International research firm addresses key market issues for the digital home at CONNECTIONS™ events, Smart Energy Summit, monthly Webcasts

Parks Associates announced the Premier Sponsorship Program and the 2010 event schedule, which includes CONNECTIONS™, the inaugural Smart Energy Summit, CONNECTIONS™ Summits in Europe and at CES, and monthly research Webcasts. The Premier Sponsorship Program offers opportunities for companies to participate at multiple events and receive customized benefits and additional recognition throughout the year.

Our conferences focus on core areas of growth and opportunity in energy management, entertainment platforms and services, home controls, mobile services, and advertising. Our events feature networking with key executives and the latest findings from our consumer and industry research. We developed the Premier Program so our sponsors have multiple opportunities to connect with our audiences and achieve maximum exposure as leaders in the digital living space.

Companies join the Premier Sponsorship Program by sponsoring different events throughout the year:

CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference and Showcase, June 8-10, Santa Clara, is the premier executive event focused on market developments and growth factors for advanced digital lifestyle solutions.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, March 2010, Amsterdam, focuses on international and European consumer research, with sessions examining new digital platforms, consumer buying habits, and new business models and opportunities for TV operators, content developers, advertisers, and CE companies.

CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES, January 7, Las Vegas, is the perfect start for CES, with sessions on trends, emerging business models and technologies, and growth opportunities for companies developing products and services for the digital home.

Smart Energy Summit, January 25-27, Austin, Tex., offers a unique combination of market research and real-world expertise in examining residential energy management and smart grid technologies.

Parks Associates’ monthly research Webcasts, hosted by the company’s leading analysts, feature the last data and insight on key digital living categories, including set-tops and connected CE, smartphones and mobile convergence, 3D TV and advanced video services, and future advertising strategies.

Current Premier Sponsor includes RedMere.

For more information about the Premier Sponsorship Program, visit www.parkspremier.com.

CONNECTIONS SUMMIT Speakers Announced

The CONNECTIONS SUMMIT will be held January 7, 2010, in Room S225 in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The one-day event features commentary, insight, and debate on successful market strategies and deployment for “digital living” products and services.

Bill Ablondi, Dir., Home Systems Research, Parks Associates
Timo Bauer, SVP & GM Americas, NewBay Software
Joly Benoit, Dir., Connected Home Applications, Thomson
Tom Carroux, Director, Sales & Market Development, Irdeto
Susan Cashen, VP, Control4 Energy Systems
Steve Cashman, Chief Strategy Officer, Exceptional Innovation
Brian Chamberlin, Manager, Interactive Projects, NDS
Jayant Dasari, Research Analyst, Parks Associates
Chris Deutschen, Sr. Mgr, Innovation & Bus. Development, Direct Energy
Jaime Fink, CTO, 2Wire
Hope Fulgham, CEO/CMO, Piazza Advertising
Ted May, VP, Strategy & Business Affairs, Synacor
David Sandford, VP, Marketing & Product Management, TiVo
Kurt Scherf, VP, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates
Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates
Simon Tidnam, VP, Sales & Marketing, Hdlogix
Harry Wang, Dir., Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates
Heather Way, Research Analyst, Parks Associates
Paul Woidke, SVP and GM, Advanced Advertising, OpenTV

More info at:
http://www.parksassociates.com/events/connections/summit/2010/agenda/agenda.html

TV 2.0 – The Future of the Set-Top Box

Set-top boxes will grab the central role in media distribution within the home, and service providers’ digitalTV (DTV) strategies will drive the design of and demand for set-top boxes. Over the course of the next two years, competition in the TV service market will heat up substantially, ignited by the global digital transition and new video distribution channels like DTT, IPTV, and over-the-top video services. The battle in the DTV field will spread to the entire digital home services market, as incumbents and newcomers alike will market service packages to households, using video as the anchor for an expansive bundling strategy. Operators will increasingly leverage the set-top box as a platform to promote these multiplay strategies, and the device will also play a role as a home media server connecting multiple entertainment platforms.

http://www.parksassociates.com/events/connections/2010/about/research.html

Learn more about what happened at 2009 CONNECTIONS: The Digital Living Conference & Showcase.

HGI announces partnership agreement with Broadband Forum

The Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) announced that it has signed a liaison agreement with the Broadband Forum that will lead to close collaboration by both organizations on the development of standards and specifications for broadband networks worldwide.

The comprehensive agreement is designed to enhance the already active cooperation between HGI and the Broadband Forum. It allows each organization to provide input, and to release copyright on work-in-progress specifications to the partner organization as working documents are drafted. The result will be acceleration and strong alignment of key specification work within the industry that leads to improvements in the capabilities of customers’ broadband networks.

The areas of cooperation by these two groups will be centered on architectural and functional requirements for customer located broadband equipment. HGI’s mission to solve the service, feature and technology challenges in the digital home complements the Broadband Forum’s core competencies in end-to-end architecture and management. The groups agreed to cooperate in addressing quality of service (QoS), software modularity, IPv6, energy efficiency and testing.

Both groups will meet regularly to discuss projects and priorities for industry standards in these and other areas. Both organizations bring a unique focus on a set of related problems, and are stronger by working together.

By jointly identifying goals, sharing work in progress, and avoiding duplication of efforts, our member companies receive better value for their investments of resources in our respective efforts. The industry has important issues to solve, and this agreement helps significantly.”

Together, the two groups represent over 200 companies, and over 30 service providers, including Arcor, AT&T, Belgacom, Bell, BT, Cable & Wireless, China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Embarq, Fastweb, France Telecom, KDDI, KPN, KT, Magyar Telecom, NTT, OTE, Portugal Telecom, Qwest, SingTel, Swisscom, Telecom Italia, Tata Teleservices Ltd, TDC, Telecom Slovenije, Telecom New Zealand, Telefonica, Telekomunikacja Polska, Telekom Austria, Telekom Malaysia, Telenor, TeliaSonera, Telkom SA, Telstra, Telus and Verizon.

Orange VP delivers Keynote at CONNECTIONS Europe Nov '09

Pierre François Dubois, Vice President, Very High Broadband and Digital Home Products, Technocentre, Orange presented the keynote presentation at the CONNECTIONS Europe Summit held November 4, 2009 in Amsterdam.

They not only provide the customers with broadband and other services, they have offers for the connected home. They have invested massively in LivePlug and Wi-Fi. In addition, they have invested in specific devices – Liveradio (access to more than 4,000 Web radio stations), digital photo frame, and partnership with La Cie on NAS device. Unik relies on UMA solution that enables handover from mobile and GSM. It was in 2005, a growth milestone, where the triple-play offer was the flagship offer. There is opportunity for Orange to increase its share of households budget in multimedia and IT, which is becoming more and more digital.

What are Orange customers willing to pay for in terms of additional services? Customers’ expectations have moved. The perceived value is moving from access to terminals. From demand for services to demand for fewer boxes, connection of all screens, share emotions and content with friends. Customers want to keep it simple and reliable and customer care is key.

The Digital Home is about how to give access to content and applications to individuals through available screens. Today, triple-play includes one room, one device, and one function. The Digital Home includes content and applications that can follow one at home and away and be instantiated on any available screen. The industry is moving to fulfill these expectations: connected devices opportunities from flat screen HDTV to Connected TV and application stores and user interfaces.

In conclusion, Orange believes that technology has to fade behind services, for the benefit of everyone. They are working to provide new packages for the digital home. Residential gateways operated by telcos are the cornerstone to provide customers with a seamless and full experience of the digital home.