Industry Trends – Page 9 – Digital-Lifestyles

VisiFone, Ojo: Videophones Come Home

Viseon-VisiFone Every few years there are a number of announcements about the launch of new video phones. For decades the public have been told that this revolution is just around the corner.

For most of those years the means of transferring the speech and video information has been via a telephone line, initially a PSTN, then in the ’80’s, ISDN. Due to the limitation of the amount of bandwidth, using them was a pretty unsatisfactory experience with the video being ‘choppy’.

As broadband became more available, the bandwidth that video requires started to be come more widely installed in peoples homes and other places.

For quite a while this has been available to the technically savvy using software solutions available on desktops and laptops. By simply plugging in a cheap USB camera and installing some (often free) software, people have been able to chat and watch each other.

One instance sticks in my mind. When I was organising the Digital Lifestyles conference theme day at IBC 2003, one of the speakers, Stuart Cheshire, Ethernet Guru at Apple recounted his connecting to home. He had his hotel broadband connection, connected up his Apple iBook, slotted in an Apple iSight and, for the equivalent cost of a long distance call from Amsterdam to the US, he was able to chat to his family for as long as he wanted, with the added benefit that both he and his family where able to see each other, seeing the facial cue so important in a face-to-face conversation.

Now that broadband is an established fact for a large number of western households, there is a new wave of broadband, consumer-friendly devices that don’t require PC’s to function – and that’s going to make them usable by a range of generations.

Viseon used CES to launch it VisiFone, labelling it the Digital Home Telephone. They claim by keeping the communications digital from end-to-end, the free standing unit provides CD-quality audio and TV-quality video.

They claim one of the secrets to their success is their use of the latest chips from Texas Instruments (TI) specifically; TI’s newest IP phone system-on-a-chip, the TNETV1050, which provides enhanced digital voice quality and conferencing; and the DSP-based TMS320DM64x digital media processor, offering high quality, multi-channel video.

Viseon’s business approach is to sell the unit via broadband service providers. The first they have announced is a deal with well known VoIP provider, Vonage, who run services in the US, Mexico and of last week, the UK.

Another offering at CES was Ojo from Motorola, which they label the Personal Video Phone. It works on a similar principle of a screen and embedded camera on a stand. The Ojo’s large colour screen is 5.6-inch, 9 x 16 format, which they say frames the face better.

It uses an advanced MPEG-4 coding standard (H.264), which enables transmission of 30 frames-per-second video with synchronized audio at data rates as low as 110 Kbps.

Ojo differs from VisiFone in that it can also handle phone calls over ‘normal’ phone lines using its cordless handset.

Ojo should be available in the US from Spring 2005 at $799, plus an as-yet-undisclosed monthly service charge.

How long it will be before we have Video phones on the street, a la Blade Runner is unclear, but finally things appear to moving in the world on consumer-friendly videophone.

Viseon VisiFone
Motorola Ojo

Podcasting Primed, BBC Radio MP3 download success

BBC Radio has for the last month been making some of its radio show available for MP3 download. Is this news? Well yes, previously they’ve always streamed their content, so you had to by your computer to receive it. With downloads you’ve been able to take it with you.

It actually started with this years The Reith Lectures, which over the ten weeks it was available, had around 50,000 downloads. It has now grown considerably to the point where Melvyn Braggs show, In Our Time, had 70,000 downloads in November. The weekly BBC Radio 4 show was available to download for seven days after broadcast. Not only is it downloadable, but it’s also available as a Podcast. If you’re not sure what a Podcast is, you should read on. Digital Lifestyles was told by the BBC on Friday that in November, there were 100,000 hits on their Podcast (RSS) file for In Our Time.

As regular readers of Digital Lifestyles will know, we are big believers in what we see as the effective rebirth of radio – the delivery of audio pieces over the Internet for playback on people’s portable music players. Over the last few months this hard-to-encapsulate idea has happily gained the moniker, ‘Podcasting’, but don’t be fooled by the iPod reference, this is for all music players.

Strictly speaking Podcasting is slightly more than just the Internet delivery of the material, it’s also about automating the process. By using an application like the open source, iPodder, listeners simply select the Podcasters their interested hearing from and the content is automatically gathered for them. This apparent magic is achieved by combining a couple of already existing technologies, RSS and FTP. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has until now mostly be used to gather news updates but hidden in its specification is the ability to point to enclosures, in this case MP3 audio files. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is then used to download the sound files to computer. All of this happens without the listens involvement.

