COVID-19-induced stay-at-home orders in March sparked a 30% increase in the average number of VOD transactions per household compared with March 2019, said Comscore Wednesday. The average subscribing home accessed, bought or rented 16 titles of VOD content during the month, nearly four more titles than a year earlier. VOD consumption increased steadily as March wore on. It peaked the week of March 29 when consumption spiked 57% higher.
Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock at the International Trade Commission granted the joint Sonos-Google motion permitting the companies to hold their May 11 settlement conference by phone amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Both sides showed “good cause” when they argued Tuesday their outside lawyers would need to travel to the conference from localities that are under stay-at-home orders (see 2004070034), said Bullock’s order (login required) Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1191. ITC staff didn't oppose moving the conference remotely. Sonos alleges Google smart speakers infringe Sonos multiroom audio patents.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the suspension of citywide e-waste collections from New York apartment buildings under the ecycleNYC takeback program, emailed the Department of Sanitation of New York Tuesday. “Collection requests will be saved in our system and you will be contacted once we resume,” said DSNY. Amid the higher volume of household garbage generated by New York’s stay-at-home orders, DSNY also is working shorthanded due to the 330-plus employees who tested positive for the coronavirus through Tuesday, said the department. DSNY suffered its first COVID-19 fatality when Raymond Copeland, 46, a sanitation worker in Queens, died Sunday of coronavirus complications.
The Federal Maritime Commission is using newly formed supply chain innovation teams to study possible measurers to reduce logistical disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, said the agency Monday. The teams will begin work this week to "identify what actions can provide immediate relief to the most pressing challenges the American freight delivery system faces from COVID-19 related disruptions," it said.
The National Retail Federation estimates imports at major U.S. retail container ports fell to their lowest level in five years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said the association Tuesday. Imports are projected to remain “significantly below normal levels” through early summer as the pandemic continues, it said. “Even as factories in China have begun to get back to work, we are seeing far fewer imports coming into the United States than previously expected,” said NRF. “Many stores are closed, and consumer demand has been impacted with millions of Americans out of work.” Store closures may make cargo “sit longer than usual and cause other supply chain impacts,” it said.
“Good cause” exists during the COVID-19 pandemic for the International Trade Commission chief administrative law judge (CALJ) to let Sonos and Google have their May 11 settlement conference by phone, said a joint motion (login required) posted Tuesday in docket 337-TA-1191. CALJ Charles Bullock presides over the Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Sonos allegations that Google smart speakers and other devices infringe five Sonos multiroom audio patents (see 2002060070). His March 11 order ruled out remotely meeting without permission and for “good cause shown.” Sonos and Google employees “with settlement authority” are in California, and their outside lawyers are there and in Illinois and Washington, said the motion. All are under stay-at-home orders. Requiring them to “travel to and conduct an in-person settlement conference would place these individuals at undue risk,” it said. “While it may be possible that some restrictions could be lifted before May 11, it is unlikely that the parties could schedule an in-person settlement conference to occur in the brief window of time after the lifting of any restrictions.”
AT&T will do its 2020 annual meeting of stockholders via webcast rather than through an in-person meeting, the company said Tuesday. The meeting is to start at 9 a.m. CDT on April 24.
Streaming video providers are slowing video transmissions to free up bandwidth when U.S. ISP networks are jammed, we heard this and last week. More content providers likely dialed back their HD video quality during the pandemic, said Streaming Video Alliance Executive Director Jason Thibeault. An FCC official doesn't anticipate requesting streaming video operators throttle bit rates like Europe has (see 2003240032). For our past report about increasing demand on networks, see here. (It's in front of our pay wall, like other coronavirus coverage). Google said that after last month defaulting all YouTube videos to SD to ensure maximum bandwidth availability in Europe for 30 days, it expanded that action globally. It said users can manually adjust quality. It has seen changes in usage patterns from more people at home, expanding across additional hours. Netflix didn't comment Tuesday. By March 31, average home monthly usage in the U.S. was around 400 GB, up around 20% from the end of 2019, said OpenVault CEO Mark Trudeau. Extrapolations point to this month ending with 450-460 GB, or a year's worth of usage growth in a few weeks, he said: Most gains are in the daytime hours, which had ample headroom. Sandvine told us some outlier networks worldwide flatlined, needing no further extra capacity. It said edge providers have reduced their part in congestion, with Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox cutting speeds. Traffic on fixed broadband infrastructure networks is up 20-100%, it said. The biggest jump was in daytime hours; while peak used to be evening to midnight, it now starts at around 10 a.m. and goes daylong. There have been some consumer complaints and data that slows in some areas and network performance has suffered at certain times. "End-user uplink speeds are being detrimentally impacted," emailed Penn State X-Lab Director Sascha Meinrath. He said the FCC definition of broadband as 25/3 Mbps is "severely asymmetrical." Upstream data use is up heavily due to HD telepresence, so heavier Netflix use isn't a challenge, but "it's the Zoom classrooms and meetings (and soon, telehealth diagnostics) that are going to cause major headaches," he said. Increased buffering might not reflect so much network congestion as the speeds subscribers signed up for, said OpenVault's Trudeau: With everyone home, "they need a bigger pipe going into their house."
The Society for Information Display postponed Display Week 2020 to the week of Aug. 3 and is moving the show to the San Jose Convention Center, emailed Nanosys Director-Marketing Jeff Yurek Tuesday. SID’s website Tuesday still showed Display Week June 7-12 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. “As exhibitors, we were asked in advance about a potential move to August by the show organizers as part of a survey,” said Yurek. “I personally think it is a good move and will result in a higher quality show.” SID didn’t comment.
Electronic component supplier Infinite Electronics is producing reusable medical face shields to help healthcare workers battling COVID-19, it said Tuesday. The company is using a printing design developed by 3D printer maker Budmen Industries. Infinite is donating the face shields “to as many healthcare resources as possible,” said CEO Penny Cotner. Budmen’s website says 406,862 of its 3D face shields had been requested as of Monday; it had 2,597 registered producers; and 24,997 3D files had been downloaded since it began operations March 16.