SVT välkomnar öppna videoformat för Webb-TV!

Det är med stolthet som jag kan meddela vad jag läste att SVT just nu har på gång, nämligen att de håller på att avveckla RealMedia och Windows Media med avsikt att ersätta de proprietära (inlåsta) formaten med öppna alternativ. Frågan är vilka/vilket alternativ? Något beslut finns inte, när detta skrivs, men det kommer att träda i kraft under 2008.

Diskutera frågan och tipsa datortidningarna om planerna. Ge förslag till SVT på vad ni önskar se för format! Viktigt: glöm inte att läsa denna informationssida först, som står till grund för deras kommande beslut:
http://www.svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=80732&a=992358&lid=puff_997337&lpos=lasMer

Turbo 3G (HSPA Downlink) - finally

I was expecting to see the cellular operator's upgrade to downlinked HSPA take place some time near the end of the year, giving high-speed coverage to the north region of the country at the last minute. Contrary to my belief, I discovered as soon as today that my turbo 3G-capable cellphone started to utilize the higher speed all of a sudden. What a nice surprise! 30 days before what I had estimated. That's excellent.

So, for anyone living in north of Sweden, it is worthy to say: if you want to access the internet wireless at an OK speed without having to, either:

* be provided with a landline telephone subscription

* have a fiberoptic installation at home

* resist/not offered a subscription to cable tv internet

... the operator you are likely to want a deal with, is 3 (Three).

It works, and it's reliable too, if you connect via USB data cable. For bluetooth, it is not as reliable.

Amerikansk analog kabel-tv skrotas 2012

I USA sker det mycket på tv-fronten just nu. 

De hade först planer på att göra en total övergång till digital-tv i februari 2009 - både marksändningar och kabeldistribution av tv skulle bli "digital-only". Men nu har de tydligen gett 3 års extra tid till de som har analog kabel-tv, vilket innebär att analoga kabel-tv-kunder får på sig tills år 2012 med att göra övergången till digital-tv. 

Så, det är alltså mer eller mindre tydligt att amerikanska bolag snart kommer att ha enbart digitala stationer och produktioner av material. Detta innebär att, om Sverige fortsätter att plocka in program från USA så får någon lov att göra jobbet med att konvertera samtliga digitala produktioner till analogt format, om jag förstår saken rätt. Vad innebär detta för digitala kunder i Sverige, dock: 

* Kommer vissa av tv-programmen att visas i 16:9 widescreen och HD-kvalitet på särskilda HD-kanaler eller blir det sändning av 16:9 widescreen för alla som vill se innehållet, nerskalat för enkel distribution som förmån till analoga kunder? 

*Hur förändras kanalernas utbud och programplanering i tablån framöver när en växande skara blir digital och en fortfarande stor skara är analoga kunder? Comhem gjorde redan en omformulering i deras beskrivning av analoga kanalplanen vid den marksända digitala övergången som tyder på att de förväntar sig en förändring i tv-landskapet redan inom en snar framtid (vad som kan räknas till "snar framtid" går endast att spekulera kring just nu).

Det är två saker jag i dagsläget funderar över om framtidens tv.

Konvertering till analog tv populärt i stadsnät

Efter att nyss ha läst en nyhetsbulletin på Degerfors Energis hemsida så står det klart att det fortfarande finns en stor tillväxt i analog kabel-tv. Detta förvånar mig en hel del, samtidigt som jag borde ha förstått att det skulle inträffa. Argumenten och skälen till varför satsningen görs runt om i Sverige på nytillverkning av analoga kabelnät i stadsnät står i nyhetsbulletinen:

1. "... möjlighet att se på TV på samtliga TV-apparater du har hemma till en fast månadsavgift"

2. "Och du behöver inga digitalboxar!"

Formuleringen som Degerfors Energi har valt tyder på att upphovsmän och ansvariga för film- och tv-produktion har misslyckats med att komma fram till lösningar tillsammans med kabel-tv-bolagen som kunderna efterfrågar. Det framgår tydligt i ovanstående argument att de ser den analoga tekniken som överlägsen pga att det är en teknik som tv-konsumenter i Sverige är vana vid och har kört med historiskt i över 50 års tid. Att använda en box till en tv som saknar digital kabelmottagare med CAM-plats är alltså ett besvärligt moment för "gemene man". Detta bekräftas i kommentarer från artiklar jag läst tidigare. 

