January 10, 2011
Volume XXXIII, Issue 8
BitTorrent Surpasses 100 Million Active Monthly Users
BitTorrent's massive user base has now achieved an unprecedented level, underscoring the company's ability to provide new distribution opportunities for content creators.
The company, whose advanced technologies efficiently move large files across the Internet, announced the key milestone of growing to over 100 million worldwide monthly users of its two software products - the original BitTorrent Mainline and the iconic uTorrent.
"This is an exciting day for our team. Our vision is to build a complete technology ecosystem comprised of software, content, and devices, designed to connect modern content creators with a massive digital audience," said Eric Klinker, CEO at BitTorrent. "This milestone highlights the size of our user base and the power of our software."
Additional user statistics at the current level of growth now include: average daily active users of over 20 million; average daily client downloads of over 400,000; 52 languages supported; and clients checking in from over 220 countries every day.
In 2010, BitTorrent unveiled new initiatives to make the BitTorrent user base more accessible to forward-thinking content creators, including a new Spotlight Artist program to help content creators distribute independent works.
The company has also directly distributed a number of films in partnership with VODO, including Pioneer One, Yes Men, Four Eyed Monsters, and an album from PAZ.
The frequent result has been enthusiastic reception by the BitTorrent community - a highly engaged audience of tech-savvy consumers.
At CES this week in Las Vegas, NV, BitTorrent privately showcased future capabilities.
MOG Will Come Installed on Verizon 4G Android Phones
Excerpted from TechCrunch Report by Jason Kincaid
Here's some big news for MOG, the premium music service that lets you pay $10 a month to stream an unlimited number of songs to your computer and your mobile devices (the mobile apps also let you download entire albums to your phone and save them locally, which is very handy).
This week, the company has announced that it's landed a deal with Verizon, and it's a big one: MOG will come preinstalled on all 4G Verizon Android phones. MOG will also be featured in Verizon's V CAST app store, and users will be able to sign up for MOG accounts using Verizon carrier billing.
This is a big win for MOG, which has the challenge of convincing people to pay for a subscription music service (no easy feat) and is up against some strong competitors like Rdio and Spotify (if it ever launches in the US).
The exposure to millions of Verizon users will be nice, and I suspect that many people are going to be eager to "test" their 4G connections as soon as they get their hands on a phone that supports it - mass downloading of albums sounds like a good place to start. And carrier billing is key too, as users won't have to pull out their credit cards.
Verizon will almost certainly be taking a chunk of MOG's revenues for users that sign up via the preinstalled app, but in the long term this may prove worth it. At this point we're in a sort of landgrab for streaming music service customers - each service will eventually have very similar libraries (they already do in most cases), and users may well stick with the same provider for years.
Sorry international users, MOG is US-only. But so is Verizon.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 Congratulations to Gary Shapiro and the entire Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) team for a highly successful 2011 International CES.
And thanks to all who participated in our standing-room-only (SRO) first-ever CONTENT IN THE CLOUD Conference at CES.
More detailed information about the event, including the conference agenda and copies of keynote presentations is available here.
The Opening Keynote - Vision for Content in the Cloud - was presented by Dr. Geng Lin, Chief Technology Officer, IBM - Cisco Systems Alliance. Cloud computing can dramatically impact many aspects of entertainment delivery from transcoding to storage to distribution to payment collection to performance measurement. Geng introduced this conference's subject matter with a look at its potential for key verticals.
The second CITC Keynote - Cloud Vision vs. Technical Reality - was presented by David Rips, President, Verizon Digital Media Services. Is the cloud up to the challenge of consumer content demand that is stretching the bounds of today's infrastructure? David offered a different perspective, focusing on massively scalable network capacity, advanced technology capability, and significant capital investment - the building blocks of the digital media future.
Panel Discussion 1 - The Impact on Consumers of Implementing Cloud Computing for Media Storage - featured Todd Weaver, CEO, ivi TV; Mike Lewis, Founder, Kapost; Christopher Allen, General Manager, Napster; Scott Brown, GM US, VP of Strategic Technology Partnerships, Octoshape; Guillermo Chialvo, Gerente de Tecnologia, Radio Mitre; Jim Cady, President & CEO, Slacker; Louisa Shipnuck, Director, Marketing & Strategy, Verizon Digital Media Services; and Anne-Carole Nourisson, VP Licensing, Vivendi Mobile Entertainment. Panelists discussed how cloud storage affects users' ability to access entertainment content and what cloud delivery of music, games, movies, and other media means to consumers.
The third CITC Keynote - Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content for Consumers: Ubiquity, Cost, Portability Improvements - was presented by Rob Shambro, Chairman & CEO, GenosTV. Cloud-based solutions offer consumers a number of clear advantages over older methods of online content distribution. Rob talked about how his new entrant fits in the very fast-growing digital video delivery space.
The fourth CITC Keynote - Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content for Consumers: Privacy, Reliability, Security Issues - was presented by Jim Burger, Member, Dow Lohnes. What have various industries experienced with inadvertent leaks or intentional hacking of confidential data? When users go offline, how can they mitigate inaccessibility to their applications or losing data accidentally? And what happens if a cloud provider goes out of business? Jim offered an overview of strategic legal considerations.
