CONNECTIONS Summit at CES to feature analyst roundtable, 3DTV, smartphones, connected home services, and consumer buying habits

Parks Associates will open CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES on January 6 with the session "Analyst Roundtable: The Connected Home is Here!" at 10:00 a.m., featuring expert analysis on the expansion of enhanced connectivity in the home.

Sales of Internet-capable consumer electronics will exceed 200 million worldwide in 2011. Mainstream adoption of digital technologies is reaching all corners of the home. Multiple players, including content owners, CE companies, retailers, broadband and communications providers, and energy utilities, will seek to enhance their consumer relationships through new applications, services, and features that fit with these new market demands.

• In 2011, 36% of new flat-panel TVs sold worldwide will be Internet-capable, growing to 76% of all units in 2015.

• Smartphones and Internet-capable CE remain popular purchases despite CE purchase intentions plunging from almost 50% in 2009 to 38% in 2010.

• In 2011, U.S. sales of smartphones will reach nearly 60 million, and Internet tablets, including Apple iPads , will exceed 13 million.

• By 2014, 80% of new flat-panel TVs sold in the U.S. and Western Europe will have 3D capabilities.

The analyst roundtable will feature data from recent consumer projects, including Consumer Decision Process, Residential Energy Management, Consumer Demand for Technical Support Services, and Digital Video: Three Screens and Beyond.

CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES is on the first day of 2011 International CES in the South Hall Convention Center, Rooms S206-207. Summit sessions:

Analyst Roundtable: The Connected Home is Here!
Operator Strategies: Video, Services, and Support
Monetizing Connected Consumer Electronics
Executive Roundtable: The Smart Grid and the Home Area Network
Anytime Anywhere Entertainment & Communication – Mobile Applications
Video Everywhere: Key Strategies

CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES includes support from CONNECTIONS™ Europe sponsors Accedo Broadband, ActiveVideo Networks, ADB, Gigle Networks, Latens, PacketVideo, ProVision Communications, Radialpoint, Ralink Technology Corporation, Virgin Media, and Zeitera. CONNECTIONS™ 2011 sponsors include Association Sponsor CEA and Affinegy, Allegro, HCL, iTOK, Rovi, and Roxio.

CONNECTIONS US - Now accepting speaker submissions

Interested in Presenting Your Company's Vision at CONNECTIONS 2011?

Submit today to be a speaker at the 2011 CONNECTIONS U.S Conference in Santa Clara, California.

CONNECTIONS addresses critical business issues pertaining to the converging entertainment, media, and service markets for consumers. The CONNECTIONS audience is 550+ top executives, media, and thought leaders in the digital living markets. Presentations include information and analysis on the following subjects: New Business Models; Case Study; Consumer Trends, Factors, or Research; Challenges/Opportunities; Technology Trends; Standards/
Interoperability Issues.

Event Topics include:

• ENTERTAINMENT PLATFORMS & VALUE-ADDED SERVICES
• MOBILE
• NEW MEDIA AND DIGITAL CONTENT
• CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
• HOME SYSTEMS & CONTROLS
  

Accepting submissions for this event until January 31, 2011.

Vidiator - Company Highlight

Vidiator have made a major product transition from being focused on mobile streaming (typically this means RTSP to mobile devices) to investing their resources and mobile video experience into delivering a converged HTTP streaming platform. This change has been very successful.

They now truly have a great product.

Vidiator believes they are the strongest player in the market because they offer all essential parts of the mobile video distribution from encoding to delivery. For example, they offer integration software that ensures HTTP streaming can be used with proper tracking and billing methods. Their flexible product and the fact that they go onsite and build large systems and ensure high class support to their customers, makes them unique in the business.

They are really excited to be releasing the 6th generation of our Xenon platform in the next few months. It contains delivery of iPhone, Flash and Silverlight in HD. Vidiator has a unique encode once for all formats approach where our customers can save a lot of hardware in converged solutions using our method.

Their company mission is to ensure service providers can deliver an excellent and consistent user experience on any device and network.

Irdeto's Company Highlight Continued

We feel that Irdeto is the strongest player in the market because of our ability to offer end-to-end solutions that truly meet our customers’ needs in a rapidly changing market place. Our technology is amongst the best on the market, and the flexibility of our solutions allows operators to obtain real value from the delivery of content to consumers.