Simon Nelson, Controller of BBC Radio & Music Interactive is clearly excited about it: “We’ve been surprised and delighted by the demand for downloads of what is one of our most challenging programmes; it demonstrates the public’s appetite for new ways of listening. Of course we recognise that we can’t offer all programmes in this way but we look forward to working with rights holders to explore ways we could learn from developments like this to drive radio listening forward.”

These ideas have been bubbling around the blog world and it just starting to hit the main stream. The impact of this form of distribution will be significant. The barriers to anyone having their own radio station are removed. Of course, any form of enclosure can be catered for, including video. Beware broadcast TV, look out TiVo.

BBC Radio 4, In our Time
BBC Radio 4, In our Time – Podcast
iPodder

VCR Sales in UK Halted by Dixons

The largest electronics retailer in the UK, Dixons, has announced that it’s to stop selling Video cassette recorders. They say as sales of DVD Players are so strong, they outsell VCR’s 40:1, that there is no demand for VCR’s anymore. Dixons sales peak for VHS (Video Home System) was in 1993.

All of this is, of course, great for Dixons in the build up to xmas – they’re splashed across all of the papers and other media today, supplementing their already considerable media advertising spend.

You would probably have thought that we’d be jumping with joy at this knockout move for an old, and let’s face it, pretty unwieldy format. Well quite a lot of time has passed since we at the Digital Lifestyles offices originally discarded our own VHS machines, and that gives us a chance to reflect on this news, rather than react.

In that 18-24 months the entertainment industry (read TV and film in this case) has had time to plan it’s future and their approach to visual media in the digital future has become firmer.

Today’s news must make those media companies very pleased. It effectively starts the countdown to the end of access to the large collections of video content people have built up over the last 26 years on VHS, both self-recorded TV programming and pre-recorded.

It also closes one of those pesky ‘analog holes’ that often get mentioned by the media companies, in debates over the future of digitisation of media.

Dixons? They’ll also have the opportunity to sell all of their punters a whole range of new equipment when high-density disc formats (blu-ray, etc) arrive. Of course there’s a bigger profit margin in a £150 DVD recorder that a £40 VCR.

We also assume this will start to open the market for high-end VHS players as people come to realise some of their old content isn’t yet available on new formats. Will there be VHS buffs, like there are analogue HiFi buffs?

Sales in Virtual Goods Surpasses $100m

Real-world trading based on virtual items is at least three years old, but it’s only now that researchers have estimated that online trading already rivals the gross domestic product of some small countries. According to an article publishing on NewScientist.com, the real figures are likely to be much higher, where virtual worlds are booming in China and Japan

The technology of real-world economies is based on the value of persistent world game characters and items. For example, you can buy Ultima Online and EverQuest characters on eBay, exchanging actual money for ‘imaginary’ game items, such as clothing and weaponry. Nevertheless, trade in these digital goods continues to grow, and it has already gone from being a pastime pursued only by a handful of hardcore gamers, to being a fledgling industry in its own right.

There’s even an online service to help players of online games trade their commodities more easily and freely. The Gaming Online Market (GOM) is a Canada-based online venture founded by Jamie Hale and Tom Merrall that aims to be the first true stock brokerage for online worlds. GOM currently allows players of online games to pay in US dollars, or exchange currency from one game to another at the current going rate. Before now, these have been trades restricted mainly to eBay auctions, along with all the risks associated with such transactions. Having said that, eBay facilitated the selling of $9 million in trades for Internet games last year (excluding Sony’s Everquest).

The coming together of real and online worlds has a far more widespread reach than games. For instance, virtual spaces will increasingly be used as assembly points to carry out business meetings and as physics simulators to experiment with building physical objects. Some companies are also using virtual worlds to try out design products, such as clothes, before attempting to market them in the real world.

Microsoft and Cisco Announce Security Partnership

Microsoft and Cisco will announce a partnership today to make the security features of their respective range of products compatible. By tying up security at both the server operating system and hardware layer, the two companies hope that they will beat hackers and virus writers, whilst at the same time regaining the faith of corporate customers.

