Parks Associates supports TelcoTV 2009

Parks Associates supported, TelcoTV 2009 represents both the present and the future – today’s traditional video distribution model and tomorrow’s multiplatform ‘TV Everywhere’ future. Understanding how to implement today’s video business while planning and preparing for whatever the future may bring is paramount for long term success.

Sessions Highlighted:

Delivering on the Quality Promise: Internet Video on Your 50-inch HDTV (And Loving It)
Hear from innovative companies like Netflix and Roku who are leading the Internet video revolution

Entertainment Consumption: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Planning and preparing for the future of video entertainment is no trivial task. Get some help. Gain valuable insight into how this future is being shaped from our expert roundtable.

Programmers as Partners
Looking for ideas to market and promote your video services? Get some practical help from the likes of Disney, HGTV, Lifetime, and ESPN. Learn how these entertainment powerhouses can help you.

Taming the Streaming Monster
Is Internet video streaming slowing your broadband network to a crawl? Find out best practices for managing the growing Internet video streaming monster.

Broadband stimulus
The broadband stimulus program is set to have far reaching implications on the telcoTV community. Hear from our industry roundtable to get the latest insight into the program and its status.

Parks Associates supports Storage Visions Conference 2010

Parks Associates is supporting the Ninth Annual Storage Visions Conference (SV 2010) which will be held at the Riviera Hotel Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 5 - 6, 2010.

The Storage Visions Conference is the premier event bringing together digital storage oriented people from throughout the digital content creation, distribution and user value chain.

Dean Klein, Vice President of memory system development at Micron will give a keynote talk on The Organics of Solid State Drives.

The Storage Visions Conference is put on by the Entertainment Storage Alliance (www.EntertainmentStorage.Org).

Digital Music Forum West, supported by Parks Associates

Parks Associates is supporting the Digital Music Forum West event from October 7-8, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.

Digital Music Forum West brings together the top music, technology, and policy leaders for high-level discussions and debate, intimate meetings and unrivaled networking about the future of digital music.

For more information about this event, please click here.

Residential gateways and home networks to open new revenue streams for service providers

Service providers will see a quick return on investment and be able to build new profits through residential gateway (RG) deployments, which will account for over 50% of all global home networks by 2013, according to Connected Home: Global Outlook.

This new report from international research firm Parks Associates finds U.S. broadband households with a home network from their service provider show a spike in interest in enhanced services such as home network tech support, managed Internet security and parental controls, and online file backup.

Connected Home: Global Outlook analyzes the worldwide market for home network deployments from broadband service providers, including the role of the RG and related solutions in reducing operational expenses, increasing customer satisfaction, and expanding connected home value-added services and features.

For the full press release, visit newsroom.parksassociates.com

Parks Associates supports IPTV World Forum, Eastern Europe

Parks Associates is supporting the IPTV World Forum Eastern Europe in Prague, Czech Republic from October 20th to 21st.

This 2009 event in Prague will continue the IPTV World Forum Series pattern, giving visitors valuable insight into the plans, deployment and expansion strategies, technology choices, business models, marketing approaches and future considerations of many of the region's key players. The operator speakers are helping to make IPTV a reality in Eastern Europe, and they will be joined by a carefully selected group of commentators and experts in various fields of technology, business and content to provide a balanced show that covers the topics that are relevant to this region today.

For more information about this event, click here.

CE purchases low in first half of 2009, but consumer intentions higher for the second half

PCs and flat-screen TVs remain popular; netbooks starting to generate consumer interest

The recession continues to limit CE shopping, as nearly 50% of U.S. broadband households did not buy a CE product in the first half of 2009, according to Parks Associates’ Consumer Decision Process.

This ongoing service, which surveys consumers on their past purchases and future intentions for over 35 CE products, found consumers are still hesitant to buy, with fewer households overall buying CE than in 2007 and 2008.

The most popular purchases in the first half of 2009 were desktops, laptops, and LCD flat-screen TVs, with 14-17% of households buying these products. With 5% of households purchasing in the first half, netbooks are showing a strong market start. Intentions to purchase netbooks are fairly high for the second half of 2009; this new product category will be in over 10% of broadband households by New Year’s.

Parks Associates’ Consumer Decision Process service provides comprehensive tracking and analysis via multiple surveys throughout the year on consumer purchases, intentions, brands, brand loyalty over time, shopping processes, information sources, prices paid, future budgets, and triggers to purchase phases. The next survey will measure holiday shopping intentions of U.S. consumers.

Tricia Parks will present data and analysis from Consumer Decision Process at the upcoming Webcast “Year-end Outlook for Consumer Electronics Purchases.”

Defining the Connected Home

The connected home is a term used frequently but often defined ambiguously. For Parks Associates, the connected home is comprised of the following elements:

• Access services - including broadband, television, landline communications, and mobile services
• Content and value-added services that complement the core access services
• Devices that connect to these access services and each other, creating a network that can share content and resources throughout the home
• Consumer electronics manufacturers, the PC industry, pay-television service providers, and broadband providers are driving the development of the connected home, for obvious reasons, as the interplay of these elements expands the businesses for all these players.

Learn more about how Parks Associates categorizes the major business strategies involved in the connected home. Read the September Parks Points today.