Vidare är argumentet "... på samtliga TV-apparater du har hemma till en fast månadsavgift" en banbrytande fråga som är ett väldigt känsligt område för de allra flesta svenskar. Vi har vant oss vid en modell där det med enkelhet och framförallt frihet går att koppla in hur många tv-apparater vi vill i hushållet utan att betala något extra. Jag erkänner att jag själv också tycker detta borde vara en självklarhet i kabelnät, men jag förstår dock problemet med att skippa såna restriktioner för parabolmottagning och antennmottagning eftersom man faktiskt i båda de fallen kan ta med sig digitalboxar till en stuga eller med enkelhet bara låta andra i ens bekantskapskrets åka snålskjuts på ens egna abonnemang, litegrann som hur trådlösa nätverksutdelningar har skapat en sorts diskret piratmarknad i väldigt liten omfattning för billig internetuppkoppling delat mellan flera hushåll pga snålhet. 

Men, med kabelhushåll borde det inte finnas några problem: kabelbolagen bör se till att det finns ett digitalt grundutbud som alla kan titta på, där priset ingår i hyran eller separat, något som bör vara upp till varje hyres-/bostadsrättsförening/villaförening/samfällighet att välja mellan. Sen, för de som vill se premiumkanaler digitalt, är det bara att skaffa ett sådant betal-tv-abonnemang separat. Dock är detta ingen utopi; det är faktiskt redan genomfört hos ett bostadsbolag som heter Bostaden AB och förhåller sig i Umeå. De erbjuder också analogt grundutbud för de som hellre föredrar det. Bättre än så kan det väl inte bli, eller? 

Jo, det kan faktiskt bli bättre än så: premiumpaketen hos leverantören Canal Digital är faktiskt i dagsläget svindyra pga lömska kortavgifter! 169 kr/kvartal, dvs 338 kr/halvår eller 676 kr/år är mycket olustig summa att betala. Det är faktiskt fjantigt att använda sig utav kortavgifter. Det är en högst påhittad grej. Om de inte kan klara sig utan kortavgifter får de väl baka in det i deras abonnemangskostnader istället, så att man får utmärkt överblick på sina fakturor och slipper betala återkommande dubbelfakturor på höga belopp.

Inte konstigt att analog konvertering är så populärt ...

Sveriges marksända nät helt digitaliserat

Enligt frekvenstabellen på Teracoms hemsida är nu Sveriges marksända tv-nät digitaliserat, även samtliga mindre slavsändare och de tidigare 2-veckors extrasändningarna av analog SVT1, som alltså var till för att framförallt informera långtidsvistande semesterresenärer och dylikt, som kan ha missat att övergången ägt rum i deras område.

Besked från Comhem under 2008?

Senast 1 februari förväntar jag mig att ComHem kommer att presentera någon plan för deras nästa generations digital-tv med EuroDOCSIS 3.0-tekniken. Jag kan förstås ha fel, men något säger mig att deras propaganda i digital-tv-övergången har sina skäl. Kan det isåfall vara den nya DOCSIS-tekniken som är den riktiga bakomliggande orsaken? Något lurt är det iaf och 2008 väntar jag mig att det blir ett särskilt spännande år för TV-branschen. Men, någon LCD-tv som årets julklapp blir det nog inte en repris av i Sverige på ett par år till.. eller?

The digital television no show: How the media affected the market opportunity

As have been earlier reported, the digital television growth in Sweden hasn't seen any exponential growth from cable subscribers, despite the fact that some estimated 30 % of the market who were forced to go digital during our transition campaign made lots of headlines in the press during the two years it took to complete the transition. Rather, the growth is showing as being slow-paced and linear, increasing numbers of digital viewers coming both indirectly from new triple play customers and genuinely interested tech people like myself. One really starts to wonder how such a big transition in television broadcasting haven't sparked more interest with the people. Not even much curiosity. 

