[opendtv] Re: Mobile DTV test
- From: "John Golitsis" <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 12:30:22 -0400
----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Birkmaier" <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
> Thanks for the great set-up.
You're welcome, but I don't see how you think you tood advantage of it.
> First, I do leave my laptop on 24/7. In a world where services are
> broadcast 24/7 it makes sense to capture the services you want on a
> 24/7 basis.
Wow! Where did you get the atomic power source?
A laptop is for mobility. Please don't try to tell me that your laptop can run
all day long, receiving and caching data on it's hard drive, while you're
carrying it around with you.
> BUT. If I enter a new "market," like here is Las Vegas, it should be
> obvious that I cannot start caching any service until I arrive.
> Actually I might download a service I want - like a directory -
> before I get to the market via the Internet, but let's ignore this
> for the moment).
No, let's not ignore that! That's not just a piece of the puzzle...it IS the
puzzle!
> If I am the provider of a service that is delivered via data
> broadcasts, I have control over the way that service is built,
> delivered, and updated.
Only to the degree that money talks.
> The frequency of the data broadcasts will
> most likely be determined by the nature of the service I am
> providing, and the size of the "database" that I am trying to build
> and update in the receivers that "subscribe" too my service.
And - again - how deep your pockets are.
> I use
> the term "subscribe," because it should be equally obvious that I
> cannot capture everything that is available. I will subscribe to the
> stuff I want.
How will you know what "stuff" is available? Oh wait, I'm sure there is - in
your world - a national standard for just this sort of thing.
> I might also "subscribe" in the traditional sense, to paid
> (encrypted) services, that are available on a local, regional or
> national basis.
Who exactly are you paying? What company controls the data in any given market?
> The key here is that, as a service provider, I can
> buy access to markets, much as TV advertisers do today. But in the
> world I envision, I would be paying market rates for the delivery of
> my bits, preferably to the regional spectrum utilities, rather than
> local broadcast gatekeepers who could set the rates and deny me
> access to the market for competitive reasons.
I can just imagine the 'reasonable' prices for such 'bits' on a national basis!
How many station groups - or even spectrum utilities, if they existed - will I
have to deal with to get national coverage?
> If I am delivering very large databases - for example the multimedia
> equivalent of the yellow pages, it is likely that I will only deliver
> the entire database once or a few times per day, most likely during
> the time periods when bits are cheapest. But I still could provide
> updates of the database as needed at any time, since the updates
> would be relatively small.
I cannot imagine a scenario where I would ever want an entire city's yellow
pages on my laptop's hard drive! There are DOZENS of places I can get access to
this information, including dialing 411 for FREE from any pay phone! Major
hotels (or even minor hotels in major cities) either have internet access in the
rooms, in a lounge area, or pay-per-use internet terminals.
And, if I was a datacaster, please tell me how datacasting the entire yellow
pages several times a day is something worth buying bits for? Where's my return
on investment? Is the phone company going to pay me to do that, when they
already pay to run their own yellow pages web site?
> Another example. I want to publish a restaurant guide.
Unless you like wasting money, why? Established guides of this sort already
exist on the internet. Again, who's going to pay?
> I will most
> likely offer a stripped down version at a high frequency to serve
> people like myself who are arriving in a market and need the info
> quickly.
So go to the WiFi hot spot in the airport and find it in seconds, rather than
waiting for it to magically appear in your cache...if it's even being broadcast
in this particular city.
> Once I arrive and subscribe to the guide
If it exists.
>, it can be updated
> and enhanced to the level I need.
If it exists.
> Here in Vegas I would expect that
> cabs would subscribe to various guides,
Only if there was money in it for them. Is there?
> which could be accessed by
> patrons via an interactive LCD terminal. The databases could be quite
> large, since they would be stored in local cache, and they could be
> updated at any time with new information, such as the daily specials
> that a restaurant will be serving that night.
And this requires datacasting in the DTV bandwidth because...???
> And as I alluded to before, these services can also be offered via
> other distribution channels such as the Internet. Thus I might
> download guides before I arrive in a city; when I arrive I would
> start receiving updates via the OTA broadcast network for that market.
Updates? Because web sites are so hard to keep current? Because one new
restaurant just opened this morning?
> Bottom line...
>
> Look at this stuff with an open mind annd an eye toward real innovation...
>
> This is not your grandpa's NTSC broadcast system!
That's certainly true, but nothing you've said here has changed my mind in the
least. *CAN* be done does not equate to *SHOULD* be done.
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