March 2005 – Page 8 – Digital-Lifestyles

Digital TV Grows In Europe, DTTV And IPTV Flourish: Reports Strategy Analytics

Digital TV Grows In Europe As More Consumers Adopt DTTV And IPTV Platforms Digital television continued to grow in Europe last year, according to a Strategy Analytics’ survey of more than 70 digital television operators across 16 countries.

The analysts say 25.7 percent of Europe’s TV households, acquired digital television by the end of 2004, up from 21.1 percent during 2003, with credit for the success down to services such as DTTV (Digital Terrestrial television) and IPTV (Internet Protocol television).

“The arrival of successful DTTV and IPTV services is shaking up the established digital television market,” says Martin Olausson, Senior Analyst. “New business models such as free-to-air and bundled services will add further impetus to market growth.”

According to the market research, Europe’s DTTV operators – such as the UK’s FreeView and Germany’s free-to-air broadcasters – added a hefty 4.4 million subscribers during 2004.

Meanwhile, providers of IPTV – such as France’s Free and Italy’s Fastweb – boosted their user base by 450,000.

All the signs are that DTTV will continue to grow rapidly as more countries establish services, with a predicted user base of 42.2 million households by 2010.

IPTV is expected to have become an established fourth digital platform by that time, with an estimated 11.3 million subscribers.

Satellite is still the numero uno digital television platform in Europe, reaching 25.0 million households at the end of 2004, with further growth expected with new services such as HDTV.

Cable put in an unexpectedly solid performance, registering the best user uptake for three years, adding1.2 million new digital subscribers. Strong growth is predicted, as penetration is still low with only 16 percent of all cable subscribers currently taking a digital service.

Strategy Analytics

ASA Reports Bulldog DSL Not “The Ultimate Broadband Experience”

ASA Reports On Broadband Advert By Bulldog The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has dished out a mixed ruling on a complaint about claims made by Bulldog (owned by Cable & Wireless) for its 4Mbps broadband service.

Three complaints were made, but only in one instance was the complaint upheld. The challenged statements were:

“the ultimate broadband experience”
“the peak of speed”
“makes other broadband services look like dial-up”.

The ASA ruled that Bulldog’s claim that it offered the ‘ultimate broadband experience’ was misleading, but conceded that Bulldog was entitled to say it offered ‘the peak of speed’ and that it ‘makes other broadband services look like dial-up’ – at the time of the advert.

The company’s online promotion, run last summer, bigged up their services like Mohammed Ali in a boasting mood: ‘It’s the ultimate broadband experience. Makes other broadband services look like dial-up. … Bulldog 4 gives customers in central London the peak of speed and value.’

The ASA ruled that, at the time, it was not accurate to say that the service was the ultimate broadband experience, although it was the fastest available and Bulldog had been named Best Consumer Broadband ISP 2004 in the industry’s awards.

Bulldog seems to have become unstuck by the success of their own advertising, with customers instantly clambering for a piece of the ‘ultimate broadband experience’.

The rapid increase in customer numbers following the launch of the service significantly affected service quality, and complaints started to roll in.

The ASA ruled: ‘the severe customer service difficulties that all Bulldog customers had experienced after the appearance of the online advertisement and the significantly reduced speeds some Bulldog 4 customers had experienced meant the claim that the advertiser’s service offered “the ultimate broadband experience” was likely to mislead.’

Interestingly, the ASA said that much of the evidence for the poor service had come from Web forum discussions – and they confirm that this is the first time they’ve used this type of input.

Despite all the online moaning and service difficulties, the ASA ruled that Bulldog was still entitled to say that its service offered ‘the peak of broadband speeds’, as ‘many Bulldog 4 customers had benefited from the full speed 4Mbps service.’

The ASA concluded that, ‘because the advertisers were able to offer 4Mbps broadband, which was the fastest home broadband service available at the time, the advertisement appeared, the claim was justified.’

How times have changed. From August to 8Mbit from UK online.

The ASA also agreed with Bulldog’s assessment that, ‘if the starting point for broadband was 512kbps, it was approximately 10 times the speed of standard dial-up; the Bulldog 4Mbps connection was eight times the speed of a 512kbps connection’.

In other words, it agreed that that it was fair to say that Bulldog 4 made other broadband services ‘look like dial-up’.

The ASA continued with this Olympic-length sentence (take a deep breath before proceeding):

The Authority acknowledged the claim was likely to be seen by consumers as an expression of the advertisers” opinion about their services, but nevertheless considered that the severe customer service difficulties that all Bulldog customers had experienced after the appearance of the online advertisement and the significantly reduced speeds some Bulldog 4 customers had experienced meant the claim that the advertisers” service offered “the ultimate broadband experience” was likely to mislead.