Panel Discussion 2 - The Impact of Cloud Computing on the Entertainment and Telecommunications Industries - featured Stephen Condon, Director of Market Development, AT&T; Sean Barger, CEO, Equilibrium; Mike West, CTO, GenosTV; Alex Limberis, VP Business Development, Next Issue Media; Mike; Ian Donahue, Co-Founder, RedThorne Media; Mark Friedlander, National Director, New Media, Screen Actors Guild (SAG); Mark Vrieling, CEO, ScreenPlay; and Kurt Smith, VP, Sales, Verizon Digital Media Services. Content rights holders and broadband network operators are concerned that cloud storage could affect the way they manage their intellectual property (IP) and utilize network resources. Panelists offered diverse and valuable insights on this critical issue for both industries.
The fifth CITC Keynote - Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content to the Entertainment and Telecommunications Industries: Efficiency, Control, Flexibility Improvements - was presented by Jonathan King, SVP, Business Development, Joyent. Cloud-based solutions provide a number of clear advantages for content rights-holders and broadband network operators over older methods of online content distribution. Explore these benefits in this strategic overview, including highlights of Joyent's offerings for entertainment and media companies and Internet service providers (ISPs).
The sixth CITC Keynote - Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content for the Entertainment and Telecommunications Industries: Infrastructure, Disruption, Accountability Issues - was presented by Claude Tolbert, VP, Business Development, BitTorrent. What problems do rights-holders face in adopting their internal content management processes to cloud-based media storage? What does the on-demand always-accessible nature of cloud-based entertainment delivery mean to conventional distribution systems? What new kinds of liabilities does the cloud present to participants in the distribution chain? Claude provided insights into BitTorrent's newest offerings that overcome such drawbacks.
Panel Discussion 3 - The Impact on Consumer Electronics Manufacturers of Cloud Computing Deployment - featured Mick Bass, VP, Deluxe Advertising Services, Deluxe; Les Ottolenghi, CEO & Founder, Fuzebox; Alexander Marquez, Director, Intel Capital; Guy de Beer, CEO, Playcast; Michael Papish, Product Development Director, Rovi Corporation; AJ McGowan, CTO, Unicorn Media; and Stuart Elby, CTO, Verizon Digital Media Services. Our expert panel examines the implications of remotely accessing applications and data that must be integrated into networked end-user devices. A look at servers and other edge storage hardware products rounds out the discussion.
The seventh CITC Keynote - Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content to Consumer Electronics Manufacturers: Advanced Capabilities, New Features, Cost Advantages - was presented by John Griffin, Director of Connected Electronics, Dolby Laboratories. Cloud-based solutions open up many possibilities for CE manufacturers. John explained how cloud computing is being adopted now and the newest offerings from Dolby in this arena.
The Closing Keynote - The Years Ahead for Cloud Computing - was presented by Mark Teitell, General Manager, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE). Mark ended our day with a comprehensive overview of the benefits and drawbacks of cloud-delivered content for CE manufacturers: expanded opportunities for new products and features at various price points; challenges for interoperability and data security; and advantages of cloud-based solutions for popular entertainment. Mark offered thoughtful insights into the many strategic considerations involved in adopting cloud computing by participants throughout the distribution chain.
For readers who missed the opportunity to attend this valuable and stimulating event, we strongly encourage you to review the keynote presentations available online here. Share wisely, and take care.
Octoshape Launches New Cloud-Based Content Delivery Service
Octoshape this week launched Cloudmass, a cloud-based content delivery service that provides instant and flexible global infrastructure that dynamically expands and contracts to best deliver top-quality video via the Internet.
"Content delivery service performance has long been tied to the assumption that distance (proximity of servers to clients) equals quality, which has seen the growth of sprawling CDN networks to ensure that delivery from the edge of their networks over the last mile to the end user is optimal."
The offering aggregates the resources of cloud service providers, who together can dynamically create the largest global cloud streaming infrastructure available. Capacity planning and last-minute equipment deployment typical with fixed content delivery network (CDN) approaches are a thing of the past. All of this comes at a fraction of the cost of today's traditional infrastructure.
Cloudmass was designed to perform in centralized, shared, cloud infrastructures due to its unique ability to deliver high quality video globally without the traditional requirements of server or network infrastructure at the edge. Cloudmass dynamically grows and contracts based on the real-time needs of content owners' audience demands. It rewrites the economics for traditional streaming infrastructure for which the capacity needs to be negotiated, planned and reserved in advance.
"The keys to success with large audience demand is achieving resilient scalability to deliver HD-quality content to an increasingly global audience, but without the time and costs associated with pre-preparing fixed network resources that are inherently inflexible and lack necessary reach," explained Scott Brown, US General Manger for Copenhagen-based Octoshape.
With Cloudmass, all required resources are dynamically amassed on an as-needed basis, sharply reducing the capital and operational expenses that come with provisioning and building network facilities that could go unused and become a stranded investment because of the on-again, off-again needs of content owners.