CONNECTIONS Europe agenda: Connected Devices & Services

CONNECTIONS Europe will be held in Amsterdam on November 4 and covers the international landscape for connected devices and services with a European emphasis, including:

• Internet video and the TV experience
• Cloud computing and advanced TV and communications services
• Residential gateway or set-top box
• The impact of 3D TV
• The three-screen ecosystem
• The interface for online and user-generated content
• The companies best positioned to lead the connected home ecosystem

Attending CONNECTIONS Europe provides executives with networking and strategic planning opportunities.

• The development roadmap of the technologies and applications that will define the European and global digital lifestyle
• Identification of existing and emerging leaders in the connected home ecosystem
• Adoption and revenue forecasts of key connected device and service categories
• An examination of the business models which will drive the convergence in video and entertainment content and applications, online services, and communications.

HOMEPNA announces 1st Technology Summit

AT&T, Telefonica, Cisco, Motorola, and TELUS to Present on Leading IPTV Home Networking Standard

The HomePNA Alliance is hosting its first Technology Summit to be held September 30 and October 1, 2009 in Houston Texas. The Summit, which is also being promoted by the FTTH Council, will be co-located with the 2009 FTTH Conference & Expo. The Summit will focus on technical and business insights surrounding HomePNA technology and its role in enabling an advanced digital home experience for end users.

The Summit will feature speakers from among the world's largest service providers, including AT&T, Telefonica, YES, TELUS, Tata Sky and Bell Aliant who will discuss HomePNA's role in creating compelling and competitive home networking and IPTV product portfolios for their respective companies. At the Technology Summit, Cisco, Motorola, CopperGate Communications and other leaders will also give their perspectives on the technology that so many service providers have adopted due to its fast performance and rich features desired by service providers.

Parks Associates is a media sponsor of this event.

For more information, visit www.homepnasummit.com.

Parks Associates supports Social TV Forum, London

Parks Associates is a media partner for the Social TV Forum to be held September 28-29 in London.

This conference will examine the current state of social TV, the challenges in developing and implementing social TV experiences, and the future outlook of social TV. Understand the key trends during social TV - hear an up to date analysis on the current state of the market and how it continues to grow and attract new audiences. Learn about the integration of social networking into the TV and video value chain.

For more information about this event, click here.

CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES to focus on connected products and services and business strategies for 3D TV, advertising, and energy management

Parks Associates today released the preliminary agenda for CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES, which focuses on new business strategies for connected CE, service providers, 3D video, Smart Grid technologies, and other connected home solutions.

The international research firm will host this event on January 7, 2010, in the Las Vegas Convention Center, on the first day of 2010 International CES. Parks Associates’ expert analysts will moderate the Summit sessions, presenting consumer research on buying habits, purchase intentions, and interest in a variety of connected home solutions. The sessions also feature executives in the digital living markets, who will discuss the challenges of today’s business climate and the areas of service and innovation that fit best with the changing needs of households throughout the world.

Summit Sessions:
• Consumer Electronics Purchases: Are Consumers Back in the Buying Mood?
• The Connected TV – Displays and Beyond
• Service Provider Strategies for the Connected Home
• The Mobile Aspect of Unified Infotainment: Opportunities and Challenges
• Advances in Television Advertising
• Bringing the Smart Grid to the Smart Home
• 3D: Adding New Dimensions to Entertainment

For more information, visit www.connectionssummit.com.

Parks Associates is also hosting CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on November 4, 2009.

Parks Associates sponsors HomePNA Summit, Houston

Parks Associates is a supporting media sponsor for the HomePNA Summit in Houston, Texas. This event is co-located with the FTTH Conference and Expo from September 30 – October 1.

Broadband’s next frontier is within the home. Triple Play, IPTV, Whole-Home DVR, and new smart-home applications are creating endless opportunities for carriers and OEMs to boost profits and customer satisfaction. The HomePNA Summit will feature major carriers and OEMs who will explain ways to deploy best-in-class home networks and MDU solutions while cutting installation times and costs in half. Find out how Tier-1 and Tier-2 service providers have maximized the profitability of IPTV and in-home entertainment networks over existing wires.
Discover best practices from carriers who’ve been there, done that – profitably!

For more information about the HomePNA Summit, visit http://homepnasummit.com.

Electronic Systems Contractors diversify their services with green and retrofit opportunities

Majority expect sales drop to continue through 2009, expanding business in retrofit and energy management to compensate

The majority of U.S. home systems integrators, who have had average revenues fall almost 17% since 2007, are making adjustments to compensate for declines in new-home construction and consumer spending by diving into the green and retrofit markets according to Parks Associates’ Channel and Consumer Monitor and CEDIA.

Parks Associates conducts quarterly surveys of the home systems channel, including online surveys of integrators installing home controls, entertainment systems, and energy management solutions. The most recent report, based on a second-quarter 2009 survey, was conducted as a joint effort from Parks Associates and the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA).

Channel and Consumer Monitor reports that integrators, who have traditionally installed expensive control and entertainment systems in new homes, now get the majority of their revenues from retrofit jobs, which represents a major shift in this business sector.

The survey also found awareness of Smart Grid terms and technologies, such as smart meter and AMI, was low among installers, although almost one-third of integrators have installed some type of energy-monitoring system in the last year.

Results of the recent survey are only available to participants.

For the full press release, click here.