Cloud Media tops CONNECTIONS 2011 Agenda

Parks Associates released the preliminary agenda for the 2011 CONNECTIONS Conference, featuring the core topic areas of mobility and communications, entertainment and content, connected consumer electronics, and cloud-based value-added services.

The three-day event, June 28-30 at Santa Clara, Californina, offers a unique mix of market research presentations, trending data, insight from industry leaders, and discussion of the current strategies and future challenges in providing connectivity and technology services for consumers.

Cloud media is an important topic at this year’s CONNECTIONS due to the challenges for this market in reaching its tremendous potential. Parks Associates research finds consumers are highly interested in the cloud concept, notably the prospect of having anytime, anywhere access to their media. However, less than one-third of U.S. broadband households see the value of the digital locker concept specifically for music, photo, or video content, due in large part to current fragmentation of the market.

For more information, visit www.connectionsus.com.

Connected TVs in the managed video realm - announcements from Widevine and ADB today

There were a couple of announcements today that point to an expanded role for connected TVs beyond "over-the-top" video. Instead, the connected TV can also serve as a gateway for managed video services. Companies such as Verimatrix, Clearleap, thePlatform, Cisco, Motorola, ActiveVideo Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens, and Ericsson have all made recent announcements in this area.

Now, ADB has joined the fray, offering a solution called the Virtual Gateway. This sofware solution distributes multimedia capabilities throughout the home. Some use cases that ADB highlights are a user's ability to enjoy pay-TV, music and videos from wherever they are in the home: subscribers can use their gaming consoles to tune to a pay-TV channel or watch recorded programs, or access music tracks and videos stored on their DVR and play them on their smart phones.

Also, Widevine continues to make announcements regarding its adaptive streaming solution. The company announced that it has signed a global agreement with LG Electronics (LG) to distribute Widevine’s live and on-demand adaptive streaming, virtual DVD controls and digital rights management (DRM) on LG connected products. Widevine’s DRM and adaptive streaming software are already included in 2009 models of LG Blu-ray players and home theaters shipped in the United States. This agreement enables LG to expand distribution to more devices, on a worldwide basis.

Widevine’s video optimization and DRM platform will now be included on a wide variety of additional LG products, including connected TVs. Widevine’s video optimization technology ensures that consumers using LG products receive an excellent quality of viewing experience for both live and on-demand content. Widevine’s DRM keeps premium content secure, regardless of the LG device to which it is delivered .

thePlatform Selected by Outdoor Channel for Online Video Publishing

thePlatform, the leading white-label video management and publishing company, announced that its mpx Beta video management system has been chosen to manage and publish online video for Outdoor Channel's popular website, OutdoorChannel.com. In addition, the network is using thePlatform's video player technology, including features for sharing video across social networks.

Outdoor Channel, America's leader in outdoor TV, broadcasts prominent outdoor programs focused on hunting, fishing, shooting, off-roading, adventure, and conservation. The network is available through a multitude of cable, satellite and telco providers across the United States, reaching 36 million homes, according to Nielsen Media Research.

OutdoorChannel.com, Outdoor Channel's comprehensive online platform, is the premier digital destination for outdoor enthusiasts, offering in-depth show and host pages, useful information on state hunting and fishing licenses and destinations, and an interactive community section where fans can connect and share their passion. The centerpiece of OutdoorChannel.com is a state-of-the-art broadband video player that enables users to watch an extensive library of thousands of videos – the majority in an HD viewing experience.

In addition to using thePlatform's centralized video management system, mpx Beta, Outdoor Channel is also utilizing the social media capabilities of thePlatform's video player. The player includes 10 integrations with leading social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Yahoo! Buzz, and provides Outdoor Channel with the flexibility to add more.

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TV. Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. thePlatform currently provides online video management services to numerous programmers, leading media companies, and five of the top cable TV service providers in North America, including the largest "TV Everywhere" deployments.

thePlatform Unveils New Capabilities to Support Online Video Businesses

Media companies and content owners face an expanding challenge trying to publish their video assets across multiple devices with varying rights restrictions and advertising obligations. ThePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, launched a suite of new features to enhance its customers' ability to enforce video business policies, monetization models, and content restrictions using the company's mpx Beta video management system.

Specifically, mpx Beta now includes new tools for creating and managing curated video feeds, integrated support for applying advertising policies, and additional capabilities to enforce viewing restrictions for TV shows, live events, movies, clips, and more. In addition, the company published a new security white paper on best- practices, including methods of securing content between storage and the CDN (content delivery network), and in various playback scenarios.

