April 30, 2012
Volume XXXIX, Issue 4
CLOUD COMPUTING CONFERENCE at NAB Now Online
For those who missed the inaugural CLOUD COMPUTING CONFERENCE within the 2012 NAB Show, key elements of that standing-room-only (RRO) event are now archived online.
Please click here for streaming audio-tracks of each keynote and panel discussion, full-color conference brochure, conference agenda on NAB's website, photo albums on Picasa and Facebook, keynote slide-show presentations, and downloadable MP3s for all conference sessions.
Please click here or here for photos from the first-ever CLOUD COMPUTING PAVILION at NAB as well.
The DCIA is now working with the CCA to develop CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2012 which will take place in mid-November in Los Angeles, CA.
Cloud Makes Impact on TV Execs at NAB Show
Excerpted from SYS-CON Media Report by Victor Cruz
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas that ended last week saw a 10 percent hike in vendor exhibits from last year and a slight rise in the number of people attending at 92,112. The world's largest media event since covering filmed entertainment and content delivery in 1922 inducted Betty White and Bob Uecker into its Hall of Fame, and the unmanned military-issued drone flying overhead was prone to taking pictures of Teri Hatcher among other beauties. But among the technorati, those things were not the only star attractions.
For the first time in NAB history, cloud computing was put on the agenda. Thanks to the efforts of the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), a pavilion on the exhibit floor and full-day conference were dedicated to looking at how the cloud relates to the A/V ecosystem at each stage of the content distribution chain, from collaboration to storage, delivery and analytics, ending the cloud portion of the show with Disruptive Effects of Cloud Computing Will Continue.
Broadcasters can easily be seen as old school chumps too stubborn to embrace new cloud applications in the face of mounting competition from the likes of Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime, but it's just not the case. The entrenched broadcasters and cable companies are not sitting idle for the world to pass them by. Cable execs know that the mainstream is tapping into the online stream. Leichtman Research surveyed 1,250 homes and found 38% of them had at least one TV set hooked online.
It's no surprise that today's consumers of entertainment content want anywhere, anytime access to their favorite dramas and reality TV shows. For news and sports content, they want it live, and they want it on second and third screens, namely laptops, smart-phones, and tablets.
Nielsen just reported how 88% of US tablet owners use their tablet while also watching TV at least once a month; and 45% of tablet owners watch the tube while using their tablet at least once a day.
Another group also not sitting idle is venture capitalists. VCs broke a 10-year high in 2011 investing $30 billion in 3,000 companies, of which 1,000 were Internet-related. Last week Endplay, a cloud-based content management vendor for the video industry, announced additional funding to their $21 million pool, and today they announced a partnership with Anvato to give local broadcasters ready access to web and video content management they have not seen before. Media firms may expect video editing and publishing time cut by up to 60% through a process that publishes web videos from live broadcasts.
In other cloud-related news, Panasonic is teaming up with Aframe to create a network of "upload centers" scattered in all major metropolitan centers from NYC to LA that will give professionals the ability to rapidly upload and view high-def videos from dedicated cloud servers, making the management of production processes easier. These upload centers will link to Aframe's cloud video production servers in the US.
Avid, whose technology will be used for the London summer Olympic games, announced cloud-based video editing tools that lets users edit footage shot on location from anywhere with an Internet connection, then upload cut and finished stories to web servers. Dubbed "Interplay Sphere," the services relay more flexible options for broadcasters to connect with their newsrooms.
On the production side, cloud-based collaborative tools have been growing in popularity with services like Quantel's QTube and Chyron's Axis World Graphics.
"Proponents point to the efficiencies, while others point out that bandwidth is not consistent everywhere and could result in limitations," said Carolyn Giardina of The Hollywood Reporter. How about those recent Azure and Amazon outages?
Staying abreast of these trends, Journal Broadcast Group, a Midwestern operator of 14 television stations and 33 radio stations is using the Anvato cloud application to speed its broadcast-to-web video transfer. The technology involves the installation of boxes at local stations. These boxes allow Journal to capture HD videos from live broadcast signals and publish these to websites, mobile devices and syndicates within moments of video airing in broadcast.
Used as a SaaS application, video feeds can be accessed remotely through a browser to cut out and edit video clips such as TV shows and news reports and publish them from anywhere. Patented technology called Perceptual Signature can detect scene and context changes to automatically segment the live broadcast stream. An auto-segmenter tool utilizes computer vision to locate television commercials and replace these with localized commercials.
These cloud applications are replacing not just hardware and stodgy modes of accomplishing a business process, but they are changing how management can literally think out-of-the-box and forget, or at least put aside, their previously habituated legacy-thinking. And that is always good news for innovators who are willing to challenge and transform the status quo.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 The DCIA commends the US Senate Commerce Committee for conducting a hearing Tuesday April 24th on The Emergence of Online Video: Is It the Future?
