September 2012

Top 5, Trends

Top 5 Tech Articles You Might Have Missed – Week of September 24, 2012

September 28, 2012 : BY Motorola

Last week, leaders from across technologies convened at GigaOM Mobilize to discuss the future of mobile. Our own Bill Brown participated in a panel on the connected home, and provided one of the key takeaways from the conference: “Most consumers really, really, really don’t want to be integrators,” said Brown. He pointed to an increase in centralized connected home systems as an important trend to look for in the near future.

According to Lost Remote, the 64th Annual Primetime Emmys created new precedents for social TV engagement. According to Bluefin, the Emmys “had a total of 1.0M social media comments, a 148% year-over-year growth from the 2011 Awards, which had 427K social media comments.” Some key moments included Tracy Morgan’s Twitter stunt and Aaron Paul’s best supporting actor win for Breaking Bad. 



In an effort to better gauge multiplatform video consumption, CIMM is teaming up with Nielsen to collaborate on the research company’s mobile Television Audience Measurement initiative. According to Multichannel, the two will develop and test different approaches to TV audience measurement using both passive and active applications on different devices to mirror how people use technology throughout the day.

As the prevalence of social TV continues to grow, we expect to see more networks providing similar experiences like CNN Digital’s interactive live TV broadcast of the upcoming presidential debates. Aside from streaming to multiple platforms, viewers will be able to capture video clips from the debate and share with their social media networks, creating an opportunity for further discussion outside of the traditional channels.

In last week’s roundup, we highlighted the impact social TV buzz can have on ratings. Sure, high engagement brings viewer loyalty, community and brand building, but how can companies monetize that? In an effort to answer that question, Business 2 Community offers some key elements to boost the power of connected TV. This year, we’ve seen some great innovations from companies looking to bridge the gap between traditional and new media platforms How many of you have seen a movie or show debut online before reaching theaters or TV? Tell us about it in the comments!

  1. Future of mobile: 5 key takeaways from Mobilize 2012 (Sept. 24) By Kevin C. Tofel, GigaOM: With the future of mobile quickly evolving, what do you need to know now? After a long cross-country flight home, I had plenty of time to digest the key data nuggets from our GigaOm Mobilize 2012 event held last week. Here are five worth sharing.
  2. Social TV highlights from the 64th Annual Primetime Emmys (Sept. 24) By Natan Edelsburg, Lost Remote:  Another Emmys have come and gone, which means that the fall TV season is about to kick into high gear. Last night’s awards felt a bit like the Modern Family Awards Show, although Jimmy Kimmel’s hosting was exceptional. Homeland also did extremely well and Hatfields & McCoys brought home a few well deserved honors. Louis C.K. was also a big winner bringing home two Emmys. What were the social TV highlights, besides of course, Tracy Morgan’s mega successful stunt? Trendrr and Bluefin Labs have reported the following.
  3. Nielsen Pacts with CIMM On Mobile TV Measurement Tests (Sept. 28) By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News: Nielsen and the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), a group of media companies, advertisers and agencies, are teaming up to test ways to measure television viewing across mobile devices, initially focusing on local TV markets.
  4. CNN Digital Offers Interactive Live TV Broadcast for Presidential Debates (Sept. 28) By Staff, CNN: For four nights in October CNN will present its live TV broadcast and offer unrestricted access to the network’s presidential debate programming through CNN.com and via CNN’s apps for iPhone and iPad. From 7 PM to midnight, October 3, 11, 16 and 22, anyone with an internet or mobile connection can view CNN TV’s news, analysis and live coverage.
  5. Social TV Advertising And Monetization: Emerging Elements (Sept. 26) By Zachary Weiner, Business 2 Community: If there is any question that seems to be playing on repeat these days, it’s “how do we monetize Social TV?” It is pondered and asked regardless of platforms and mediums, whether we are talking about companion apps, traditional 2nd screens or connected TV. The bottom line is that when we talk about digital socialization around television, there is a gap of information as to how we can commercialize emerging TV formats.

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Converged Experiences, Events

Motorola Home Goes Beyond TV at Jornadas Internacionales

September 28, 2012 : BY Motorola

At Jornadas Internacionales 2012 in Argentina, the Motorola Home team showcased how we’re driving the future of television with an end-to-end solution suite that is designed to create unique experiences, optimize services management, expand the home ecosystem and support the transition to IP.  

The theme at the show for Motorola was ‘TV beyond the TV,’ and on display in our booth were many of our innovative software solutions such as DreamGallery and SecureMedia, as well as the latest products from our vast portfolio of innovative and eco-friendly set-tops.  Additionally, an exclusive media event was hosted by Motorola where reporters were given a first-hand look at these products and more. All were very well received and created plenty of buzz in Latin America’s industry media. 