Introduced by thePlatform earlier this year, mpx Beta offers features to make managing large content libraries easier; versatile tools to enable more business models across an ever-expanding number of websites, mobile devices, and set-top-boxes; and a continuing commitment to enterprise class performance. The new enhancements to mpx Beta features include: Curated Feeds Drive More Video Views, Advanced Restrictions, Integrated Advertising Policy Management, and New Media Security White Paper.

For more information, click here.

CONNECTIONS EU: Defining the New Video Experience

The consumer video experience is incorporating more than just television and movie content. This CONNECTIONS Europe panel identifies the near- and long-term roadmap for the shape of television, video, and entertainment consumption from both CE and service perspectives: New services as supplements to the core video experience; Integrating mobile, online, and PC content into the three-screen ecosystem; The emergence of 3D video and gaming solutions; Cloud services to the set-top box; and Visual networking – bringing social networking to the TVisual networking – bringing social networking to the TV.

Panelists include:
Ronald Brockmann, Managing Director, ActiveVideo Europe
Richard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist, Rovi Corporation
Patrik Nilsson, Director, Adobe
Geof Todd, Director of Sales & New Business Initiatives, NDS

Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates will be moderating this interactive session.

TANDBERG Solution at the Forefront of Seamless Video Integration Into Any Unified Communications Platform

Telepresence and video conferencing have been instrumental in helping businesses address the challenges of recent economic pressures, such as travel reductions and employee productivity. The ROI for both group and "personal" video will be further realized through seamless integration into a unified communications (UC) platform. The TANDBERG end-to-end solution delivers unrivaled H.323/Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) dual stack capabilities to bridge the world of existing telepresence and video conferencing solutions with VoIP and UC so businesses can make the most of their investments.

With the ability to support richer features such as presence, messaging, and advanced telephony features, SIP is the most widely used signaling standard to bring business tools together in a UC environment. However, with many video conferencing products using either H.323 or proprietary signaling protocols, integrating video with UC platforms and UC desktop video clients can be costly and challenging. TANDBERG has solved this issue with its Video Communication Server (VCS), which enables SIP and H.323 interworking without any investment in additional hardware or software. This allows seamless interoperation of all TANDBERG products with third-party vendors and tools such as Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and VoIP PBXes.

TANDBERG has long encouraged open standards supporting interoperability among all vendors' products and services. With this focus, the company has built the industry's broadest and easiest to use telepresence and video product solution set, which supports both H.323 and SIP protocols at the same time. This enables third-party, legacy, and future video products -- as well as other business critical tools -- to work together on a UC platform without a heavy investment in upgrade costs. With no hardware to replace for future upgrades, customers can be assured that the infrastructure they deploy today can remain in place to support future SIP deployments.

For more information, please visit www.TANDBERG.com.

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.

TiVo, YouTube, Cisco address Online Content and Consumer Electronics

Following AT&T’s opening Keynote by Glenn Lurie, the opening session at CONNECTIONS™ - The Marriage of Online Video to CE features the following speakers:

• Tara Maitra, VP, General Manager, Content Services & Ad Sales, TiVo
• Brent Hurley, Strategic Partner Development Manager, YouTube
• Ken Wirt, VP Consumer Marketing, Cisco Systems

This panel discusses how consumer electronics companies and content providers are working together to deliver new video experiences to end users, with analysis of early deployments, current business models, and future services.

Video Usage: Europe versus U.S.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe will feature several sessions – including All Eyes on Video Service Evolution – examining the strategies of the providers driving European-led efforts for online video – and how they differ from the U.S.

These companies include broadband and television providers looking to differentiate and add value to their existing access services as well as content owners such as the BBC, Canal, BSkyB, and broadcasters. Already the European market is shaping up differently than the U.S. market. For one, the European model will likely be more integrated with existing services and less “over-the-top” than is typical in the U.S. While U.S. service providers are all scrambling to provide online video services to complement their existing access services, the Europeans will have more success by integrating so-called over-the-top content with their services and their customer premise equipment.

Such integration of content and services could help counter a worrisome trend in online video for Western Europe. Parks Associates’ Entertainment 2.0 in Europe found a relatively high percentage of broadband households, including almost one-third in Spain, watch videos online only because they are free. If given the choice (i.e., if they have to pay for it), the vast majority of broadband households in Western Europe prefer more traditional means of watching video, either at the cinema or on DVD.

Panelists at CONNECTIONS™ Europe will focus on the implications of this finding as well as ways to counter it or work within to meet customers’ needs while still maintaining a viable business model.