The session explored the migration of viewing from traditional television to Internet and broadband-enabled video content, and examined the role that disruptive technologies play in facilitating this transition, and the business and legal models that will foster the growth of this sector.
The panel of witnesses was comprised of Barry Diller, Chairman, IAC; Paul Misener, VP, Amazon; Blair Westlake, VP, Microsoft; and Susan Whiting, Vice Chairman, Nielsen.
Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) opened with a pair of questions: 1) How will the disruptive technology that online viewing provides lead to better content and more consumer choice? And 2) How do we harness this change for the power of consumers so we can get higher quality programming at lower rates?
He was generally receptive to the notion of over-the-top (OTT) services, like those represented by Amazon and Microsoft, for potentially providing downward pricing pressure on consumer cable bills, which he criticized for outstripping inflation. He also chastised current cable and satellite multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) for making him pay for 500 channels, while he only views 10.
At one point, Diller responded by saying that major basic cable programmers, such as ESPN, would be "insane to go a la carte" abandoning the traditional model of 100% of cable subs having to pay for these channels whether or not they want to receive them.
The DCIA's answers to Rockefeller's first two questions are: 1) Cloud-based Internet protocol television (IPTV) offers virtually unlimited channel capacity as a result of the way the technology distributes video programming - this is drastically different from channel-bound cable and satellite systems. And 2) We harness this change first by replicating on the new platform all that consumers currently receive (albeit with incremental quality improvements), so that conversion does not force them to miss out, and second by introducing unique new services, many of them a la carte.
Cloud-based IPTV is more economical than cable or satellite and therefore able simultaneously to offer programmers greater revenue - from both traditional license fees and new interactive services - and also to offer consumers more attractive pricing.
Diller also said that without network neutrality protections, traditional broadcasters and cable operators would penalize competitors who try to deliver content those legacy distributors do not own - even as a complementary offering. "We have to protect network neutrality," agreed Senator John Kerry (D-MA).
If the hearing had a major deficiency, it was that it did not scrutinize how broadband network operators control access to content - through caps, proprietary offerings, and pricing/packaging programs that should begin to raise questions. The problems of Internet access providers owning video content arguably should be the greatest concern to Congress as the technological transformation to cloud distribution proceeds.
We agree with the concerns voiced by a coalition of public interest groups in their letter this week to Congress.
Diller noted that first-rate broadband service was also crucial, and there seemed to be a consensus among panelists that universal broadband access was going to be very important to the success of online video businesses - and a future world not divided between video "haves" and "have-nots."
In an acknowledgment of demand for "TV Everywhere" type services, Misener said that, "Although we recognize that our customers want to watch a variety of high-quality video content at affordable prices from the comfort of their homes, we also realize that they are on the move, and thus they want access to digital video not just anytime, but also anywhere."
Meanwhile, Westlake touted Microsoft's delivery of television programming to Xboxes, its work in video-on-demand (VoD), and its development of voice recognition software that integrates search with video delivery.
With cloud-based IPTV, in the fullness of time, it should be possible to access any previously recorded video content on demand, delivered to any device. And also to access any live streaming feed.
Susan Whiting testified that viewers find value in access to video content online from any device whenever they want to access it.
Diller, a former top TV and movie studio executive, said copyright law was working and condemned the "ridiculous overreach" of the Stop Online Protection Act (SOPA), recently abandoned legislation that was strongly opposed by the DCIA. In contrast, we would support coverage of IPTV services by the Communications Act of 1996, which would not require a lengthy rewrite during an election year.
The Next Generation Television Marketplace Act, proposed in December, is another possibility. This bill would further deregulate the broadcast industry to eliminate coverage requirements and allow broadcasters to negotiate retransmission fees more like cable programmers such as AMC or CNN do for their license fees. Key questions would be how broadcasters' access to public airwaves is addressed and what happens to their requirement to present public-interest programming.
Diller defended his Aereo TV service, which offers subscribers access to a remote digital broadcast antenna and cloud DVR capabilities for $12/month, but which broadcasters are suing for failure to compensate them for retransmission of their signals in violation of copyright law.
With seeming inconsistency, he told Senators that a level playing field was critical and that the same rules and regulations that apply to traditional MVPDs should be applied to online video services. We agree: Aereo needs to pay for the programming it redistributes, as do related services ivi.TV and NimbleTV.
In the most heated part of the hearing, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) questioned the legitimacy of Aereo for its interception of station signals and then retransmission of them - charging viewers while not paying content tights holders. The Senator got it right.
Indeed, it was refreshing to see how far the Committee has progressed in its recognition of cloud-based IPTV as the coming distribution platform for television and interactive video.
There are many, many more questions to address to ensure that innovation progresses at an optimal pace, and that the interests of all stakeholders are reflected in the process. Share wisely, and take care.