I believe there must be a good reason behind this disinterest from the mainstream. What is it, though: is it a cultural thing or a lack of innovation and passion from Swedish cable companies? Are standardization issues with DVB to blame, the fact that there isn't a uniformed one-size-fits-all broadcasting technology instead of one for each connection type? (DVB-T, C and S). It might be as simple as the digital transition not focusing on HD channel availability, an area which intrigues far more people than a discreet digitalisation of already running analog channels. After all, on stage in front of the tv viewers there is nothing new going on: they are still watching the same content as they used to do before, more or less, except there is more to choose from at a given moment than it used to be before the transition. There is more content.

Kinks to sort out before digital adoption will grow expontentially

First of all, the television the consumers goes out to buy in their local tv shop (or online) needs to have two integrated slots for digital reception: one for terrestrial and one for cable. Second of all, it needs to "just work" right out of the box and both of them should always allow a basic channel package to be carried out unencrypted for everyone to watch and demo with new boxes or televisions.

Trusting the brand and their hardware-software bundle

After a quick look on price matching websites, I conclude that there are 340 so called STBs (Set-Top Boxes) available for the digital-only alternatives terrestrial and satellite, while there's 23 alternatives for watching analog/digital cable. Obviously there is going to be a problem here, trying to figure out which brand and model to buy among the digital-only alternatives. However, the price competition is unmatched. With digital cable, there aren't many models to choose from because of the fact that there aren't enough customer demand as of yet. Prices are high and the competition is more or less a factor "none to five". Let's think for a second what it means to buy a digital set-top box today: you go to your local tv shop or look online, to try determine which box you want to buy. After 20 minutes you end up buying brand A along with a subscription and bring it home. You install it and plug the cables in. You start to watch some tv as soon as your subscription goes active. But here's the problem: after watching for an hour, the box hangs! The picture freezes and the only solution to get back to watching tv again is to pull the power plug and then put it back in, initializing the box again. You go back to browsing channels for an additional 5 minutes.. and you discover that there's something wrong, but this time it's the channel you're watching having no sound for no obvious reason. Flipping channels and flipping back again fixes it. This is pretty typical and considered "normal behaviour" while it actually never should happen. It doesn't matter much which box you buy into, they all have some little bug that might drive you nuts one way or another. 

This is of course a matter of maturity and hardware vendor responsibility. Some vendors you can trust more than others. Which one to trust is best found on established forums here and there on the web.

Things still needed to be done

* An eye-opener for vendors to provide well-working, high-quality and production stable firmware

* No sneaky subscription contracts (hidden card fees with recurring, annual payments)

* The ability to watch the same content on more than one tv WITHOUT paying extreme extra fees for it (potential soon to be-customers simply aren't tolerating that)

Well, that's pretty much it for now.

Feel free to comment!

Digital television switch: next month

I would call it a historic moment and the beginning of a new era for competition in the television market. There's about one month until Sweden takes down the analog towers. However, it's not the beginning of a new digital era at all. As long as the majority of viewers watch their channels in analog format over analog cable, the content and offers will remain the same for an undetermined period of time. TV channels are going to continue broadcast and market their analog Teletext services, channels are going to continue mix entertainment content with sports content despite dedicated sports channels existing today. Digital cable box companies are going to continue a slow pace in manufacturing and constructing high-quality boxes until the demand is high enough, at least that's my current prediction of our market here.

It's really too bad that nothing will change for years to come, just because one single company dominates the market here and happens to decide they aren't going to go completely digital and worst of all, they don't leave a final date to switch off analog broadcasts either, since they are probably afraid of their customers swarming customer phone service immediately if they do. 

Right now, they are trying to sell voluntary subscriptions to their household customers and it's going pretty slow so far. About 10 % out of their 1.7 million households have made the switch. Their strategy is probably to wait many years, until their numbers show more than 51 % have switched to digital. But how long exactly will that take, with the current growth being so low? Also, what can be done today to make people realize it's better to view digital than analog? Personally I think the company has got to open up so that a couple of unencrypted channels will be seen and experienced by people who buy a television with a DVB-C tuner equipped. Maybe at that point, those people will think: "Oh wow! That's nice! Is that how every channel will look like if I switch to digital? I think I will do that now!"

