Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Power meters and WiMAX


I don't usually veer from my usual topics but this falls right in line with the forward thinking, hard-hitting psudo-journalism this blog is known for! I'm speaking of course, of smart meters.

If you read this blog, I assume you've heard about smart meters from several other sources. For those who haven't, A SmartMeter is an innovative and advanced utility meter that records a business or consumers electricity useage in greater detail than current conventional meters. As the replacement for the current electric grid is being thought through, a large part of that will involve the smart meter.

...Which brings me to my point. If power companies, individuals and Google want to monitor power use, bandwidth needs to be involved. Looking at all sources (satellite, 3G wireless, xDSL, etc.) the one that seems to make the most sense appears to be WiMAX.

These two technologies are a great fit, considering a number of logistical and geographic parameters.

Look for 2010 to be big year for WiMAX - Smartmeters.com

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Cox's 1st IPTV deployment



Remember that new Citycenter that was in the news? This was a huge gamble (no pun intended) by Las Vegas to build a massive new complex in spite of the current recession. Not it appears that this is the site if Cox's first IPTV deployment.

IPTVis already provided by another player (again sorry for the pun) in Las Vegas - CenturyLink, (formally Embarq). I wonder how that deal went down.

Multichannel News - Cox Serves IPTV To Las Vegas CityCenter Complex

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The end of TV (as we know it)


Microsoft unveiled it's new Mediaroom 2.0 at CES. This isn't the first time we've seen a "TV everywhere" type application, but because it's coming from MS, there is (I assume) lots of muscle behind it.

Meadiaroom makes use of the cloud to deliver content to multiple devices including PCs, TVs, XBox 360s and mobile phones. Microsoft will make it available to operators. For example, AT&T will be using it as part of their U-Verse service.

Microsoft, AT&T tackle TV Everywhere - von.com