Guest Blog by Sarah Evans, Social Media Correspondent

Sarah Evans (@prsarahevans) is the chief evangelist at Tracky and owner of Sevans Strategy, a public relations and new media consultancy. She’s the author of new book, [RE]FRAME: Little Inspirations For A Larger Purpose (published by SlimBooks). It’s her personal mission to engage and employ the use of emerging technologies in all communication that connects her with a rapidly growing base of more than 120,000 people. A “for good” advocate, Sarah worked with a local crisis center to raise more than $161K in three weeks via social media and is a team member of the Guinness Book World Record holding #beatcancer. Sarah can be seen in Vanity Fair’s Americas Tweethearts, Forbes’ 14 Power Women to Follow on Twitter and Entrepreneur’s Top 10 Hot Startups of 2010.

For the past few days I’ve had the privilege of serving as entertainment services provider Cox Communications social correspondent at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and working very closely with the Cisco team promoting the personal TV experience. TV is everywhere at CES. And it’s right on par. Nielsen says that Americans are actually watching more TV than ever – about 34 hours per week, in fact.

Cox and Cisco have been working very closely this week with joint announcements on the personalized television experience. Working with Cisco, Cox evolved their video services platform to deliver more personalized video experiences, offering their customers more of what they enjoy. While Cox customers have been able to watch 90 channels of live, linear TV on an iPad for more than a year now, this new app – powered by Cisco’s Videoscape Unity software and technology – expands the service to iPhones and iPods, adding significant improvements in navigation. Learn more about the announcement here.

It’s hard to miss the focus on hardware at CES, specifically on size and sharpness. However, I think the real story about TV at CES is what’s happening on the backend. And what’s the big innovation? The personalization, synchronization and socialization of video, with personal on the forefront.

To keep the buzz around TV going I moderated a #CoxCiscoTV Twitter chat to talk more about the idea of #PersonalTV with Cox Communications and Cisco executives. Our Twitter lineup was made up of:

• Len Barlik, EVP of Product Development, Cox Communications (@Cox_PR)
• Martin De Beer, SVP of Video and Collaboration Group, Cisco, (@MartinDeBeer)
• Nick Thexton, CTO, Service Provider Video Technology Group, Cisco, (@CiscoSPVideo)

Read More »

Tags: CES, CES 2013, consumer electronics show, cox communications, customers, Instagram, Personal TV, photo contest, service providers, tweetchat, twitter, Twitter chat, video, videoscape, videoscape unity

Today at CES in Las Vegas, Cox Communications took the wraps off of a slate of expansions to second screen TV today, during a private press reception at the Wynn Hotel. Working with Cisco, Cox evolved their video services platform to deliver more personalized video experiences, offering their customers more of what they enjoy.

While Cox customers have been able to watch 90 channels of live, linear TV on an iPad for more than a year now, this new app – powered by Cisco’s Videoscape Unity software and technology – expands the service to iPhones and iPods, adding significant improvements in navigation.

This builds on Cox’s “Trio Program Guide,” which Read More »

Tags: cable operator, cable provider, Cisco, cox communications, mobile app, Service Provider, television, tv, video, videoscape, videoscape unity

If the start of a New Year is the best time to create new resolutions, then we’re defining our resolution for 2013 to be unity in video experiences. Now that our SP and media customers have deployed services to tablets and IP devices in addition to TVs, the next step is to unify and innovate the video experiences delivered across all screens. Today at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, Cisco introduced Videoscape Unity, the new and expanded Videoscape platform designed to do just this – unify and innovate video experiences. .(We hosted a press conference, carried live across the Internet. If you missed it, a replay is available after 3 p.m. PST by clicking here.) We demonstrated the types of experiences Videoscape Unity can deliver in service provider environments today, and provided a future-looking view of what we are doing to make these even more immersive and engaging.

As an added feature, Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco’s Video and Collaboration Group, hosted a panel of our customers to talk about and share their visions for “The Future of TV: Above and Beyond TV Everywhere.” Panelists included:

• Len Barlik, executive vice president, chief product officer, Cox Communications
• Bill Bradford, senior vice president, Digital Media, Fox Broadcasting
• Joe Inzerillo, senior vice president, Multimedia and Distribution, Major League Baseball Advanced Media
• Balan Nair, executive vice president, chief technology officer, Liberty Global
• Andrew Olson, director of product planning and design, BSkyB

So what is Videoscape Unity exactly?   Read More »

Tags: announcement, bskyb, Cisco, cox communications, Fox, liberty global, major league baseball advanced media, news, Service Provider, video, videoscape, videoscape unity

By Ken Morse, CTO, Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group

And here we are, video-side friends, at the start of yet another year. As we move together into 2012, I hereby declare this to be the year of the gateway.

The natural sidekick to the gateway, of course, is the client — and by “client,” I mean virtual or “soft” set-tops. CPE, and CPE software. The suite of stuff that’s going to connect up all the tablets, laptops, and new video screens we keep purchasing, as consumers, to the screens we’re used to watching (meaning TVs) for premium, subscription video content.

Let’s look more closely at the gateway, since I just so boldly declared 2012 to be its breakthrough year. And in particular, allow me to hone in on the Multiscreen Video Gateway line we’ve been working on and trialing with customers over the last year. A quick look under the hood of the Cisco 9800 series gateway, Read More »

Tags: Cisco, cox communications, docsis, Lightreading, media gateway, multiscreen gateway, Service Provider, video