The Authority asked the advertisers not to promise a service standard that could not be provided in future advertisements.

The lessons to be learnt for both Bulldog and other ISPs is that you’ve got to be able to walk the talk and ensure that you have the resources to cope with the results of your advertising campaigns.

Bulldog Broadband

3G Networks Still Missing Compelling Content – Pt 1

3G Network Providers Look To Provide New Compelling Content After a shaky start, the 3G bandwagon is finally starting to roll with 20 million 3G phones sold last year and shedloads of new funky, feature-packed phones on the way.

As more people buy into the 3G lifestyle, the demand for quality content rises, with network owners scrambling to produce competition-crushing downloads. Broadcast magazine has a thorough report by Peter Keighron into this subject (reg.req.), which finds that there still something missing in the content area.

“Content is not as compelling as it ought to be,” says BBC Broadcast head of business development Tanya Price, “it doesn’t seem to be translating with the splash it ought to be.”

What the business is crying out for is new ideas. Fun ideas. Fab ideas. In fact, any idea will do, just so long as it keeps people reaching for the ‘download now’ key.

3G Network Providers Look To Provide New Compelling Content “We’re very much at the foothills regarding content on mobiles,” says Price. “Now we’re going to have to be a bit more experimental and different. The network owners are looking for something that pushes the boundaries a bit more and gives them more of a reason to develop content off the back of existing [brands] or to think about commissioning new content.”

In a land noted for its creative industries, it may seem unusual that 3G phones aren’t buzzing with creative ideas and cutting edge content, but it seems that the problem lies with the industry itself.

The mobile industry is run by the phone manufacturers and, most importantly, the big five UK network owners – 3, Orange, O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

These are the fellas who commission mobile content and they’ve got two aims in mind: drive up sales of their phones and get more subscriptions to their network.

3G Network Providers Look To Provide New Compelling Content Right now, they’re not interested in arty-farty experimental stuff, out-there comedy or ‘genre-challenging’ downloads: they want straight down-the-line popular content that will shift phones and entice new subscribers by the bucketload.

And if that wasn’t limiting enough for Hoxton-fin toting ‘creatives’ (Nathan Barley anyone?), the network controllers all want content exclusive to their own network.

As a result, commissioning editors have to come up with stuff that not only pleases the marketing department, but, fits in with the company’s rigid marketing and product strategy.

3G Network Providers Look To Provide New Compelling Content The end result is a predictable but unit-shifting fare of footie, ringtones, horoscopes, weather and the like.

But amongst all the corporate drudge, there are signs that some innovation is coming to the 3G platform, with the network owners showing an interest in something that utilizes the potential of the platform.

We’ll be exploring the developments in the next part of this feature.

Sky Drops Microsoft Windows Media For MPEG-4 On HDTV

Sky Drops Microsoft Windows Media For MPEG-4 On HDTV Sky has for quite a long time been evaluating the best CoDEC for their High-Definition TV (HDTV) service. They currently deliver their content using an MPEG-2, which given the extra bandwidth that HD requires would make the demand on satellite bandwidth too high.

To address this, they have been evaluating new forms of video compression. The two final runners have been Microsoft’s Windows Media format, and MPEG-4.

We learnt today that they have made their decision – they’re dropped Microsoft’s Windows Media format and running with MPEG4.

Richard Freudenstein, COO of BSkyB used his speech at DVB World to talk about Sky’s HDTV service. The general points have been covered in other publications, like Digital Spy.

We were a little surprised that Sky announced that HD content would be deliverable to ‘normal’, ie Standard Definition (SD) TVs. Up to this point we’d always thought that Sky’s HD content would only stay in HDMI/HDCP world (ie the content would be encrypted until it hit your eyeballs).

We dug a little deeper with Sky to find out more.

Content that’s watched/recorded on the Sky HD service _will_ be recordable, but in Standard Definition. This will be delivered over RGB or RF (standard aerial cable), so recordable on current DVD/VHS recorders.

There will be an HD output, via component. This will not be the full HD resolution, but down sampled (our words, definitely not Sky’s. They refused to use those words).

This doesn’t necessarily apply to Pay Per View (PPV) content.

When we asked about the recording of full resolution of HDTV, Sky tried to initially bounce the question with “HD-DVD recorders are not available so the question does not arise”. Well I’m sure you know they’re currently sold in Japan and they are within reach in the UK, especially by the time the Sky HD service is launched.

When we dug further, we were told that as specs of the HD DVD recorders that would be available in the UK were unknown, no definitive answer could be given. If you know differently, please get in touch.