House Votes to Approve Disputed Hacking Bill
Excerpted from NY Times Report by Robert Pear
Defying a veto threat from President Obama, the US House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that encourages intelligence agencies and businesses to share information about threats to computer systems, including attacks on American websites by hackers in China and other countries.
The vote was 248 to 168, as 42 Democrats joined 206 Republicans in backing the bill. The "no" votes were cast by 140 Democrats and 28 Republicans, including a number who described the measure as a potential threat to privacy and civil liberties.
Under the bill, the federal government can share classified information with private companies to help them protect their computer networks. Companies, in turn, could voluntarily share information about cyberthreats with the government and would generally be protected against lawsuits for doing so if they acted in good faith.
The White House opposed the bill, saying it could "undermine the public's trust in the government as well as in the Internet by undermining fundamental privacy, confidentiality, civil liberties, and consumer protections."
In addition, the White House said the government should set "minimum cybersecurity performance standards" for the private sector - an approach resisted by House Republican leaders.
"The White House believes the government ought to control the Internet, government ought to set standards and government ought to take care of everything that's needed for cybersecurity," said Speaker John Boehner. "They're in a camp all by themselves."
"We can't have the government in charge of our Internet," Mr. Boehner added.
The Senate is working on a more comprehensive bipartisan bill that directs the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to issue regulations to protect "critical infrastructure," including the electric power grid, water and sewer systems, transportation hubs, and financial service networks.
In confidential briefings on Capitol Hill, administration officials have expressed alarm about the damage that could be done by malicious attacks on computer systems and networks that have become an indispensable part of everyday life. Supporters of the bill said China was stealing jobs by pilfering proprietary information and valuable trade secrets stored in American computers.
The House bill was written by Representatives Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan and Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the panel.
They accepted many amendments to protect privacy, but not enough to satisfy advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) or the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). The civil liberties union criticized the bill as "a privacy disaster."
However, Mr. Rogers said the sharing of information with the government was "all voluntary," and he added, "There is no government surveillance, none, not any in this bill."
The bill says that "cyber threat information" shared with the federal government by the private sector can be used for five purposes: to protect computer systems; to investigate cybersecurity crimes; to protect people from "serious bodily harm"; to protect "the national security of the United States"; and to prevent the sexual exploitation or kidnapping of children.
Some members of both parties said they worried that the bill could lead to violations of privacy.
"We do have a real cyberthreat in this country, and this bill is an honest attempt to deal with it," said Representative Joe L. Barton, Republican of Texas, who voted against the legislation.
"But the absence of explicit privacy protections for individuals is, to me, a greater threat to democracy and liberty than the cyberthreats that face America."
The House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, said, "The threat of cyberattack is a real one, but the response must balance freedom and security."
Sneak Attack: Congress Just Deleted the Fourth Amendment
Excerpted from BoingBoing Report by Cory Doctorow
In a sneak attack, the vote on CISPA (America's far-reaching, invasive Internet surveillance bill) was pushed up by a day. The bill was hastily amended, making it MUCH worse, then passed on a rushed vote. Techdirt's Leigh Beadon does a very good job of explaining what just happened to America:
"Previously, CISPA allowed the government to use information for "cybersecurity" or "national security" purposes. Those purposes have not been limited or removed. Instead, three more valid uses have been added: investigation and prosecution of cybersecurity crime, protection of individuals, and protection of children. Cybersecurity crime is defined as any crime involving network disruption or hacking, plus any violation of the CFAA."
Basically this means CISPA can no longer be called a cybersecurity bill at all. The government would be able to search information it collects under CISPA for the purposes of investigating American citizens with complete immunity from all privacy protections as long as they can claim someone committed a "cybersecurity crime".
Basically it says the 4th Amendment does not apply online, at all.
Moreover, the government could do whatever it wants with the data as long as it can claim that someone was in danger of bodily harm, or that children were somehow threatened-again, notwithstanding absolutely any other law that would normally limit the government's power.
How SOPA Protests Were Used to Push CISPA
Excerpted from ZDNet Report by Violet Blue
CISPA authors and supporters have tried everything they can to avoid another SOPA protest - except tell the truth about their bill.
The last thing authors and supporters of dangerous cybersecurity bill CISPA wanted was another SOPA on their hands.
CISPA's authors and supporters set up a defensive strategy to head off the whiff of another SOPA by taking notes from the protest. And they may have succeeded.
Here's how.
SOPA protest lesson #1: influence Silicon Valley tech media.
In the beginning, CISPA's authors unconvincingly tried to spin CISPA as being nothing like SOPA in press briefings. Not for clarification - merely to distance the bill from SOPA's reputation.
After all, if SOPA was black and white to tech press, then making CISPA grey would certainly be an advantage.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and CISPA's co-author Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) staged a conference call to influence tech reporters whom they actually called "Cyber Media and Cyber Bloggers."
Most of what they told tech press about CISPA, as we have now learned, was patently untrue.