Check out some Moto booth photos from the show below.

Tagged as: Jornadas Internacionales, latin america, Motorola Mobility, TV beyond TV

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Converged Experiences, Events, Home Devices, Network Infrastructure

Motorola Video Users Convene in San Diego

September 25, 2012 : BY Motorola

Ever wonder how exactly Motorola technology delivers video on any device, anytime, anywhere? Interested in learning more about our multiscreen software, HEVC or next-generation transcoders or uplink systems? Then the Motorola Video Users’ Group Conference is for you.

The conference kicks off today with a Motorola keynote from Matt Bell, our senior vice president of strategy and technology. We’ll also hear from Nate Williams from Converged Solutions, Joe Cozzolino from Network Infrastructure and Keith Kelley from Home Devices on where we are today, and where our new technologies are taking us in the near future. Guest speakers Jeff Riedmiller, senior director of Dolby Laboratories’ Sound Platform Group, and Scott Brown, senior vice president of media product leadership for Nielsen’s digital platforms division, take the stage today and Wednesday, respectively.

Throughout the event, there will be numerous breakout sessions where programmers, service providers and cable operators will have the chance to meet with Motorola experts and demo some of our new technologies. Attendees can take a deep dive into adaptive bitrate, IRD, Medios, HEVC and more.

Be sure to check back here and follow us on Twitter @MotoMedia2Go for updates and key takeaways from the conference.

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Top 5, Trends

Top Tech Articles You Might Have Missed – Week of September 17, 2012

September 21, 2012 : BY Motorola

On Friday, at GigaOM’s Mobilize in San Francisco, our own Bill Brown discussed the future of the multidevice and multiscreen connected home with executives from Netflix and Verizon. If you weren’t able to make the conference, be sure to watch the entire live stream here.

In other news, Light Reading featured the latest enhancements to boost Comcast’s wireless service bundles with the addition of a new in-home video transcoding TV streaming device, called AnyPlay powered by Motorola Mobility, which will be offered through its partnership with Verizon Wireless in more than 30 markets.

Broadband Technology Reports posted a recent study from Analysys Mason, which reemphasized our vision of the future of TV and illustrated that multiscreen video and companion devices are the key drivers to an enriched TV experience.

It’s hard to deny the impact of online buzz on the viewership of popular shows. And, this week The Wall Street Journal shared statistics from Bluefin Labs showing a dramatic increase in the number of posts on Twitter, Facebook and other social-media sites talking about television over last year and how these conversations are influencing the writing of the shows. Furthermore, Lost Remote suggests that social media not only drives people to linear TV but could also help drive ratings and predict success of a show. What social media platform do you use to talk about your favorite shows or college football games with your friends?

  1. Mobilize 2012 live coverage (Sept. 20) By Tom Krazit, GigaOM: Today and tomorrow at Mobilize, we’ll host frank discussions about these topics and more with some of the people who are making the world more mobile at an increasingly rapid pace.
  2. Comcast Uses TV Streamer to Pump Mobile Bundles (Sept. 20) By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading: Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) is using an in-home video transcoding device to pump up the wireless service bundles it’s offering through its partnership with Verizon Wireless. Comcast is offering the device, called AnyPlay and developed in tandem with Motorola Mobility, primarily as part of the joint marketing efforts with the mobile carrier, an MSO spokeswoman tells Light Reading Cable.
  3. Multiscreen: Enriching TV, Not just Extending It  (Sept. 18) By Staff, Broadband Technology Report: According to UK-based Analysys Mason, the emphasis in multiscreen video is now shifting to using tablets as companion devices to enrich the core TV experience, rather than simply extending the availability of video content to other screens. The research house says this approach capitalizes on the growing trend for multitasking while watching TV.
  4. When Twitter Fans Steer TV (Sept. 17) By John Jannarone, The Wall Street Journal: There’s a new critic in television writing rooms pressuring some producers to tweak scripts: the Twitterati. Comments posted on Twitter and other social-media websites about television shows have exploded in the past year, to 75.5 million in July from 8.8 million a year earlier, far faster than overall growth in such comments, according to research firm Bluefin Labs. And the comments are beginning to have an impact on the writing of shows.
  5. How social TV buzz really does move the ratings needle (Sept. 19) By Cory Bergman, Lost Remote: We’ve reported on many case studies over the last couple years about how social media has the power to drive people to TV. Twitter repeatedly says it’s “driving people to linear television” with real-time conversations, citing a study that showed increasing positive correlation nearing airtime. Facebook explains it’s “pretty confident” the platform drives viewership. And a survey by TVGuide discovered 17 percent of respondents say they have started to watch a show and 31 percent say they have continued to watch a show because of a social impression.