"Content delivery service performance has long been tied to the assumption that distance (proximity of servers to clients) equals quality, which has seen the growth of sprawling CDN networks to ensure that delivery from the edge of their networks over the last mile to the end user is optimal," explained Colin Dixon, senior partner, at TDG Research, a digital media research and advisory firm. "The Cloudmass approach refutes the distance equals quality equation by employing far more flexible global cloud resources, delivering potentially huge savings and cost avoidance in capital and operational expenditures."
Cloudmass uses innovative software that works with cloud service providers to auto provision network resources based on audience demand. Cloud service providers like Amazon, Softlayer, Rackspace, AT&T and Microsoft collectively offer infrastructure resources that blanket the planet. Drawing from this global cloud infrastructure enables content streamers of all types to reach a broader audience without paying for the network and server resources traditionally necessary to ensure performance - and their accompanying operational expenses.
Streaming media innovator Octoshape provides the enabling technology required for content owners to deliver online video over best-effort public networks to the largest audiences and with the highest-quality viewing experience. The company is writing the next chapter of content delivery for IPTV services over the Internet. The Octoshape approach is more scalable, flexible and affordable than traditional CDN schemes, while providing feature-rich, high-quality viewing to the largest of audiences.
Safe Communications Protects Children from Online Dangers
Safe Communications opened beta registration at CES for MouseMail, the revolutionary patent-pending online security service that protects children from vulgar, sexual, or bullying e-mails, text messages, and social networking interactions. This free service empowers children to be helped by their parents in screening e-mails and text messages and monitoring other online activity for questionable or objectionable content.
MouseMail.com is the only messaging platform that flags and blocks messages containing offensive, bullying, or sexually-suggestive language before the child receives them, while allowing for communication with approved contacts. The fully-operational beta phase launched January 6th with several new services designed to create a safe digital environment for children.
"Technological advancements have done great things for our children's education, but they have also made virtually all kids more vulnerable to cyber-bullying and online predators," said former Secretary of Education and Drug Czar William J. Bennett, a senior Advisor to Safe Communications. "We can never do enough to keep our children safe. The tools that MouseMail.com provides alert parents to their children's e-mail, text messaging, and social networking activity without hindering their access to the benefits of technology."
The Active E-mail Filtering and Active Text Filtering services of MouseMail.com will now be available free for parents to set-up and operate with their children. Text messages and e-mails that contain inappropriate, suggestive, or threatening words or phrases are automatically blocked. Text messages and e-mails from unapproved senders will be held for parental screening before being delivered to a child's device.
"MouseMail.com services give parents no-cost control and peace of mind," said John P. Venners, President of Safe Communications. "Children's access to these technologies is a fact of life, and parental involvement in their digital communications is vital to keeping them safe. Safe Communications' goal with MouseMail.com is to provide a free and easy-to-use way for parents to take control from online predators and bullies and create a safe digital environment for our children."
The next generation of technology, to be released later this month, also marks the integration of several new features that add extra security on top of the filtering services. Social Website Scanning and Global Scan Technology monitor social networking sites - including Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and YouTube - as well as blogs and other websites for questionable content posted on the child's page or written about them by another user.
"The emerging and evolving technologies driving online communications are shaping our children's generation, so it's vital that they learn how to use them responsibly," said Les Ottolenghi, Chairman of the Board of Safe Communications and Founder of AgentWare, INTENT MediaWorks, and Fuzebox. "MouseMail.com allows kids to experiment with these technologies while alerting parents to potential problems."
Three-out-of-four 12- to-17-year-olds own a cell-phone. Fully 88% of teen cell-phone users send text messages, with more than half of all teens sending text messages daily. Between 20 and 40% of children and teens have been cyber-bullied. At least 15% and as many as one-in-five teens have sent sexually suggestive photos of themselves to someone else. Three-out-of-four parents are unsatisfied with the privacy protections offered by social networking sites, while 79% of teenagers think their friends share too much personal information online.
Safe Communications provides open and secure family communications that are in step with today's advances in the social media. While protecting parents' most precious asset, their children, the company's systems are designed to enhance the quality and frequency of day-to-day communications among family members. Safe Communications allows users to experience the marvel of advanced technology without fear or danger.
Safe Communications' products, led by MouseMail.com, are designed for the modern family on the go. Early detection devices warn parents of potential abuse and inappropriate content allowing secure, open exchange with loved ones and friends.
Just as your child is not allowed to enjoy a ride in the car without a seat belt, Safe Communications designs products so that your children can enjoy the electronic ride without being exposed to potential harm or abuse.
Cloud Computing Vendors Ring in New Year with Big Funding Boosts
Excerpted from CRN Report by Andrew Hickey
Cloud computing vendors may be popping the bubbly well into the new year, as a handful of promising cloud computing start-ups have started off 2011 with sizable financial injections to get the ball rolling.
And the early influx of cash to kick off 2011 comes on the heels of many more cloud computing up-and-comers that closed out 2010 with late-year funding to help them dig their claws deeper into the channel.
