As the CALM Act makes its way through Congress, more and more industry leaders are chiming in on the Act and what exactly it means for cable, satellite, telecom and other providers of multi-channel video. This is a timely discussion should the CALM Act eventually become law, which is likely as it has passed the House and it’s one bill that Democrats and Republicans in the Senate can get behind without much rancor.

One industry executive in particular is tackling the issue of how video service providers can actually identify overly loud commercials embedded in their programming, which is the first step in combating them.

Mixed Signals’ Steve Liu tackles the topic in his article “Monitoring Multi-Channel Audio Loudness Issues” in the latest edition of Broadband Gear Report.

In the article he outlines the specific requirements of the CALM Act and how effective and comprehensive content monitoring can not only enable service provider to meet the conditions of the Act, but also increase the quality of the viewing experience for customers.

Because as we’ve discussed in the past, no one likes the crazy hike in the loudness of commercials. What do we want instead? An optimal viewing experience that is void of ear-blasting audio. Surely that can’t be too much to ask for, especially in a time when we have the tools we need to effectively monitor the issues and catch the offending errors.

As always, we’ll keep you updated on the current state of the CALM Act along with other industry commentary.

Stay tuned!

[This post is the first in a series of three for a blog panel comprised of marketing communications practitioners and also includes Frank Strong, Meredith Eaton and Krim Stephenson. All four of us will blog on the same topic on the same day. This first post is on the biggest lesson we learned this year for PR (and marketing).]

Exiting 2009, the public relations industry buzz is all about social media. There are literally thousands of blog posts extolling the virtues of social media use in PR. Some very highly regarded PR pundits are telling us that, because of social media, PR is dead. Still others say that social media is reinventing PR. Those that want to walk the middle line say that social media is causing PR to evolve.

I am amused by the notion that social media is causing PR to evolve, as if the practice of public relations has never previously evolved. PR as a corporate marketing function is older than the Internet, television and radio. As I recently (what’s the right word here) – confessed – to MoPR employees, when I began my career in PR more than 20 years ago, there was no email I could use to send my boss a draft document, and he did not have a mark-up or track changes capability with which to provide me edits. The process was simple: I wrote my draft, when I was satisfied I printed it out, I walked upstairs (we did have elevators back then, but call me old fashioned, I used the stairs anyway) and handed the draft to my boss. My boss then read the draft in my presence, using a red pen to mark his edits – a process he called “bleeding.” After he bled all over my draft, I would go back downstairs to my desk and fashion a rewrite and begin the process all over again.

To think that email and track changes did not play a major role in the evolution of PR is to either not understand what evolution is, or not understand that PR is always evolving. Social media is but one tool, or set of tools, that must be a part of the public relations toolkit. But it isn’t as yet the most important, and I don’t agree that it is the single most important aspect of what has changed in PR over 2009. There are still businesses that can execute a perfect PR program and never use microblogs (Twitter), social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn) or even have a blog. If social media were so important, it would be impossible to conduct campaigns without these tools. Yet at the end of 2009 it can still be done.

Consider that social media penetration lags well behind mobile usage around the world. Facebook boasts 350 million “active users” around the world. While that is certainly an impressive number, it’s only about the size of how many people use mobile phones in India. There are still more than 4 billion connected people in the world not using Facebook or other social media.

I am not about to recommend PR without a robust social media component. In fact, my recommendations are quite the opposite, and our agency has invested both time and money in building a suite of proprietary social media tools. Social media is essential, for a variety of reasons. But let’s not over-rotate too far toward a “social media killed PR” belief. Not even close.

When I look back across 2009, I see tremendous changes on the media landscape. We have witnessed more major newsroom layoffs and closures this past year than at any time in my PR career. Some publications ceased producing print editions in favor of going with an online-only approach, while others ceased producing period. Media companies that stayed alive and even thrived in 2009 produced about the same number of articles and pages per edition as they did in 2008, but did so with a much smaller regiment of reporters.