Techdirt reported that during the 7 am call, the representatives were intent on hammering certain points home: that the bill respects privacy and civil liberties, is not about surveillance, is targeted at actions by foreign states, and is nothing like SOPA.
Evidently some "Cyber Media" fell for it, because it took until April 13th for CISPA to start hitting mainstream media via tech media channels, and only then did it make any loud noise when comparisons to SOPA were made.
SOPA protest lesson #2: pretend to care.
Pro-CISPA factions' intent to head off another SOPA-style protest crystallized when I attended and live-tweeted the small CISPA Town Hall Meeting with House Intelligence last week here in San Francisco (arranged by Hackers and Founders).
CISPA's people seem to have learned from SOPA that trying to ram an Internet bill down our throats didn't work out so well last time.
So this time they were open to hearing our concerns.
Okay, not really. But here's how they pretended to listen to our serious concerns when we got two pro-CISPA reps from Washington face-to-face last week.
A pro-CISPA senior US House of Representatives aide and pro-CISPA senior counsel to the House Intelligence Committee Jamil Jaffer appeared via Google Hangout at the last-minute Town Hall.
After hearing what they had to say in response to our concerns, they could barely pretend they were there for little more than lip service.
Near the end, many of us in the room were laughing in nervous disbelief at their cavalier and dismissive responses.
We were told there was robust discussion about the bill and that the idea Internet communities hate it is false. The room was told that CISPA has been a transparent and accountable process.
Questions about the NSA and potential abuse of private data and information sharing for individuals were ignored. Instead the room was told that privacy and civil liberties are a "new element" for them to consider in the future.
When asked about what they meant by concrete threats, the pro-CISPA rep conflated cybersecurity with infringement, and that China is a big major
I am now absolutely convinced that #CISPA is about fear mongering and has no concern for individual privacy or citizen protection.
Above all, they insisted that "no one" wants to stop this bill - at a time when there were 3/4 million signatures on the Stop CISPA petition.
The pro-CISPA reps demonstrated repeatedly that not only were they there for lip service and misdirection, they actually had no technical knowledge of what they were talking about.
The EFF's Dan Auerbaugh concluded afterward that "Congress just doesn't know enough to meddle intelligently with technology. The audience questions demonstrated this point quite sharply."
SOPA protest lesson #3: make SOPA critics look like allies.
Attempting to influence tech media into un-SOPA-ing CISPA is one way to get critics in your pocket. Tech press and bloggers are one major arena that the wider public looked to during SOPA for calls to action and guidance.
Another arena that got SOPA launched into consciousness and gave the protest firm footing was when major technology companies and website "utilities" like Wikipedia joined the anti-SOPA choir.
As we know, CISPA came out strong from the start with 28 large tech companies backing it: complete with letters of support from anti-SOPA corporations such as Facebook.
When it looked like CISPA was faltering, its author Rep. Mike Rogers made sure to alert the press that previously anti-SOPA Google (a company whose lack of support letter was getting anti-CISPA traction) not only completely supports CISPA, but that Google helped with the authoring of the bill.
I'll bet that right now, even though CISPA has passed the House with changes making it even more dangerous than before, Rogers and Co. would love nothing more than to get a leg up from Wikipedia.
China, indeed.
Demand Progress Offers Action Items to Stop CISPA
Excerpted from Demand Progress Report
House Republicans rammed through CISPA ahead of schedule.
Let's make sure it dies in the Senate: Please click here to e-mail your Senators right away.
Our hundreds of thousands of e-mails and tens of thousands of phone calls have had a real impact:
Amendments were adopted that made CISPA (marginally) better. Earlier this month CISPA was supposed to sail through, but we helped foment real opposition, and the vote was far closer than anybody could have imagined even a couple of weeks ago. Most Democrats held firm in opposition, and more than two dozen libertarian-leaning Republicans defied their leadership and vote no.
Most importantly, President Obama has threatened to veto CISPA.
Please click here to urge Obama to stand strong, and to let your lawmakers know that you support Obama's veto threat.
The White House's letter expresses precisely the concerns that we've been highlighting over recent weeks - and is a result of the public pressure against CISPA.
The White House says that any cybersecurity legislation must preserve "Americans' privacy, data confidentiality, and civil liberties and [recognize] the civilian nature of cyberspace."
It says that, "The bill also lacks sufficient limitations on the sharing of personally identifiable information between private entities and does not contain adequate oversight or accountability measures necessary to ensure that the data is used only for appropriate purposes."
And the letter goes on to assert that, "the American people expect their Government to enhance security without undermining their privacy and civil liberties.
Without clear legal protections and independent oversight, information sharing legislation will undermine the public's trust in the Government as well as in the Internet by undermining fundamental privacy, confidentiality, civil liberties, and consumer protections."
Just click here to urge Obama to stand strong and to tell your lawmakers to oppose CISPA.
