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The End of the Internet as we know it: Streaming Live – the Super Bowl!

December 21st, 2011 by Cam Cullen; Category: Industry, Technology

Yesterday, the NFL announced that it would be streaming the Super Bowl live to iPads, Verizon mobile phones and the NBC/NFL websites. In my mind, this marks a significant moment in the annals of streaming video as the potential turning point in the transition from traditional delayed broadcast video to live streaming. Sure, there have been plenty of live streams across the Internet (and not just pirated streams of sports events!). In fact, the NFL streams games every week and the past two Olympics have been streamed online. The NFL claims that 20,000-30,000 viewers watch their regular Sunday night streams, compared to 21,000,000 viewers of the broadcast version. However, the Super Bowl was watched by 111,000,000 viewers last year. NBC has upped the ante by promising excusive content and analysis for the streaming version, which is likely to result in people having both the streaming and broadcast versions active in their household at the same time – the big consumer most likely will be the iPad version.

Why is this significant for the Internet?

1) The NFL and NBC have confidence in their ability to stream content to millions of simultaneous consumers around the world. Although the NFL is not a worldwide sport like soccer (football to the rest of the world!), people watch the Super Bowl worldwide. If this goes well, expect the World Cup final to get the same treatment in 2014. Read more [+]

BBTM in London – The Buffet Is Closed!

November 17th, 2011 by Jon Linden; Category: Industry, Technology

I just got back from London and Informa’s third annual global Broadband Traffic Management (BBTM) conference, and guess what, the buffet is closed! Not the actual buffet at the conference, which in spite today’s state of the global economy, was bigger and tastier than ever – great job Royal Garden Hotel! No, I’m talking about the “all you can eat” broadband offering that used to be standard, that has become rare, and that was predicted dead in the coming year or two.

I love the crowded and intimate exhibition and networking area at BBTM where competitors and partners rub shoulders as they work hard to convince operator representatives about the uniqueness of their products. What I love even more, is when there’s an opportunity to debate hot topics with an audience. Read more [+]

SCTE 2011: “Wow this stuff is Powerful”

November 17th, 2011 by John DeLangie; Category: Industry, Products, Technology

As I get ready to leave SCTE 2011 in Atlanta, I am struck by the diverse collection of vendors ranging from custom tools, outside plant equipment companies and RF video enablement to IP video, high-speed IP transport vendors and Intelligent Policy Enforcement all focused on providing products and services to the Cable industry.

This years SCTE Expo Technology Spotlight “is focused on next generation video architecture and associated technologies that will be required and the challenges of adapting content from increasingly more diverse sources to increasingly more diverse devices, many of which are untethered.” Sound familiar? As the explosive demand for online content and the mobile device adoption continues at a record pace the need for high performance and scalable Intelligent Policy Enforcement solutions that provide accurate business analytics continues to expand. Read more [+]

PacketLogic Report Studio: Information is Cheap, Lack of Knowledge is Expensive

November 14th, 2011 by Cam Cullen; Category: Products, Technology

I was reading an interview with George Dyson, and during the interview, he made a comment that really caught my attention. He was speaking of the volumes of data that many people have to deal with, and his comment was “Information is cheap, meaning is expensive”. The comment resonated for me, as it encapsulated the headline of a new product from Procera called PacketLogic^TM Report Studio.

Two of the biggest challenges that network operators face is 1) information overload, and 2) lack of relevant information. There are plenty of Internet trends reports that can tell you what is happening on networks around the world, but NONE of them tell you what is really happening on your network. Most Intelligent Policy Enforcement solutions can generate many canned reports, and even place them on pretty web pages, but they are all statically configured templates and reports. Most network operators can tell you down to the byte how much traffic is on their network, but that information does not allow you to plan new service offerings. It can also mislead you into thinking that you need to add more capacity to your network, but it may be that the excess bandwidth is being taken up by applications that you should not spend money to enable. Read more [+]

Steve Job’s Far Reaching Impact

October 6th, 2011 by Cam Cullen; Category: Industry, Technology

The tech industry suffered a great loss yesterday with the passing of Steve Jobs. There have been many articles written on the topic, all of which do a much better job than I can, but his contribution to the technology industry cannot be underestimated. He changed the game in so many industries, and the current boom in mobile devices and tablets can be credited to the work he led at Apple.

It is a fitting tribute that over the past 24 hours, a survey that Procera did on one of our North America broadband customers revealed that approximately 1% of the overall traffic on these networks were to URLs with “Steve Jobs” in the title. Although this is not a comprehensive capture of all Steve Jobs traffic (as it only captures URLs with Steve Jobs in the title), it is still a testament to the man and his influence in US culture today. Read more [+]