The windfall of cash to cloud computing start-ups is a sign that the excitement around cloud computing is just as fervent, if not more so, in 2011 as it was in 2010.
"Cloud computing is even hotter this year," said Paul Burns, President of Neovise, a cloud computing and IT management analyst firm. "There is a ton of innovation, much of it happening in start-up software vendors."
According to Burns, while the funding kick for cloud computing start-up vendors is expected to continue throughout the year - and probably at a faster clip and with bigger amounts than in 2010 - cloud acquisitions may also best those of last year.
"Some in that same category are getting acquired," he said. "I expect a lot more acquisitions and investments in cloud computing in 2011. This will be a multiyear process of vendors and service providers building out the 'best' portfolio."
Among the companies to get a boost is self-service cloud automation provider Skytap, which this week secured a $10 million purse to help it bulk up its cloud automation presence. The $10 million Series C round of funding was led by OpenView Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Ignition Partners, Madrona Venture Group, and Washington Research Foundation.
Skytap's plans are to use the funds to pump up sales and marketing efforts, and the channel is going to play a big role. Last year, Skytap joined forces with CSC to power CSC's CloudLab, and Sundar Raghavan, Skytap's chief product and marketing officer, said more partnerships are in the works.
"We think by investing strategically in that area [the channel] we can grow quite a bit," he said.
Also this week, cloud computing security player Symplified announced that it closed a $9.2 million Series B round of venture capital financing, which brings its total funding to $18.8 million. The company plans to continue to flex its cloud security muscle later this year with additional Series C expansion capital. Symplified offers an identity management suite for the cloud, tackling single sign-on, access control and identity management for both public and private cloud applications.
And cloud computing application and software company Cloudpic Global, based in Asia with R&D in the US, brought in $6 million in investment to continue building out cloud computing applications for the digital entertainment industry.
The recent cash infusions for Skytap, Symplified, and Cloudpic follow a booming December where companies like Standing Cloud, an SMB service to install and use open-source cloud applications, and Factual, a cloud data-aggregation player, raked in $3 million in funding and $25 million in funding, respectively. In the same month, others like cloud storage player Nasuni brought home a $15 million boost, bringing its total raised to $23 million; and Cloud Engines, maker of the portable, personal storage and sharing cloud the Pogoplug, received $15 in financing from new and existing investors to expand the distribution of the Pogoplug service and devices.
Meanwhile cloud database maker Clustrix, which develops a clustered, key-value store system with its Clustered Database Systems (CDS) that is leveraged by large web applications, took in an additional $12 million in VC cash through Series B funding in December, bringing its total haul to $30 million. Like its other well-funded cloud computing vendor brethren, Clustrix plans to flex its financial muscle to bulk up sales and marketing efforts and product development.
Mark Hill, Board Chairman for cloud infrastructure player BlueLock and managing partner at Collina Ventures, a private investment firm specializing in technology, said the big push to fund cloud ventures signals the market's acceptance that cloud computing will be a dominating infrastructure going forward and that buying servers will be a thing of the past.
"VCs tend to like to invest in businesses that have traction. They tend not to invest in ideas," Hill said, adding that 2010 and into 2011 showed that cloud computing is real and no longer just hype and tall talk.
Skytap CEO Scott Rosa added that the cloud computing market is at its tipping point and investors are hot on its potential growth.
"There are something like 650 to 700 VCs in North America and most of them haven't done a cloud investment," he said. "In the last two months we've had a half-dozen VCs and a number of banks approach Skytap about funding requirements. They all have money they have to put to work."
Burns was also quick to caution that the cash infusions many small cloud computing startups are receiving show that it's not just hype driving the investment in cloud computing vendors.
"There's hype, and there's people who put their money behind things," he said, adding that VCs and investors tend not to funnel millions of dollars based on hype alone.
And cloud computing solution provider Appirio, which in February 2009 closed out a $10 million Series C funding round, said the VC community has been eyeing cloud startups for a while, but the increase in investment activity shows that cloud computing is now on nearly every CIO wish list.
"VCs have been pouring money into cloud computing startups for years," Appirio CEO Chris Barbin said. "Now that cloud technologies are on the priority list of almost every enterprise CIO and even mandated to federal agencies, it's not surprising to see an uptick in investment. The interesting thing will now be to see which cloud investments start to pay off - is it infrastructure, platform, apps, or even emerging categories such as cloud brokerages?"
Just where cloud investments will pay off most is still up in the air. Burns suggests that it will be on the cloud computing infrastructure and service provider sides; while Skytap's Rosa suggested that cloud management and cloud automation, where Skytap plays, will be a big winner for investors. Collina Ventures' Hill pegged cloud infrastructure and cloud security as the big draws moving forward, but added that investors will be attracted to companies that that have found a "focused niche," whether that niche is technological, vertical, or geographical.
Regardless of which segment most prospers, the market and the opportunity for investors and cloud computing vendors will continue to snowball, Hill said.
"It's going to accelerate," he said. "What's going to happen is we're going to see some companies continue to have success and need more capital and the stakes are going to get higher. There has been a lot of hype and now's the time to deliver value."