Microsoft and Cisco products hold a particular fascination for hackers, who enjoy exploiting various vulnerabilities in their platforms. Some corporate customers have switched to Linux and Unix as server operating systems on the grounds of security, as there are simply less viruses and malware on those systems.

By ensuring interoperability, customers should have an easier time deploying security policies and integrating products from both companies on their networks.

The next big step for the MS/Cisco partnership will be the release of Longhorn Server in 2007, when Microsoft’s own Network Access Protection scheme will be compatible with Cisco’s own Network Access Control features.

Microsoft will announce the news here later on Monday

Sony Japan Rethinks Copy-Protected CDs

Sony has dropped copy protection from their CD range, as they believe they’ve educated the public not to make illegal copies – and that only a small proportion of people made the copies in the first place. So, if this is the case they won’t be introducing another form of copy protection later on, then? Sony had previously been amongst the most enthusiastic proponents of copy protection in the market and indeed only recently decided to support the protection-free MP3 format in their range of digital players.

My guess is of course that Sony are giving in to market pressure – piracy is still robbing artists of millions of euros every year but restrictive copy-protection turns the public off and harms revenues too. Sony has looked at the popularity of the iPod and other MP3 players, seen that it wasn’t the end of the world for recorded music and decided to jump on the bandwagon. Neatly avoiding potential legal action at the same time. Now, in order to avoid legal threats and criticism from its customers, Sony will supply all CDs after 17th November without copy protection.

Sony’s copy protection system was unpopular with the public as it sometimes prevented CDs from playing in a range of devices, such as car stereos, and also infringed some citizens’ legal rights to make copies of purchased media for personal use. The copy-protected CDs are not strictly CDs, and incorporate a technology for preventing computers from ripping the music on the disk, but contain a compressed and DRM’d version of the music for use on music players and PCs.

A guide to CD copy-protection schemes

OPA Generational Media Study Yields Interesting Results

This week the Online Publishers Association (OPA) announced the results of its latest Generational Media Study, designed to provide a detailed view of the 18 to 34 year-old media consumer. The study examines how the Internet, television, radio, newspapers and magazines compare across the generations on a range of attitudinal measures.

It’s no longer a case of ‘Book Good, Screen Bad’. It’s now increasingly accepted and understood that the screen is a ‘moveable feast’. So, all of you who are involved in online content will be happy and relieved to learn that 97% of 18 to 34 year olds believe that online is the same or better than magazines for finding information about products and music.

Since it has now become apparent that TV advertising is outmoded and ineffective, advertisers must turn their attentions to the online community especially since 67% of respondents say that watching a short video clip online is the same or better than watching highlights on television. Notwithstanding, television moguls can breath a sigh of relief, temporarily any way, since more youngsters still favour television over online media for watching longer video programming.

For the Internet, the only way is up, with 47% of respondents indicating that they spend more time using the Internet now compared to one year ago, while interestingly, a healthy minority reported spending less time playing video/PC games and watching television.

The print media should be worried though since the Internet and television are by far the most frequently used media by all respondents, 83% saying that reading a story on the Internet is the same or better than reading one in a newspaper. Furthermore, the importance of newspapers differs significantly, with more daily readers coming from the 35 to 54 age group.

But attitudes take a quirky turn when it comes to trust; with more 18 to 24 year-olds saying that they trust the news they get in newspapers, compared to older readers. Could the technobabes be too naive, or is it really true that we become more cynical as we grow older?

Online Publishers Association

PassAlong Networks Launch Innovative Music Referral Service

PassAlong Networks have launched what should not be dismissed as YAMS (Yet Another Music Store). They are starting with a 200,000 track catalogue and increasing to 500,000 by the end of the month.

There are two interesting parts to this one. Firstly, they actually encourage people to pass music around, and secondly they’re using multiple sales channels for the music they are representing, including eBay. While they’re not the first company to sell via eBay, they are the first to offer eBay-ers tracks from the major labels. They will also be selling via their own site at PassAlong.com.

The passing of tracks is very exciting and something that we’ve been enthused about for a long time. Our logic – what is the most ideal sales person? A passionate one, and you don’t get much more enthused than a band’s fan.

