Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
A rare alignment of political forces in the US has cleared the way for a coordinated anti-trust investigation into the country’s four tech giants Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon. It is a sign of the times that Microsoft has escaped attention this time despite its recent revival under Satya Nadella after years of stagnation when Steve Ballmer was at the helm. Microsoft after all was subject to one of the most famous anti-trust actions of all around 2001 when the US government accused it of illegally attempting to shore up its monopoly position in the PC market, chiefly by restricting rivals’ access to key software such as the Internet Explorer browser. Google itself has also been subject to US antitrust…
Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) has been gaining recruits almost on a weekly basis as conviction grows that it represents the best way of streaming live video over the internet reliably with the lowest possible latency. The SRT Alliance promoting the protocol now has over 200 members having just celebrated its second birthday, including big – if not the very biggest – names in Microsoft, Harmonic, Mediakind, Synamedia and Kudelski, alongside the two founders Haivision and Wowza. It has some way still to go attracting the greatest technology companies and establishing itself across the video ecosystem rather than just for contribution or the “first mile” where it has won most traction so far. SRT has brought a radically different approach to low…
As promised, Faultline Online Reporter picked the brains of the authors behind the ITU-R’s AI broadcast report published just last week, which we lambasted for its distinctly equivocal conclusion. In its defense, the organization explained that vagueness is the only way to approach AI and machine learning in today’s climate – having to aggressively trim off the fat from an ethical standpoint in these preliminary stages. Andy Quested, who works on standards at the BBC’s design and engineering department, helped curate the report and assured us the latest reference document is part of a much larger beast arriving in July – around the time of a workshop being held in Geneva with Japanese broadcaster NHK. Really then, last week’s 20-page…
CableLabs, the R&D arm of the US cable business, is becoming increasingly deeply involved in wireless technologies. It is looking at this space from four main angles: enhancements to WiFi, which is the main wireless connectivity option for most cablecos, to give it a central role in next generation services development of technologies to use new types of spectrum, especially those that may be within the grasp of cablecos (if they are likely to be easily shared) seeking to drive future cellular standards in a way that will support the cable industry’s priorities. This used to focus heavily on cellular implementations in shared bands such as CBRS, but interests are broadening as more cablecos look to buy their own airwaves…
Japan is gearing up for large-scale 5G launches in time for the Tokyo Summer Olympics next year, with newcomer Rakuten a wild card in the competitive landscape. Softbank, which until Rakuten came along was regarded as a disruptive challenger, has selected Nokia and Ericsson to supply its 5G systems, adding fuel to speculation that Chinese vendors have been effectively, if not officially, squeezed out of Japan’s 5G plans (Softbank carried out extensive 5G and Massive MIMO trials with Huawei and ZTE). Ericsson will supply Softbank with RAN equipment for midband and high frequency spectrum (the Japanese MNOs were recently allocated spectrum in the 3.9-4.0 GHz and 29.1-29.5 GHz bands), as well as for LTE expansion. Nokia will supply its 5G…
We have often expressed frustration at the slowness of traditional mobile operators to embrace new business models and support new services, especially those targeted at enterprise, industrial and indoor usage. In the current 4G era, the MNOs have discussed openly how most of them find it hard to make a strong business case for these services. Certainly, they would require new areas of investment – deep indoor penetration being a good example – which would not obviously be justified by significant additional revenues. In 5G this misalignment of MNO deployment models with the needs of enterprise sectors will become more serious. It risks derailing some of the grand 5G and industrial strategy visions which many governments have set out, and…
Nvidia used the Computex tradeshow in Taiwan to show off its new Nvidia EGX platform, which aims to bring AI-powered computing to the network edge. But there’s been little fanfare in the press about the announcement, and the enthusiasm for both AI and edge developments seems to have worn thin. There’s a definite sense that “AI” is no longer a sexy buzzword, and that the PR and marketing types have moved on. The hot new thing seems to be “5G” and “AI” has come to hang out with “IoT” and likely “blockchain.” We welcome “AI” to this slightly forlorn club, and can reconcile it by saying that it’s largely a good thing that people have moved on, as it’s easier…
A proposal by the US regulator, the FCC, to open up a small sliver of midband spectrum for sharing between government incumbents and commercial operators, has caused a stir far greater than its 5 MHz size seems to warrant. This is for two reasons. One, it indicates a willingness to push the sharing model, pioneered in the CBRS band and the TV white spaces, into more of the midband spectrum which is so prized for 5G. The USA is at a serious spectral disadvantage compared to China and many other markets, because so much of its midband airwaves are occupied by federal, local government or satellite users, and moving these incumbents to alternative bands would take many years. Sharing, then,…
Microsoft has joined the EnOcean Alliance as a board member, singing the praises of the energy-harvesting wireless communication protocol and its potential to transform connected buildings. In the same week that Semtech has joined CABA, Microsoft is hoping that these newly connected systems are going to require some cloud computing resources, for which it can handily provide Azure. Riot has been keeping tabs on EnOcean for quite some time. Back in 2015, EnOcean announced a collaboration with Zigbee, which opened it up to the 2.4GHz spectrum, expanding from its previous sub-GHz focus. Microsoft has also been working in proximity to EnOcean for some time, with its 2016 announcement that its IoTivity-AllJoyn bridge software would also be supporting EnOcean. These two…
