Broadcast media/Video
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Half the fun of creating something new is coming up with a name for it. Vonosphere is the name of Jeff Pulver's latest initiative, which launched late last week while I was away on vacation. Some of it is old and some is new, and on the whole, it's good. Basically the Vonosphere is a portal for many of Jeff's communications vehicles - blogs, podcasts and VON Magazine. It's a nice form of brand extension for the VON franchise, and I think it's a great one-stop shop for anyone looking to connect with the IP communications community.
To learn more about what the Vonosphere is, editor Paul Kapustka explains. He's the Pulvermedia point man for all this, and is also one of the bloggers in Jeff's stable. My blog falls under this umbrella as well, plus I produce a weekly podcast about the Canadian IP market for the Pulvermedia Podcast Network, so by extension, I'm happy to see this come together.
Technorati tags: Vonosphere, Jon Arnold, Jeff Pulver
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on August 7th, 2006 with no comments.
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Just a quick update/clarification to my posting yesterday about SightSpeed's latest release.
I incorrectly stated that SightSpeed currently supports remote access and viewing from your PVR. Colleague, Jim Courtney, has a very good post about SightSpeed and his chat with Peter Csathy, and clarified a few things that I'd like to share. Jim is far more tech savvy than me, and I'm glad we chatted earlier today.
Basically, Jim pointed out that SightSpeed 5.0 will only support live TV from your cable connection right now. It won't work off a set top box, which means you can only access analog channels - not digital.
Furthermore, it will only be able to interface with your PVR when Windows Vista launches, which may not be until next year. So, it's not quite the Slingbox killer that it may appear - at least for now.
I have no doubt these hurdles will be passed - SightSpeed's quality is too good, and they look to have lots of really smart people who can figure these things out.
So, thanks for the update Jim, and hopefully I've set the record straight!
Technorati tags: video telephony, Jon Arnold, SightSpeed
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on July 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Yesterday, SightSpeed launched its latest release, 5.0. This is a really interesting company, and I've blogged about them before. The main news is how SightSpeed now enables you to access your PVR content or home TV signal from any broadband connection. So, it's like Slingbox, but with no hardware. It's very neat, and certainly makes video much more interesting for people on the go.
I've tried it a few times, and the quality is really great. Both audio and video are crystal clear, and there are hardly any delays in the imaging. You can see the other party - and yourself if you like - pretty much in real time. It makes for a very engaging experience, and after a while you totally forget about being on camera. It's also fun because you can move the camera around any time and you just keep talking. I was on with Peter Csathy yesterday - their CEO - for over an hour, and we took turns giving each other mini-guided tours of our offices. We looked at photos of each other's kids, the view from our windows, what's on our bookshelves, etc. Inane stuff like that, but it really takes the communications experience to a whole other level.
It doesn't take much to start dreaming up all the cool, fun things you can do. Oh, and the best part - it's free! How neat is that? Now, of course, they want you sign up to the $4.95/month plan - if you can afford it. Then you can make 2 minute video clips. So, with that plan, I could be giving you my 2 minute video blog, and I could start my own little Rocketboom. And of course, once this becomes your habit, you really won't have much need to go back to Skype or other VoIM services. You can just use SightSpeed for voice, and of course, cheap long distance for PSTN calling, just like Skype.
Well, I don't have the $4.95 plan, so the next best thing is to show you a picture. My oldest son, Max, was around, so he used my Nokia N90 to take this shot of Peter in full screen mode during our call. You can see the webcam in the upper left of the screen, and down in the bottom right corner you can see my image. And if you look closely, you can see Max being captured on video taking a picture of all this. Got that?
Peter commented how it was interesting to see how Skype announced its video features - Skype for Mac - with the Mac OS yesterday. Coincidence? It's pretty clear to Peter that the big players have Sightspeed on their radar now, and from all accounts, they have some catching up to do.
For a technical review, Tom Keating is the go-to guy for this release. Otherwise, Andy Abramson has a good summary of blogosphere coverage on his blog.
Hat tip to Alec Saunders for "The Sightspeed Guy" and his video clip summarizing what's new in this release. A bit corny, but a very user-friendly way to hear the basic story, especially if you haven't seen the news release.
