Digital-Lifestyles

Distribution

The new digital ways content was becoming distributed

  • Encouraging results in UK business broadband survey

    British Chambers of Commerce have released the results of what they claim is the largest independent survey of business broadband usage, covering 4,000 UK businesses.

    They found that the percentage of companies with a broadband Internet connection has doubled from 19 per cent. to 39 per cent. over the last year.

    Different companies saw different advantages to broadband. Over 60% of all companies see more effective communication as the biggest benefit, while 46% felt the next most important benefit to be improved business productivity and 45% of all companies cited cost savings as a benefit.

    Interestingly over 60% of all companies thought their customers would pressure them within the next five years to conduct business that requires a broadband connection. Nearly half of all companies, (48%) predict suppliers will exert similar pressure.

    Remote working was seen as a big advantage with 53% of businesses now report that on average their staff work from more than one location for at least one day a week. Surprisingly 11% of companies report that more than half of their employees work at more than one location for at least one day a week.

    Link

  • Korean DSL provider Thurnet failles to find a buyer

    After being the toast of the broadband world some of South Korea’s broadband providers appear to be having some problems.

    Thrunet is currently in receivership, has failed to find a buyer and is in the process of forming a restructuring plan to submitting to the court. If this is rejected by the court, it is possible that it will pass into insolvency.

    There are rumours in the market about the cash base of the second-largest provider, Hanaro Telecom as they put deals together with external investors.

    The only one that appears to be sitting pretty is the old incumbent telco, KT Crop, who has 95% of the domestic call market and 50% of the DSL.

    Link

  • Using CDMA as an home network connection

    After moving house and finding he didn’t have a broadband provider, Steve Kovsky of Anchor Desk decided to prove that is was possible to share a CDMA data connection around a home network – despite both his CDMA and data card provider telling him it wasn’t possible.

    Using Sygate’s Home Network software he battled with adversity and arose victorious. While it only gives him a 100kbs connection, it is faster than a dialup or single channel ISDN and has the advantage over a DSL connection that he can relocate with ease – assuming him service provider gives decent coverage.

    Given the difficulty 3G is having getting a foothold in many markets, perhaps this is a marketing angle they should be looking at.

    Story link
    Sygate Home Network link

  • Nokia first next gen wireless data call – peaking at ~3Mbps

    The world’s first cdma2000 1xEV-DV high-speed packet data phone call was carried out at Nokia’s reseach facility in San Diego.

    Carried out in an ideal test environment the data rate peaked at 3.09 Mbps but it is projected that typical user throughput will be 1 Mbps in a 1.25 MHz frequency channel and have a system-wide throughput that ranges from 420 Kbps to 1.7 Mbps depending upon traffic and channel conditions.

    Early stages, but showing mobile high bandwidth promise. You can tell this is at an engineering stage as the protocol is called cdma2000 1xEV-DV by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and IS-2000 Release C by others – this is long before marketing departments get hold of it.

    Link

  • Four Canadian WISP’s to enable roaming

    Following the Link

  • WiFi service providers should co-operate not compete, says Broadreach Networks chief

    In an interview with The Register, Magnus McEwen-King of UK WiFi access provider Broadreach Networks is keen that WiFi service providers, sometimes known as WISP’s, should work together to ensure consumers can use any of the services, not just be locked into a single service.

  • UK film council announces world’s first ever ‘e-premiere’

    The UK film council is claiming a global first. The new feature film, This is not a Love Song, will be released simultaneously in a number of different formats on Friday 5 September. It will be streamed and digitally projected in selected cinemas across the UK and be made available for streaming and download on the Internet on the same day.

    The whole process of film-making has been extremely rapid. Written by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) in under two weeks, then shot on PD-150 DV cameras in just 12 days, under the direction of Bille Eltringham (The Darkest Light) and digitally edited on Avid.

    Richard Morris of Juggernaut Pictures, the online producer of the event, told us that they wanted to use a mixture of different distribution formats to cinemas around the country. The ‘e-premiere’, as it’s being labelled, will be at the following four cinemas in the

    Watershed, Bristol – Live projected streamed video
    Cornerhouse, Manchester – 35mm print
    Showroom, Sheffield – Digital projection
    The Other Cinema, London – Digital projection

    The streamed video will be delivered in Microsoft Media 9 format at 700k, giving VHS quality that will then be projected. Both of the digital projections will be driven by Digi Beta tape.

    Online viewing will be available, on the same day, from www.thisisnotalovesong.com at a cost “less than renting a video”. As the non-UK film rights have been sold in other territories, the films distributor have insisted that its viewing be restricted to the UK only. To try and ensure this the Internet-delivered versions will be protected by Digital Envoy’s Geo-Targeting technology, which attempts to understand where the viewer is using information such as their source IP address.

    The UK film council tells us they are in the process of gathering lottery funds to put low-cost digital projection into 150 cinemas around the UK. Digital distribution makes it far more economic to show non-blockbuster films in smaller venues.

  • Heavyweights form the Digital Home Working Group

    There are many issues that make the inter-connection of Digital Lifestyles devices a pretty big headache. With this is mind a lot of the heavy hitting companies in this area – Fujitsu, Gateway, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Kenwood, Lenovo, Microsoft, NEC CustomTechnica, Nokia, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, STMicroelectronics and Thomson – are getting together to try and make this simpler. To this end they’ve formed the Digital Home Working Group after realising that everyone trying to create their own standards isn’t that sensible. Watch the space, it could be promising.

  • Scottish and Southern Energy powerline broadband trials

    Scottish and Southern Energy are launching a broadband-with-your-electricity-supply service, commonly called Power Line Communications.

    It’s an idea that’s been discussed for a long time that finally looks like it’s coming true. It has a few advantages over other broadband services:

    • The provider doesn’t need to install another connection to the property
    • The user can plug the modem in at any room
    • The electricity companies already having a relationship with the customer and billing systems in place

    Following Scottish and Southern Energy’s small 200 home trial, they are launching a larger trial of 15,000 homes to receive the £30/month 1Mb/s service in Crieff, Campbeltown, Stonehaven in Scotland and Winchester in the South of England.

  • New WiFi AP every 3 seconds

    Intel COO has told a group of Indian business leaders that Worldwide there is a WiFi access point installed every three seconds, equating to 27,000 every day.