France Telecom Keynote at CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit to focus on service opportunities in connected devices

Executive Summit features the Roadmap for Connected CE

Parks Associates announced that Pierre François Dubois, Vice President, Very High Broadband and Digital Home Products, Technocentre, France Telecom Group, will present the keynote at CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit on November 4.

Mr. Dubois will discuss the key role of telcos in shaping the future of the Digital Home. He will focus on the new opportunities for Internet service providers developing as a result of the increasing number of connected devices at home.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, titled The Roadmap for Connected Consumer Electronics and hosted by international research firm Parks Associates, will take place in Amsterdam at the Mövenpick Hotel.

Europe is a strong market for connected CE, and service providers continue to be active in enabling advanced services and deploying devices such as hybrid set-tops. The worldwide telco /IPTV subscriber base exceeded 20 million in 2008, and France had over 27% growth in IPTV subscribers. France Telecom has been aggressive in connecting and managing consumer services, and Mr. Dubois’s insight will be invaluable to CONNECTIONS™ Europe attendees.

Summit Speakers
ActiveVideo Europe
Affinegy
Civolution
Eyecon Technologies
Intamac Technologies
Irdeto
Loquendo
Makewave
NDS
NXP Semiconductors
Omnifone
OpenTV
OSGi Alliance
Parks Associates
RedMere
Rovi Corporation
Telcordia
Thinking Screen Media
Thomson
TVBLOB
Verimatrix

Register for CONNECTIONS™ Europe at www.connectionseurope.com.

HGI to host its 1st Test Event

The first ever test event to assess Quality of Service (QoS) and Multi-session support in both Home Gateway products and reference designs is to be held by the Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) in France next month.

The HGI Test Event builds upon two key pieces of technical work within HGI. The first is the QoS architecture, fully described in the recently published QoS White Paper, HGI-GD013-R2. The second is HGI’s Requirements for Multiple Flows, currently an HGI working draft document (HGI-RWD010-R3).

The event, which will run from September 28 to October 2 in Lannion (Brittany, France), will enable each vendor to choose the tests that they wish to participate in. Each participating vendor is allocated an entire day to complete the tests with the assistance of the host lab personnel. Test results will be reviewed and validated between the vendor and the HGI auditing team. Vendors will be free to publish their validated test results, and/or share them with Service Providers, whilst the HGI management committee will publish an anonymous summary of the test results.

The HGI, founded in 2004 by nine telecom operators, is shaping the next generation of internet and voice services. Starting from use-cases and service needs, the HGI sets requirements for Home Gateways, infrastructure devices, and the home network. The HGI now has members from across the globe, representing the entire spectrum of players in the broadband home area.

For further information, please visit www.homegatewayinitiative.org.

French Company, Publicis in lead to acquire Razorfish

Publicis Groupe, a French advertising company, is leading the competition to purchase Razorfish, Microsoft's digital advertising agency. Japan's largest advertising firm, Dentsu is also bidding for Razorfish. No deals are finalized yet. However, Dentsu made a higher offer from the Publicis $500-600 million bid. Publicis negotiations also include a buyer's commitment to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising on Microsoft's digital properties.

As an attractive target for advertising holding companies, Razorfish could help bolster their digital expertise, to grab ad revenue as it transitions from traditional media to the Internet.

Razorfish has created online pitches for companies such as Levi Strauss & Co., Mercedes-Benz USA and MillerCoors.

Microsoft acquired Razorfish as part of its 2007 aQuantive acquisition for $6 billion. Its estimated that Razorfish could go for $400 - 700 million.

For more about this topic, read the full article on the The Wall Street Journal.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe executive summit features speakers from digital media companies, CE manufacturers, service and solution providers

International research firm Parks Associates announced the final agenda and speakers for CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, March 31, 2009, in Nice, France.

This executive event, taking place at the Hotel Palais de La Mediterranee, provides attendees with international consumer research and features interactive discussions on European consumer trends, broadband and value-added services, IPTV and video services, digital media, connected CE, and digital home services and support.

