Paul Kapustka's Blog
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October 30, 2006
A Brightcove user says: Good and getting better
It's easy to write off today's leap by Brightcove into the online video-sharing wars as tooTube little, tooTube late, but after watching the service mature from a front-row seat, I would have to say the race is far from over.
Here at the VONosphere we've been using Brightcove as our publishing platform from the start, a choice made mainly due to their best-in-breed viewer and player technology. At the outset, using Brightcove was a big leap of faith -- we may still be waiting for some of our original files to completely upload. There's also still a few more hoops than most to jump through (such as the need to upload separate images for video stills and thumbnail displays) but in the end I think it is worth it, since you have more control over what appears on your blog or Web site.
(and it doesn't have a big opaque arrow in the middle either.)
After some hiccups in service a month ago (including several outages that had us looking around for alternatives), Brightcove responded and from all appearances, really ratcheted up things on the back end, rolling out new features and increasing performance to the point where wait times (to upload files, mostly) were as fast as your connection could handle.
To me, the next interesting step is to see how Brightcove's advertising system -- and maybe, help from AOL's online sales crew -- helps small publishers conquer the toughest problem around, mainly figuring out how to get paid for creating content on your own. As an early user, all I can say is I'm satisfied and looking forward to the future.
Posted by paul at 02:42 PM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2006
VONosphere Webisode #15 -- Report from VON Italy
Report from VON Italy, Oct. 25-26, Rome
Topics: Jeff Pulver keynote, VON Italy, VON Europe, VON Enterprise.
Posted by paul at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2006
A new open peering network? Tell me more!
Reading Sascha Meinrath's posts from the Alternative Telecom Policy Forum in Ottawa makes me wish I was there... would love to hear more about the plans to build a cooperative national backbone to connect muni networks... more, more!
Though there are many details that need to surface, such a common peering network is probably an expected next step of the muni-network trend that seems unstoppable. Heck, even former adversaries like AT&T are now bidding for muni projects, maybe guessing that participating in a public-private partnership could produce more dough than just hiring lobbyists and shills to oppose innovation?
Posted by paul at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2006
VONosphere Webisode #14 -- Sylantro Global Summit
Webisode #14 comes to you live from the Sylantro Global Summit in Las Vegas...
Topics: BT VoIP, Covad VoIP, watching Jon Arnold videoblog.
Links:
BT: 1 million VoIP users by Spring '07
Sylantro gets win in Motorola WiMax deployment
Posted by paul at 05:09 PM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2006
BT: 1 million VoIP users by Spring '07
LAS VEGAS -- Rather than run from VoIP, BT (also known as British Telecommunications plc) has embraced it and expects to have 1 million Voice over IP customers by Spring 2007, according to a BT exec speaking here at the Sylantro Global Summit.
Dave Axam
Dave Axam, BT Retail's GM for future voice services, gave a very entertaining and thought-provoking keynote during Tuedsay's sessions here at the Venetian Hotel. And while the 1 million user mark shows the company is successfully signing up VoIP users, Axam said what's more important is BT's tight embrace of the idea of voice as an untethered application, and not something tied tightly to a single service.
"Is VoIP going to kill us? No," Axam asserted. "Instead, why not have voice be an application that can be tied to other services? For us, VoIP is a springboard for innovation."
Joining the chorus of previous presenters here, Axam noted that making VoIP work well takes a lot of hard work behind the scenes. A master of the soundbite, Axam said that SIP is "like English... it's supposed to be the same language, but if you [listen to] the English, the Aussies, the Americans..." (the laughing of the VoIP-heads in the crowd made it unnecessary for Axam to finish the line); his point was that BT has spent lots and lots of time testing and ensuring the interoperability of CPE and handsets for VoIP.
Another interesting bit of real-world experience led to BT's latest CPE deliverable, a combo ATA/Wi-Fi router with a built-in cordless phone. Axam said that customer feedback showed that end-users often couldn't find the phone jacks on previous ATAs, and that training customer service reps to offer such help was a dubious exercise... "so we just put a handset on the front of the box."
Axam also said that VoIP is no longer a quality laggard. In fact, the company has trademarked the term "high definition sound" because "these days VoIP can give you a better [sound] experience" than traditional TDM phones, Axam said.
(Watch for more from Dave when I post the second day's video report from the Sylantro event, later Wednesday or early Thursday.)
Posted by paul at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2006
Sylantro gets win in Motorola WiMax deployment
LAS VEGAS -- Motorola is using Sylantro's VoIP application feature server products in its new WiMax national service network in Pakistan, according to a Moto exec here at the Sylantro Global Summit.