What these changes represented for the PR industry was not a push to embrace social media as, perhaps, an alternative channel to traditional media and blogs, but rather a push to embrace the fundamentals of PR. Cleverness and cute headlines cannot replace the value (or obfuscate the lack thereof) of news being pitched. Reporters that now have double, triple, quadruple or even more the amount of beats to cover as they did last year honed a new skill: find the news in less than five seconds or trash the pitch. If the pitch was good, did it come complete with additional resources? If not, move onto the next pitch (after all, there are scores of pitches in each reporter’s inbox and voicemail, daily).

These changes represented bad news for innovative start-ups that found it harder to break through in 2009. The scarcity of time reporters had to cover all their beats created a litmus test that new companies had a difficult time passing. Without major funding, customer traction, customers willing to talk publicly, other third party references in their corner, new companies stood little chance of earning the game changing coverage they might have attained in previous years. Were there standouts? Certainly. But their numbers are a drop in the bucket as compared to the massive numbers of startups that yearned for important coverage.

Those campaigns executed by MoPR in 2009 that were most successful were those that included the following elements:

• A clear understanding of the audiences that benefit from the news
• News positioned in terms of important contemporary trends impacting these audiences
• Succinct pitches where the news value was obvious to the reporter
• News with additional resource including:
• Citable data related to important trends; bonus points if the data also shows customer take-up of the product or service being pitched
• Relevant graphics and images
• Quotes from customers and industry analysts (plus their contact info)

PR is of course broader than just placing news stories, and there were many lessons we should learn from this past year of tumultuous changes. But those PR practitioners who fail to recognize the fundamental changes that took place within the media landscape, and how those changes impact the practice of PR, risk failure, even if they possess first rate social media skills.

Over the course of 2010 social media will continue to mature. I agree with those that say social media will have a pronounced impact on the evolution of PR (though I disagree that social media is alone at the core of this evolution). Social media does not yet reach everyone it needs to, and in many cases is still a few degrees removed from them. But social media does provide invaluable market research and a means to help hone a company’s product or service story.

In 2009, the biggest lesson learned was the need to get back to basics.

See what the other panelists are saying on their blogs about this topic:

• Frank Strong: Blog Panel Part I: Biggest Lesson of 2009
• Meredith Eaton: Blog Panel – Part 1: 2009’s Biggest PR Lessons Learned
• Krim Stephenson: Blog Panel: The Biggest Lesson of 2009

The next post will focus on how the biggest lessons we’ve learned in 2009 (this post) will shape 2010 and beyond. Stay tuned!

You may recall a couple of months back a blog post regarding the Cable-Tec Expo show. In particular, I discussed Mixed Signals’ demonstrations and announcements surrounding Sentry’s ability to measure the loudness of TV commercials and programs.

“As overly loud commercials have become increasingly problematic, proposed legislation is now before Congress that would require video service providers to address this pressing issue. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act would require video service providers to ensure that commercials not be any louder than the average volume of the programs they accompany.”

Yesterday good news arrived: The CALM Act has passed the House and will now go on to the Senate. Making it past the House is a huge and important step for the bill- a step that many bills never see.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, the California Democrat driving this measure, said “loud commercials are a common complaint with the Federal Communication Commission” and that “the new legislation would force the industry to comply with its own standards.” And it looks like the House agrees.

Will the bill pass the Senate? Well, if you’re not a fan of loud commercials, you had better hope so! And if it does pass? Mixed Signals’ is ready to help:

“We understand the irritation from both cable operators as well as subscribers when it comes to loud commercials interrupting an otherwise enjoyable television experience – which is why we have upgraded Sentry to help solve this frustration, especially as new legislation regarding this issue is progressing quickly, ” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals. “Our number one priority is to make sure cable operators have the tools they need to catch these service affecting issues, which is why Sentry’s upgrade enables operators to cost-effectively monitor their entire programming line-up in a scalable way that identifies loudness issues immediately when they occur.”

As always, we’ll keep you updated as the bill works its way through the Senate.