For example, in the last year the Apple iPad has emerged as the hot device for “anytime, any place” premium content consumption. To the pay-TV operator, this is an opportunity to extend its brand and value as a content provider to the users of this new generation of devices. We have been one of the first in the market to help our customers realise this opportunity with the Irdeto Broadband solution, which has helped many operators around the world to maximise the value of their content via secure content delivery to any device platform, including the iPad and iPhone.

However, the same promise of “any time, any place, any device” video consumption that presents a huge opportunity for operators also presents a significant challenge when it comes to meeting studio requirements for securing premium content over the Internet for playback on portable devices. The popularity of the Apple platform, combined with the lure of premium content such as HD movies, creates an attractive target for the hacker community. In this environment, content protection becomes critical to the ongoing financial viability of a streaming video service. To combat the ongoing threat of digital piracy in this new video ecosystem, Irdeto’s Cloakware Platform utilises a Security Lifecycle Management approach to protecting digital assets throughout their economic life.

The combination of our Broadband and Cloakware solutions is a world-leading offering that is enabling our customers to take advantage of the opportunities presented by technological advances. We are striving to ensure that we will continue to provide the best solutions to meet industry needs now, and in the future.

Content submitted by Irdeto.

Radialpoint - CONNECTIONS Europe Company Highlight

Radialpoint’s mission is to partner with leading consumer technology providers (CTP’s) to address and monetise consumer technology needs & frustrations in the digital home.

Radialpoint has a number of core strengths – a white label approach to digital home services which allows large consumer technology providers to fully leverage their brands, a collaborative proposition development unit, 15 years of experience in delivering to the needs of the CT and the careful evolution of a technology platform which is now able to integrate into a variety of different technical landscapes.

Perhaps Radialpoint’s greatest strength is how we uniquely incorporate all of the above to deliver successful programs for big brands with high expectations.

In the last 12 months, Radialpoint has successfully launched 2 new Premium Support & Digital Home Services propositions with Internet Service Providers in the UK and the US.

One of the big challenges for ISP’s offering Premium Support propositions is around understanding and effectively communicating where the standard operator support ends and the chargeable support begins; when does something become out of scope, how is this best communicated, what is the alternative customer proposition and how/when should it be sold?
These projects have further strengthened Radialpoint’s understanding of the above, and specifically how consumers feel about Premium Support services in the context of being ‘extended support’ propositions for an ISP.

Interestingly, we’ve seen that the model of recurring monthly fees for Premium Support Subscriptions is beginning to remove a headache for some customers. The idea of setting up complicated new technology doesn’t need to be a barrier to purchase any more – quite the opposite in fact. The insurance of having a trusted IT advisor can actually drive purchases of new products and services (from the ISP or elsewhere) that might otherwise have been seen as just too difficult; “I’ve got someone who can help me with that….”

Probably the most interesting thing we’ve seen at Radialpoint in 2010 is around the incredibly positive effect that Premium Support Services can have on Net Promoter Scores (which is effectively a benchmark of customer satisfaction, measured by an advocacy score). But this does stand to reason. The proliferation of new networking and technical devices coming into the home has simply increased the consumers need for reliable help. What is absolutely clear is that whoever can help the consumer make sense of this new technology will create meaningful new relationships that deliver genuine customer advocacy, whilst converting support costs to profit.

For more information about what Radialpoint’s DHS Platform and Premium Support Services could do for your business, contact one of the Radialpoint team.

CONNECTIONS Europe 2010 - BESTv

The biggest challenge/obstacle for BESTv is ...

Over-the-top (OTT) and hybrid broadcast-OTT services are starting to come on the radar of many broadcasters and pay TV operators as a means for service diversification and potential new revenues. As a leading platform- and service provider for these non-linear and hybrid services, Bestv is often faced with the learning curve that the traditional broadcasters and operators have to go through to understand the implications of the new services. This learning curve can be steep, as the implications of the new broadcasting paradigm are profound and touching many areas of the business, including user experience, back-office systems, business processes, business models, and partnerships. Bestv addresses the uncertainty and facilitates rapid learning of the broadcasters and operators by allowing them to deploy Reference Solutions for new services including 3D TV, Push VOD, content recommendation and personalized advertising and by showing the business implications of each.

BESTv's strongest player in the market...