Neovise's Burns agreed. "Long story short: it doesn't feel to me like we hit that peak yet with funding and acquisitions," Burns said. "The VCs are out there looking at it and saying 'there are a lot of people moving this way.' They see this huge market that's nowhere near done growing and look for places to invest."
More Cloud Computing Players Emerge
Excerpted from DeepMarket Report
Akamai has been in the cloud business for ten years now. It specializes in optimizing the cloud so that the applications that run on it have a significant increase in performance. This in effect would result in a significant savings in operating cost for its clients.
Akamai began in 1995 when an efficient way of delivering content over the Internet was being studied and researched by the people at MIT. Little did they know that their undertaking would soon result in a company that provides excellent cloud computing solutions. Their more than 73,000 servers located all across the globe ensure that its clients' needs are fully met.
VMware is one of the leading providers of a virtualized infrastructure for cloud access. The company provides a robust cloud infrastructure to its clients. It concentrates mainly in delivering a secure solution that is specifically tailored to its clients' needs. Some of the technology that it utilizes are the vFabric line of servers that hosts cloud applications, vSphere technology, vCloud and vCenter just to name a few.
The company started in 1998 and is currently based in Palo Alto, CA. Its desktop products run on the three popular operating systems today which are Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.
OpenStack is a cloud computing company that uses open source technology to deliver a cloud solution to its clients. This is the fastest growing cloud company today due mainly to the involvement of NASA and Rackspace in the company's development. What makes this undertaking unique is that anyone can contribute their ideas to this community.
Currently the technology that it is using is OpenStack Compute and OpenStack Storage. OpenStack Compute is the technology that is used to control the cloud applications. OpenStack Storage on the other hand is the software used to efficiently store data so that they may be accessed and modified quickly.
Heroku is one of the cloud computing companies that is in the spotlight this year since its acquisition by Salesforce.com. The technology that it uses is the Ruby on Rails platform. Its main advantage is that clients can spend more time in developing their cloud based applications and need not bother about the details of serve r management.
The company which was founded in 2007 is now hosting more than a hundred thousand cloud apps. One of its popular cloud apps is FlightCaster. This application can predict whether a particular flight would arrive on time or be delayed. It can make predictions up to 6 hours in advance.
Twilio is a promising cloud computing company that concentrates more on voice and SMS based cloud apps. The company is a new player in the cloud computing scene and run by young and energetic professionals. Its core business model is in web-based communications and it can provide its clients with specific solutions to achieve their targets.
The technology involved looks simple. The Twilio servers act as the link between your application and a caller. Once your customer calls, Twilio servers accept the call and send the request over to your application. Your application will then send the correct feedback to Twilio. Twilio will then be providing the caller with the appropriate response such as reading a text, playing mp3 music or gathering input.
UltraViolet Targets Going Live by Mid-2011
Excerpted from Multichannel News Report by Todd Spangler
The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), a cross-industry consortium aiming to build the equivalent of an ATM network for digital entertainment content, expects its UltraViolet-branded system will be ready to support commercial services and devices by mid-2011.
UltraViolet is supposed to let someone buy a piece of digital media once and then download or stream it to different devices - such as PCs, connected TVs, game consoles, smart-phones and tablets - after logging into an account, similar to the way cash machines authorize bank transactions.
DECE now has more than 60 members including Comcast, Cox Communications, CableLabs, Sony, NBC Universal, Best Buy and Netflix. The group announced that several additional companies have joined in recent months, including Akamai Technologies, Arxan Technologies, BSkyB, Dell, Fujitsu and Fanhattan.
"As a founding member of DECE, we're proud of the tremendous progress that's been made to expand the ability for households to view their collections of content across so many current devices and to provide the platform for future devices yet to come," Comcast Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning Mark Coblitz said in a statement.
Six of Hollywood's largest studios -- Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Entertainment - are DECE members.
However, The Walt Disney Co. is currently sitting out from the DECE initiative. Apple, whose iTunes represents one of the biggest retail channels for digital media, also is not on board with UltraViolet.
On Thursday, DECE provided more specific details on the UltraViolet Account system. Under its current plan, each household will be able to create an account for up to six members who can access the household's UltraViolet movies, TV and other entertainment via participating retailers, streaming providers and devices. Consumers also will be able to register up to 12 devices so UltraViolet content can be downloaded to those devices, or shared among UltraViolet devices.
In addition, DECE released an evaluation suite of technical specifications for the UltraViolet ecosystem. These include: the DECE Common File Format, which allows the use of multiple DRMs on the same encoded asset; and technical design specifications for each major category of company spanning content providers, retailers, streaming services, device and application providers, and digital distribution infrastructure providers.
To promote the format's adoption, DECE intends to make the Common File Format widely available for use in other areas of video content preparation and delivery. The consortium said details of this effort will be announced in the coming months.
"Today's announcement that UltraViolet is ready shows that the entertainment and technology communities have made good on their promise to give the world a new, user-friendly digital standard for collecting movies and TV shows in the digital age," DECE General Manager Mark Teitell said.