The Senate will consider cyber security legislation in the coming weeks. Let's turn up the heat right away:
Click here to tell the Senate to reject CISPA and any and all legislation that doesn't respect privacy and civil liberties.
Thanks for fighting by our side, and please encourage your friends to get involved.
If you're on Facebook, click here to share with your friends.
Consumers Spending More on Digital Content
Excerpted from Marketing Daily Report by Aaron Baar
More than 40% of Americans download and pay for digital content, and they're spending more money on it than they ever have.
"It goes all over the place," Jordin Amin, Chair of the AICPA's National CPA Financial Liiteracy, tells Marketing Daily. "One of the concerns we have is that it's very easy to make these purchases without a budget or an overall financial plan."
According to a phone poll of more than 1,000 adults, the average monthly bill for cable TV, home Internet, mobile phone, and digital subscriptions (such as satellite radio or streaming video) is $166, equivalent to about 17% of their monthly mortgage or rent payment. Downloading songs, apps, and other products accounts for an additional $38 a month.
"Spending on these services and these products is going to be an increasing part of our lives," Amin says. "As we continue into the future, there's going to be more things that are co-mingled among devices, and consumers are going to increase their spending. It's important to set up good habits now."
Among Amin's recommendations were to tie-in app and other purchases to a specific credit card (preferably one with a low limit) to more easily monitor purchases, to conduct regular audits of purchases and usage to ensure consumers aren't paying for services that they aren't using, and to include digital content purchases as a line item on their household budgets.
Consumers also said that all these technological improvements (including smart-phones and tablets) have made it easier to spend money than to save it. According to the survey, 56% said it was easier to spend money, while 3% said it was easier to save. Thirty-seven percent were split on the issue.
"One of the things we'd like to focus on is that tech is a way that can help people save, and they need to be aware of that," Amin says.
Start-Up Aims to Stream Pay TV onto Web Devices
Excerpted from NY Times Report by Brian Stelter
In a move that could hasten the slow pace of so-called TV Everywhere, a technology start-up is introducing a way to move a whole subscription's worth of TV onto the web, with or without the subscription company's permission.
The start-up, called NimbleTV, will begin testing its service with a limited number of users on Monday. The service takes the package of television channels that a customer buys through a distributor like Dish Network, then streams the package onto the web, allowing the customer more options for viewing than most distributors now allow. It also allows for thousands of hours of TV recording via a virtual digital video recorder.
NimbleTV is the latest example of technology companies trying to break into the closed system of television distribution in the United States. As Americans buy more smart-phones and tablet computers, cable and satellite distributors are under pressure to provide TV access on more screens, and entrepreneurs are - depending on one's view - either helping to provide it, or forcing it to happen on their own terms.
Large companies like Apple and Google have taken steps to enter the television distribution business.. So have start-ups like NimbleTV, which is backed by the venture capital firms Greycroft Partners and Tribeca Venture Partners and by the Tribune Company, the owner of 23 TV stations.
"We've all heard about TV Everywhere for a long time. One of the questions that's bothered me is, why is it not here yet?" said Anand Subramanian, the chief executive of NimbleTV, during a preview of the service at Greycroft's Midtown Manhattan office last week.
TV Everywhere is a slogan for a nearly three-year-old effort by TV distributors and channel owners to make channels available to subscribers on all screens at all times. Despite some notable successes, the effort has been stymied by outdated contracts and by concerns that new ways of TV viewing will generate less revenue than the old ways.
As a result, many technologically adept television viewers have voiced some variation of the same complaint: why can I not watch any show on any device at any time? That availability is what NimbleTV is pushing.
"It picks up where Slingbox left off," said Jason Hirschhorn, a former executive at the maker of the Slingbox, Sling Media, who is now an advisor to Greycroft and a supporter of NimbleTV.
When the Slingbox device is hooked up to a TV set, users can log in on a computer from anywhere and view whatever is live on their DVR at home - a useful feature for watching a home team's baseball games while on the road, for instance.
Sling Media is owned by EchoStar, which is controlled by Charles Ergen, the satellite media mogul who also controls the Dish Network. Dish promotes the Slingbox to its subscribers as its form of TV Everywhere. But the device has not been embraced by other distributors.
NimbleTV says it has the same functionality as a Slingbox and DVR, but without the actual boxes. Mr. Subramanian, a Giants fan, recounted watching the Super Bowl through the service while on a work trip in India.
Within the cable world, the closest thing to NimbleTV is an app from Cablevision that replicates its subscribers' live television lineups on tablets, phones and computers. The app works only within the subscriber's home, however. Time Warner Cable has a similar app that replicates part of the lineup.
NimbleTV also raises the tantalizing prospect that users could shop around for television subscriptions - removing the physical constraints that now give companies like Comcast and Cox exclusive cable licenses in cities.