Sky

Silicon Image: HDMI First To Computers

Silicon Image Enables PC/CE Convergence With HDMI Interface Silicon Image has introduced its new Sil 1390 and 1920 transmitters, chip-based platforms capable of transmitting Intel’s SDVO (Serial Digital Video Output) and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), respectively.

HDMI is being pushed by the content industry as the ‘upgrade’ of DVI (Digital Visual Interface). Sure, HDMI offer a few more features, like integrating eight-channel Audio and HD Video carried on a single cable, and acting as a conduit to pass remote control signals around, but the main reason for enthusiastic support is HDCP.

In this ever expanding lexicon, why is HDCP important? High-Definition Content Protection keeps digital video and audio encrypted through out the digital distribution chain, up to the point it hits your eyeballs and ears. This is to stop the naughty people that might want to save the content they’re paying for (heaven forbid).

Capitalising on growing sales of Media Center PCs and the growing availability of High Definition content for PC platforms, Silicon Image’s new series of HDMI transmitters targeted at PCs are the first integrated solution designed to interface directly to the video and audio interfaces of PC platforms. Out of interest, Silicon Image is one of the founders of the HDMI standard.

Silicon Image has also introduced the SiI 1368, billed as (take a deep breath, folks) the industry’s first Digital Visual Interface High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (DVI-HDCP) transmitter designed for PCI-Express graphics chipsets supporting Intel’s Serial Digital Video Output (SDVO) interface.

All three transmitters support the full 25-165 MHz HDMI and DVI bandwidth. The SiI 1390 and SiI 1930 transmitters also support a wide variety of audio interfaces-including HD-Audio, SPDIF and three I2S channels-to ensure compatibility with a broad range of PC audio hardware platforms.

“As PC users gain access to HD content, secure content delivery on PC platforms will be an important issue,” said Neerav Shah, president of Digital Content Protection, LLC, the licensor of HDCP.

“HDCP already has the support of content providers in the consumer electronics market and has emerged as an important technology in enabling consumers to access HD content.

We expect HDCP will similarly become a requirement on PC platforms capable of receiving and playing HD content. As a contributor to the HDCP specification and having developed HDCP test protocols for its PanelLink Cinema Partners test center, Silicon Image can help enable PC platforms to access the growing volume of HD content.

With the availability of new HD content and the popularity of Microsoft’s Windows Media Center Edition (with integrated HDTV support), the market for entertainment PCs is projected to grow from 7.9 million in 2004 to 59 million in 2008.

Silicon Image Enables PC/CE Convergence With HDMI Interface You may think, “what do we need another effing’ cable for?” but with more HD content becoming available, the PC market will require PCs to support HDMI or DVI with HDCP in order to access this content.

With its single cable coupling multi-channel audio and uncompressed HD video and small connector, HDMI is poised to become the de facto multimedia interface for both PCs and consumer electronics devices-enabling PCs with true entertainment and multimedia functionality.

“All the signs indicate that 2005 will mark the year HDMI gains a foothold in PC platforms,” stated Joe Lee, Silicon Image director of product marketing, PC and display products.

“Our family of new HDMI products for the PC supports our corporate strategy of enabling secure delivery of digital content on any and all platforms, including Windows Media Center and other Intel architected desktop PCs, notebooks, set-top boxes and media adapters.”

Silicon Image, HDMI Standards
Silicon Image Press Release
hdmi.org

Broadreach Offers Free Wi-Fi Access For UK Skype Calls

Broadreach Offers Free Wi-Fi Access For UK Skype Calls Skype has announced a new partnership with Broadreach Networks which is giving UK Skype users free Wi-Fi access to make free Skype calls in 350 Internet locations across the UK.

The deal will give Skype users free access to Broadreach’s ReadytoSurf network of locations, which include Virgin Megastores, Eurostar, Travelodge, Moto, Little Chef, Virgin Trains, EAT, Choice Hotels and Quality Inn and major railway stations including all the London terminals.

Now, we know what you’re thinking. There must be a catch.

Well, dear reader, we’re delighted to tell you that there is no catch. There is no cost, no sign up, no catches – just lots of lovely free wireless Skype access!

So has Broadreach gone mad in a fit of anti-capitalist yogurt-weaving altruism, or is there sound business reasoning behind this act of philanthropy?

Not unexpectedly, it’s the latter, with Skype founder Niklas Zennström describing it as a “win-win-win deal”, with Skype, the user and Broadreach all ending up as happy bunnies.