I wait for the day they do exactly that, to push digital to more households. Let's hope they do!

How the Swedish analog cable television methodology lead to a stalemate

Commentary and analysis of the slow progress in digital cable

I remember how as a kid we soon got this new thing called cable television at home. It was something relatively new in the area I lived in and not everyone I knew had it ... yet. The idea was that your neighbourhood board of members met with cable companies to hear about their offers for cable television. Which company seemed like the most appropriate for our neighbourhood's needs and was the price deal reasonable or not? Once a deal was struck, every resident in the neighbourhood had to choose which cable tv package they wanted: either the basic or the extended package. Over time, however, the price dropped for households and it became more reasonable to move over in favor for the extended package. More time passed on, and eventually all that was left, was the extended package which at this point had changed to become the standard cable offering (analog only). At the same time, they had a small optional try-out for digital cable too. It was a set-top box with a couple of premium channels for those who felt like trying that out. I think the cable company wanted to see if there was any interest in the technology or not.

Meanwhile, a competing cable company started offering digital cable as an option back in the mid-1990s or so, more or less. Not many customers opted for it, but there was no demand yet, as the basic cable channels covered 99.9 % of peoples' television needs, AFAIK. If you wanted more you could always opt-in for analog premium channels. Digital was something exotic and experimental you could say.

Along the way, the premium channel companies decided to turn off analog signals and only offer the premium content with digital signals. This was alright, except of course for analog pirates who were a bit sad over not being able to receive free premium content for any longer. 

In 2005, terrestrial television towers began switching off the analog signals to go digital-only, in a transition period of approximately 2 years time. It was a political decision and they concluded that the switch-off was to be completed before February 2008. In the end, it was settled that they should be successful in completing it with good marginals before that date, namely October 2007. At the time of writing, in August 2007 they are yet to switch off the last couple of analog transmissions, but they are getting very close to their goal.

  Meanwhile, the biggest cable provider has consistently made press releases about the fact that their customers don't need to do anything in order to continue watching television. They are not affected by the analog switch-off, they have said. At the same time, they are also pushing more and more for their customers to consider switching to digital cable, where they can choose between Small, Medium and Large packages depending on household needs.

The Swedish populations' reactions to the transition from analog to digital television have consistently been either negative or ignorant, depending on whether they themselves are directly affected or if they are just hearing and reading about the process - in the media. Everywhere that I have seen people comment about this matter, no person at all have said that they are in favor of the move and neither have they said that they are anticipating it with excitement. When analog cable households have been asked questions about their awareness of the analog switch-off, response always comes out the same it seems: 

"I have cable television. I am not affected by the switch-off. I can continue viewing tv 'business as usual'".

So, while both satellite providers in Sweden have been digital-only since the analog switch-off for satellite broadcast in 2001, and the analog switch-off for terrestrial viewing soon is completed, the cable households are left with choosing themselves when they want to make the switch to digital viewing. This far, estimates show that somewhere around 90 % of them have voted to stay with analog without intent of switching. They want to continue watching tv as usual, the same way they have watched it all their lives. No matter the age groups, they all say the same thing.

The reason behind the reasoning is what I find most interesting, and I think that cable providers should consider investigating not *what* their customers want, but *why* they want it. Only then can they get more people to sign up for digital cable. That's what I think at least.

When is a cellphone considered obsolete?

Recently I started to wonder why Sweden has come such a long way with computers and internet access but still ignore internet on cellphones - it is as if it doesn't exist. What I would like to know is, if the situation is the same in other parts of the Nordic region and what about Europe? 

Reports have shown that the operator Three has the highest score for the category "income per subscriber" in Sweden, which should come as a wake-up bell you would think for other cell operators. But I'm not too certain that they care about how much their neighbour makes on mobile services since it doesn't affect their own customer base or price setting strategy. Leading the list on "income per subscriber" only says for a telecom competitor, that they have a higher attraction on the stock market for those wanting to invest in the possibly lucrative future of mobile telecom services.

