Media Experiences 2 Go

So much going on, so little time to cover it all.

Switched Digital Video – CableLabs made it public this morning that several companies working together (including Motorola) have developed a solution to deliver switched digital video (SDV) services to retail CableCARD devices. With cable operators keen to roll out SDV in order to save bandwidth, this development is critical for consumers – who wouldn’t be able to access switched channels on retail CableCARD devices without it.

Hope to have more technical details soon, but in the meantime I want to make a point about Motorola supporting a technology that enables competitive set-tops in retail. With the long-term view in mind, opening up the cable network is good for Motorola. First, since Motorola powers cable networks, the more devices connected to those networks, the better. Second, with the goal of seamless mobility in mind, Motorola wants open networks so that more devices (including cell phones) can connect to each other.

Black Friday Bandwidth – This past weekend marked the official start of the holiday shopping season, both in stores and online. And as Broadband Reports suggested a while back, bandwidth may very well be this year’s holiday Grinch. The Raw Feed reports (via eWeek) that online traffic slowed some retail sites by as much as 400%. Obviously a lot of the issue here is at the retail end, but overall bandwidth availability is also a factor. I wonder how many people saw their Internet connections slow down this weekend during prime online shopping time.

The Killer App – There was a story up this morning out of the UK suggesting that lack of a “killer application” is stalling fiber deployments. How about lots of killer apps? Like video streaming on the Web, HDTV, video telephony, VOD…