Beginning in mid-2011, DECE member companies and other UltraViolet licensees are expected to introduce UltraViolet products and services.
Initial offerings will gradually expand to include a slate of UltraViolet titles from studios for purchase from retailers, either electronically or as digital copies included with Blu-ray Disc or DVD purchases, Teitell said. Initially, UltraViolet retailers will let consumers use downloaded copies on many devices they already own. Additionally, initial streaming services will allow consumers to access their UltraViolet collections via websites or "linked" devices like set-top boxes, Internet-connected Blu-ray Disc players, smart-phones and tablets.
Later in 2011, according to Teitell, UltraViolet-optimized media player apps are expected to roll out via software updates to PCs, game consoles and smart-phones already in the market as well as on new devices for sale.
In early 2012, the first designed-for-UltraViolet consumer electronics devices are expected to become available. These devices will be immediately compatible with UltraViolet out of the box. Potential offerings in this category include connected Blu-ray Disc players, set-top boxes and Internet TVs.
Meanwhile, DECE plans to begin operations in the UK and Canada later in 2011, with deployment timelines for additional international markets expected to be announced in the coming months.
"UltraViolet will provide consumers an easy way to access their content without the limitations of a physical product, in the same way that the ATM network provides consumers access to their money - anytime, anywhere," said John Calkins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Executive Vice President of Global Digital and Commercial Innovation. "It's a tremendous leap forward in consumer control and flexibility."
Also at CES Thursday, DECE is hosting a panel discussion with executives from member companies to discuss UltraViolet and the future of home entertainment.
Members of DECE, which was formed in 2008, include Adobe, Best Buy, CableLabs, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Cox Communications, Fox Entertainment, IBM, Intel, Liberty Global, Lionsgate, Microsoft, Motorola, NBC Universal, NDS, Netflix, Panasonic, Paramount Pictures, Samsung Electronics, Sony, Technicolor and Warner Bros. Entertainment.
In July 2010, DECE announced the UltraViolet brand, which was selected from some 3,000 different options. The group has a consumer-facing website for consumers at uvvu.com, which is supposed to be spoken as "you view."
DECE selected Neustar Media, which operates the directories for telephone-number portability in North America, to handle the multiparty "digital rights locker" infrastructure. That system is a network-based authentication service and account management hub that will authenticate users' rights to view content from multiple services and on multiple devices.
Users will be able to access UltraViolet content from uvvu.com and create an account on the site free of charge. But the expectation is that most consumers will access their UltraViolet libraries through service providers and other retailers.
Funai & ActiveVideo Bring Cloud Computing to Major Television Brands
Funai Electric and ActiveVideo Networks have agreed in principle to make Funai the first consumer electronics manufacturer to bring interactive television solutions based entirely in the network cloud to connected televisions.
Funai Electric manufactures Philips, Emerson, Magnavox and Sylvania brand televisions and Blu-ray players. Funai and ActiveVideo anticipate that an announcement regarding availability of CloudTV-enabled products will be issued in the near future.
Under the agreement, Funai will integrate ActiveVideo's CloudTV platform into selected television and Blu-ray player makes and models, enabling viewers to enter a revolutionary environment in which web-based video, rich graphics, and compelling applications are streamed, not downloaded, from servers in the network to Funai-made connected devices.
"At Funai, we believe that there is tremendous potential for connected devices within every segment of the CE market," said Kazuhiko Yamamoto, executive officer of Funai Electric. "By leveraging the power of CloudTV, we can cost-effectively enable the availability of the new content and functionality that can increase consumer satisfaction and drive sales for our retail partners and ourselves."
Already in approximately five million homes with major cable and IPTV operators in the United States and abroad, CloudTV enables differentiated product and service offerings and advanced television capabilities without significantly increasing BOM costs. Content and applications from Web content creators, television networks, advertisers and other media entities can be developed quickly for CloudTV using standard Web tools. Viewers navigate ActiveVideo content using standard remote controls.
"As consumers demand more from their television experience, there is a growing need for the limitless resources that can expand interactivity beyond the device-based widgets found in many of today's connected TVs and other devices," said Jeff Miller, president and CEO of ActiveVideo Networks. "Funai's embrace of CloudTV places it squarely at the leading edge of a new generation of television technology and opens the door wide to content developers who are interested in reaching television audiences."
CloudTV leverages content stored and processed in the network cloud to significantly expand the reach and availability of rich, Web-based user experiences. Content is delivered as a single, adaptable MPEG stream to the CE device, which passes keyclicks from standard remote controls through the CE device to the cloud.
The CloudTV architecture offers a variety of benefits for the CE and developer communities, including the elimination of the need for more expensive processing and storage capabilities in the CE device; a "One Platform" approach in which content can be written once and delivered to any device; and the minimization of software bugs by streaming, rather than downloading, content to the TV. For consumers, placing the intelligence in the network, and not in the home, ensures maximum functionality throughout the lengthy lifespans that are typical of CE devices, even as web standards evolve.
ActiveVideo's CloudTV platform is available to all members of the connected TV ecosystem: CE manufacturers, cable operators, Web developers, content producers and advertisers.