But that will not happen for a while, if at all. The company's test phase, which begins Monday, is limited to New York City and to a set of 26 channels that the company will pay for. It plans to start letting people sign up for satellite service through its software this summer.
The service is positioned by Mr. Subramanian and his supporters as a way to enhance existing cable or satellite packages and to help distributors sell more such packages. "Our intention is to support as many providers as possible," he said. But he declined to name any providers that are already on board, and he asserted that NimbleTV did not need their blessing.
In that way, NimbleTV is like Aereo, the start-up backed by Barry Diller's company IAC that repackages broadcast channels like NBC and Fox into a streaming service for $12 a month. As Aereo started letting customers in New York City sign up last month, virtually all of the city's broadcasters filed lawsuits against the company, citing copyright infringements. The suits are pending and Aereo is online for now.
Mr. Subramanian said that NimbleTV "went to extreme lengths" to comply with the law - changing strategies five or six times along the way. Noting that users would still be paying for cable or satellite service, he said NimbleTV's role was as an "agent," paying the monthly service bill for the user and providing software for streaming.
NimbleTV itself will include a monthly fee, probably around $20, though the company would not comment.
Mr. Hirschhorn said planning for the service "took into account a lot of industry issues," and he added that it "doesn't economically harm anyone."
Mr. Subramanian said he did not expect for the company to be sued, but some of the company's investors said privately that they expected suits.
Dan Rayburn, the principal analyst for digital media at the market research firm Frost & Sullivan, said that even if these streaming companies believed they were on solid legal ground, the entrenched distributors were "still going to come after them."
"Guys like Aereo and Nimble can't afford the legal fight," he added.
Tribune declined to comment on the size of its investment or the reasons for it.
For the venture capitalists involved, a sale of NimbleTV's software to a distributor or to a technology company would seem like an obvious goal. Mr. Subramanian said he could not speculate on that and added, "I'm just trying to build a really good consumer experience and solve a consumer problem."
Google Expands Its Cloud-Computing Offerings with "Drive"
Excerpted from CNN Report by Doug Gross
Google expanded the digital world of cloud computing on Tuesday, announcing the rollout of Google Drive.
The service, which will give users 5GB of free remote storage and additional space for a monthly fee, puts the web giant in competition with Apple and Microsoft, as well as specialized services like Box and Dropbox, in a space that increasingly looks like the future of computing.
"This is really just the next step in the evolution of Google Cloud," Scott Johnston, group product manager for Google Drive, told CNN. "It's really letting people live more in the cloud by connecting them more easily with all the devices they have."
Google Cloud already lets users store e-mail and other documents.
Cloud computing allows users to store documents and files, even large ones, on remote servers. Its promise is to make storage space on physical hard drives less important, as well as making it easier to seamlessly share, either with others or between multiple devices like laptops, phones and tablets.
"Google Drive is everywhere you are -- on the web, in your home, at the office and on the go," reads Google's promotional page for the service. "So wherever you are, your stuff is just ... there. Ready to go, ready to share."
Google Drive will launch with an Android app for smart-phones and tablets running Google's mobile operating system and in conjunction with 20 third-party apps.
As one might expect with a Google product, a big feature of Google Drive is a search feature that will allow users to comb through more than 30 types of files, such as Google docs or PDFs. There's also a limited image-search feature, driven by Google Goggles technology, that can recognize famous faces and landmarks, such as Mount Everest.
The service will immediately be available for PCs and Macs, as well as Android. iPhone and iPad availability is promised soon.
Users may upgrade to 25GB of storage for as little as $2.50 a month, Google says.
As more computer users are accessing the Web or doing work on multiple devices, cloud storage has rapidly evolved as a popular alternative to hard drives.
Just this week, Microsoft expanded its SkyDrive product, offering up to 100GB of storage and adding access for the iPhone, iPad and Windows phones.
Apple's iCloud service has been available since last June and, according to Apple, has more than 100 million users. And Dropbox, the leading independent cloud-storage service, reportedly has racked up another 50 million.
Some observers are dinging Google for being late to expand its cloud offerings.
"Google Drive is a late entrant to the file sharing space and is no doubt a direct response to the success and popularity that consumer file sync services are experiencing," said Jesse Lipson, vice-president of data-sharing at Citrix.
"The addition of Google Drive to the cloud storage landscape will make it even more competitive but with Apple, Amazon and Microsoft having offered services for some time, most providers have already got used to swimming with sharks and not getting eaten."
But others say that with a player as major as Google, even a late entrance in the market will have an impact.
"Google Drive is significant because now all Google account holders have one click signup to free file storage, sync and sharing, which has the potential to quickly build a large volume of users," said Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett.
"Integration with Google Docs/Apps and eventually with Gmail will make it more natural and seamless than managing from a separate account ... so, Google Drive will cause more individuals to begin using personal cloud services and more companies, those that use Google Apps, to use cloud-based file sync and sharing."