Technorati tags: video telephony, Jon Arnold, SightSpeed
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on July 27th, 2006 with no comments.
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SightSpeed is an interesting company that I've become familiar with through Andy Abramson, who does PR and advisory work for them. They're doing industry-leading work in the area of PC-based video calling, and their upcoming release is going to take it much further with place shifting for TV. This sounds very promising, and for anyone who has been following Slingbox, it's hard not to get excited about the possibilities here.
I haven't experienced this first-hand yet, but am planning to next week. Until then, you'll have to get the scoop from uber-blogger cum Internet entrepreneur, Om Malik. Om has the story and he posted about it to his blog earlier today. As noted on his post, look for a more detailed analysis in the next day or so.
Technorati tags: SightSpeed, Jon Arnold, Place shifting, Om Malik, Andy Abramson
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Skype may be the gold standard for viral marketing in the world of IP communications, but this need not be the domain of startups and disruptors.
AT&T is trying their hand at this with the launch of their U-verse IPTV service in San Antonio. Blogging colleague Alan Weinkrantz reports that they're offering $300 to people who will host IPTV demos in their homes. You can read a more detailed account of how these demos are being done here. As Alan says, these are hi-tech Tupperware parties - classic grass roots, community-based marketing. I think it's a great way to go, especially in having the early adopters do the telling and selling - I'll bet they'll do a way better job than any call center agent ever could.
Last week I noted Alan's SAtechBLOG, which has a lot of content about his experiences with AT&T's launch. Regarding viral marketing, he has a really terrific posting, that you really should read. Alan is a very sharp PR/marketing/strategy guy, and he goes one better than AT&T, as he's been doing his own version of evangelizing U-verse. He offers a great critique of what AT&T is doing well with viral marketing, but more importantly, he notes several things they could be doing to make it even better.
The key takeaway for me is that you should NOT demo the service for your friends and neighbors. Give them the keys and let THEM drive the car. TV watching is a pretty personal and interactive experience, and the best way to sell people on IPTV is for them to see how easy it is to use and how they will notice a difference right away.
Technorati tags: IPTV, Jon Arnold, Alan Weinkrantz, AT&T
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on July 4th, 2006 with no comments.
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It's not often that Canada is ahead of the U.S. in the IP communications arena, especially when it comes to services and applications, but IPTV is a case in point.
Incredible as it seems, our two smallest ILECs - Manitoba Telecom and Saskatchewan Telecom - have each been offering variations of IPTV to consumers for a couple of years. These provinces each cover huge swaths of geography, but have relatively small populations - roughly a million people each. Despite this, MTS and Sasktel have been innovators on many fronts, and are touchstones for how North Americans are taking to IPTV.
Aside from the links to their offerings above, the current issue of Canadian Business magazine is a good point of reference to understand what the fuss is about. Each carrier has about 50,000 IPTV subscribers each, which is pretty decent penetration considering the population base. Short of doing some lookups with Statistics Canada, let's say there are 300,000 households in each province (on average, a HH has 3 or 4 people). That's a 17% market penetration. I'm sure AT&T or Verizon would take that any day.
The article is a good primer about why they're doing IPTV and the lessons learned along the way, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking to understand the realities of offering IPTV. The writer was good enough to cite me briefly, and I was happy to contribute to the story. I hope you like it.
I also find the article good timing in light of AT&T's formal IPTV launch of U-verse this week. It's available to 5,000 homes in the San Antonio area, and its much anticipated rollout across their footprint will really set the stage for a Triple Play showdown with the cabelcos. We're expecting the same here in Canada, as Telus is betting big on IPTV, and Bell has been testing with Microsoft for the longest time.
On a more human scale, fellow blogger Alan Weinkrantz - a San Antonio resident - has been trialing U-verse for some time. He's been sharing his experiences since mid-May in a separate blog called SAtechBLOG, and it's been getting a lot of attention, including coverage recently in the WSJ. Check it out!
Technorati tags: IPTV, Triple Play, Jon Arnold, Alan Weinkrantz
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on June 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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