Recent moves by Apple and Google toward developing connected home portfolios “don’t frighten” Control4, CEO Martin Plaehn said on its Q2 earnings call Thursday. A year after the Control4 IPO, Plaehn referred to the company’s “evangelizing” role in the growing awareness of the connected home and how it has been educating investors about the “home automation opportunity” before the arrival of new market entrants.
Recent moves by Apple and Google toward developing connected home portfolios “don’t frighten” Control4, CEO Martin Plaehn said on its Q2 earnings call Thursday. A year after the Control4 IPO, Plaehn referred to the company’s “evangelizing” role in the growing awareness of the connected home and how it has been educating investors about the “home automation opportunity” before the arrival of new market entrants.
With the FCC TV incentive auction set to start sometime next year, its outlook remains cloudy, and while commission officials are projecting optimism, how the auction will play out remains anybody’s guess, industry officials said in interviews. Unlike traditional auctions, which depend on the willingness of carriers and potential providers to bid, the incentive auction also relies on broadcaster buy-in for the FCC to have any spectrum to offer for sale.
With the FCC TV incentive auction set to start sometime next year, its outlook remains cloudy, and while commission officials are projecting optimism, how the auction will play out remains anybody’s guess, industry officials said in interviews. Unlike traditional auctions, which depend on the willingness of carriers and potential providers to bid, the incentive auction also relies on broadcaster buy-in for the FCC to have any spectrum to offer for sale.
Bose unveiled a controller accessory Monday for its SoundTouch music systems that has a round wall-mountable footprint reminiscent of a Nest thermostat. The $99 device, designed to replace the need for a smartphone or tablet app, is included with the SoundTouch stereo system and SoundTouch SA-4 amplifier, and also can be bought separately for other SoundTouch systems, the company said. A built-in OLED display shows what’s playing, and controls let users adjust volume, skip tracks, pause music, and access Internet radio stations, playlists and streaming music services, Bose said. The device communicates to a Bose SoundTouch system over Bluetooth LE at a range of up to 70 feet, the company said. The multiroom SoundTouch systems operate over Wi-Fi for streaming, according to specs. Despite ad copy promoting convenience and ease of use, in the SoundTouch FAQ section on the Bose website, the company said pairing the controller to multiple SoundTouch systems involves “multiple steps using the SoundTouch setup app,” and the company recommends a separate SoundTouch controller for each system. To know which room a controller is connected to, the company said, “Simply select a preset and see which system reacts."
Reductions in intercarrier compensation rates for originating intrastate toll VoIP traffic should be paused, effective June 30, 2014, until full implementation of the Phase II Connect America Fund, in the case of price-cap telcos, said NTCA and several other groups in an emergency petition for a waiver of FCC rules (http://bit.ly/1mvpDo8) posted Monday in docket 10-90. For rural, rate of return-regulated carriers, the waiver was sought until the implementation of a tailored CAF mechanism for the rural LECs. The reductions would cost Frontier Communications and Windstream $14.5 million total annually, the petition said. The Eastern Rural Telecom Association, Frontier, IITA, National Exchange Carrier Association, WTA and Windstream joined in the waiver request.
Reductions in intercarrier compensation rates for originating intrastate toll VoIP traffic should be paused, effective June 30, 2014, until full implementation of the Phase II Connect America Fund, in the case of price-cap telcos, said NTCA and several other groups in an emergency petition for a waiver of FCC rules (http://bit.ly/1mvpDo8) posted Monday in docket 10-90. For rural, rate of return-regulated carriers, the waiver was sought until the implementation of a tailored CAF mechanism for the rural LECs. The reductions would cost Frontier Communications and Windstream $14.5 million total annually, the petition said. The Eastern Rural Telecom Association, Frontier, IITA, National Exchange Carrier Association, WTA and Windstream joined in the waiver request.
Dish Network debuted its Wireless Joey, a system that allows customers to watch TV virtually anywhere in and around the home without the need for wiring. The system has full Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR functionality, and “the ability to view, record, pause, rewind and fast forward TV content,” Dish said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/UB5QJT). It also is the first in the pay-TV industry to apply 802.11ac wireless technology, it said.
Dish Network debuted its Wireless Joey, a system that allows customers to watch TV virtually anywhere in and around the home without the need for wiring. The system has full Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR functionality, and “the ability to view, record, pause, rewind and fast forward TV content,” Dish said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/UB5QJT). It also is the first in the pay-TV industry to apply 802.11ac wireless technology, it said.
The popular John Oliver segment on net neutrality was “creative” and “funny,” but “satire is not C-SPAN,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told reporters after the meeting Friday. Oliver’s 13-minute attack on the proposed net neutrality rules, featured June 1 on HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, was apparently enough to crash the agency’s comment filing system (WID June 3 p8). The segment, which Wheeler watched twice, “represents the high level of interest that exists in the topic in the country, and that’s good,” Wheeler said. After a brief pause, Wheeler added: “I would like to state for the record that I'm not a dingo. I had to go look it up. It’s a feral, wild animal in Australia.” Oliver had said having a former cable lobbyist in charge of passing net neutrality rules was akin to asking the dingo to watch your baby.