During his talk Tuesday morning, Michael Krutz, VP of Moto's core networks division, told the crowd here that the systems-integration arm of Motorola wants to work with "best of breed" suppliers when it builds networks, and said that Sylantro had such an offering at the feature server level.
As is often the case with Sylantro deals, there's no public press release announcing the win (since the service providers are sometimes loath to reveal where they're getting technology from) but it is another vote of confidence for the software found in several big VoIP deployments, including those from Microsoft, Covad and AT&T.
Krutz said Tuesday that Motorola isn't like some other service providers who might have an "only built here" mentality when it comes to building big networks.
"I know some operators want to control [everything] themself, but I don't think that's the answer," Krutz said. "We want to partner with others who are the best in breed."
Posted by paul at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)
VONosphere Webisode #13 -- Sylantro Global Summit
Webisode #13 is live from Las Vegas at the Sylantro Global Summit...
Topics: VoIP, Innovation, Web 2.0 meets the phone, Venetian boaters.
Posted by paul at 09:01 AM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2006
A dose of VoIP reality at the Sylantro Global Summit
LAS VEGAS -- In this era of GooTube, it's easy to forget that Voice over IP was not so long ago thought of as something new and revolutionary. Here at the Sylantro Global Summit, however, the once-nascent technology is being served up with a healthy dose of reality, as a dish that still takes time and effort to prepare in order to deliver services that are both reliable and cutting edge at the same time.
In his afternoon keynote Monday, Covad CEO Charlie Hoffman told the crowd of several hundred Sylantro users, partners and developers here at the Venetian resort megacomplex that VoIP has yet to hit the curve part of the hockey-stick chart, calling it a technology that is behind its expected runup rate.
Does that mean Hoffman and others are soured on VoIP? Far from it. Rather, they are just resetting expectations with the lessons learned from the marketplace, which say that finding worth beyond simple cost savings -- the low-hanging fruit of the VoIP market -- is a task that takes time, effort and money.
Hoffman, who told us after his talk that getting big is the only way to survive in a rapidly consolidating telecom marketplace, noted that Covad has spent a lot of time and money training its service reps and resellers, and a lot more money getting its network ready to handle national and global demands. And Nortel's Earl Philmone, from that company's applications server group, told the crowd that even though much of VoIP is standards-based, Nortel and others have spent "as much energy working together [on interoperability issues]" as they did developing new products.
Not to say it was all doom and gloom; Sylantro CEO Pete Bonee talked enthusiastically about how the mix of IMS and Web services (Web services! old school buzzword alert!) might truly accelerate new-feature offerings from service providers and other partners who choose to use Sylantro's VoIP application server software base (which is found amongst VoIP offerings from Microsoft, BT, Covad and Bandwidth.com, just to name a few), not just in the areas of enhanced voice services, but in the true marriage of desktop and voice applications.
Nortel's Philmone mixed his fervor with a little castor oil -- saying things like "IMS delivers the killer environment for killer apps,"
and "even though it [IMS] is calculus, there are people who like calculus," meaning that yes, it's tough work, but there are smart folks willing to sweat a bit.
And as we all learned Monday night, things can get brighter even when they seem at their bleakest. Or something. Hey, you try to blog after watching that game. More tomorrow.
Posted by paul at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
Live from the Sylantro Global Summit
LAS VEGAS -- Coming to you live Monday from the Sylantro Global Summit today and tomorrow, with blogs and videos (later today) from the gathering of customers and partners of Sylantro, one of the market leaders in application feature servers, the software behind many of the cool new VoIP and advanced IP-based telephony applications.
Sylantro CEO Pete Bonee kicked things off with a great keynote about why IMS (and web services!) will be the future of rapid telephony application development, and where Web 2.0 and the phone will meet. Coming soon from Sylantro, he said, watch for new features like custome ringback tones to be a part of their application list for service-provider customers.
More from today's talks later (including Covad CEO Charlie Hoffman), as well as video from Pete's speech. Stay tuned!
Posted by paul at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2006
Ray Noorda, NetWare's leader, RIP
As a onetime Novell beat reporter allow me to add my condolences to the family of Ray Noorda over the passing of one of networking's true business legends. While he didn't always make the right decisions, Noorda will no doubt be remembered by many for his efforts to build the interconnected local-area networking industry, which forever destroyed the big-iron thinking that previously dominated computing.
Noorda, who struggled with Alzheimer's disease in the later years of his life (a condition that reportedly contributed to the management problems of his venture-investment group), had earlier led Novell from a bankrupt idea to a networking powerhouse with its flagship NetWare software.