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Converged Experiences, Events

GigaOM Mobilize Tackles the Future of the Connected Home

September 21, 2012 : BY Motorola

Sure, the concept of the Connected Home has been around for years, but we are just now entering a time when consumers are truly able to manage their home from any device, anytime, anywhere.

At GigaOM Mobilize today, attendees heard from industry-leading experts – including our own Bill Brown, General Manager of Motorola Mobility’s Converged Consumer Solutions Group – about the future of the multi-device, multi-screen connected home.

Hot topics up for discussion included home automation, multi-screen security and cross-platform user interfaces, not to mention the next-generation solutions making all of this innovation possible.

Fellow panelists included Kevin Tofel, Panel Moderator and Senior Writer at GigaOM; Eric Bruno, Vice President of Strategy and Planning, Consumer and Mass Business Markets at Verizon Communications; as well as Chris Jaffe, Director of Product Innovation at Netflix.

We look forward to continuing the conversation here on our blog and would love to hear from you about what you think your Connected Home will look like in 2015. What about in 2020? Leave us a comment and let us know!

 

Tagged as: Bill Borwn, connected home, Motorola. GigaOM Mobilize, multi-device, multi-screen connected home

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Events

Motorola’s Steve McCaffery @ IBC2012

September 17, 2012 : BY Motorola

Intuitive, new and innovative services were watch words for our EMEA, VP and General Manager, Steve McCaffery, at this year’s IBC as he set the scene in Amsterdam. Listen to what he sees to be the big challenges facing the industry this year and how we’re innovating to meet these challenges. It’s exciting and interesting to hear about Motorola’s new systems integration services for the first time. Be sure to be a focus in on an ever diversifying and complex industry environment where a one-size-fits-all approach won’t meet the needs of customers.


 

Tagged as: Motorola's Steve McCaffery @ IBC2012

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Top 5, Trends

Top Tech Articles You Might Have Missed – Week of September 10, 2012

September 14, 2012 : BY Motorola

This week, CableFAX Magazine celebrated diversity by naming “The Most Influential Minorities in Cable,” a list that included Marwan Fawaz, Executive Vice President, Motorola Mobility. In the profile, Marwan was noted for being a “skilled technology strategist with a firm grasp of the industry’s evolving dynamics.”

In other news, IBC coverage continued as Marwan talked with Digitial TV Europe about Motorola’s focus on the IP transformation, simplifying experiences for consumers and the opportunities presented by the connected home and evolution of TV. Also at the show, The Next Web discussed the future of TV with Steve McCaffery from Motorola’s EMEA senior leadership team alongside representatives from Opera and Comigo. Engadget and FierceIPTV both highlighted Motorola’s new lineup of IPTV set-top boxes announced at the show.

Lastly, Ubergizmo detailed the debut of Motorola Mobility’s first Android-powered home broadband device, the HMC3260, in China with WASU Digital Group. This cloud-based broadband internet streaming device is a combination TV, PC and modem all in one. It allows for easier access and search of on-demand HD video services, storage, games and apps on top of traditional TV services. So, what is your device of choice for the second screen — a computer, smartphone, tablet or PC?

1. Most Influential Minorities in Cable (Sept. 10) By Michael Grebb, CableFAX Magazine: Marwan is noted by colleagues as being a “skilled technology strategist with a firm grasp of the industry’s evolving dynamics.”

2. What is the future of TV? We chat to three experts from Motorola, Opera and Comigo [Video] (Sept. 12) By Martin Bryant, The Next Web: As part of The Next Web’s live-streamed coverage of broadcasting technology show IBC over the past few days, we talked to three players in the new TV landscape about the changing face of the industry.

3. Motorola: service providers will benefit from connected home and OTT [VIDEO] (Sept. 10) By Staff, Digital TV Europe: The connected home and the evolution of OTT services present a series of opportunities for pay TV service providers, says Marwan Fawaz, Executive Vice President, Motorola Mobility.

4. Motorola launches 10 new set-top boxes at IBC 2012 (Sept. 7) By Jamie Rigg, Engadget: Motorola may have held a fancy event for the launch of its 2012 RAZR line up, but it’s saved the unveiling of its new raft of set-top boxes for the IBC show floor. No fewer than 10 models running Moto’s KreaTV OS are on display at the event, possibly putting a dampener on rumors of Google selling the business off.

