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Cisco: It’s All About Video and the Cloud

Monday, December 5th, 2011 by Edgar Villalpando – SVP Marketing

Weather Vane

Cisco Systems is the big dog on the networking block for a reason: They always seem to know which way the winds are blowing.

With the pending acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google, Cisco CEO John Chambers sees a huge (and getting huger) opportunity for the company’s video business. Multichannel News reported that Chambers said, “There are only two real players that can bring entertainment video in a major way” to pay-TV operators… “All of a sudden, you have major service providers saying, ‘Cisco, we see you now even more important in terms of the partnership and the direction on it.’”

This might look like some standard chest-thumping in the boring-to-some (but not to me) set-top box market, but let’s look closer. Chambers also said, “It’s really the architecture that we’re committed to, as this moves into the cloud with our Videoscape capability. Our service provider customers asked us to partner with them as they move from traditional set-top boxes, to IP set-top boxes, to the cloud, which again, is enabled by our Videoscape solutions.”

Cisco is putting a lot of resources behind Videoscape, and it’s just what cable operators need right now (and what cable subscribers want). Follow that link and check out what Cisco is talking about. It’s spot on.

This week at the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, FierceCable reported that Cisco’s booth was focused on “products that shuttle content to tablets and mobile phones, and deliver interactive video and applications to the TV.” Cisco told FC that it’s seeing a “huge amount” of interest in “set-tops and gateway devices that allow operators to deliver a hybrid of live TV and Web applications to subscribers.” Again, spot on.

This comes on the heels of last month’s announcement that Cisco intends to acquire BNI Video, which supplies service providers with video back-office and content delivery network analytic capabilities. Analysts viewed the announcement as another big boost for the Videoscape platform. Spot. On.

So Cisco, you big dog, keep barking, because cable operators will be biting. You’re barking up the right tree.

Posted in Ecosystem, Uncategorized | Comment »

Surfin’ the Zeitgeist

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011 by Edgar Villalpando – SVP Marketing

NAB Zeitgeist

Sometimes you go to an industry event and you happily realize that you’re smack dab in the middle of the zeitgeist. That pretty much sums up my experience at the NAB Show last month.

I fearlessly jumped into the brilliantly-named “Broadband Pit” twice to pitch our CloudTV apps platform and vision to the assembled broadcasters, developers and programmers. I called my wife to tell her all about it, but unfortunately my cell connection was noisy. When I called her back, she wanted to hear all about how I got to hang out with Brad Pitt. I didn’t want to disappoint her, so if you run into her, just play along.

Anyway, after I spoke, lots of people came up to me personally to show me love. Not because of my always snazzy appearance or my PowerPoint skillz, either; it seemed were very excited about my call to the smart TV ecosystem to join the cloud.

I was perplexed.

Could be that the TV industry is beginning to realize that the device-based smart TV direction is not sustainable or efficient. They see that the cloud offers unlimited functionality. It could be that they see that it futureproofs end-user devices like TVs and set-top boxes. It could be that they see that it offers endless revenue opportunities. It could be that they love the ability to write once for the cloud, as opposed to writing over and over again for each model of every device out there.

It could be all those things. Needless to say, I hope it keeps up. Cuz I like the free drinks.

Posted in Ecosystem, Events | Comment »

I Clicked on Tina Fey’s Glasses and She Responded

Thursday, April 14th, 2011 by Edgar Villalpando – SVP Marketing

Tina Fey

Because of the immense power of the cloud, our world is becoming so connected that it seems like anything is possible.

I know, stop me if you’ve heard that one before. But let’s look beyond the cliché and really think about it.

We live in a world where a smartphone app allows you to take a picture of anything, and returns a web search on the object you photographed (it’s not always an accurate return, I know, but bear with me). There’s an app that allows your mobile device to “listen” to music you hear in a room and returns information about the artist and song. There are apps that rely on your mobile device’s GPS to give you an instant guide to an unfamiliar neighborhood—nearby restaurants, bars, museums, etc.

If you told someone about this stuff 20 years ago, they’d likely have thought we were also commuting in flying cars. Just sit back and think about it: It’s freaking amazing. These apps have changed how we live, love, eat, work, shop and interact, all in an incredibly short amount of time.

So why are our TVs still living in the 20th century?

Sure, there are TV apps. But we’ve barely—barely—scratched the surface of what’s possible. And so many of those possibilities lie in the cloud. Why? Because these incredible experiences are all about making connections. And where are those connections made? The cloud.

Imagine if your remote was kind of like a Wii controller, and you could just point at the TV screen and click on, say, Tina Fey’s glasses during an episode of 30 Rock (you thought the title of this post made no sense, didn’t you? Au contraire!). Then imagine that info and links about Tina, or the world through Tina’s eyes, appear instantly on your screen, or on your tablet, phone or laptop. It could take you to other Tina Fey videos, or her IMDB profile, or to the causes she supports.

Now imagine clicking on Drew Brees during a football game and getting his updated stats, links to video highlights, cool deals from the companies he endorses, and so on. (Imagine clicking on Brett Favre and getting…well, let’s stick with Drew Brees.)

