Issue 19, Volume 3

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* Wifi / Mobile*

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Some Portland Residents Find Problems with Wi-Fi

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Municipal wi-fi has been hyped as a way to provide free Internet access to many and to give cities a cheap, efficient means of communication. Portland, Ore., has almost finished its network. The city has a contract with a company to set up wireless connections and antennas throughout the municipal area in exchange for advertising rights. But some residents complain that the system doesn't work everywhere it should.

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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11873020

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T6 Commentary:   Lack of attention to detail or deliberate allocation of bandwidth to the heavy hitters ? Every early adaptor roll out has its quirks, missteps and unintended blind spots, considering that the Portland install is one of the first to be a fully scalable Metro Wifi in North America such issue are not unexpected. Complete coverage area is relatively straightforward in concept but can be expensive and intrusive to implement.  A good way to envision a microcosm of the situation is to look at how most hospitals are wired now a day, especially the emergency rooms.  Having recently seen much too much of the inside of Greenwich’s ER I can supply some detail. When you spend some hours looking at the hall ceilings and have time to study the ER room one tends to notice all the Wifi antennas.  The halls are full of low power omni directional wedges snuggled up tight to the ceiling tile, and long high gain hyper directions stems poking down into the rooms.  On paper this layout is fairly straight forward, but the man hours to run the miles of connecting wire, mount antennas, test, reposition, test again, double check medical equipment is not effected, and insure every intended nook and cranny are covered, and those intended to not be are not, is not trivial.  For Metro Wifi, teams of technicians are needed on call to insure the network integrity – all of which is supposed to be paid for by the agreed to advertising the provider inserts to offset the “free” infrastructure” and access. On the residential side the process often just as intensive.  Insuring complete coverage for multiple rooms – often with different 802.11 versions and speeds – involves a great deal of planning, testing and repositioning.   The many man hours spent tweaking can be all for naught if the AV installer decides to put up a plasma screen right next to one of your main access points, the designer makes an aesthetic decision and forces the Wifi transceivers into the back corner of a credenza or a tech decides to put your well placed wireless router into the equipment closet inside the rack.   

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Belkin’s Router Shows All

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N1 Vision, announced today, goes for something completely new, building in an “Interactive Network Display” that indicates network activity. The display includes a gauge showing current download speed in Megabits per second (Mbps), a list of what computers are connected to the router, how much bandwidth each computer is using, and a warning if the router is disconnected from the Internet. You can also just use it as a digital clock.

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http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3688136

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T6 Commentary:  This unit instantly reminded me of the Vyvyan of the TV series ‘The Young Ones’ says  “Oh, very handy!”. Taken in context it means this is either very cool and useful or just a flashy bit of twaddle.  Either way, at $200 US I want one to play with – Plus I can always use yet another digital clock in my house.

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* H\DTV*

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HDTV transmission startup raises $7 million

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Valens Semiconductor Ltd. (Herzliya, Israel), a developer of an integrated circuit intended to support the transmission of audio and video in the home, has said it has raised $7 million in a Series A round of equity financing.  The company is said to be working on high-definition video transmission

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http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=YWWZTMNH5LAE0QSNDLSCKHA?articleID=201001752

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T6 Commentary:  Let the HD Distribution wars begin!  The developer claims to be making a high quality centralized system using uncompressed video which will also result in longer possible cable runs then today’s HDMI and component cables.  If this claim were not enough Valens Semiconductor states the system will aim to replace a number of set-top boxes, even multiple DVR’s for different rooms, AND distributed control of all zones.  More info from the original January 29, 07 story in eetimes at http://www.eetimes.eu/197001166. With no announced project name this will be harder to track but should be exciting stuff if the company can even do have of what it claims.   If anyone has more info on these folks or the product please let me know.

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* Format Wars *

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HD DVD Gets Microsoft HDi Boost

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Microsoft's HD DVD evangelist said the company will be a difference maker in the battle between the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc format.

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The function will enable movie producers to build key extras into HD DVD discs, including the ability to download continuously changing content

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In a title soon to be announced, Collins said the connectivity will open the ability to make e-commerce purchases of certain apparel items featured in the film

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http://www.twice.com/article/CA6460745.html?industryid=23099

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T6 Commentary: The HD-DVD promotional machine appears to have finally been put in gear recently, in an all out attempt to put the HD-DVD brand on the minds and tongues of the consumer. In now having to play catch up – at least in the brand awareness category- HD-DVD is in the unenviable position of possibly sounding like an almost was to the general public.  The article above reminds me of the early days of DVD’s, in which a number of features such as instant menu access to scenes, interactive content, extras such as outtakes and alternate endings were touted as major advantages over VHS.  Note that video quality was often only briefly mentioned and the super sexy features were sold as the upgrade.  The problem was that many studios jumped to have titles out on DVD with out adding any features or with lame and uninspired extras.  I personally feel this stymied DVD sales growth for a while as only big releases had any features to crave.  These features and extras were not to be just a loss leader for the sale of the discs but were to also have a future on providing direct online access for ever changing or updated content. Only in the last few years has the latter finally come to fruition on the majority of titles but it appears studios are putting in less and less work to the releases – as if aiming for the straight ahead rental market not the home collector.  Will HD-DVD’s promise of access to new and updated content which is intended to be downloaded, be another dead end or a loss leader at best in the specifications only to wither as the format hits mass market acceptance?  Just how much sway could these ‘we can do it but Blu-Ray cannot..’ will have on the purchasing public?  My thought is- not much. Today many computers and media centers have the ability to display multiple windows, where one can view the content side by side with a web browser in which the user can look up movie info on ImDb or a thousand other reference sites, why would I need the extra content on the disc?  I can see some arguments that make a point for offline viewing but how realistic is the thought that all but the basic content will be delivered via an online ‘jacked in’ distribution network. 