But Novell, whose IPX/SPX protocols once dominated corporate LANs, ran into significant competition both from Microsoft (with its Windows NT networking products) and the Internet itself, with its unstoppable open-standards TCP/IP protocol base. Novell's efforts to embrace the Internet (ah, who can forget NetWareNFS or UnixWare?) suffered from both internal and external competition, and (like Noorda's purchase of WordPerfect for a Microsoft office-apps alternative) never made it to prime time.
From a personal standpoint, Noorda was easily one of the most approachable and affable executives, not a small attribute to be remembered for in this era of outsized egos and over-important CEOs.
Posted by paul at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2006
Verizon: First blogs, then video reports?
It's great to see Verizon getting into the blogging game. But what do y'all think about a top telco getting into the video news bidness as well?
This will be interesting to watch, if it ever gets off the ground. If anyone in the D.C. area knows more, please comment below...
Posted by paul at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)
VONosphere Webisode #12 -- Intel Developer Forum
Webisode #12 of the VONosphere from the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco (Sept. 27).
Topics: WiMax, WiMax and more WiMax. And a cool old PC, and a cool new one.
Links: Where's Intel's WiMax PC Card?
Posted by paul at 02:26 PM | Comments (1)
October 04, 2006
'NXTcomm' replaces Globalcomm, TelecomNext
As reported yesterday, the USTA and TIA confirmed today that they will unite their trade-show efforts again into a single entity, to be called NXTcomm. The inaugural show will take place June 18-21 in Chicago (same scheduled dates as Globalcomm for 2007), replacing both the Globalcomm show and the TelecomNext show, whose March 2007 dates have been canceled. No word on whether or not USTA and TIA will buy a vowel before the branding is complete...
During a conference call Wednesday to announce the new show, USTA chief lobbyist Walter McCormick tried to tap-dance around a question about exhibitor unrest by trying to claim that the new world of networks drove USTA and TIA back into each others' arms. To their credit, several reporters on the line responded with "C'mon" pleas to try to get Walt to give an un-spun answer.
"The industry was clamoring for one strong show," said outgoing TIA honcho Matt Flanigan, more closely approaching honesty.
Posted by paul at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2006
TIA, USTA back together again?
The split that angered telecom vendors may be healing again, if sources are to believed. At a press conference call scheduled for Wednesday, TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) and the USTA (U.S. Telecom Association) are expected to announce that they will again jointly produce the Globalcomm trade show.
As yet unknown is whether or not the USTA will still produce its second "TelecomNEXT" show in March of 2007. While representatives of USTA would not comment on the scheduled call, industry sources said that a couple weeks ago, the two associations agreed to once again pool their efforts.
The inaugural TelecomNEXT show this past March had big-name keynote speeches from top telco execs, but had sparse attendance for the expo floor. This past summer's Globalcomm show had slightly lower crowds than the previous Supercomm show that was jointly produced by TIA and USTA until the groups went their separate ways in 2006.
Posted by paul at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2006
Where's Intel's WiMax PC Card?
Since I didn't spend more than one quick afternoon at last week's Intel Developer Forum, I might not have all the information. But as far as I could tell, Intel's promised WiMax PC Card -- originally due out this Fall -- was nowhere to be found, and probably won't be available for slipping under the Christmas tree this holiday season.
Since I'm a WiMax wannabe (truly, I do think the technology has a great chance to enable the so-called third pipe of broadband access in this country) I looked hard for evidence of forthcoming wares, but the best I could find last week at IDF in San Francisco was an early days prototype, which does not look at all consumer-friendly unless we are all supposed to go back to the days of alligator clamps for connectivity.
Looking on the Intel Web site, I didn't find any solid shipping-date information, but I did find a recent presentation that seems to confirm that the cards are coming -- sometime -- and for added street cred, the presentation (as of Sunday night, anyway) still had a bunch of suggested fixes and changes left in. Hey, who's got time to proofreed, anyway? This iz the webb! (Besides, who knows if it's a sentence fragment, or poetic license?)
On the cool side of the ledger, Intel did say that it was coming out with chipsets for service provider gear-builders that would be software-switchable from fixed to mobile WiMax, allowing said providers to start building gear sooner for fixed networks that would be future-proofed for mobile WiMax. That alone may juice the market for WiMax even more than throwing more cash at Craig McCaw.
And Intel also said that it would work with Nokia to embed biggerbetterfaster Wi-Fi into its chipsets, which means we can all poach off our neighbors' Linksys routers much easier in the future.
But where's my WiMax card? The best I could find from last week was this report, which rehashes old news -- that there would eventually be a combined WiMax/Wi-Fi radio inside your laptop. Sure. But where's the card I can start using this Fall?
Posted by paul at 10:42 PM | Comments (1)