ActiveVideo demonstrated CloudTV solutions on Funai devices to selected prospects, customers, and media at CES.
Microsoft Benefits from Gaming and Cloud Computing
Excerpted from CNBC Report by Michelle Lodge
Microsoft and the tech industry are in the middle of a "great product wave," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told CNBC Thursday.
Ballmer was speaking to CNBC from the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV, the industry's annual gathering in which manufacturers showcase new products.
As part of the product wave, Ballmer noted that Microsoft shipped 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 over the holidays. To date, added Ballmer, Microsoft has sold 8 million Kinects and that the Xbox is the most popular product among young consumers.
"Let's make no mistake that for young people today, the exciting things they are doing is in the entertainment side of their life," he said.
"Every kid grows up with Microsoft Office to do their homework, but the exciting part of their life is what they're doing online with their friends: It's gaming, it's TV, and Xbox is square in the middle of that."
Ballmer declined to discuss new products that Microsoft, which makes over $25 billion annually in pre-tax profit, will be introducing, but said there's plenty of space to generate revenue in the enterprise area, including in cloud computing, which can be used to lower a business's labor costs in financial and billing departments. He also said that, thanks to cloud, Microsoft will enjoy more of a company's IT budget than ever before.
Ballmer acknowledged that investors want to know the next steps for Microsoft, but said leading a company is about more than the price of the stock. The share price virtually hasn't moved in the last decade, since Ballmer has been running the company.
"Moving the stock is always a complex topic," said Ballmer. "Moving the profits, I understand a lot better. So I've always got to remind myself, the thing we control is our ability to innovate, to get winning products and to drive revenue and profitability. We sold eight million Kinects. People came out of nowhere at $150 a pop."
"Its investor psychology is a function of what's going on with the consumer, more than what goes on in our enterprise business, which you point out has been phenomenal," said the CEO. "I think people want to see if we are going to rise to the occasion with phones and other form factors that's important for people to see."
Ballmer refused to discuss the company's plans for some $40 billion in cash on its balance sheet, although he did say the level of capital expense has gone up with Microsoft's move to cloud.
"We treat the cash on the balance sheet like what it is," he added. "It's a resource owned by our shareholders, which we can give them back for other purposes. We can invest in our own business, we can invest in acquisitions. We have returned over $100 billion in cash over the last several years to our shareholders: That's pretty good."
Small Companies Pursue Big Break at Tech Conference
Excerpted from NY Times Report by Joshua Brustein
The 2,700 technology companies selling their wares at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) come in all shapes and sizes. At one end of the spectrum are the likes of Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony, with their gargantuan booths on the show floor, where they ply potential business partners and journalists with drinks, food, and private meetings with executives.
On the other end, among many others, is Scott Starrett, 39, is here with the three other employees of Cervantes Mobile, a company he started last year. It makes one product - called Jorno, a foldable keyboard for handheld devices - which does not, by the strictest definition of the word, exist.
The company is financed with capital from Mr. Starrett's family and friends and his personal bank account. And though he seems a bit frazzled in his 10-foot-by-10-foot booth set against the northernmost wall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, he insists that he mainly feels optimistic.
His brand of cheerfulness is easy to find here. Dozens of dreamers, serial entrepreneurs, husband-and-wife teams, copycats and garage-based inventors occupy the tiniest booths in the farthest reaches of the convention hall. For them, the electronics show is an opportunity to meet with distributors and potential business partners and maybe to ride a wave of publicity generated by the show into the public eye.
Usually, it is also a costly undertaking, a calculated gamble that the thousands of dollars it costs to travel to Las Vegas and rent a booth will pay off in the form of signed deals or at least greater momentum. But in a show that sprawls over 1.6 million square feet across three exhibition halls, it is not easy to gain a foothold.
"You're just placing bets, essentially," said Mr. Starrett, who paid $4,800 for his booth and several thousand dollars for expenses for the trip here from Los Angeles.
It is a long shot that can pay off, said Jake Sigal, a 29-year-old entrepreneur who first attended the convention in 2008. He did not have a booth then. Instead, he talked companies that he wanted to work with into meeting with him at a Starbucks in the convention center. Most doubted he would succeed; some, he said, admired his pluck and offered him a job.
And he did persuade Pandora, the Internet music service, to allow him to build an Internet radio that plays stations from the service. He bought booth space the next year, and was able to reach a similar deal with NPR after one of its employees happened to walk by his booth.
"I guarantee that if I would have called NPR in the middle of July, they would have said no," said Mr. Sigal, who is from Columbus, Ohio.
Livio Radio, Mr. Sigal's company, has begun to manufacture car stereos as well. On Friday, the company announced a third partnership, with Grooveshark, another Internet music service.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the trade organization that organizes CES, tries to encourage small businesses. It hosts competitions for companies with innovative products, offering free or discounted booth space to the winners. At the show itself, it hosts events to showcase small businesses and holds mentoring programs.