5. Motorola pushes IPTV set-tops, peripherals at IBC 2012 (Sept. 7) By Jim Barthold, FierceIPTV: Google may have put a sale sign on its Motorola Mobility cable equipment business unit—then again it may not have, it all depends on any given day’s story. Whatever the case, the set-top box player is moving forward as if nothing is amiss at IBC 2012 in Amsterdam where it introduced a series of new IPTV set-top boxes and peripherals aimed at the EMEA market.

6. Motorola announces Android cloud computer for China (Sept. 14) By Tyler Lee, Ubergizmo: If you’ve always wanted an Android based computer, not a smartphone and not a tablet, well it seems like the folks in China might have lucked out as Motorola has officially revealed the Motorola HMC3260 “Cloud Broadband” home entertainment device.

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Converged Experiences

Motorola Mobility’s First Android-Based Home Entertainment Device Launches with WASU in China

September 13, 2012 : BY Motorola

WASU Digital Group, one of China’s leading cable and telecommunications service providers, has chosen Motorola’s  HMC3260 Android™-powered cloud computing device to provide a range of innovative cloud-based entertainment services to its customers.

Launched  in Beijing, the Motorola HMC3260 cloud computer uses an Android-powered, 18.5-inch LED touchscreen display to provide consumers easy access to digital TV, movies, games, web browsing, apps and other DOCSIS*-based services on demand. Motorola Mobility’s first Android-powered home broadband device, the HMC3260 provides customers with a truly converged broadband and TV experience with a unique and intuitive interface.

See here for the press release.

Tagged as: HMC3260, Motorola HMC3260 cloud computer, WASU

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Events, Network Infrastructure

Delivering the Capacity Required for Next Generation Cable Networks

September 10, 2012 : BY Motorola

This well attended session in the “Advances in Technology” stream of the conference. discussed broad aspects of next generation wireless and cable technologies, including 802.11aa, POF for in-home distribution and DVB-C2, CCAP, HEVC for the network. The moderator, Neil MacArthur, Chairman of TalkTalk Technology, shared how evolving from a voice-centric service to being a broadcaster will see the need to expand their network capacity 100x to cope with the rise of multimedia traffic from their connected subscribers. 
 
Mike Gannon, Home Product Architect, Motorola EMEA, speaking on “Delivering the capacity required for next generation cable networks” shared insight on the choices today’s cable operators face in looking to expand bandwidth whilst minimising costly network rebuilds; highlighting that one of latest technology standards to emerge, and a real hot topic here at IBC this year,  HEVC (HIgh Efficiency Video Coding) will offer a complementary means to driving greater bandwidth efficiency, as DVB-C2 and CCAP are considered for next generation networks.

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Events

Will.i.am Talking About Tomorrow

September 8, 2012 : BY Motorola

Entertainer and entrepreneur, Will.i.am, delivered an ambitious keynote at IBC2012 –covering everything from creativity to modern communications. His speech, titled “Creativity and Technology Forces Combine – Transcend the Barriers of Convention and Rethink What Can Be Achieved”, was a concise take on all things entertainment, communications and innovation. 

“Technology allows us to amplify our ideas, amplify our creativity, and find new ways of solving our problems and genuinely start living in those future tomorrows, and that’s what I want to share at IBC,” he noted before his speech at the event.

What was exciting about Will.i.am’s approach is that he sees that technology has role to play beyond entertainment in empowering and transforming cultures and changing communities. He told the audience of technologists, broadcasters and content creators to do their research…technology enabled the entertainment industry but is not moving with consumers’ expectations for content.  He went on to say that “people don’t want to wait around for content by appointment, they want it to come to them, wherever they are, at any given time of the day” and that if he was a broadcaster he’d surround himself with coders and platform builders to create “absolute connectivity”. He even touched on the connected home, bemused that many of us work to pay for a home and a car, yet these are the ‘dumbest things that we own.” The house should “store all the things you consume” and the “content that defines your personality.”

Evolution happens when creative thinking is matched with technology and delivers real human benefit. Will.i.am noted his desire to see his own disadvantaged neighbourhood changed through technology, outlining his personal mission to transform lives through youth education and sustainability, challenging the broadcaster to make content that celebrates brilliant kids and inspire the generation of kids to have the skills critical to all our futures.

The evolution of broadcasting is evident everywhere at IBC and it is great to see even more new and unique voices joining the conversation.  

Please come by the Motorola Mobility’s Home stand at IBC 2012 (Stand D31, Hall 1) and join us to talk about rethinking the future of TV.

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