PassAlong allows links to songs to be passed to others via email, instant messaging (IM) or Web sites/blogs and to thank them for the viral spread of tracks, each track that is passed on and purchased by the receiver earns credit for the initiator of the transfer.

The content that they launch with, is protected and they are initially using Windows Media DRM (WME) but are keen to point out that they have (wisely) designed their systems to work with any DRM system or music format.

In October, the company will launch its Discover Music service, which will allow users to publish playlists for others to view, and in turn purchase. Following this, their future plans include offering white-label digital music stores.

PassAlong Networks are a Nashville, Tennessee-based company who were founded in 2002 and are now a 60-person startup. Dave Jaworski, who entered the world of technology at a pre-public Microsoft, after some time spent in radio, heads them.

It is very refreshing to see a company that appears to really understand the music consumers’ drivers and natural enthusiasm. We’ll be watching them with interest.

PassAlongNetworks

PassAlong.com

McCain’s US Bill seeks $1Bn for Digital TV

The world over there is a general move towards replacing analogue television with digital. US Senate Commerce Committee chairman, John McCain has now raised the stakes.. His proposed bill calls for analogue switch off by 2009 but offers financial aid. Current law requires broadcasters either to give up their current airwaves by 2007, or when 85 percent of the nation can receive the new digital signals – whichever comes later. Many US TV stations already broadcast both digital and analogue signals, but few Americans own digital television sets, which are currently a lot more expensive than their more traditional counterparts.

McCain proposes a bill that that would require broadcasters to switch off analogue signals by 2009 and would subsidise the cost of consumers upgrading their equipment to digital. Currently there are about 70 million analogue sets in the US. Even though the Federal Communications Commission has mandated that by July 2007 all new television sets with screens 13 inches or larger must be able to receive digital signals, the fear is that digital TV will not be universal by then. This is because, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, Americans replace their sets only every eight to 10 years – messing up the math for the lawmakers.

McCain argues that it will take $1 billion to make the shift and this magic sum will be garnered through a rather circuitous route. When the government) gets their hands on the airwaves that broadcasters are now using, they will probably auction it for commercial wireless services, and this could potentially earn billions of dollars, and Senator McCain’s $1 billion would come from the auction proceeds.

Some of this $1 billion could also be used as a benevolent fund to enable people who do not have a digital television set to install a pay television service that would either offer them the new signals or a converted signal they could see. This will allow millions of consumers to continue watching television once broadcasters begin airing only in digital. Understandably though, those same broadcasters are concerned about their signals being switched back into analogue after they have spent millions of dollars upgrading their facilities to offer digital.

McCain’s draft legislation gives priority to those households that rely solely on over-the-air television, and in particular lower-income homes. The legislation is scheduled to be considered by the committee on Wednesday, but it is hard to anticipate any meaningful progress since Congress is trying to adjourn by early October and the U.S. House of Representatives has not acted as yet.

If the Bill is passed analogue -only television sets made after September 2005 will be obliged to include a warning label stating that without additional equipment, it would not work after 2008.

So far the UK government has rejected any call for it to contribute to the public’s cost of making the change to digital TV. McCain’s bill will give further weight to those who feel they should.

CLIE PEG-VZ90 marks Sony’s start of Mass Production of Full Colour Organic LED’s

Sony has announced that they will start the mass production of full-colour Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays. They see the OLED displays as a possible replacement for LCD screens, but with the added advantages of not needing a back-light, giving quicker screen response times and providing wider viewing angles. Response times will drop from 16mil sec on current Sony LED’s to a stunning 0.01mil sec and viewing angles will improve from around 130 degrees on LCD to 180 degrees in both horizontal and vertical planes.

By adding their own magic ingredient to OLED’s, called Super Top Emission technology, Sony claims they will get significant improved brightness (1000:1 vs 100:1 LCD) and a great range of colours (gamut) (~100% vs ~40% LCD). They claim it will rival the performance of Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT).

Since their introduction, one of the big problems for LCD-equipped portable media players has been the impossibility of seeing their displays outdoors when the sun is strong. It sounds like Sony’s approach could not only save the batteries of portable devices, but also fix the sunlight problem.

The CLIE ‘PEG-VZ90’ will be the first Sony device to benefit from the production run.

Sony