In the relatively new and unchartered waters of new non-linear television services, Bestv has been able to carve out a niche with an enabling platform that not only is most complete in the market in terms of performance, stability and features but also is the only one that is mass market deployed. The further expansion of the Bestv feature set, the underlying approved patents and the current rapid international expansion allow Bestvto consolidate this leadership position.

BESTV's greatest asset...

The rigor of our people in supporting broadcasters and pay TV operators migrate to the new television scenario and the flexibility of our solutions to support this transition.

And their mission is to to enable Premium Television for all! Thank you Giuseppe Flores d'Arcais for participating at the 2010 CONNECTIONS Europe Summit!

Irdeto Spokesperson to Define the Business Imperative, Challenges and Opportunities for Delivering Content Anytime, Anywhere and on Any Device

Irdeto spokesperson, Christopher Schouten, will illustrate why the evolution of broadband presents opportunities and challenges for operators and the importance of effective content lifecycle security to protect premium content. During the “Extending the Video Experience to Multiple Screens Evolution” panel at Connections Europe 2010, he will advise on the potential to extend brand value as content providers and operators explore new distribution opportunities across multiple platforms and devices, including mobile.

Schouten will argue that operators must address five key areas in order to implement a viable and sustainable business model that will successfully deliver video content on multiple devices:

1. How content from different sources can be managed and distributed efficiently and in real time to provide the best consumer experience.

2. How user rights can be centrally controlled and synchronized with the operator’s existing subscriber management system to provide a true “any time, any place, any device” experience.

3. How the stringent content security requirements of Hollywood studios and other premium content creators can be met, and maintained, over the economic life of the content when it is delivered over broadband and stored on portable devices and in unsecure environments.

4. How to overcome the challenges of protecting premium content through effective content lifecycle security.

5. How content can be monetized easily through online billing, end-to-end management systems with minimum effort and longevity of security systems.

Christopher is a specialist in Broadband, Digital TV and digital media technologies, especially related to content security and user experience. Christopher joined the company in 2001 and has held various positions in marketing and product management. Christopher’s focus is on enhancing the consumer experience of digital television by enabling pay-TV operators to offer highly personalized and tailored content to each individual.

Speaker Highlight: Deepak Kataria, HCL

I will be an invited panelist representing HCL ERS at Connections Europe 2010 in Amsterdam Europe, participating in a discussion on Mobile Broadband: Devices, Strategies and Consumer Demand. My co-panelists are executives from ALU, Ruckus Wireless, ng Connect, Vidiator and the event is being moderated by President of Park Associates.

This will be an interesting mix of view points from a Tier 1 OEM, a Media Platform Provider, innovative wireless technology provider, a next gen ecosystem player and us a premier system integrator and value-added engineering service provider. This panel discussion is one of several that are being conducted under the broader conference theme of monetizing connectivity and user experiences.

My panel topic is very timely and proposes to discuss tremendous growth of mobile broadband fueled by consumer demand and its impact on device manufacturers, mobile operators, other value chain partners and consumers themselves.

Clearly mobile broadband has taken off in the consumer space. 3G/HSPA and emerging 4G technologies such as LTE are enabling a wide area environment for high speed Internet access. No longer are you required to be tethered to a fixed broadband connection or be connected through a hot spot - LTE promises to enable higher than "DSL-like speeds" anywhere over the air ! The ubiquity of high speed access coupled with the ease of use of mobile devices such as through touch screen, widgets and other innovations fostered by device manufactures has escalated demand for unrestricted 24/7 Internet access.

Capitalizing on this opportunity, device manufacturers have also made a disruptive entry into the service delivery value chain by offering innovative apps and services and which can be downloaded from their app stores for a price. Service delivery from a bring privileged prerogative of the mobile operator until a few years ago, now has fierce competition from likes of:

* iPhone App Store

* Android App Market

* Blackberry App World

* Windows Mobile Marketplace

* Palm App Catalog

* Nokia Ovi Store

Device manufacturers call their devices "SMART" phones since they now control both the device and service side of the delivery chain, relegating the intermediate mobile operator to the role of a bit provider. While the mobile operator has seen a significant increase in traffic volume over their networks and have invested significant capex for base stations and backhaul equipment to support high bandwidth pipes, they are seeing themselves being "disintermediated" from the revenue value chain. The revenues from flat fee unrestricted date usage models for bandwidth access are simply not enough to keep up with declining ARPUs from voice minutes and additional upgrades needed in the network to keep up with traffic growth. Recall the consequences when a major mobile operator in the US underestimated data usage and paid heavy price for meeting performance while a device brand got away with little or no impact.