Aaron LeMieux, who is 36 and from Cleveland, OH, won discounted space at this year's show after giving a three-minute pitch for the nPower Peg, a sticklike object that harnesses kinetic energy, the type of energy created when an object is put in motion, like when a user walks around with it in a backpack. He believes that similar technology will eventually be used to power pacemakers and to capture the energy of ocean waves.
But for now, it is working with cell-phones. The device creates enough energy in 15 minutes of walking to allow for a minute of talk time on a typical cell-phone, Mr. LeMieux said.
He first came up with the idea when hiking the Appalachian Trail in 1996.
"I knew I had an excess of kinetic energy, yet I was stopping into town to buy batteries," he said. "Fifteen hundred miles gave me a lot of time to think, and I figured out a way to convert kinetic energy into electric energy. It took 10 years."
Mr. Starrett's trip from concept to execution is shaping up to be considerably quicker. He first had the idea for a folding keyboard last year, and he decided he was far enough along to commit to coming to the convention in late spring.
Despite his best efforts, however, production could not quite keep pace with his enthusiasm. The Cervantes team arrived in Las Vegas with two model keyboards, rather than a working prototype. One was locked in the closed position; the other was fixed in the open position. Hinges, it turned out, are tricky.
Mr. Starrett acknowledged the awkwardness of peddling a foldable keyboard that cannot actually fold. But he said he took heart in knowing that every year some of the products drawing all the attention to the larger booths are not fully functional either, noting Microsoft's false start on tablet computers last year, or the recent delays with Google TV.
"As an entrepreneur, it's nice to know you can stumble," he said. "I just don't want to stumble too often."
Blackburn Reintroduces Bill to Kill Net Neutrality Rules
Excerpted from Broadcasting & Cable Report by John Eggerton
Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) Wednesday filed her Internet Freedom Act as her first order of business in the new, Republican-controlled US House of Representatives.
The bill, which has more than 60 co-signers including the majority of Republican members of the House, would invalidate the FCC's network neutrality regulations, which a 3-2 Democratic majority approved December 21st in the face of promises by Blackburn and others that they would try to block it legislatively.
"The FCC's Christmas week Internet grab points out how important it is that we pass this bill quickly," she said in announcing the bill.
"The only sector of our economy showing growth is online. In these times, for an unelected bureaucracy with dubious jurisdiction and misplaced motives to unilaterally regulate that growth is intolerable.
The Internet is more than a communications platform with modems, fiber, and e-mail. It is a marketplace; one that should be kept free."
Blackburn recognizes that getting such a bill through Congress will take time. She called it an intermediate step, and backed the more immediate move of invoking the Congressional Review Act.
The FCC regulations are not yet in effect, and won't be for at least a couple more months since the FCC has set a trigger of 60 days after the rules get the OK from OMB that they do not run afoul of the Paperwork Reduction Act, which has yet to happen.
Blackburn, a long-standing and strong critic of net neutrality regulations, filed a similar bill not long after the FCC voted last October to launch the rulemaking to expand and codify its network neutrality guidelines.
Last month, she joined with incoming House Energy & Commerce Committee leadership to pledge to fight the net neutrality rules by whatever means necessary.
Blackburn, who has compared the FCC to a lifeblood-sucking vampire at the throat of the Internet, said at the time she would be reintroducing her bill, which came on the first day of the new Congress.
At the December press conference, the Republican leaders said they would explore at least three ways to block implementation of the order: legislation (Blackburn's, for example), defunding the FCC appropriation, or a special Congressional resolution that would nullify the rules.
"We are going to explore every option to try and reverse this order," said Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI) now the Chairman of the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee. "This will be the first hearing out of the box," in the next Congress, he said, with a series of hearings to follow over the next several weeks. "There is going to be no stone unturned."
Coming Events of Interest
Global Services Conference 2011 - January 27th in New York, NY. Cloud computing has implications not only for IT services but also for business processing; cloud-based delivery models present a discontinuous and disruptive shift that will redefine how IT and BPO services are delivered. The conference will present actionable propositions to leverage cloud-based models.
Digital Music Conference East - February 24th in New York, NY. The 11th Annual DMCE is the only event in the United States that brings together the top music, technology and policy leaders for high-level discussions and debate, intimate meetings and unrivaled networking.
Cloud Connect Conference - March 8th-10th in Santa Clara. CA. Learn about all the latest cloud computing innovations in the Cloud Connect Conference -- designed to serve the needs of cloud customers and operators - where you will see the latest cloud technologies and platforms and identify opportunities in the cloud.
Media Summit New York - March 9th-10th in New York, NY. This event is the premier international conference on media, broadband, advertising, television, publishing, cable, mobile, radio, magazines, news & print media, and marketing.
CONTENT IN THE CLOUD at MSNY - March 10th in New York, NY. What are the latest cloud computing offerings that will have the greatest impact on the entertainment sector? How is cloud computing being harnessed to benefit the digital distribution of movies, television programs, music, and games?
1st International Conference on Cloud Computing - May 7th-9th in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands. This first-ever event focuses on the emerging area of cloud computing, inspired by some latest advances that concern the infrastructure, operations, and available services through the global network.
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