There Really is an App for That

Consumers know that their smartphones can do just about anything. Shopping lists, sports scores, weather, videos, Facebook… There are thousands of consumer apps. But weren’t smartphones originally intended to be business devices? The cover story of this week’s “InformationWeek” magazine is all about the business applications of smartphones, and the innovative way corporate IT departments are putting them to use. In “What Goes Mobile” Mary Hayes Weier has written one the most comprehensive looks yet at the potential mobile apps will have in various business environments, from auto sales to health care.

In a companion piece in the same edition, Peter Rysavy writes about using the Mobile Web as an alternative to developing mobile applications. This theme is one that MoPR has hit on before with our own clients, such as Bitstream, the makers of the BOLT Mobile Browser. In “The Mobile Web Imperative” Rysavy speaks directly to IT departments and the developers building tools for businesses.

It’s the Year 2010: Still No Flying Cars

We’ve entered the season where writers and publications prognosticate about the trends of the coming year. You’ll see many articles with titles such as “2010: The Year of the _____.” “PC World” magazine has an interesting article which asks the question “2010: The Year of the Table PC?” Table PCs aren’t new. They just aren’t popular. Yet. But a lot of new features, such as touch screens, are reinvigorating the category. With pictures and videos along the way, writer Ian Paul walks us through the new landscape of tablet computers and makes a compelling case for why 2010 may be for tablet PCs what 2007 was for smartphones.

A Map You Can Step Into

I know, I know, the title of this column is “Weekend Reading” not “Weekend Viewing.” But one of our favorite writers, Jon Fortt at “Fortune” magazine has a video that showcases some of the cooler developments in location based technologies. Not coupons for the coffee shop around the corner from where you’re standing, but interactive maps unlike anything you’ve yet seen. Take a look:

In Case You Missed It: Cell Phones Cause Cancer… or Do They?

Throughout 2009 there were several stories about studies that showed a link between cell phone use and cancer. Not good news for those of us who not only are power users of our mobile phones, but also work in the mobility industry. In “Mobile Enterprise” magazine, Michael D. Cole looks at the results of a study released last week, an exhaustive 30 year study conducted in Scandinavia which concludes that there is no such link between cell phone use and cancer. Wait, don’t breath a sigh of relief just yet. Read “Study Refutes Cancer-Cell Phone Connection — But Rancorous Debate Persists” and judge for yourself.

As always, we invite you to share your comments.

#Vanish

“I’m driving East out of San Francisco on I-80, fleeing my life under the cover of dusk. Having come to the interstate by a circuitous route, full of quick turns and double backs, I’m reasonably sure that no one is following me.” So begins “Wired” magazine’s fascinating article, “Writer Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here’s What Happened,” an article by writer Evan Ratliff.

Ratliff details how difficult it is for a person to disappear off the grid, as he tried to do for a “Wired” magazine experiment/contest in which readers were offered a $5000 bounty to find the writer during a month long period in which he worked very hard not to be found. How hard is it for a person to completely disappear during the age of social communication, picture phones and GPS? Find out in this very compelling article which reads more like a classic whodunit than a technology exposé.

http://www.wired.com/vanish/2009/11/ff_vanish2/

For extra detail, read the now defunct Twitter stream from the account Ratliff created during this adventure: http://twitter.com/evan_ratliff.

Beware Social Media Snake Oil

As you are probably aware, BusinessWeek has become part of the Bloomberg family, leading to many changes to their newsroom. We at MoPR were sad to learn that one of our favorite tech writers, Stephen Baker, was leaving. His last story was filed today, separating the hype from the potential among the onslaught of new social media tools, trends and advice. Per his M.O., Baker, gives us an insightful examinations of the facts, mini case studies and even a good measure of intrigue. Baker cites an exchange between a “little-known” social media player and one of its “towering chieftains,” Chris Brogan. Brogan is quoted saying of social media marketing and the ability to measure its results, “Is it an exacting marketing science? Not at all.” To what, exactly, was Brogan referring? You’ll have to read the article to find out.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_50/b4159048693735.htm

