Wireless Networking Panel comes to CONNECTIONS Summit at CES

On Thursady, January 8th at 9:30 AM, Kurt Scherf , VP of Research and Principal Analyst at Parks Associates, will moderate the Wireless Networking panel at the CONNECTIONS Summit at CES in Las Vegas.

This panel examines the development of multimedia wireless networking technologies and their respective applications. Topics include the latest advances such as 802.11n, wireless HDMI, UWB, and the associated solutions that can be implemented on both fixed and portable CE devices. The panel focuses on wireless technology’s capability to facilitate multimedia (especially video) consumption in the home, a key area of interest to CE vendors, service providers, and chipset developers.

Panel speakers include the following companies: AMIMON, WirelessHD, ProVision Communications, and Pulse~LINK.

Mobile Broadband in North America and Europe: Change is Key to Continuing Profitability

On Wednesday, November 12th at 12 PM ET (11 AM CT), Parks Associates and Camiant will be hosting a webcast that addresses mobile broadband in North America and in Europe.

Since mobile broadband markets are blooming, mobile carriers in Europe and North America alike see strong growth in mobile subscribers and massive growth in non-messaging mobile data traffic. Yet there are troubles on the horizon. Many carriers use rudimentary network control and business models to monetize the service. These models leave money on the table in the short term and condition abusive consumer use cases in the long term.

This webinar will address the following key focus areas: 1). Mobile broadband adoption and data traffic; 2). Market forecasts and growth trends; 3). Regional differences in business models and traffic growth patterns (Eastern and Western Europe, U.S. and Canada); 4). Managing mobile broadband network use: drawbacks and challenges; and 5). Need for more refined network controls and business models.

To sign up for this free webcast, please complete this online form: http://www.parksassociates.com/camiant/index.htm

CONNECTIONS Summit at CES addresses Customer Support in Digital Home

On Thursday, January 8th, 2009, the Digital Home Customer Support: From Troubleshooting to Upselling? panel will take place at the CONNECTIONS Summit at CES. This panel will be moderated by Kurt Scherf, the Vice President and Principal Analyst at Parks Associates.

Remote, in-store, and at-home consumer IT support services will generate $1 billion in revenues annually in the next few years, a substantial market opportunity. However, the market for these services to date includes mostly ad hoc and reactive solutions. Are we about to witness the rise of more holistic, marketing-based, and proactive applications? How can customer support move from solving one problem to selling a complete set of lifecycle-based value-adds?

The confirmed speakers for this panel include:

• Art Lancaster, CTO, Affinegy
• Anthony Rodio, Chief Operating Officer, support.com
• Fred King, VP, Sales & Marketing, PlumChoice, Inc.
• Mike Talley, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Customer Care, 2Wire
• Bill Stanley, Director, Operations Solutions, Telcordia

To view the agenda and other confirmed speakers, click here.

HomeToys supports CONNECTIONS Summit at CES

Parks Associates welcomes HomeToys as a supporting media organization of the upcoming CONNECTIONS Conference.

HomeToys recently released their monthly Home Tech Industry newsletter. The October/November issue includes highlights from Cedia Expo 2008, the HomeToys Special Show News Report, Getting Serious Energy Management, Getting VoIPed on a Home Network, It's Time to Personalize Surround Sound, Integrating Home Theater & Whole Home Audio, New Options for Technicians, Tubes You Can Use, PLC - Wireless Lighting Control, No Way to Regulate, and e-Health Opportunities. To read these topics in depth, please click here to view this month's issue.

For more information about HomeToys, visit http://www.hometoys.com/ .

An Excellent Broadband TV Primer

Parks Associates Web Cast, Broadband Video to the TV and Beyond, is an excellent primer for anyone wanting to get the most out of the upcoming Digital Hollywood and TelcoTV conferences. It is not too late to listen, as Parks Associates has the recording online. Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, combines extensive primary and secondary research together with excellent analysis to provide a clear picture of the current broadband video market.

Scherf’s presentation provides an update on the broadband video space and the various players that are distributing online video content, how online video is being monetized and the rise of networked consumer electronics as a way of viewing broadband video. He splits the broadband video space into multiple categories, including:

• DVD+electronic delivery (e.g. NetFlix)


• Broadcaster initiatives (e.g. ABC, CBS, etc.)


• Internet Video Providers (e.g. Apple TV)


• Portals (e.g. Google)


• TV on the Web (e.g. Veoh)


• Broadband Service Providers (e.g. Verizon)


• Hardware and Content (e.g. TiVo)

He makes the point that the combined revenue for theatrical box office, DVD sales and DVD rentals has been flat since 2004. As a result, all of the major content owners seen online video as a new revenue channel. Examples of the seriousness of the major content providers include:

• NBC, where 92% of viewers who start a program watch the entire program


• CBS estimates its average online video viewer is 38 years old


• ABC.com has served up 400 million episodes and 1 billion advertisements.

The major content owners are finding advertising as one way to monetize existing content, with ad rates up to $70 CPM on sites such as Hulu. The value of online advertising is more than just impressions, as ad executives surveyed by Parks Associates highly value the interactivity, reporting, immediate feedback and direct customer relationships that broadband video provides.

Broadband video allows for innovative advertising and new formats, such as overlay ads, which are much less intrusive to viewers. One of the early innovators in overlay and alternative format advertising is Blip.TV, which, according to Scherf, will be integrating onto Verizon’s FiOS service. Scherf points out broadband video may provide service providers, such as Verizon and Comcast with new advertising opportunities as well.

People are also spending money on transactional online video. Scherf suggests that the game console has become and will continue to be an important way for viewing video from the Internet (e.g. see this link on how the Play Station 2 works with video). For instance, over 5.1 million homes are using game consoles to view video. In the case of the X-Box 360, the average monthly spend is over $20 per month. Other methods for moving online video to the living room include DVD players and TVs with integrated Internet connections. To this last point, Scherf sees a general trend for a tighter linkage between content and devices.

This article captured just a few of the many jewels from this excellent webcast. Scherf ended the session with a number of provocative questions that remain to be answered. I look forward to future Parks Associates’ webcasts to help answer his questions regarding this rapidly evolving market.

Written by Ken Pyle, 10-23-2008