3Screens

U-verse U-Bar Is Cool; But Taking 20-30 Seconds to Load Really Sucks

I now have AT&T's U-bar on my U-verse ITPV service.

In principle, it's a great idea; but the notion that we have to wait 20 - 30 seconds to load makes this feature fall short.

I would welcome comments on your take if you have U-bar in your service area and what's on your U-bar?

There is more feedback over at the U-verse U-talk forum here.

alan @ weinkrantz dot com

Alan's Proposal to Save The Citizen's of Connecticut from the Evils of AT&T

New Blackberry 8820 from AT&T Hits the 'Hot Spot' with Wi-Fi - But It's Not As Cool As An iPhone

Wi-Fi® is coming to AT&T's BlackBerry® handset customers.   Having been a long time BlackBerry user, and now having both an iPhone and a BlackBerry, it's interesting to see that  Research In Motion (RIM) has  announced that the first cellular and Wi-Fi BlackBerry handset — the BlackBerry 8820 — which will be available beginning Sept. 20 through AT&T.

I still personally debating what to do now.  I really like the cool factor of the iPhone, but do lean towards the practicality and functionality of the BlackBerry.

I went by my local AT&T store to check out the 8820, but they were not yet in stock.  Stay tuned until tomorrow or Monday for an update.

In the mean time,  read the AT&T press release here.

MHD Puts My Home Theatre's Audio to the Test. (Journalists and Industry Analysts Coming to San Antonio to See AT&T Can Come By My House and Check It Out for Yourself)

Once AT&T installed the HD U-verse service in late November, the first program I ever watched and recorded was a Coldplay concert on an HD-music centric broadcast network known as MHD.

Last night, I was watching the 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, followed by a repeat of the Coldplay concert that I watched almost 5 months ago when I first transitioned to HD over IP.

While the music quality is very good, it struck me, five months later that the real audio test of HD IPTV is listening to the branding of the network's audio moniker (am I making sense?)

By that, I mean that in between commercial breaks, the network flashes its logo and then the audio bounces all over the family room through all five speakers loud and clear and very cool.

Maybe you have been to the movies where you can listen to something similar with the TXH logo comes on the screen and the audio bounces throughout the movie theatre. 

Well, same thing happens here at the house.  And that is the ulitmate test to see just how good the audio works in HD over IP.

Ya'll Come To Hear it For Yourself

If you are a legit journalist, industry analyst, or financial analyst coming to meet with the honchos at the Hacienda AT&T in San Antonio, mi casa es tu casa. 

No, I am not inviting you to stay with us.  Chances are you can afford to stay at the Valencia.

However, if you want to come and hear the audio quality  of HD over IP in my home, send me an email to: alan at weinkrantz dot com and I will wecome you in my home. 

AT&T's U-verse HD IPTV Offering is Up and Going At Our Home in San Antonio

AT&T's U-verse HD IPTV service is up and going at our home.

Yup; it really does work.

The video quality is great and the 5.1 audio works.

The first thing I did was to record a Coldplay  concert in HD,  and it worked as advertised.  This is a real IP  signal bringing me HD.

Starting next week, watch this blog for a full scale evaluation on the installation, the user experience, and much, much more.

And this just in.....the phone company as we no longer know it has signed a deal with Mark Cuban's HDNet - one of my favorite HD channels.

Concluding Remarks and A Few Requests

Here are my concluding remarks and a few requests based on my excellent adventure to visit Microsoft and 2Wire...

I have come to the conclusion that TV as we know it is not going to be around in about 3 – 5  years.   I also think that the TV experience in the future will be not only watching video-based content, but creating it.

Sure, it’s going to take AT&T and other service providers around the world time to deploy these new services, but from what I was able to determine, it’s full steam ahead with TV as we don’t know it.

And don’t  just limit this to TV.  Look at AT&T’s 3-Screen strategy.  It’s TV, wireless (cell and notebook) and the desktop.

Here are some of my personal requests, some suggestions for not only Microsoft and 2Wire, but to other industry players.

To Microsoft: keep doing what you are doing, and then come out with some end user applications that will let me upload and create a family video channel, a neighborhood channel, an apartment building channel, or so my kids can create a classroom channel.

To 2Wire:  your hardware is cool looking and appealing enough to win over what I call “the wife factor.”   Open up your box and let me “pimp my RG”
(Residential Gateway) so I can buy accessories and add-on from companies that don’t even exist yet.

To Motorola, Scientific Atlanta (and other set top box makers):  Ditto from my memo to 2Wire.

To AT&T: you have one huge competitive advantage over the cable companies:  you have a retail footprint that they don’t have.

Once the Cingular stores turn into AT&T stores (again) take a cue from the Apple store model.

Don’t just schlep cell phones or ITPV services.

Turn your stores into education and community centers where consumers, schools,  colleges, or religious groups can learn to create content and  build community. 

You’ll sell more services, more accessories, and more products from companies like Microsoft who hopefully will come out with new types of consumer applications that will help meet this vision.

And another thing, AT&T.  Once the installation takes place, invite the new customer to the local store.  Take cues from BMW and Mercedes….

Thank You Jim and Paul….

I want to thank Jim Brady from Microsoft and Paul Brunato from 2Wire who served as my hosts. 

The very cool thing about both meetings is that when I left both Jim’s offices and Paul’s house, there was no presentation.  There was no press kit.  Nada .  Not even a free T-shirt! 