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Universal Under Pressure to Support Blu-ray?

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Variety Magazine reports that the studio is being pressured to start releasing titles in the rival Blu-ray format as well.
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http://www.tvpredictions.com/universal071607.htm

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T6 Commentary:   The pressure continues on HD-DVD as  BlockBuster has settled on providing only Blu-Ray titles, numerous reports that Universal studios has pulled back on releasing HD-DVD dual format discs –(to prevent sales of Blu-Ray versions or an attempt cut losses is not quite clear)- and now Walmart announcing it will begin offering Blu-Ray players starting at $488 and you get a 7 free Blu-Ray titles-(no word on whether the titles can be chose ala carte or if the disc are pre-packaged with the player).  The Walmart machines – more info on this at http://www.tvpredictions.com/walmart071207.htm- will be severely limited in functions and output capabilities but any sub $500 machine could be a strong tipping point.

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HD DVD Shows Sales Growth

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Overall sales of HD DVD hardware grew 37 percent, while software sales growth rose 20 percent in the first quarter of 2007 according to a quarter over quarter analysis conducted by the North American HD DVD Promotional Group.

The group released its findings during the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) Home Media Expo 2007, here, Tuesday.

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http://www.twice.com/article/CA6461197.html

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T6 Commentary: In all reality the numbers quoted here do not amount to much, at least as detailed in the article. This does have a bit more teeth when combined with the even more good news for HD-DVD front- it appears HD-DVD is blowing away Blu-Ray in Europe - - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19726219/

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* New Media *

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Internet radio lives to play another day

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The recording industry has made some major concessions that will allow webcasters to stay in business while the two sides try to hammer out an agreement on royalty rates. Pandora's Tim Westergren says it's a win for musicians and listeners.

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http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/07/16/AM200707165.html

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T6 Commentary:  It appears the RIAA has heard the rumble of nearly 1million constituents calling their congressmen\women asking for action on the Internet Equity Act. I heard a fascinating interview turned debate between  soundscan and Pandora on NPR’s Marketplace. This was not a shout radio knock down fist fight but a reasoned conversation –( I know, I had to sit down as well at the shock of it all).  While the sound scan representative did his best to hold the official line it was clear the RIAA was backing down, if just a bit.

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* Audio *

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Audiovox Debuts Wireless 5.1 Home Theater Systems

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…put on a cordless phone and microwave over it to show that the wireless system could withstand any interference in the home, such as 802.11 computer networks.

The WHT6024, with a suggested retail of $899, will be available at retail this month.

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http://www.twice.com/article/CA6461067.html

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T6 Commentary:  While the custom install market is where the mega components rule, the mid market all in one systems are where the masses will get their surround sound fix.  Sure the system has limitations but its ease of install and promised interoperability with 80.11 systems means no wire runs and decent surround sound. Not great and by no means incredible – but decent. Having installed some of the all in one Sony systems for friends I cannot discredit them too much.  Would such a system, as described, work in mega home theaters? No.  But, the technology behind it could soon make its way into more substantial systems. 

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THX hears the call of consumer electronics

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the pioneering company hopes that one of its new technologies, code-named Blackbird, will revamp consumer electronics in the same way.

THX wants to enable DVDs, CDs, video games and digital downloads to communicate with the hardware they play on. The technology embedded in the content will automatically adjust settings so that visual and audio playback is optimal

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http://news.com.com/THX+hears+the+call+of+consumer+electronics/2100-1041_3-6197732.html?tag=nefd.lede

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T6 commentary:  In the year where THX turn 25, the Blackbird project looks to embed all the necessary information for perfect playback in any room any time.  I get the feeling the blackbird project would be a way to create a mobile home theater systems which could create the prefect surround sound environment no matter what size or space. The embedded content communicating with hardware that would take constant measurements of the space to continually adjust based on setup and acoustical interference.

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* Working Knowledge *

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Six months on, Vista users still griping

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Nearly six months after it launched, gripes over what doesn't work with Vista continue, eclipsing positive buzz over the program's improved desktop search, graphics and security..

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19747743/

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T6 Commentary:   The article has a link to the you tube diatribe. Just after Vista's release i tried to purchase a desktop system for my father who had been using a 98 machine for the last 10 years. Upgrading to Vista would have just been too hard for his IT-(yes, that would be me)-  support person to help teach\diagnose remotely.  I could not purchase an XP machine to save my life. After seveal attempts to convince Dell support that I needed an XP machine -(and no, I was not calling from a large fortune 500), the support person quite succinctly told me - "Vista is all we offer, end of story" .  Fast forward 4 weeks later and all the major computer vendors are gleefully announcing the availability of XP on ALL machines if requested. Oy.