Skype increases their coverage, Broadreach gains market awareness (with the prospect of consumers upgrading to their data services) and the user gets lots of lovely free phone calls. A right synergetic result!

Here’s what Zennström said to Digital-Lifestyles friend, Guy Kewney at newswireless.net about the deal:

“What we are doing today is in line with what we were talking about when we announced our deal with iMate.

Part of what we want to do is make Skype more available. The growth on computers, however… it’s just part.

Broadreach Offers Free Wi-Fi Access For UK Skype Calls For Skype to be really useful for end-users, you have to be able to use it when you are out, and in more and more places. Combination of WiFi and Skype is a good synergy; make free wireless calls.”

Using the free service is simplicity itself – the user simply switches on their notebook or PDA with Skype running, and waits until the Skype window shows the list of contacts, and then you’re off!

If the user hasn’t already got Skype installed, they’ll be able to log onto Skype.com and download the appropriate software without charge.

Of course, Broadreach are banking on Skype users also buying into their data services, perhaps to send emails or attachments with their calls.

Either way, this announcement is great news for freeloading Skype users and sends out a clear message that VoIP is going to be big news in the UK.

Broadreach ReadytoSurf
Skype

Diffusion Group Report: Media Servers, Digital Media Adapters Reborn In Converged Platforms

Stand-Alone Media Servers And Digital Media Adapters Reborn In Converged Platforms Evidence is beginning to amass that two of the most hyped products in the early digital home market will be lucky if they manage to reach niche market status in the next few years.

Not so long ago, people were getting very excited by media servers and digital media adapters. They were the future. And then, err, people kinda forgot about them.

So what happened?

According to new research from The Diffusion Group, it seems that despite the products being well-hyped, widely discussed and blessed with encouraging early forecasts from a number of research firms, the devices have suffered from extremely limited demand.

Moreover, the report concludes that demand for both these technologies will remain limited and that what unique functionality these solutions do offer will be quickly integrated into other platforms.

“It is not that this type of functionality is undesirable,” said Michael Greeson, President of The Diffusion Group. “The premise of networking stored digital media content to multiple devices in the home is valid, but consumers aren’t looking for separate devices to enable this experience.

Instead, the applications and benefits enabled by these two platforms will be increasingly integrated into devices with which consumers are more familiar – such as DVD players that are now evolving into DVD-recorders or set-top boxes with built-in hard-drives and integrated networking.”

“While media servers were originally positioned to be the hub of the digital home, demand for these solutions has never gotten off the ground.”

Although Windows Media Center PCs have proved more popular, Greeson asserts that this is simply down to normal PC replacement cycles rather than consumers finding anything particularly compelling about the concept.

Other media server platforms have been much less successful, although the push of high-end digital set-top boxes by cable and satellite video service providers offers a case for optimism.

“However,” says Greeson, “this is a push model, where the equipment is subsidised by the service provider in order to generate digital media service revenue, as opposed to a ‘pull’ model where consumers are so enamoured with the device that they run to the retail store to purchase one.”

When it comes to digital media adapters or DMAs, the Diffusion Group paints a gloomy picture.

Introduced a couple of years ago, the idea was to make it easy to share content from the PC to other media devices in the home, such as a TV or stereo using a DMA. But their techie-tastic appeal failed to win over punters.

“Not long ago, there were ten to fifteen companies offering DMAs,” said Gary Sasaki, a contributing analyst with The Diffusion Group and President of DIGDIA, a media consultancy.

“At this year’s CES, DMAs were hard to find. Part of the reason for the premature demise of DMAs is that their functionality appeals mostly to early-adopter or technology-savvy buyers. Additionally, and somewhat similar to media servers, the functionality of DMAs is slowly getting integrated into other more familiar product categories.”

The report suggests that we’ve got an industry in fast transition, with early, stand-alone technologies being picked clean for their useful ideas and then incorporated into more consumer-friendly converged products.

Diffusion Group

Hitachi To Boost Output Of Small Hard-Disk Drives

Hitachi To Boost Output Of Small Hard-Disk Drives Hitachi has announced that it will ramp up its output of consumer hard drives this year as it strives to take advantage of the soaring storage demands of MP3, PVR and mobile phone markets.

The move, in response to faltering enterprise demand, will see Hitachi target three key consumer segments – MP3/personal media players, digital video recorders and mobile phones.

As part of its strategy for the consumer market in 2005, Hitachi will open five Hitachi Design Studios worldwide, each one specialising in helping partners to integrate hard drives into consumer electronic devices.

The new centres – called the Hitachi Design Studios – will be scattered all over the globe (Fujisawa, Japan; Havant, UK; Rochester, Minnesota; Shenzhen, China and Taipei, Taiwan) and will open for business in April.