A Painful Social Media Foray for Seattle Journalists

It was stunning news here in the Pacific Northwest: four police officers murdered in a Tacoma, Wash.-area coffee shop. When news this big breaks, local media rush to cover it. Who would have thought that a tragic event such as this could form the foundation for an excellent case study in the use of social media. “TechNewsWorld” writer Renay San Miguel walks us through the role social media played in getting up-to-the-minute and accurate news out to the public.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/68805.html

In Case You Missed It: Black Friday

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the name given to the first “official” in-store shopping day of the Holiday season. Black Friday, unlike other “Black” days, does not signify a crash or some terrible cataclism. Probably named by retail salespeople who must work extra early, extra late and extra hard, Black Friday is the day when hoards of people rush into stores to take advantage of seasonal offers, sales and specials. But as Jonathan Spalter (of Mobile Future) writes in “The Huffington Post,” Black Friday was also a mobile milestone.

As Spalter notes, shoppers armed with smartphones (and some phones that are not so smart) were searching, paying and even receiving coupons. PayPal noted mobile online payments surged 650 percent, and mobile searches grew to 200,000 this year from 5,000 on the same day in 2008. Is Spalter correct, will 2009 be regarded the “tipping point for the mobile web”? Read his article and see if you agree.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-spalter/black-fridays-mobile-mile_b_377309.html

As always, we invite you to share your comments.

Something ELSE in The Smartphone Market

We rarely lead our Weekend Reading Feature with a blog post, but it’s hard to get past this intriguing opening by Richard Lai in “Engadget“: “Folks, today might be the day when you start to notice how ancient our smartphones have become, even if they only came out in last few months.”

Lai details debut in London this week of a new smartphone and smartphone platform bearing the name “ELSE.” This Linux based smartphone from Israel’s Emblaze Mobile was “built from scratch” and features a sleek design and, by all accounts, an amazing user Interface. Read about, look at and watch why ELSE may be a game changer in the smartphone market in this Engadget post.

Future of the PC

Speaking of game changers, Jon Fortt writes in “Forbes” about the competing trends driving development of personal computers. Fortt asks, “Will tomorrow’s PC be a nimble netbook or a high-def laptop?” then details an explanation of opposing views offered by Google and AMD.

A Life Beyond Twitter?

One of the genius aspects of Twitter is how it engendered and surrounded itself with a vibrant devepoer ecosystem. Many of you reading this post are using third party apps and services built for and around Twitter. But could Twitter eventually walk away from this ecosystem? A “Portfolio” magazine article by Anthony Duignan-Cabrera examines how Twitter’s business interests are evolving and how developers are prepaparing for life after TWitter no longer needs them.

In a sometimes amusing companion piece by Jacqui Cheng of “Ars Technica,” Portfolio looks at the social networking behavior of young people. Is the generation of people under 35 taking social networking too far? One stat from the article: 36 percent of under-35 users admitted to checking Twitter/Facebook/texts immediately after getting it on.

In Case You Missed It: Search Engine Minimization

Traditional media is evolving so it can thrive in the New Media era. As part of that evolution, some online news resources are switching from free to subscription based distribution models. News Corp. chief Rupport Murdoch has concerns about news from his company’s various media brands being indexed in the Google search engine. With Google readers can find snippets of News Corp. articles, not only threatening his revenue model, but also be mislead by lack of context. So Murdoch is taking steps to block News Corp. news content from appearing in Google search results. As Bloomberg’s Greg Bensinger and Brian Womack point out in this story, News Corp. is not the only media outlet taking this dramatic step.

As the never-ending slew of massive corporate Black Friday advertisements begin their impending invasion upon us, I can’t help but be thankful this year for something I never thought I’d utter around this year’s turkey feast: local ads.

Yes, you heard it here first. I, Tamara Parker, will be thankful this year for more local advertisements. Crazy? Well, allow me to explain.

