Multimedia content delivery platforms - Ericsson joins Cisco, Motorola, Nokia Siemens, and Alcatel-Lucent

If you're a video service provider, you're obviously looking at how to deliver multiple types of video formats (particularly IP) over multiple networks to numerous devices. And, if you're a video infrastructure player, you want to have a solution that can handle different formats, codecs, encoding, etc. We've known that Cisco and Motorola have been quite active in this space, with Cisco offering its Content Delivery System and Motorola pushing Medios. (By the way, ActiveVideo Networks is demonstrating its CloudTV platform in conjunction with the Cisco CDS architecture at IBC.) Nokia Siemens offers the Ubiquity Multiscreen Platform, and Alcatel-Lucent has the Velocix Digital Media Delivery Platform.

Now, Ericsson has an offering called the Media Delivery Network (MDN). MDN is a media-centric network that supports multi-channel TV, video on demand, and over-the-top video content from the same core infrastructure. It includes solutions for distribution and delivery, caching, storing, streaming, transcoding and the content management system (CMS). It also enables targeted advertising and fast channel changing across any platform to any screen.

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.

Updates from Sonos

The Sonos team sent out an update on their progress yesterday. From all counts, the business of selling high-quality multi-room networked audio systems is good for the company. Is the introduction of the Cisco Wireless Audio system a threat? Well, you have to admire the moxie of the Sonos team. They view Cisco's entry as "an opportunity to educate even more music lovers about the Sonos experience. With any nascent market, competition is a good thing as it exposes more consumers to a category."

Here are some interesting notes about Sonos' business:

• In 2008, Sonos had 25% YOY growth in zone registrations and over 32% YoY growth in new households. Not bad in down economy.
• 27% of Sonos households are using the Sonos Controller for iPhone. You think the rest of the CE industry isn't salivating in thinking about what the iPhone could bring to the control of their networked products?
• More than 60% of Sonos customers in the US are now using at least one music service with their Sonos. I would think that Best Buy would be awfully interested in carrying more networked audio systems if it could mean more Napster music sales and subscriptions.

Cisco gets into the building management space

On January 27, 2009, Cisco announced that it was acquiring a company that provides middleware to bridge between the IT and building management systems. Cisco says that the acquisition of Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence can allow IT systems - including servers, phones, Telepresence, digital signage, and networking equipment - to be managed in much the same way as security, HVAC, and other building management systems.

CNET reported yesterday that this acquisition plays into some strategies that Cisco already has underway in energy management as an IT application. Cisco has a solution called EnergyWise, which is software that can be added as a free upgrade to software is a free upgrade to Cisco Catalyst switches that can monitor and manage how energy is used on IP-connected devices, including phones and wireless routers. This summer Cisco will release a version, based on Verdiem's Surveyor PC management software, that reduces energy levels of PCs. With EnergyWise, a company can set policies on energy use, allowing PCs or networking equipment to go into sleep mode after work hours, for example.

The Richards-Zeta integration could provide some interesting features for large buildings or for large campus settings (Cisco's own huge campus will probably be the first beneficiary). I think that the tie-in to digital signage, where different meeting or conference rooms are centrally scheduled, can be quite useful. When the central calendar notes that Conference Room A is not scheduled for any meetings, the room can be set to an unoccupied mode, where lights are turned off, the temperature is adjusted accordingly, and so forth. I would think that colleges would be looking for an integrated system that could help manage both communications and building management infrastructure.

AT&T's ConnecTech - Tech Support

When people ask me about which particular segments of the digital lifestyle market will continue to grow despite our current economic conditions, one area that I continually point out are the digital home tech support services. These can include the retail-based services (best known by Geek Squad), the remote PC support space, warranty services, home network management software, security services (Symantec, McAfee, Radialpoint, F-Secure, etc.), remote management and residential gateway software providers (2Wire, Cisco, Jungo/NDS, etc.) and even pre-purchase/subscription advice services like Retrevo.

There was an interesting article in Smart Money this past week about the tech support market, with some pretty significant numbers provided. I estimate that the remote PC support business in 2008 was already $650 million - just in the U.S.! Others put Geek Squad's business at between $1 and $2 billion!

There are plenty of third-party services that are out there, but I'm really intrigued by what service providers can be doing to add value to basic broadband and television service offerings, increase customer satisfaction, and even build new revenue streams. We've written about the opportunities for service providers to take advantage of the digital home tech support space in several recent reports, notably Enabling Solutions for a Rich Broadband Experience and Networks in the Home: The Global Service Provider Play. We also had an interesting conversation at our CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES about the evolution of tech support services. Bill Stanley from Telcordia followed up that panel with some responses to additonal questions I asked about how they are working with the service provider industry.

