Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
Perifery, the artist formerly known as Object Matrix now part of storage provider Datacore, has recently updated its suite of AI services – launching as AI+ 2.0. The video indexing and search-enhancement service is still in beta and Perifery’s CTO for M&E Solutions, Jason Perr, tells Faultline that the AI suite will be officially released at IBC 2024 a fortnight from now. As the boom of generative AI shook the video industry after ChatGPT’s public launch in November 2022, hazardous and dreamy PoCs have parted for more rationalized offerings. Monetizing decades of dusty content archives is one attractive proposition where genAI is being most vigorously developed in the video realm. The underlying idea is simple: there are troves of content…
Five years ago this week… Luxembourg-based media firm RTL Group underwent a long-awaited facelift, featuring a major ad technology overhaul. It took RTL years to put together a team worthy of overseeing its ad tech clout, which included the acquisitions of US ad-serving platform SpotX, programmatic ad sales platform Smartclip, and server-side ad insertion vendor Yospace. The RTL Deutschland division was put in charge of all advanced advertising technology across Europe, bundled under the Smartclip brand, with the exception of the UK. It said SpotX and Smartclip would continue to deliver technology to European clients, and RTL planned to build an open ad tech development unit based around Smartclip, tailored for the needs of European broadcasters and streaming services. In 2021, RTL sold SpotX to sell-side…
As measurement in the ad industry becomes ever more crucial for assessing and improving ad conversion rates, frustrations oriented towards walled gardens continue to mount and are becoming increasingly vocal. This frustration was palpable during Streaing Media Connect’s opening session focusing on the red-hot topic of streaming and connected TV advertising, where a panel of advertisers and publishers agreed that advertisers are yearning for more information from platforms keeping data close to their chests. On top of platforms refusing to share information, there is also the issue that the information provided is not always easy to compare. Erin Firneno, SVP Business Intelligence for Advertiser Perceptions, critiqued that apples-to-oranges metrics provided by different publishers can make comparisons difficult. One of the…
The IAB Tech Lab argues that it isn’t a technical issue holding back the adoption of a common currency to power the shift of ad dollars from traditional linear TV to streaming, but a business issue. This debate is as old as streaming video itself, yet still publishers, ad tech vendors, and brands bang their heads against walls waiting for someone to magically solve the pains of connected TV advertising. Speaking on a Streaming Media Connect panel, Anthony Katsur, CEO at IAB Tech Lab, of course defends his organization’s open technical standards, saying they support the rising tide of ad dollars on CTV platforms. What the non-profit group struggles with is driving adoption of its open technical standards, such as…
Days after the US National Content and Technology Cooperative (NCTC) launched its Broadband TV skinny bundle initiative, a new project designed to facilitate broadband customers switching from traditional pay TV to OTT services has emerged. MyBundle.TV has partnered with consumer electronics and CTV giant Roku, layering content aggregation services on top of utility broadband to build out value for aging cable TV companies. MyBundle counts 258 broadband partners, reaching a collective 13 million customers. Eligible subscribers of these ISPs will receive a free Roku Streaming Stick 4K, an initiative designed to bring newcomers into the streaming space. The broadband providers will be paying for the $50 stick at a discounted price. MyBundle then helps with the distribution of devices via its Streaming…
The decision by Swiss security powerhouse Kudelski to sell its Skidata visitor management business a month ago was a bolt from the blue. Pre-covid there were suggestions that this division was untouchable, and it was more likely that Kudelski would continue breaking up and divesting Nagra video assets to clear the path to becoming a pure cybersecurity and IoT monitoring firm. How quickly things can change, and today the Kudelski Group looks as much like a media technology outfit as it ever has. The sale of Skidata to Swedish lock seller Assa Abloy, at an enterprise value of $380 million, is expected to generate net cash of over $335 million for the company. Funds will be used to repay all…