Hitachi intends to thrash their workers to an inch of their lives and get them to treble their output of 1.8-inch drives (used in Dell DJ music players), and double the production of 1-inch drives, as used in Apple’s iPod mini.

Hitachi To Boost Output Of Small Hard-Disk Drives A smaller version of the current 1-inch drive, code-named Mikey, comes out later this year, with capacious 2.5-inch drives – holding up to 500GB – being targeted at makers of DVRs and home servers.

Hitachi, the world’s second-largest maker of hard disk drives after Seagate, shipped 1.3 million 1.8-inch drives and 3.9 million 1-inch drives in 2004, although posted an operating loss of 4.4 billion yen (US$42.08m/€32.06m/£22.02m) in calendar 2004, after being battered by sharp price declines.

“Hitachi`s strength in hard drives provides a strong basis from which to accelerate our CE [consumer electronics] business in 2005,” said Bill Healy, senior vice president, product strategy and marketing, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

Hitachi To Boost Output Of Small Hard-Disk Drives “Hitachi’s intensified focus in the CE segment hard drive will mean good news for end-users as we work on developing smaller, high-capacity hard drives that are more rugged, require less power and cost less.”

Hitachi’s promise of churning out smaller, cheaper, more capacious hard drives may impact on a whole host of consumer electronic devices, with its high capacity drives offering bags more storage space for video/DVD convergence units.

Hitachi

Bill Gates, KBE Arise

Microsoft's Bill Gates Honoured By Knighthood From Queen Microsoft co-founder and chairman, Bill Gates received an honorary knighthood from ‘er Majesty the Queen today.

Bill Gates, 48 was dead chuffed to receive the award, saying it was “a great honour” to be recognised for his business skills and for his work on poverty reduction.

The entrepreneur – the richest man in the world worth an estimated £28bn. – was handed an insignia to make him a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, an honour that dates back to 1917 (although monarchs have been creating knights for centuries).

The ceremony took place amongst all the pomp and grandeur of the formal state-rooms at the palace, and involved Gates kneeling in front of the Queen, and getting a gentle tap on the shoulder with a sword.

Gates was granted a private audience with the Queen after the ceremony, and reported that they spoke about using computers (perhaps Her Majesty was having trouble with her Windows installation?)

As an American citizen, Gates can’t use the title “Sir” but he is entitled to put the letters KBE after his name.

Gates joins a select band of honorary knights including Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof, film director Steven Spielberg, Afghan president Hamid Karzai and the mighty Spike Milligan.

Microsoft's Bill Gates Honoured By Knighthood From Queen Gates and his wife Melinda are well known for their charitable work, investing millions in research for an Aids vaccine and a scholarship scheme to enable the brightest students to go to Cambridge University.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is currently working on a global health programme in the developing world.

Not everyone loves old Billy though, and Microsoft have been convicted of anti-competitive behaviour in the USA and are currently being investigated in Europe.

Microsoft
Bill Gates bio
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Towerstream Successfully Tests Roaming WiFi VoIP Tests

Towerstream Successfully Tests Roaming Tests TowerStream, a US provider of fixed-wireless broadband services has announced the successful completion of Mobile Voice over IP (VoIP) over a WiFi network.

The company recently completed a one-month trial near its Middletown, Rhode Island, headquarters that allowed VoIP traffic to pass seamlessly between WiFi access points without dropping the call.

It’s now rolling out a beta test program in New York, where users will use the company’s high-speed network to ensure that TowerStream’s network provides seamless roaming and connections with VoIP, cellular and landline users.

“With VoIP’s accelerated acceptance and growth, combined with recent commitments from handset makers to include WiFi and VoIP capabilities, TowerStream will give these technologies a home to roam on,” said Jeff Thompson, President and COO of Towerstream.

“The tests we have completed demonstrate seamless hand-offs across WiFi access points and pre-WiMAX base stations combining standards-based technology to create cellular-like coverage.

Using advanced handsets, consumers will soon have access to high-speed data capabilities and enhanced voice features never seen on a mobile phone before.”

TowerStream currently delivers T1 and 100Mbps services to city businesses and intends to leverage its dense coverage to offer additional mobile services to consumers.

With no infrastructure tied to the phone company, the company boasts that its fixed wireless offering can deliver faster installations, more features and cheaper rates than wireline broadband services.

Users with any VoIP WiFi-enabled device or notebook will be able to utilise TowerStream’s network for free and make phone calls.

Consumers in New York City will soon be able to sign up for a free Beta trial of the service at http://www.towerstream.com/voip.

Towerstream