In an economy where the majority of mom and pop shops are suffering under the weight of a sagging economy, it’s easy to notice the decline in local advertisements, particularly the smallest of the small shops. And being an eager advocate of supporting the local market, it disappoints me when my favorite bistro or neighborhood coffee shop can’t afford the massive budget for print advertisements, especially when they rarely see the ROI they expect in return for their life savings investment in this week’s penny saver.

So where do these local shops turn to? Television. And with products like RGB Network’s Broadcast Network Processor, cable operators can easily offer this local advertisement service without a huge mark-up and with a promise of much greater ROI.

The BNP’s ad insertion and real-time digital overlays enable operators to easily insert ads into programming and to further customize these ads in real-time with the addition of locally relevant information that ‘localizes’ them. So when you sit down to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade, instead of only large, corporate commercials you might be seeing more neighborhood coffee shop specials taking place at 5PM and deals at the local art gallery all day Friday- all of which are relevant to YOU and based upon YOUR area code.

Just to clarify, I take no personal issue with the corporate commercials, but I do find myself getting irritated when I watch said commercials and either their locations or their products are nowhere near me. Local ad insertion is a win-win for three parties: you as the consumer receive relevant ads, the cable operators are making more money off of advertising, and the locally-owned and operated shops are getting their name out in a far more effective advertising campaign.

So ‘tis the season to be relevant! Cost-effective! And most importantly…local!

Google Aims To Remake Computers

Quentin Hardy at Forbes details Google’s plans for the Chrome OS and an “ultra-cheap” portable computer in time for Christmas next year. Google is definitely a company with its head in the Cloud. With a host of Internet-based applications, Google is banking that users can do most of their computing online. Years after Sun’s John Gage first said “the network is the computer,” could Google be on the verge of making that vision a reality? Read Quentin’s article to find out.

King of the Cloud

Speaking of cloud computing, Steve Hamm at BusinessWeek reviews Saleforce.com CEO Marc Benioff’s (with Carlye Adler and Josey-Bass) new book, “King of the Cloud”. Based on Hamm’s review, this book looks like a great Christmas present for anyone in technology (hint hint).

By the way, The Economist had a very interesting debate about whether cloud computing is ready for primetime. In this debate, Benioff squared off against Microsoft Business Division chief, Stephen Elop. I already told you how the book review turns out; I won’t spoil the debate. If you want to know the outcome, you’ll just have to read it yourself.

Sending Shockwaves Across the Indian Telecom Industry

Many mobile markets around the world are or are approaching saturation. Some markets count their penetration rate above 100 percent. But at more than 400 million mobile subscribers, India is a hot growth market in a country of 1.14 billion people. As India’s telecom providers build networks and innovate services, a recent move by one of India’s GSM providers, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) is sending shockwaves across the country’s telecom industry. In India Today, a major business publication in India, Kushan Mitra explains the impact of the company’s new per-second pricing plan. TTSL’s per-second pricing plan is the only plan it offers, costing subscribers 1 paise (the Indian equivalent of a penny) per second. To put that in perspective, US carriers charge roughly 360 percent more than TTSL (excluding unlimited calling plans). AT&T’s 1350 minute personal plan runs $79.99 per month. At today’s exchange rate, 1350 minutes would cost $17.40 using TTSL’s 1 paise per minute pricing.

In a second article, Mitra explains how Tata executive Anil Sardana, newly appointed to run TTSL, not only fixed a broken company, but has become a transformative figure in the Indian telecom industry.

In case you miss it

On the other hand, as the US mobile market approaches saturation, a different market dynamic in the competition for mobile subscribers is taking hold. Last week ZDnet blogger Jason Perlow had an excellent post explaining the machinations of the US smartphone market and its ecosystem of carriers, handset manufacturers and smartphone operating systems.