Trouble in paradise pervades soon-to-launch UK streaming service Britbox as broadcast collaborators the BBC and ITV are squabbling over funding, according to the FT. ITV is reported to have pledged some $82 million through 2020, while the BBC is reportedly not prepared to match this investment and is more concerned with its iPlayer platform. It suggests similar broadcaster-fronted initiatives across Europe could run into similar problems. IP-based video contribution vendor LiveU has been bought by private equity firms Francisco Partners and IGP Capital for an undisclosed fee. LiveU’s two most notable deployments are at AT&T, recently working to add 5G mobile connectivity to HEVC bonding portable broadcasting technology, and Sinclair Broadcast, where it supplies HEVC field units for newsgathering. Hulu…
Consumer discontentment with OTT fragmentation is rising and has been recognized in a spate of surveys about the state of streaming both in North America and Europe. Mounting frustration with the need to subscribe to multiple services was already apparent at least a year ago, for example in the previous 2018 version of one of the studies just published from Hub Entertainment Research covering the US. That study published in March 2018 found that even among US consumers subscribing to 4 or more streaming services, only 62% reported their entertainment needs as being well met. They also complained of paying as much as they would have for a traditional multiplay pay TV package when broadband costs are considered. More forward-looking…
It appears our prediction about Android TV operator tier breaking the US market is on the verge of coming to fruition sooner than expected. Wide Open West (WOW) is the US cable operator biting the bullet, according to Android TV Rumors which spotted an FCC filing for a remote control manufactured by Indian firm Ohsung Electronics. WOW will reportedly be deploying a Technicolor set top based on Android TV soon, in doing so shifting away from TiVo having deployed a hybrid IP/QAM device from the vendor last year in partnership with Evolution Digital. Although, TiVo’s transition away from hardware is well-documented and the vendor has been emphasizing its Android TV product line, so may well be involved in the project,…
Broadcasters mulling over bandwidth optimization, personalization, metadata creation, dynamic ad insertion, audience targeting, and more can do so by embracing AI, according to network experts over at the radiocommunications sector of the ITU (ITU-R), who have taken a stab at arguing the case for using artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve production workflows in the broadcast sector. You read that right – broadcasters. Not telcos, or ISPs, or cable operators, or streaming pioneers. Unfortunately, the report’s conclusion comes over as a little confused and therefore perhaps it could’ve learned a thing or two from arguably more advanced sectors like mobile networks. It’s a bold move from the ITU-R, we’ll give it that, considering a common theme already this year…
Hanging somewhere in the intermediary between two significant industry trade shows on either side of the pond – NAB and IBC – we thought it was about time to revisit the hot topic of Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) this week. A few small SRT announcements have surfaced since the open source protocol stole the spotlight in Vegas for the second year running, although nothing we consider earth-shattering. Someone might surprise us with an SRT-related announcement at next week’s Anga show, but that’s unlikely at a small cable event. A little over a year has passed since SRT achieved one of its most significant deployments to date, with ESPN rolling out SRT-equipped devices to 14 athletic conferences to produce over 2,200…
Sonos has announced that it will be pushing Google Assistant integration to many of its devices in the near future, expanding on the Amazon Alexa interface that it has had for some time. It’s a sensible move for Sonos, and one that opens up channels into Google homes, but it comes in the same week that Google’s decision to shutter the Works with Nest program – its smart home product brand – has caused much consternation. Google announced, as part of the recent Nest reshuffling at Google I/O, that it would be shutting down Works with Nest, and launching Works with Google Assistant. Privacy was mentioned frequently, and it seems to be that Google wants to tighten up the ways that devices…
At its annual conference in Nice, France last week, TM Forum launched its latest open framework, this one specifically targeted at migrating networks towards modular cloud-native environments, with a special focus on the 5G core. The Open Digital Framework is based on the Forum’s Open Digital Architecture, and also includes open APIs (application programming interfaces) plus data and AI (artificial intelligence) standards, with reference implementations and other reference materials. The organization describes the framework as an “interactive, continuously evolving collection of tools, knowledge, and standards” to help operators migrate their legacy systems to “modular, cloud-native IT components”. One of the biggest such migrations facing many mobile operators is the implementation of a 5G core. Although all MNOs are initially deploying…
The story of the mobile device industry has been one of a war between Qualcomm and Intel to power the next generation of connected consumer products. After a decade of rivalry and R&D, little has really changed. Intel tried, several times, to take a major position in smartphone chips but abandoned its processor and system-on-chip efforts for the final time in mid-2016. A few weeks ago, it also bailed on the 5G modem business when Apple made peace with Qualcomm, and looks likely to exit mobile basebands altogether, despite being a top three player courtesy of its acquisition of Infineon Wireless in 2011. So Qualcomm, despite its many challenges, remains supreme in smartphone SoC and modem products, as Apple acknowledged…
The wholesale infrastructure division of UK telco BT, Openreach, is deploying an ultra-compact cell site gateway from ADVA which it says will help MNOs to roll out small cells more easily. The gateway claims to be the smallest in the world with a ruggedized design for challenging or space-restricted environments, so it can be housed in street furniture. It is certified to comply with MEF 3.0 specifications and supports the precise full phase synchronization that is essential to mobile 5G services. It will support Openreach’s 1Gbps Carrier Ethernet and IP offering, and together these will underpin the wholesaler’s Street Access urban small cell platform. “The ADVA FSP 150-GO102Pro is a key tool in our drive to address urgent small cell…