What I find interesting about the way that service providers are approaching the tech support space is that vendors are telling me that their conversations have moved away from the folks who are in charge of the customer support call centers and to the people heading up marketing efforts. I think that this may provide a clue as to how these services are being positioned within the service provider community - more as revenue-generating services than cost-saving efforts. We shouldn't downplay the role that enhanced customer support tools are going to play in helping to reduce call center volume and costs - I think that OPEX savings are going to be a critical element to making the service provider business more efficient. On the other hand, I think that some forward-thinking service providers see a real opportunity to create some new businesses that focus on helping their subscribers deal with the complexities of the digital home.

Starting with BT's Home IT Advisor service, I'm seeing more telcos get into the business of deploying tech support services. The most recent offering is AT&T's ConnecTech service, which has been advertised heavily in Dallas - I seem to hear their radio commercial every morning on my drive to work. ConnecTech is aimed at consumers, whereas their Tech Support 360 provides support for small and medium businesses. Among the services offered ConnecTech are:

• PC and home network installation;
• Computer services and in-home support;
• Television and home theater set-up and consultation; and
• Phone and remote support.

Verizon also has Expert Care is a subscription-based ($14.99/month) service for PC support. They also have put together a number of "Protection Paks" that include insurance/replacement services for consumer electronics, phone, and other home equipment (in the case of a power surge, for example).

Verizon actually cites our numbers about the number of U.S. households that experience a PC-related problem in any given year - 41 million households experiencing issues with Internet security, 20 million+ having problems with home PC hardware and software, etc. Those figures were generated in our 2006 survey Managing the Digital Home: Installation and Support Services. We are about to go to field with our next study on consumers and technical support services: Customer Support in the Digital Home. I'm really interested to see what the consumer demand is for a variety of tech support services.

Cisco taking on Sonos?

I had mentioned Cisco's emphasis on the consumer market at the C-Scape event. I will say that one disappointment from the event was a lack of news regarding what the Scientific-Atlanta side of the business is doing. It seemed like Cisco talked headend, edge, and consumer retail products more than anything else and left out any real discussion on service provider CPE trends. Maybe they'll rectify that at CES.

According to a couple of news articles today, the first iteration of Cisco's consumer entertainment strategy will be a multi-room wireless music system. I had the chance to see this at C-Scape, and it is a nicely-designed system. Obviously, Cisco's goals are to get more bits and bytes of data and video through networks, so this is definitely a foundational solution for some future efforts aimed at getting more products network-connected and accessing content stored locally inside the home and distributed over a variety of access networks.

Cisco Pushing Resources on the Consumer Market

Cisco's CEO John Chambers made some interesting comments in his remarks to the C-Scape event yesterday. He talked about building operational excellence and efficiencies internally, using tools such as WebEx, TelePresence, and a Facebook-like application where Cisco employees can connect to company experts, read materials, and connect to teams for collaboration.

One interesting comment that Chambers made was the company's push to the consumer market. He talked about freeing up resources that can then be used by groups at Cisco focusing on service providers, media companies, and consumer electronics manufacturers. I would expect that we'll see much more from Cisco at CES in January that lays out these specific strategies.

Parks Associates adds value to TelcoTV with research workshop

Parks Associates will be hosting the workshop Business Cases for Emerging Video Services at TelcoTV 2008 on November 11. TelcoTV, November 11-13, the Anaheim Convention Center, is the premier event for the exploration of a comprehensive entertainment convergence strategy.

The workshop addresses the business case for emerging video services, including multichannel television and broadband video. Parks Associates forecasts that by 2012, almost 33 million U.S. households will have broadband services capable of streaming high-definition video. This finding adds new dimensions to the television services market, which grew to over 800 million households worldwide in 2007. Telco/IPTV services in particular jumped to more than 13 million households in 2007.

Presenters:
Jayant Dasari, Parks Associates
Kurt Scherf, Parks Associates

Sessions:
Building a Compelling Television Service
Broadband Video: To the TV and Beyond
How the Internet Meets the Television
The Business Case for Advanced Advertising Features
Building the Interactive Advertising Business Case

Speakers:
Nimrod Ben-Natan, Harmonic
Steve Borelli, Integra5
Jonathan Bokor, TANDBERG Television
Matt Cannard, Widevine Technologies
Brian Donnelly, Icron Technologies
Jason Harvey, ActiveVideo Networks
Leszek Izdebski, Cisco Systems
Howard Rubin, SeaChange International
Paula Suthern, Ensequence
Adam Tom, RGB Networks

Attendees receive information about the competitive environment for television services, insight into video trends and advertising business models, and consumer data on use cases and preferences.

During TelcoTV, Kurt Scherf is moderating the session Integrating the Social Network Experience: Fad or reality? on Wednesday, November 12, from 4:30-5:30 p.m.