Our panel will examine how mobile operators can leverage their network resources to drive revenue growth. What type of business models they will have to adopt to sell more value-added services on top of access services ? Who are the value chain partners ? Which data applications will have a broad appeal and help operators differentiate their offerings ?

I plan to present the perspective of HCL ERS which has visibility into these issues by virtue of our work with leading device manufacturers, telecom OEMs, value-added service providers and mobile operators as well as draw upon our initiatives in adjacent vertical industries.

Posted on behalf of HCL.

Company Highlight: Irdeto's biggest challenge

The biggest challenge for Irdeto is helping our capitalize on the opportunities that new technology and consumer trends mean to their business. The key hurdle for operators and content providers is meeting the increasing consumer demand for personalised content anytime anywhere on any device. We at Irdeto call this the Media 3.0 environment. Creating an offering that meets these needs will be key to success in the coming year.

This demand is a result of changing viewing habits. As consumers spend more time simultaneously using TV and Internet in the home, content providers have the opportunity to tailor future media recommendations to the consumer’s individual content preferences.

Social networks are starting to replace traditional electronic programming guides as consumers lean toward engaging with personal contacts that they trust for content discovery and recommendations. Operators must maximise the opportunities presented by peer-influenced viewership, particularly in today’s competitive market where new Internet-enabled content platforms like Google TV, YouTube and others provide the consumer with a social and interactive viewing experience. Doing so will enable them to further monetise their assets by helping consumers make the bridge between their connected social life and TV viewing habits.

At the same time as becoming more reliant on social tools to discover content, consumers are transitioning from owning physical media and digital assets to owning rights to use digital content resident on their web, PC, portable media device, etc. A vital part of creating a profitable Media 3.0 environment is ensuring that users can access all their content across multiple platforms. This means that the traditional model of running broadcast and broadband departments as separate entities will no longer be viable.

We believe that a meaningful operator strategy for delivering content across multiple devices means a unified approach over a single infrastructure for all screens. This contrasts with most operator approaches today, where the rush to be the first to offer content over multiple devices has seen a siloed strategy for each internal division across the broadcast and new media or broadband departments.

Irdeto is committed to helping our customers overcome this challenge by ensuring that content delivered to multiple platforms is secure, assures content monetisation and protects revenue streams. This in turn, gives operators the flexibility to develop new solutions, such as social content discovery tools, that help secure loyalty in the existing customer base and attract new subscribers.

Irdeto's VP of Broadband and Media 3.0 Strategy, Christopher Schouten will be speaking on Extending the Video Experience to Multiple Screens panel at 11:30 AM on November 16th at the CONNECTIONS Europe Summit in Amsterdam.

Alcatel-Lucent, ng Connect, Ruckus Wireless, and Vidiator to discuss mobile apps and revenue opportunities at CONNECTIONS™ Europe

Executives from Alcatel-Lucent, ng Connect, Ruckus Wireless, and Vidiator will discuss new mobile broadband strategies, including ways to contend with declining voice revenues, at a special CONNECTIONS Europe session on November 15. Applications such as messaging, social networking, and multimedia are initial revenue opportunities, and once the smartphone reaches into the home network, operators can extend services to include remote access, place-shifting content, and remote home monitoring.

Parks Associates details the challenges for mobile operators, including market oversaturation and diverse user populations, in the new white paper “European Mobile Market: Beyond Price-based Strategies.” The firm illustrates the necessity of data services for mobile operators in order to compensate for the drop in voice revenues. By 2014, data will account for over 46% of mobile service revenues in Western European countries.

Parks Associates President, Stuart Sikes will moderate the session “Mobile Broadband: Devices, Strategies, and Consumer Demand,” November 15 at 2:30 p.m. This interactive session includes the following participants:

-- Andrew Bielinksi, Technical Sales Manager, Vidiator
-- Laureen Cook, Vice President, 4G/LTE Strategy - Emerging Technology and Media Group, ng Connect
-- Steven Glapa, Director, Business Development, Carrier Networks, Ruckus Wireless
-- Yves Tjoens, VP Head of Product - Motive, Alcatel-Lucent

CONNECTIONS at CES addresses Operator Strategies, Connected CE, Smart Grid, Video Everywhere

Parks Associates announced the Call For Papers for the upcoming CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES, taking place January 6 at 2011 International CES in Las Vegas. This event provides consumer data and analysis of business and marketing strategies for operators, CE manufacturers, utilities, and communications companies delivering connected devices and advanced services and applications to consumers.