The Made by Google event last week saw the unveiling of the Pixel 9 suite. With Apple due to unveil the iPhone 16 in the next few weeks, the two sides of the smartphone market are gearing up for a mud-slinging match. PR sniping will commence once Apple unveils its new iPhone, but with so little form-factor innovation in recent smartphones, the onus is on the performance of ‘AI.’ The new Google range starts with the Pixel 9, starting at $799, with a 6.3-inch screen. Next is the Pixel 9 Pro, which costs $999, in essentially the same form factor. The $1,099 Pixel Pro XL has a larger 6.8-inch screen, while the Pixel 9 Pro Fold starts at $1,799, owing…
The GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative has been pitched as a major new revenue source for mobile operators by liberating and exposing the advanced capabilities of 5G networks to customers and partners. The GSMA issued some eye watering and unbelievable numbers, describing APIs as a $300 billion revenue opportunity for MNOs over the rest of this decade. Although that number may be over wishful, there is no doubting the GSMA’s conviction that network APIs are critical for 5G’s commercial success, or the commitment of some major operators. AT&T is one of those committed operators and has just teamed up with Oracle to offer its 5G network and programmable APIs to help deliver Oracle’s cloud applications to various industry verticals, including telehealth…
It is clear there is no one size that fits all when it comes to Large Language Models (LLMs) in the context of service provision and O&M (Operations and Management). The same can be said of the overall LLM strategy. As operators deploy 5G Standalone (SA) with more complex cores, a key question becoming more urgent is whether to build fully customized LLMs incorporating their own data and exploiting domain expertise. The alternative is to harness massive investment made by others such as OpenAI with Chat GPT, Meta with Llama, or Google with its Gemini family. In the latter case, they can still tune the models and bring in their own data, so that approach at first sight would surely…
A group of US academics and the Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research have produced a paper exploring the weaknesses of open 5G fronthaul systems. The group warns that software-based attacks are much easier to launch than standard-setters expect, and this should be a key consideration for equipment vendors and standards bodies ETSI and O-RAN Alliance. The report titled ‘On the Criticality of Integrity Protection in 5G Fronthaul Networks’ was shared at the Usenix Security Symposium, a US computing and networks conference earlier this month. The group argues that not enough attention is given to the risks of attacks on 5G fronthaul, which connects the base stations to radio units, and that integrity protection should be mandatory in fronthaul standards. While the…
Huawei has been putting some meat on the bones of its Telecom Foundation Model unveiled at MWC 2024 and the associated strategy, with a focus on applying both Generative and “traditional” AI to operation and management (O&M) of the 5G Core. Automation of core functions will be a major challenge for operators, with Huawei admitting it will lag behind the RAN on that front, with human intervention in some of the higher-level processes being required at least for longer. There is nothing new about telco cores, dating back to manual switchboards earlier last century for operators to route voice calls correctly on demand. Core management was then about people and processes more than technology, but during the mobile era has…
Start-ups in advertising technology are finding their coffers rather empty this year, as ad-related ventures in the US have raised only $360 million more than halfway through 2024, according to data from Crunchbase. Investments in previous years reached multiple $billions. This is most likely the knock-on effect of increased investments in artificial intelligence. As shown in the attached graph tracking total funding and total rounds in ad tech since 2015, taken from Crunchbase’s report, funding was also low in 2023, after two previous years of highs with total investments surpassing $3 billion in 2022 and $4 billion in 2021. Logically, there have also been fewer rounds exceeding $200,000 of investments this year than in other years since 2015. It is…
Fubo’s lawsuit against the forthcoming sports streaming platform Venu Sports—a joint venture of Disney, WBD, and Fox—has not served only for the vMVPD’s benefit. Preliminary injunction hearings have unearthed certain truths on the formation of Venu Sports and what exactly is at stake. Over the past week, lawyers for both parties have been arguing in a New York court, per Fubo’s request, as the vMVPD is attempting to obtain an injunction that would block Venu’s release. A decision on Fubo’s injunction against Venu may come as early as August 23, days ahead of the platform’s expected arrival at the opening of the new NFL season from early September, although Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch indicated that the platform would launch by…