15 Google GDrive Alternatives to Consider for Cloud Storage
Excerpted from eWeek Report by Chris Preimesberger
Google has entered more than a few IT markets as a big-name latecomer-search, smart-phone operating systems with Android, and social networking (Buzz network, Google+) being but three of the most well-known.
Nonetheless, the web service giant has put together a pretty solid record of success. Now the company, whose popular Gmail service has provided each user a generous 7GB of free email storage for a couple of years, has finally moved its long-anticipated GDrive cloud storage service into general availability.
This has been in the works for more than six years, and during that time, a lot of competitors have already taken a big head start in the market.
Literally dozens of cloud storage providers are available to handle your files in a safe place. Here are 15 of them, based on eWEEK's cloud storage coverage since 2006. Links are included for each to obtain details.
By and large, all of them offer some kind of "freemium" deal, with limited free storage and a set of desirable extras if you don't mind paying $5 to $25 per month, on average.
Verizon Confirms Its Plans to Abandon DSL
Excerpted from Telecompetitor Report by Bernie Arnason
Verizon confirmed today what many analysts have been predicting for some time. They intend to abandon new DSL service in markets where their FTTH FiOS product is available. New customers who live in a FiOS territory and want broadband from Verizon will no longer be able to choose DSL as an option.
The news was revealed on its quarterly earnings conference call with financial analysts. It's really no surprise, given the ascent of FiOS and the descent of DSL for Verizon. Indeed, Verizon actually looses DSL customers every quarter, and if not for FiOS, would have negative growth for broadband.
For 1Q12, which ended March 31st, Verizon added 104K net broadband connections, 193K of which came from FiOS. Do the math and that means Verizon lost 89K DSL customers, most of which probably came courtesy of their DOCSIS 3.0 equipped cable competitors. Verizon's future is very much about FiOS and LTE, not DSL and legacy wireline voice. FiOS revenue now accounts for 63% of Verizon's total consumer wireline revenues.
Its residential FiOS digital voice product, a FTTH-delivered VoIP wireline voice service, added 414K voice subscribers last quarter. Their legacy residential TDM wireline voice service lost 562K access lines in the same time period.
So bye-bye DSL in FiOS territories. For customers who don't want full blown FTTH, Verizon can also conceivably push them towards HomeFusion, their fixed broadband wireless product delivered via 4G LTE (at least in the markets where it is available). Or will Verizon be content in pushing those customers to their new cable 'coopetitors', as long as they choose to take 4G LTE mobile broadband from them?
New Verizon broadband customers will have options. Those options just no longer will include DSL. Makes you wonder what Verizon intends to do with their non-FiOS markets, where DSL is their only wireline broadband option.
Video Start-Up Takes Fresh $40 Million
Excerpted from VentureBeat Report
Tango has just has raised another $40 million in a third round of funding from Qualcomm Ventures and Access Ventures. The news comes about a year after the cross-platform video chat start-up closed its last round of $42 million. "Forget Apple's Facetime," VentureBeat half-jokes. "If there's one app that shows the potential in the mobile video chat market, it's Tango."
Encouraging backers, the start-up continues to see incredible growth as well, reaching 45 million users a mere 18 months after its debut. Looking ahead, Tango CTO and Co-Founder Eric Setton says, "The round is a license to operate with a slightly bigger vision. It's not that we're going to hire a 100 extra people. We want to be able to accelerate and deliver more on our roadmap." As VB explains, "That road map includes honing the company's video and audio quality, and ensuring a great experience for all of its users."
According to Settons, 44% of Tango's users are active monthly, and 10% of them use the app every day. Adds VB: "There's a snowball effect to the app, as calls increase significantly when new users jump in." Indeed, Settons says daily calls almost doubled in the last four months. Currently, Tango offers apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows PCs.
Symform Raises $11 Million for P2P Cloud Storage
Excerpted from Data Center Knowledge Report by Rich Miller
Symform today announced that it has closed $8 million in a Series B round of financing to support global expansion of the Symform Cloud Storage Network. The funding was led by WestRiver Capital with participation from existing investors OVP and Longworth Venture Partners.
Symform has reserved up to $3 million in the series to add a strategic investor in 2012, which could bring the total Series B round to $11 million. As part of the investment, Erik Anderson of WestRiver Capital joins the Symform Board of Directors.
Symform provides a peer-to-peer network for data storage, where users contribute excess local storage to the network in exchange for free or flat fee cloud storage. The company says it has active users in 138 countries,and that the number of devices and data files stored on the Symform network jumped by more than 50 percent in the first quarter of 2012.
"Symform is a fundamentally superior way to store data in the cloud, and our continued strong growth and access to growth capital further validates that Symform is uniquely positioned to permanently disrupt the global cloud storage and backup market," said Matthew J. Schiltz, CEO, Symform.