Through the cloud, the possibilities are endless. Advertisers, broadcasters, content developers and even the company who manufactured your device, or the retailer who sold it to you, could all have a hand in determining what happens when you click on someone or something (and who makes money off of it). Ultimately, though, the viewer would control the whole experience, so these apps would need to be useful and compelling.

CloudTV™ can make all of this happen. Smart TV ecosystem, we’re ready when you are.

Posted in Advertising, Content, Ecosystem, Uncategorized | Comment »

This Week, I Just Can’t Help but Feel Like I’m #WINNING

Thursday, March 24th, 2011 by Edgar Villalpando – SVP Marketing

iO Quick Views

I’m feeling feisty today, and for good reason. This week, Cablevision Systems, one of the largest cable operators in the country, showed what can be done when applications are streamed from the cloud.

Cablevision used—wait for it!—ActiveVideo’s® CloudTV™ app platform to create personalized navigation that’s miles beyond anything else that’s available to cable subscribers. The cool new iO TV Quick Views mosaic is the kind of app that consumers would expect from an Apple or Google—if Apple and Google had relationships with cable. Check out this video to see the app in action.

iO TV Quick Views isn’t just a personalized mosaic—and a killer mosaic at that. With up to 9 tiles of streaming video glory, you’ll be feeling like a Wall Street day trader. It’s also a personalized EPG with DVR integration. Like most of the 25 CloudTV apps already in Cablevision homes, iO Quick Views was built, using our tool kit, by Cablevision and third-party developers to run on any Cablevision digital set-top box.

Cablevision unveiled the app yesterday. And I love the part in its press release when Cablevision talked about how iO TV Quick Views “leverages the unique capabilities of ActiveVideo Networks’ CloudTV platform to combine personalization and live video.”

All kinds of unique features of our platform were involved here—things like multi-tile video, personalization, metadata display, guide functionality and DVR programming capabilities—but I’ll leave that to the technical geeks in the next office. From a marketing standpoint, what’s really cool is that Cablevision showed that it’s as easy to create apps on our platform as it is for the iPhone or the iPad.

For TV app creation to really take off, we’ve got to offer developers the type of critical mass they get in mobile and PC environments. Big companies like Netflix have an army of developers that writes apps for every permutation of every device, but the little guy who’s creating the next “Angry Birds” can’t do that for TV—unless the app development platform is in the cloud.

CloudTV can change television in a way that Apple or Google couldn’t. We can bring developers together with cable and satellite operators AND TV manufacturers to offer cool new apps that don’t require consumers to buy and hook up new boxes. That’s truly game-changing stuff!

So pardon my chest-thumping (ow!), but the momentum is building behind CloudTV. And I can’t wait to talk about more success stories as 2011 progresses.

Posted in Content, Distribution, Ecosystem | Comment »

Bringing it Down with a Cool Cable Slow Jam

Thursday, March 17th, 2011 by Edgar Villalpando – SVP Marketing

iPad Plus Cable

Before I was a big-time blogger (play along here), I was a cable industry guy, so it always makes me warm and fuzzy when I see good things happening in that industry. So my heart skipped a beat or two when I saw “cable” and “cool” in the same ZDNet headline.

Comcast recently put together a media tour to show how cool cable set-top boxes can be – “cool as Netflix,” according to the ZDNet report – how they can work with Android and iPad, and how they can enable you to control and enjoy a huge amount of content and apps like no other service can.

ZDNet talked about how Comcast CEO Brian Roberts stressed that the user interface – the “guide,” in cable lingo – is the key to the success of the set-top box as the home’s digital entertainment hub. Comcast envisions a world in which any xfinity customer will have access to any content he or she wants, anywhere he or she is, and the experience will be as rich and easy to use as possible.

I know what you’re thinking: Among all of the flashy new devices tech people love to talk about, “cable” and “cool” are poles apart. But let’s also agree on this: Cable gets a ton of abuse but little credit for the awesome services it provides. Roll your eyes if you want, but more people still get their TV and internet through cable than any other service. You might save money by cord cutting, but you won’t get the same level of service, and it won’t be nearly as seamless an experience, either.

Full disclosure: We do business with cable operators, so we’re a little biased in their favor. We also do business with CE manufacturers, so… same deal. We have much love for everyone in this wacky connected TV ecosystem. And we love to spread that love. (Queue up a slow jam if you want to get into the mood with us here, peeps.)

Comcast is clearly thinking what we’re thinking: The smart TV space is all about who’s got the best content from both TV and Web, and how users can best access and enjoy all of it. Mantra: Great content, great user interface, highly accessible.

In our view, the cloud is the key element in the middle that can make this all happen. Our CloudTV™ platform can turn even the most limited set-top box into a smart TV powerhouse. It removes the need to upgrade subscriber equipment, as well as the need to deploy expensive, bulked up set-top boxes going forward.

So even if you’re not in love with cable, admit it: If these kinds of apps and functionality were coming from some CE manufacturer — let’s say one with a fruity logo — they would be all the rage. After all, Comcast delivers twice as much non-linear digital video than that aforementioned CE darling.