Roger Pitton, Program Director, TV, Video & Music Business, Microsoft Corporation, will deliver the keynote “IPTV and the keys to keeping customers” at CONNECTIONS™ Europe. The event also features the following speakers:

>> Michimasa Aramaki, Director, Industrial Standardization, HD-PLC Alliance
>> Thierry Boudard, IPTV Strategic Innovation Manager, Thomson
>> Richard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist, Macrovision
>> Mark Cavicchia, CEO & Founder, WhereverTV
>> Nicolas Decitre, GM: France and Benelux, Jungo
>> Brian Donnelly, VP, Sales and Marketing, Icron
>> Margot Dor, Director, Strategic Projects, ETSI
>> Paul Entwistle, CTO, Pace
>> Milan Erbes, Ambassador, HGI; Standardization & Business Development Manager, DS2
>> Gil Eyal, CEO, Enure Networks
>> Ed Forman, EVP, Products and Services, ActiveVideo Networks
>> Paul Gainham, Director, Service Provider Marketing, EMEA, Juniper Networks
>> Peter Galyas, CTO, Tilgin
>> Stefan Jenzowsky, CEO, moreTV Broadcasting GmbH
>> Art Lancaster, CTO, Affinegy
>> Dr. Ulrich Leiner, Head, Department Interactive Media, Human Factors, Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, HHI
>> Dr. Anton Monk, CTO, MoCA; Co-Founder, Entropic Communications, Inc.
>> Trond Neergard, VP, Sales and General Manager, EMEA, Radialpoint
>> Dr. Randolph Nikutta, Project Field Head "New Media", Deutsche Telekom AG, Laboratories
>> Frederic Onado, VP EMEA, HomePlug Powerline Alliance; COO, SPiDCOM Technologies
>> Eric Plesner, Director, Business Development, IO-Homecontrol
>> Micha Risling, VP, Marketing, Valens Semiconductor
>> Bill Stanley, Director, Operations Solutions, Telcordia
>> Matt Theall, Technology Strategist, Intel Corporation; President, HomeGrid Forum
>> Navin Varsani, Consumer Director, EMEA, Cloakware
>> Ian Walker, Director, Sales and Marketing, EMEA PayTV, EchoStar

Event sponsors include Affinegy, Enure Networks, and HomeGrid Forum. Global Sponsors include ActiveVideo Networks, Affinegy, Cloakware, DSC, HD-PLC Alliance, Icron, Macrovision, MoCA, ProVision Communications, Radialpoint, Telcordia, and Zilog.

For information, visit www.connectionseurope.com.

Press passes are available at http://www.parksassociates.com/connectionseurope.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, hosted in Nice, France, addresses new features and services for digital media and connected consumer electronics

International research firm Parks Associates announced the preliminary agenda for CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, taking place March 31, 2009, in Nice, France.

This executive event focuses on the roles of service and technology providers, media companies, and manufacturers in creating new entertainment, communications, and lifestyle applications for consumers.

According to Entertainment 2.0 in Europe, Parks Associates’ multinational research project, the French market is a microcosm of the overall European market for advanced entertainment services. In France, 28% of broadband users watch online TV on a regular basis, and 16% of pay-TV subscribers watch movies-on-demand at least monthly. Parks Associates forecasts that IPTV and cable video-on-demand revenues in major European countries will grow from €1.1 billion in 2008 to €5.4 billion by 2013. At the same time, online video revenues will grow from €350 million in 2008 to €3.2 billion by 2013.

Summit topics include Value-added Access Services, Video Services, Digital Media Content and Delivery, Connected Consumer Electronics, and Customer Support.

Roger Pitton, Program Director, TV Business, Microsoft Corporation, will deliver the Keynote address “IPTV and the keys to keeping customers.” Confirmed speakers represent the companies Affinegy, Enure Networks, HomePlug Powerline Alliance, Icron, IO-Homecontrol, Macrovision, moreTV Broadcasting GmbH, SPiDCOM Technologies, Telcordia, and Tilgin.

CONNECTIONS Europe Summit Series is Now Accepting Speaker Submissions

The CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit Series is now accepting speaker submissions for the May 19th summit accompanying the TM Forum's Management World 2008 in Nice, France.

For all those interested in speaking at the CONNECTIONS Europe Summit France event, please complete the Call for Papers submission form: http://www.parksassociates.com/events/europe/2008/may20/call-for-papers.htm

The agenda sessions topics include the following: Digital Lifestyles: Building the European and Global Business Cases, IPTV and Television 2.0, Differentiating Video Services in a Hyper-competitive Market, Broadband, Value-added Services, and the Bundle, Adding Value to Access Services: Connectivity, Content, and the Customer, Which Connections Matter?, Connected Home and Device Management, Surrounding the Digital Home with Support, The Role of Customer Support in the Digital Home, and Consumers and Digital Media.

The second CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit will take place August 29, 2008, in Berlin, Germany.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe: Strategies for Digital Living Markets summits are produced by Parks Associates in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA®). These one-day summits provide attendees with high-level analysis and consumer research from Parks Associates, networking opportunities, and information on emerging residential and mobile technologies and services. These focused events provide a forum where executives can present and learn about vital international trends, successful strategies, and key players in the development of digital living technologies. http://www.connectionseurope.com/