Tim Hermes, BGR CEO
Acronyms combined with tweet-language – can it get any better? Oh yes it can.
After what seemed to be a fairly light afternoon on Tuesday, the Cable Show roared on Wednesday with a packed house – and the big buzz – from one end of the floor to the other, was 3D.
Man, 3D is cool. At the CommScope booth they demonstrated a 3D app that let you watch a 3D show without the goofy glasses. At the MOTOROLA booth, their demo was amazing. What I felt stole the show was Panasonic’s display with the drop-dead-perfect travel pictures of such locales as Venice (ah…Venice) and what I think was Holland. But then again, every time I’ve been in Holland it’s been uh…fuzzy, shall we say. However, while my memories are hazy, the Panasonic picture was crystal-clear and the images leapt off the screen.
Following closely in the buzz-department was of course multi-room DVR and IP service delivery. One technology, multi-room DVR , is home-based and can really free up the occasionally frustrating viewing experience; the other technology, IP service delivery , offers a whole new delivery platform for operators that could mean some big performance and savings (or expense, depending on who you ask). Both have great promise and what we saw was real product and planned execution, not vaporware. No one told me to “pay no attention to the Man Behind the Curtain.” The stuff worked.
This event reminded me greatly of the shows in the late 90′s when cable was getting “wired for the net” and the first modems rolled out, the first DOCSIS standard was released, and the first network upgrade trucks rolled out as well. That ushered in a mini-Golden Age for cable, and I personally can see another one coming. What’s gonna be the hot item next? Home management? Possibly. I saw two demos that blew me away.
Finally, for all you fellow geeks who were showing off their new iPads, I salute you and bow before your uber-digitized bad selves. It seems Brian Roberts is even on board with the iPad as Comcast will be debuting a new app that will give me another reason to watch TV with their new remote-app. Control the TV from the iPad? Sweetness. Now, Brian, please come up with an app that can let the damn dog out at 3 am. Pull that off, and I’ll order EVERY premium channel.
God bless this industry, and the times we live in. This is some fun stuff.
FINALLY, to all you music fans who voted for the TV Rejects in the Battle of the Bands Tuesday night – thanks! Again we were a bridesmaid, but hey we’ll take second place. It was a blast – and a big chunky thank you to Mark Manlove who seems to keep getting better at making a ridiculously complicated event seem so seamless. And thanks to my bandmates – Tommy Bullough, Seth Arenstein, Mike Grebb, and Rob Kennedy, for playing along.
Tim Hermes is CEO at Broadband Gear Report. Email him at timhermes@broadbandgear.net.