During the first day of CES, Parks Associates analysts will moderate interactive panel sessions featuring leading industry executives on the following topics:

-- Operator Strategies: Video, Services, and Support
-- Monetizing Connected Consumer Electronics
-- Energy Utility Executive Roundtable: The Smart Grid & Home Area Network
-- Anytime Anywhere Entertainment & Communication
--Video Everywhere: Key Strategies

CONNECTIONS™ Summit begins with a roundtable discussion featuring Parks Associates analysts. This session will highlight key consumer and technology trends on core areas of research:

-- CE buying patterns in the recession
-- Broadband value-added services
-- Key trends in video services
-- Maturation of home networking technologies and applications
-- Consumer demand and the business case for connected CE
-- Mobile communications, broadband, and device trends
-- The new era of 3DTV
-- Trends in advertising
-- Consumer support services
-- Home systems
-- Health, energy, and home monitoring

Zenverge Showcases Industry's First Whole-home, Multi-screen DVR Implementation with RemoteGUIDE at Connections 2010

Zenverge, a leading developer of advanced media ICs, announced it will demonstrate the industry's first multi-room, multi-screen DVR implementation with a remote user interface at the Connections 2010 conference. Now shipping to qualified customers worldwide, Zenverge's current generation ICs use advanced, patent-pending algorithms and a highly optimized pipeline to deliver unprecedented media processing capabilities in a highly compact, power-efficient, and cost-effective footprint. The demos at Connections 2010 will showcase the industry's highest performance and highest density transcoding capabilities, as well as Zenverge's RemoteGUIDE capability to transport user interface and metadata to multiple displays. RemoteGUIDE uniquely allows operators to construct and distribute a rich user interface for multiple displays from a single server or gateway device without putting any additional burden on the home network while supporting the installed base of networked displays, thus significantly reducing the overall cost of deploying whole-home DVR.

In addition to demonstrating at the conference, Zenverge's CEO Amir Mobini will also be participating in a panel entitled "Future of the Set top box". For more information about this panel, click here.

Founded in 2005, Zenverge is a fabless semiconductor company devoted to accelerating consumer access to next generation digital content and services. The company is a leading developer of Advanced Media ICs built around the patented ZEN architecture, a core technology for next generation digital media devices. The company is based in Cupertino, California. For more information please click here.

CONNECTIONS Europe features Technicolor keynote & executives from ADB, HbbTV, IBM, NDS, Omniphone, OpenTV and more

The speakers for CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit: Monetizing Connectivity and User Experiences, announced today by Parks Associates, offer unique executive insight into business strategies for digital content, value-added services, connected CE, and advanced video devices and services. International research firm Parks Associates will host the Summit on April 27, 2010, at the Mövenpick Hotel in Amsterdam.

Benoit Joly, Vice-President, Home Network & Applications, Technicolor, will present the opening keynote. Other speakers:

-- Jonathan Beavon, Director, Segment Marketing, NDS

-- Paul Bristow, VP Strategy, Middleware & Consumer Experience, ADB (Advanced Digital Broadcast)

-- Ronald Brockmann, Managing Director, Europe, ActiveVideo Networks

-- Rob van den Dam, Global Telecom Sector leader IBV, IBM

-- Klaus Illgner-Fehns, Managing Director, HbbTV

-- Trond Neergaard, Founder and Managing Partner, Cloudberry Associates

-- Steve Oetegenn, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Verimatrix

-- Rolf Uwe Placzek, CEO, Acetrax

-- Kurt Scherf, VP, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates

-- Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates

-- Andrew Wajs, CTO, Irdeto

-- Olivier Wellmann, VP, Product Management, OpenTV

-- Speaker TBA, Omnifone

For information or to register, visit http://www.connectionseurope.com.

New Keynote Announced, CONNECTIONS US

Scott Birnbaum, Vice President, Samsung LCD Group will be one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming CONNECTIONS: The Digital Living Conference and Showcase.

Scott's presentation, "TV Technology in the New Age of Consumer Buying," will occur on June 9th at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Scott Birnbaum is vice president of the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) Business at Samsung Semiconductor, Inc., responsible for sales operations throughout the Americas. In this capacity, he focuses on working closely with customers to develop new applications for LCDs, while building strategic OEM relationships in the TV, PC monitor, notebook and cellular phone sectors.

