity and the fact that you will capture things you wouldn’t have otherwise.
A recurring theme of the C-Scape Global Forum 2007 was the combination of technology and process change to accelerate innovation and growth. John Chambers used Cisco as a real-life example of how they have used technology and process change to increase the number of major initiatives it undertakes from two to nine or ten per year. Cisco’s vision is bigger than increasing corporate productivity, however, as they want to transform countries and the way people live. As Chamber puts it, there is a huge opportunity to increase the well-being of the 3 Billion people who live on less than two dollars per day.
Here is a video interview of long-time cable industry veteran and Cisco, Bob McIntyre - video courtesy of Cisco Systems
Chambers suggested that Time got it wrong when they called the person of the year ‘You’. He said what Web 2.0 is really about is the power of ‘We’. The social and collaborative effects of the network and web tools, like wikis, instant messaging and two-way video, are changing the way people work, live and play.
He cited Cisco’s own use of its TelePresence video conference solution as having a profound affect on the Cisco business. He indicated that decisions at Cisco are now made closer to where the action is, resulting in less of a top-down/command and control approach. He described how a trip to meet various Cisco executives, that took two weeks of intense traveling last year, could be accomplished this year in a couple of days using the TelePresence video conferencing solution.
Chambers demonstrated the TelePresence solution by moderating a virtual panel. The panelists were physically in
The most impressive thing was a couple of water bottles that appeared to be on John Chamber’s desk. Upon closer examination, it was clear that these bottles were not in the room where I was, but were half-way across the world on the speaker’s desk in
TelePresence, combined with Cisco’s acquisition of WebEx, Arroyo and Scientific Atlanta, are indications of Cisco’s transition to a new company; a company that combines networking, computing and software/applications to provide customers with much more flexible business models and the ability to form teams and projects on an ad-hoc, yet repeatable basis.
An example of Cisco’s effort in the media world is what Cisco calls, the ‘Entertainment Operating System’. Essentially, Cisco provides the entire infrastructure for a media company to create a Web 2.0 presence. A couple of customer examples for this Cisco solution include the web sites of
Although this is serious business and, to some extent, Cisco is betting a lot on the timing of market transitions, Cisco also has a sense of humor and theatrics. They created a mock Web 2.0 enabled company and acted it out on stage.
The premise was an employee of this company in a far-flung location posted a video on the company’s internal web site suggesting that solar powered, water filtration systems could be very useful for third-world rural areas. Using a combination of wiki, TelePresence, podcasts and video, a virtual team created and manufactured a cost-effective solar-powered, water filtration system.
When they were ready to test the system, dirty water was poured into the machine and clear water emerged. There was a bit of debate over who would drink the first glass of water. Finally, the person who was leading the demonstration pulled out a mock-pack of brightly covered sweetener, labeled ‘Cisco Web 2.0 Cool Aid’. It is nice to see a company with a sense of humor.
The vision Cisco paints is one where there computing cloud/software solutions will increasingly compete against companies like Microsoft and Google.
The vision Cisco paints is one where there computing cloud/software solutions will increasingly compete against companies like Microsoft and Google. If this vision is realized, Cisco will be more than the Internet’s plumbing, but also its water.
Tags: cisco, web 2.0, collaborative,
A high level overview of CableNEXT 2007 in Santa Clara with Roger Bindl and Ken Pyle. This 3 day conference featured a keynote speech by Tony Werner of Comcast who suggested that Cloud Computing could be a significant game changer.
Leslie Ellis provided wit and great insight as the moderator of the opening panel at CableNEXT. Unfortunately, she lost her voice in the process. Watch this video to see the Bob Dylan approach she took on another panel she moderated. For those of you who don’t know her, Leslie is cable technology analyst in a class all of her own. She serves as the bridge between the technology and marketing worlds in the cable industry.
