Thanks to Sony, the growing ranks of “citizen” video producers and startups planning to distribute their work will soon have a discount ticket into the world of high definition TV. On Tuesday, the consumer electronics giant introduced a lightweight (1.5 lbs without battery) HDTV camcorder expected to cost less than $1,700. That’s a pretty amazing figure when you consider it wasn’t too long ago that major broadcasters were complaining that the millions of dollars they had to spend on HDTV gear posed a threat to their business models.
Of course, HD quality can’t replace creative talent, which is scarce enough even in the mass media marketplace. But, then again, maybe there are scores of Scorceses out there, ready to pump up the business models of Akimbo, DaveTV, Brightcove, Open Media Network, TotalVid, Ourmedia, Torrentocracy and other net-based distributors with HD fare that will be embraced by the micro-masses these companies are targeting.
Though downloads of HD content on today’s broadband pipes would mean very long waits, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was recently quoted as saying that, in the future, his company will use channel bonding technology to deliver up to 200 Mbps downstream, capacity he says will someday allow consumers to download a movie in just 45 seconds. Even if HD signals require 10x the capacity of standard definition, an 8 minute wait for an HD movie is probably just long enough to microwave some popcorn. How much Comcast would charge for that kind of capacity remains to be seen, of course. Perhaps we’ll see a tiered pricing model that would allow customers to keep their overall bill down in exchange for having to wait longer for their HD content to arrive.
We’ll soon get a prime-time taste of citizen-produced media, when Al Gore’s Current launches its cable service August 1. According to an email sent out by a Current staffer today, the network is “working hard on our programming schedule, which will include a mix of original programming produced by Current and viewer-created content (VC2) produced by you.”
But there may be another, less welcome, buyer group out there eager to get their hands on the new Sony HD camcorder—one that is anathema to the company’s studio arm and the rest of Hollywood. According to a post on the p2pnet.net web site entitled “New Sony ‘Pirate’ Camcorder,” “What could be better” [for pirates making illegal copies in a movie theater], than what Sony describes as a camcorder that “fits comfortably in your hand, while delivering high-definition picture quality and lighting detail.” Yet another reminder why studios and consumer electronics companies are often at odds and that this conflict seems to exist even within Sony’s sprawling corporate empire.
Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 10:29 PM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBackThe FCC finally issued its E911 order today saying that VoIP providers that connect to the PSTN must provide E911 service to their customers and must provide emergency operators with callback information and customer-supplied location information.
As cut-and-dried as the order seems, a big question mark hangs over the order’s impact on small VoIP providers. The Commission ruled that incumbent LECs are obligated to give access to their E911 facilities to “any requesting telecommunications carrier.” As Jeff Pulver points out, cable operators and incumbent LECs typically are the only VoIP providers certified as telecom carriers.
Where does this leave independent providers? Vonage, for its part, issued a obviously timed press release today saying it had worked out a deal with SBC and BellSouth to gain access to those telcos’ E911 facilities, which, when combined with a deal already in hand with Verizon, gives Vonage the ability to offer the mandated emergency calling service in three of the major four RBOCs’ regions.
Up-and-comer SunRocket said it’s already equipped to handle the E911 requirements given that it assigns its VoIP phone numbers matched with the legacy areas for those phone numbers, highlighting the “portability” problem plaguing VoIP 911 services. If a customer moves from one locale to another, and takes the VoIP gear along, emergency operators don’t know where the customer is located anymore. SunRocket can’t assure, however, E911 service in these out-of-territory situations but is working on a solution. For now SunRocket relies on Broadwing and Global Crossing for its interconnection services.
ISP EarthLink applauded the decision, but stressed the need for the FCC to mandate access to the big telcos’ facilities.
Cable operators, meanwhile, tout the superiority of their location-fixed, proprietary network-based VoIP offerings. Comcast issued a media advisory noting that:
—it already offers E911 service, —it owns CLECs in the states where it offers VoIP service, —Comcast Voice is by its very definition a stationary service, and —Comcast relies on its own proprietary network and not the public Internet to route calls.
Clearly the most controversial part of the decision, based on the press release (the order isn’t out yet) is, as always, who gains access to the PSTN and under what conditions. But in an increasingly IP-based world, the old access debate seems creaky. Or as Pulver put it
Admittedly, this limited communications network we call the PSTN controls virtually every communications consumer out there. There was once a time when the stagecoach controlled most of the transcontinental traffic. Some day, perhaps now even sooner than some anticipated, the wireline PSTN will be relegated to be little more than a minor, single-lane off-ramp on the IP-based network of networks.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:58 PM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The City of Seattle launched its free Wi-Fi service, lighting up a wireless network in two neighborhoods. Seattle’s city council is slated to release a report on Tuesday that addresses whether high-speed Internet access service should be considered an essential service, such as water and electricity.
Despite the deployment of Wi-Fi, Seattle council member Jim Compton, who heads up the city’s Utilities and Technology Committee, believes that fiber is the long-terms solution for delivering broadband to everyone. The city’s Wi-Fi network is capable of handling only 50 homes per antenna.
In a move that seems understandable, but gives us the chills nonetheless, Compton said he plans to introduce legislation to create a city “Office of Broadband” to adminster and coordinate the various broadband plans under consideration.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 7:58 AM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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