Birnbaum brings with him a thorough “hands on” understanding of all aspects of the electronics value chain, leveraging more than 20 years of leadership in sales, marketing and operational management roles within the LCD, semiconductor, electronic manufacturing services and distribution industries.

Register before April 15th to receive early bird pricing.

CONNECTIONS Europe - Call for Papers

CONNECTIONS Europe is now accepting submissions for speakers at the upcoming Summit in Amsterdam on April 27, 2010. Deadline for submission is March 1.

CONNECTIONS Europe Agenda will include:

- Advanced television services
- The residential gateway and the set-top box
- Consumer buying habits, service and product preferences, and future purchase intentions
- Business models and opportunities for TV operators, content developers, advertisers, and CE companies
- Impact and market outlook for new technologies, including 3D TV

Here is the direct link to submit:
http://www.parksassociates.com/events/europe/2010/amsterdam/agenda/call-for-papers.htm

For more information about CONNECTIONS Europe, visit, www.CONNECTIONSeurope.com.

Parks Associates announces CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit Series for 2010

International research firm Parks Associates will host two CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summits in 2010. The first CONNECTIONS™ Europe of 2010 will be April 27 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This executive summit will focus on connected consumer electronics and digital media, including analysis of new monetization models and the impact of technologies such as 3D TV and smartphones.

The second CONNECTIONS™ Europe of 2010 will take place in November in Paris, France. Both events will feature Parks Associates’ expert consumer and industry research, with the company’s analysts presenting data from consumer research projects including All Eyes on Video, Consumer Decision Process, Residential Energy Management, and Digital Media Evolution.

Early sponsors for CONNECTIONS™ Europe, also members of Parks Associates’ Premier Program, include ActiveVideo Networks and PacketVideo. Visit www.parkspremier.com for more information on the Premier Program.

Parks Associates will start accepting speaker submissions for the April 2010 Summit on January 18, 2010.

European share of worldwide connected CE market approximately 40%

CONNECTIONS Europe to address connectivity, convergence as sales of connected consumer electronics double between 2009 and 2013--

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit released the preliminary agenda for its upcoming executive conference, November 4, 2009, which will feature consumer research and expert analysis on the role of connected consumer electronics (CE) and related services in the connected home ecosystem.

The event, titled The Roadmap for Connected Consumer Electronics and hosted by international research firm Parks Associates, will take place in Amsterdam at the Mövenpick Hotel. The Summit features insight into European and global consumer markets from expert analysts and high-level executives representing the top international players in the markets for advanced digital products and services.

The sale and installation of home network-enabled consumer electronics products will more than double between 2009 and 2013 to more than 100 million units annually. The European market will be particularly strong in such categories as connected TVs, game consoles, Blu-ray players, network-attached storage, alternative set-top boxes, and whole-home DVRs. Sales and installations of such products in Europe will grow from 20 million units in 2009 to almost 40 million by 2013.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit will quantify demand and address the challenges and opportunities created as these Internet-capable devices are added the network in order to share content and expand interactive services. Rob Timmer, Senior Director Net TV, BU TV, Philips Consumer Lifestyle, will deliver the event’s Keynote Address.

Summit Sessions
Connected Europe: Trends and Numbers
Defining the New Video Experience
Evolution of the “Digital Furnace”: Residential Gateways and Set-top Boxes
Business Models for On-Demand Lifestyles
Enabling Technologies: Connecting It All
Wrapping It Up – Predictions for the Next Five Years

Deadline for speaker submissions is August 28, 2009.

Visit http://www.connectionseurope.com/ to submit or to register for the event.

CONNECTIONS Call-For-Papers Extended

Are you interested in speaking at our upcoming CONNECTIONS events? If so, you have been granted some extra time to complete your online submission form. The original August 15th deadline has now been extended to Friday, August 28th.

CONNECTIONS Europe will be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands on November 4, 2009. CONNECTIONS Europe focuses on digital lifestyle solutions in Europe and around the world.

Topics include: Internet video and the TV experience; Cloud computing and advanced TV and communications services; residential gateway or set-top box?; the impact of 3D TV; the three-screen ecosystem; the interface for online and user-generated content; and the companies best positioned to lead the connected home ecosystem.