Happy 5th anniversary Broadband Gear Report (www.broadbandgear.net)! Five years ago many (yours truly included) weren’t convinced the market could support another publication, but the BGR folks were savvy enough to focus their editorial and have managed to live, thrive and survive. As the name suggests, BGR reports on the needs of cable operators and the products that equipment vendors have created to address these needs.

And the operators definitely need the help. Since time immemorial operators have had a ‘best of breed’ mentality when it comes to building their networks. Rather than source all their equipment from a single vendor, operators prefer to buy products from multiple vendors so they can use the best VOD server, the best stat mux, etc. Sounds simple, but identifying the particular QAM, or optical node that best meets their specific requirements can be very time consuming. Fortunately BGR is here to help.

In particular, BGR’s annual Diamond Technology Reviews give operators an informed and unbiased review of the best products on the market. The rotating roster of judges includes CTOs, engineering veeps, network architects, plant managers – a cross section of wonks responsible for everything from identifying equipment needs, ‘tire kicking’ new products in the lab and the installation, configuration and maintenance of equipment. Good luck coming up with a better, more balanced collection of judges.

Do I sound like a fan? I should, because I definitely am. It’s a crowded, noisy market place out there with vendors making loud claims about their products … and behind closed doors bashing the competition. Getting thoughtful and insightful assessments that are non-partisan is tremendously valuable.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to note that my clients (RGB Networks and Mixed Signals) have traditionally done very well in the Diamond Technology Reviews. In the 2009 reviews RGB’s Broadcast Network Processor got a stellar 4.5 Diamonds (out of a possible 5) and Mixed Signals’ Sentry achieved an impressive 4 Diamonds – much higher than any of Sentry’s competitors.

So again, congrats on your fifth anniversary Broadband Gear Report, you’re earned it.

Despite the record 18” of snow that covered Denver during Cable-Tec Expo, this year’s show proved successful and productive for both exhibitors as well as attendees. And yes, even the coat check was a popular stand at the show.

In keeping with the theme- “Touch the Technology”- exhibitors put their best technology on display for eager attendees. This year, Mobility PR represented two clients at the show: RGB Networks and Mixed Signals.

At this year’s RGB booth there were multiple product demonstrations, including the new Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG), which is the multi-function, ultra-dense chassis behind RGB’s content repurposing solution. Dubbed the “any video to any device” solution, and even referred to as a “Video God Box,” the VMG uniquely combines a number of key functions, including content repurposing, digital ad insertion, transrating, grooming ingest and aggregation, all in a single platform. The VMG demonstration this year included transcoding MPEG-4/H.264 streams into MPEG-2, as well as MPEG-4/H.264 ad insertion and statistical multiplexing of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.264 streams.

Also on display was the five rack unit VMG-6, which is ideally suited for operators that require a smaller form factor chassis for deployment in hubs, whereas the 13 rack unit VMG-14 is better suited to headends.

In the Mixed Signals booth, the CALM Act took center stage. On display was Mixed Signals’ award-winning Sentry which now supports the ITU-R BS.1770 audio specification for measuring the loudness of video programs. As overly loud commercials have become increasingly problematic, proposed legislation is now before Congress that would require video service providers to address this pressing issue. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act would require video service providers to ensure that commercials not be any louder than the average volume of the programs they accompany.

Quite possibly the most irritating topic, loud commercials and their annoying effects hit close to home for many. The promise of quieter commercials drew in attendees and exhibitors alike, all united with the same desire for a television experience void of ear-ringing car commercials and miracle blenders. With Sentry, operators can for the first time cost-effectively identify and track loud commercials and other volume issues that affect subscribers’ viewing experiences. And the survey says? THANK YOU.

Though attendance fell slightly, the show still seemed to thrive despite a haggard economy and difficult travel conditions. Demonstrations at both booths were in full swing and though it was often difficult to maneuver the crowds that invaded both booths, we still managed to snag some pictures in the down time that capture what the show floor looked like.

Next year’s Cable-Tec will take place in New Orleans in October. We’re thinking snow won’t be an issue this time around…but did someone forget that it’s also hurricane season? As always, stay tuned!