With its Series B funding, Symform has now raised $20 million. The company also announced the launch of a new Advisory Board featuring industry leaders and technology experts. The board includes Jon Gacek, CEO of Quantum; Dimitris Achiloptas, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California Santa Cruz; and Grant Peterson, CTO and Vice President of Engineering at DocuSign.
Huawei Sees Future in Hybrid Cloud
Excerpted from Daily News & Analysis Report by Beryl Menezes
Eric Yu, president, Enterprise Business, Huawei India, spoke to Beryl Menezes about the company's plans to double investment in the enterprise segment in India, which it sees as a very attractive, albeit a competitive market. Excerpts from the interview:
Q: Can you elaborate on your plans for the Indian BWA market?
A: We have tied up with Airtel for their Bangalore 4G launch, which is expected within the next two weeks. We are in talks with all other BWA operators to help roll out their 4G networks.
Q: What kind of revenues are you expecting from the Indian market, especially with respect to the enterprise business?
A: Our overall business in India amounts to about $300 million, which includes handsets, data cards and set-top boxes. Of this, the handset business contributes $100 million. The enterprise business, launched in India last year, makes up 5% of our total revenues from the country. We plan to clock $200 million in 2012 from our enterprise business in India. Globally, the target is to reach $15 billion in enterprise business revenues by 2015, from the $4 billion now.
Q: How is your handset business doing?
A: We are launching a new 3G-enabled handset - Huawei Ascend - this month in China, which will have a quad core processor CPU for much greater speed. It will be launched in India later this year.
Q: How much scope do you see for the cloud market here?
A: Cloud will take at least two years to catch up in India. However, we have tied up with many large enterprises for public cloud and have partnerships with local cloud service providers to provide cloud services to SMBs. However, we believe the future will be hybrid cloud, and we are ready with that offering as well.
Q: What is your strategy for the enterprise segment?
A: We plan to engage 200-300 top customers in India, including the government and large enterprises, for multiple solutions that we offer, including network solutions, unified communications, IT solutions, industry solutions and other services.
Q: For which services do you see biggest demand in India?
A: We see the most demand for network solutions in India, followed by video and telepresence, server storage and data centers.We saw $40 million order bookings last year for the enterprise business, and this year we are targeting $150 million in order bookings.
Q: Any plans to increase your investments?
A: Huawei India has an R&D center in Bangalore hosting 2,700 employees. Huawei is also building a second R&D center in Whitefield, Bangalore, which will be ready next year. This center can accommodate 4,000 employees, pointing to doubling of our India investment.
Q: What major challenges do you see in the Indian market?
A: Some of the major challenges in India are low information and communications technology growth despite a variety of equipment available, various strong system integrators and keen competition between OEMs. To combat this, we have several new innovations such as virtual teller machines for banks, which can help in financial inclusion, solutions for enhanced network connectivity and surveillance solutions for safety of the city.
Coming Events of Interest
Cloud Computing World Forum - May 8th in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Cloud Computing World Forum Africa is the only place to discuss the latest topics in cloud, including security, mobile, applications, communications, virtualization, CRM and much, much more.
Data Center + Network: The Converged Cloud - May 17th Webinar. By making data centers more agile, increasing provisioning speed, and reducing capital expenditures, cloud is forever altering the way enterprises deploy technology.
Cloud Expo - June 11th-14th in New York, NY. Two unstoppable enterprise IT trends, Cloud Computing and Big Data, will converge in New York at the tenth annual Cloud Expo being held at the Javits Convention Center. A vast selection of technical and strategic General Sessions, Industry Keynotes, Power Panels, Breakout Sessions, and a bustling Expo Floor.
IEEE 32nd International Conference on Distributed Computing - June 18th-21st in Taipa, Macao. ICDCS brings together scientists and engineers in industry, academia, and government: Cloud Computing Systems, Algorithms and Theory, Distributed OS and Middleware, Data Management and Data Centers, Network/Web/P2P Protocols and Applications, Fault Tolerance and Dependability, Wireless, Mobile, Sensor, and Ubiquitous Computing, Security and Privacy.
Cloud Management Summit - June 19th in Mountain View, CA. A forum for corporate decision-makers to learn about how to manage today's public, private, and hybrid clouds using the latest cloud solutions and strategies aimed at addressing their application management, access control, performance management, helpdesk, security, storage, and service management requirements on-premise and in the cloud.
2012 Creative Storage Conference - June 26th in Culver City. CA. In association with key industry sponsors, CS2012 is finalizing a series of technology, application, and trend sessions that will feature distinguished experts from the professional media and entertainment industries.
CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2012 - November 14th-15th in Santa Monica. CA. CCW:2012 will zero in on the latest advances in applying cloud-based solutions to all aspects of high-value entertainment content production, storage, and delivery; the impact of cloud services on broadband network management and economics; and evaluating and investing in cloud computing services providers.
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