And that’s a good thing.  It was the essence of what should come out in a blog:  a conversation.

Alan's Excellent Adventure Continues....On Over to 2Wire's Paul Brunato's Home

Paul’s house, like mine, is a much better demo area.

When you go to see a new product or service at the company’s corporate headquarters, you know that it somewhat staged. 

Because of timing and logistics, Paul Brunato suggested I come to his home, rather than to their office.  Much like the demos I do in my home, going to Paul’s house provided a real world look at how a real family is experiencing the next generation of television. (It was also a great opportunity to check out Paul’s very cool guitar collection which graces the family’s den.)

Paul lives in the San Jose area, and does not have IPTV. Rather, he has AT&T’s Homezone service, which combines satellite for television programming and DSL for Internet and wireless.  His company, 2Wire, makes the MediaPortal™ set top box, which has been co-branded with AT&T to form the basis of AT&T’s Homezone receiver. This device combines satellite TV with broadband Internet to provide services like multi-room digital video recording, video on demand, music storage and playback, and photo sharing. It also allows users to remotely record programs and access its music and photos through any PC with an Internet connection. In my opinion, it basically provides the best integration of all forms of media a typical family will need.

We played around with the various functions of the set top box, and then Paul logged on to his family’s photo channel where he showed me baby pictures of his new niece on the big screen.

Then it was off to the San Jose Airport for my flight home.

Check back tomorrow at 7:30 AM EST for my concluding remarks and suggestions based on my excellent adventure.

Photo (c) 2006 2Wire, Inc.

Continuing Alan's Excellent Adventure....Think Big. Start Small. Act Fast. A Whirlwind Tour at Microsoft’s IPTV group - and then over to 2Wire

When I think I Microsoft, I think of that humongous company that brought me Windows, Office, tons of games, and Microsoft-branded hardware.   And even though I now use a Mac, they still manage to get my business, because I own the Mac version of Office and our business runs on Microsoft business software.

Think Microsoft. Think Redmond?

In this case, Think Microsoft.  Think Mountain View – in Silicon Valley and not the Pacific Northwest.   I visited the Silicon Valley campus of the Microsoft TV group which was eerily identical and feel and scope as the interior of ad agency, GSM&D in Austin. 

Think big warehouse on a campus-like setting.  Think creative think tank.  Think open spaces with cool artwork celebrating the history- and future of -- television. 

Behind all the coolness, I had to remind myself that this was the same Microsoft that also makes enterprise-grade software that helps the world’s largest businesses and government institutions operate, calculate, publish, distribute, and secure information.  It was also the same Microsoft that has transitioned to telephony, web services and other enterprise class software and online services.

With its strength in the enterprise, it made sense that Microsoft would transition to the next frontier:  IPTV.  As a supplier to AT&T and Verizon (actually, Verizon uses a hybrid version and is not full ITPV) and other service providers around the world like British Telecom and Deutche Telekom they have developed Microsoft TV IPTV Edition. Think of it as an operating system, much like Windows, but for the whole network, as well as the set-top box. This allows telephone companies around the world to offer broadcast TV services, much like cable.

Microsoft IPTV Edition is the software platform that delivers broadcast-quality video and new, integrated TV services over broadband networks like the one I am using at home.

Having been an early trial user of the U-verse offering from AT&T, I have come to really like features such as instant channel change (ICC) and multiple picture-in-picture (PIP) with traditional TV services that I currently have on my AT&T system and on Time Warner’s cable offering like broadcast programming, VOD, and DVR.

The software is developed to integrate seamlessly and economically with other IP-based communications and media services for PCs, phones, and other in the future, consumer devices like your cell phone. Microsoft’s TV IPTV Edition is aimed at telecommunications carriers and for cable operators looking to deliver differentiated TV services and experiences.

2Wire was a different story.  I did not make it to 2Wire’s offices.  I made it over to Paul Brunato’s house where he have me a demo of the AT&T HomeZone offering. 2Wire makes the Residential Gateway that enables you to get what’s called “triple play” -- the integration of networked data, voice, and media services.  I just had a new model RG 3800 installed in my home and it’s bulletproof and has superior broadcast capabilities.  See my review from a previous post here.

Alan’s Excellent Adventure to See Microsoft and 2Wire

With everything I write about  AT&T, I thought it would be a good idea to expand my horizons a bit.

About three months ago, I started corresponding with Jim Brady from Microsoft’s TV group and Paul Brunato who is his counterpart at 2Wire.  They both run the PR side of their business and help support and interface with members of the media, industry analysts, and bloggers like me.

Over the next 3 days, I will be writing about a recent trip to visit both companies.  I am going to try to focused on I saw and learned and not get into all the techno-gobble.

Some of the information I learned was under NDA (non-disclosure) so there are certain things I can’t write about – at this time. 

In the spirit of a blog, my meetings were nothing more than informational and thought provoking conversations.  I hope I can return the favor of the meetings by conversing about my meetings in the three days to come.

For disclosure purposes, I went on this trip on my own nickel and I am not a paid consultant to either company.  Microsoft did pick up lunch in the company cafeteria and 2Wire’s Paul Brunato served a Diet Coke at his house and gave me driving instructions back to the airport.

Check back tomorrow for my first post at 7:30 AM EST.