The CONNECTIONS Summit at CES will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on Thursday, January 7, 2010.

There is a dual form to make the process easier for you to submit to both events.

CONNECTIONS Submission Form: http://www.parksassociates.com/events/connections/splash/dual-cfp.htm

CONNECTIONS™ identifies key growth areas, obstacles, and opportunities for industry players

CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference & Showcase, hosted by international research firm Parks Associates, featured three days, June 2-4, of presentations and panel discussions from service providers, CE companies, software and middleware developers, and many other members of the consumer technology value chain.

Glenn Lurie, President of Emerging Devices and Resale, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, delivered the opening keynote “Embedding Wireless in Consumer Electronics” on June 2. In the following session, executives from Qualcomm, TiVo, YouTube, and Cisco addressed efforts from CE companies and content providers to deliver new video experiences to end users. PlumChoice hosted the evening networking reception.

Tricia Parks, CEO, Parks Associates, and Retrevo’s CEO Vipin Jain opened the conference on June 3 with “Navigating the Changing CE Purchase Process.” The presentation offered insight into 2008 CE purchase patterns, which showed consumers shifting away from spontaneity in their purchase decisions. Then, Kurt Scherf, VP, Parks Associates, moderated the session “Connected TV Strategies,” featuring IBM, AnySource Media, VIZIO, and Yahoo!, who discussed the implications of adding Internet connectivity to the televisions.

Joseph Ambeault, Director, Product Development and Management, Video Services, Verizon, provided the morning keynote, where he discussed the disruptive force of IP and the evolution of FiOS TV services to deliver a more personalized video experience. Eyecon Technologies sponsored the networking break.

The afternoon sessions featured speakers from Paramount Digital Entertainment, 2Wire, Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, uControl, Macrovision, and more. The sessions focused on service provider strategies, WebTV, home monitoring, connected CE, and interactive services. MoCA hosted the session “Truth in Networking,” featuring executives from Actiontec Electronics, NETGEAR, Best Buy, and D-Link.

Mitch Singer, CTO, Executive Vice President of New Media and Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., and President of Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), delivered the day’s closing keynote “Entertainment 2.0: The Future of Entertainment.” He discussed DECE’s efforts to remove the barriers for digital distribution of content. The final session of the day, “Wireless Networking & Video Consumption,” featured executives from Aceurity, AMIMON, Quantenna Communications, SiBEAM, ProVision Communications, and Celeno.

Via Licensing opened Thursday with the presentation “Ideas for addressing IPR issues for technology standards,” which described the collaboration between Via Licensing and IEEE and discussed the benefits of patent pools in helping technology companies deploy digital lifestyle solutions.

Bill Ablondi, Director, Home Systems Research, Parks Associates, presented the firm’s residential energy management research and moderated a session featuring executives from Cisco, Direct Energy, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Andres Carvallo, CIO, Austin Energy, presented the morning keynote “Building the Smart Grid,” discussing efforts in Austin, Texas, to deploy intelligent electrical systems that benefit utilities and consumers.

Thursday’s sessions featured topics on remote technical support, mobile multimedia, and wireless home controls, with participants from support.com, Telcordia, Pandora, Ortiva Wireless, Sigma Designs, and Control4, among others.

The afternoon session “Building the Holistic Support Environment” featured executives from Retrevo, Alcatel-Lucent, and Cisco Systems and discussed the expansion of customer care services for PCs and other electronics. The conference ended with the session “What’s Coming Next?”, featuring venture capitalists for the tech industry who discussed the challenging economic climate and current solutions with the best long-term outlook.

Thursday's Opening Session, Bringing the Smart Grid to the Smart Home

Bringing the Smart Grid to the Smart Home was the opening panel session on Thursday, June 4th.

Utilities and their partners are adding Smart Grid capabilities so they can shed load, accommodate alternative energy sources, and pinpoint outages. For consumers, benefits include reduced energy bills, enhanced comfort and convenience, and a smaller carbon footprint. This panel brings together companies leading Smart Grid initiatives through new technologies, systems, and business models.

Panel speakers include:
Sanket Amberkar, Marketing Manager, Network Systems Solutions, Cisco
Christopher Deutschen, Senior Manager, Product & Business Development, Direct Energy
Dr. Kenneth Wacks, Member, GridWise Architecture Council, U.S. Department of Energy
Bill Ablondi, Director, Home Systems Research, Parks Associates; panel moderator