New product launches were few and far between at both the 2024 NAB Show and IBC 2023, two staple events on the video industry calendar, which is why extra emphasis will be placed on anything emphatically new out of the blocks at IBC 2024 next month. In the run up to Amsterdam in mid-September, a handful of product launches from M&E vendors have whet our appetites. But what on the surface may appear shiny and new can often prove to be a superficial update to an existing product that was anticipated at some point on the roadmap anyway. An update to Harmonic’s Distribution Management System (DMS), hot off the US company’s product press this week, is one example of something…
M&A, IP, Patents The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has delayed giving its response on the planned merger between operators Vodafone UK and Three because it needs more time. The CMA will decide the fate of the £16.5 billion merger and so must plan its moves wisely. Digi Communications continues its march for global domination. The firm has bought Nowo Communications in Portugal for €150 million, the country’s fourth-largest network operator. Nowo has 270,000 mobile customers and 130,000 customers for its pay-TV and broadband services. It holds spectrum licences in the 1800 MHz, 2.6 GHz and 3.6 GHz frequency bands. The US Department of Justice has decided that Google parent company Alphabet acts as a monopolist in the search market. The…
UK communications regulator Ofcom has announced strengthened industry ‘guidance’ that it hopes will block more overseas calls. Ofcom is calling for evidence regarding the viability of new technologies to tackle the problem, and given that Hiya has a foot in the door via two of the big four UK operators, it is hoping that its spam detection and call screening services could be of use to the other two. EE (BT) and VMO2 (Liberty Global and Telefonica) are the two Hiya customers, and in short order, the other two MNOs may well merge into one – as the Vodafone and Three deal winds its way through the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). EE says it is already blocking a million…
Backhaul connecting the RAN with core networks has long been the unsung, unglamorous, part of the mobile delivery chain, but that is changing as newer options such as satellite, mmWave and IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul) figure increasingly. Backhaul is gaining more prominence as a key component in provision of connectivity in remote areas and inshore areas. The various options may be combined to deliver global connectivity for general use or specific cases. Historically backhaul has been mostly provisioned over fiber or microwave connections, along with some copper, with the relative growth of each being driven by trends in deployment and demand. While 5G was being rolled out rapidly in leading economies, this drove fiber because of its greater capacity…
China has filed a WTO complaint against the EU’s anti-subsidy measures, i.e. tariffs, which have added to a previous 10% levy to reach up to 37.6%. EU member state approvals are expected to follow in the remainder of 2024, with SAIC facing the 37.6% duty at present, while Gelly and BYD have been placed under 19.9% and 17.4% tariffs respectively. Considering the US has adopted a 100% EV tariff, to be implemented imminently, and considering China’s advantage on both price and technological implementation, 38% is unlikely to be enough to save Europe’s EV industry even if it is enough to ruffle China’s feathers. The question then becomes – is the EU’s latest measure a stepping-stone to even steeper tariffs in…
Norway is looking increasingly likely to embark on its nuclear journey with Norsk Kjernekraft having proposed building a nuclear power plant in Øygarden, using small modular reactors (SMRs) – 1.5 GW / 12.5 TWh per year aimed at the electrification of oil and gas facilities. This is the third proposal from Norsk, with one of the previous two being aimed at supplying data centers with clean, 24/7 electricity. But concerns have been raised in the US about the wider implications of such ‘exclusive agreements’, more specifically, how the dynamics of wholesale electricity will be impacted. On the back of ‘colocation’ agreements between data center and nuclear plants which involves the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft the trend looks to…
Ming Yang Smart Energy’s dual-rotor offshore floating wind turbine has set out to sea, rated at 16.6 MW, destined for an offshore wind farm. Almost all offshore wind is fixed-base, with just 270 MW worldwide being floating. But total floating wind targets globally now come to over 200 GW, a thousand times the deployed scale. For many countries, floating renewables are a necessity due to water depths and land availability constraints. There may be advantages such as better wind conditions (although this Mingyang pilot project expects only a 37% capacity factory) and the silver lining in the North Sea case of international transmission links, but ultimately it’s a more expensive technology only built when there isn’t enough room in shallow…