Will GPRS get shut off anytime soon despite the GSM market continuing to prosper? Doesn't seem like it will. I look at my friends cellphone usage habits and see a pattern in the way they look at their mobiles. Very easy: it's a phone to them, it's a phone just like their first cellphone they bought in the late 1990s. However, about two years ago they saw low-budget cameras get built-in and so now they know their device under the name "camera mobile" even though I know it's called "camera phone" in other places of the world. It's interesting, actually. I do find it very interesting. Is the GSM industry aware of their customers' perception of the devices they promote and are they feeling satisfaction over the situation? If they are very satisfied it means that they have reached their goals and know their prosperity is deeply rooted in how customer habits work.

So, seeing as the telecom industry keeps spitting out new GSM phone models on the market in Northern Europe I continue to wonder: will profit, technology - or both - drive the decision to evolve the European mainstream cellular market? Today the 3G handsets keep maturing every year and more customers turn to these mobile devices. But ... when will it break in with 51 % market share? 

Sony Ericsson probably aren't going to stop producing GSM phones anytime soon, as their CEO Svanberg have witnessed growth take place in new markets. I believe that means they are going to continue manufacture and sell those very phones not only in new markets but also established ones to profit further. Will Apple speed up the cellular service market with their 3G iPhone or will instead Nokia single-handedly take care of the evolution? We'll see in a not so distant future!

Tsarkon is from Sword of Vermilion

In 1990 there was a role-playing game that came out with the name Sword of Vermilion, which is where I got my callsign tsarkon from. It was released for SEGA Genesis and SEGA Mega Drive in 1990. You play a role as the son of Erik and your mission throughout the game is to help defend the world of Vermilion from evil doings done by the mighty wizard Tsarkon, sometimes portrayed as a dragon and sometimes in the shape of a wizard. The sword of Vermilion is the mightiest sword there is in the game. Finding and retrieving this sword is not an easy task but still possible and also one of the achievable goals of the game apart from killing enemies and foes as you explore a world of woods, caves and dungeons. 

The guide book is important

You won't get far however without the bundled guide book, containing everything you need to know about the caves, dungeons, magic spells, potions, enemies and boss creatures as well as maps, hints and tricks. Without the complete guide book you can still make it to the end of the game but it will be a lot harder if you never played the game in the past. 

You need to know a lot of English

Something else that everyone attempting to play the game should know about is that you need to know a lot of English beforehand if it's not your native tongue. As you play the game, you pick up new words all the time but if your English is bad you probably won't get very far. It's one of the few games where you need to actually know the menus in and out and what to use in a certain situation. That said, once you know the game it's easily something you get addicted to playing for hours. Time flies! 

Telecom Killer app for 2008? National WiFi coverage

When the telecom market's customers have signed their loyalty contracts to the respective telecom companies, those same companies need to find new ways and innovate to dig up a new path for customer growth to happen. At the same time, not only the telecom business realizes the potential of WiFi. There is a trend towards wireless internet as a whole and that most likely will benefit the consumer in terms of prices and availability. But which kind of people do they target? That's the question. I'm thinking that only bigger cities will see competition in this area while other places on the map will have to trust only the telecom operators to serve them.

Here I present to you, some information on where we were yesterday and where we are today:

Early 1990s to mid-1990s

Analog voice

NMT 450

NMT 900

Mid-1990s to 2003

Digital voice

GSM 900

GSM 1800 (only avail. in big cities)

2003 until today

Digital data

WCDMA (very high speeds, shorter range - requires denser tower placement)

NMT CDMA450 (long range coverage - handles good speeds)

Here in Sweden, the national coverage of GSM met the goals several years ago. For as 3G goes, the telecom companies met their goals as late as June earlier this year. Because of the fact that the population saw a growth in-between the coverage agreement papers and the population numbers, they only have the requirement of covering 98 % of the people since that number translates to nearly 100 % of the older population numbers. That might sound weird to you, but a signed agreement is a signed agreement after all. That said, the operators can volunteerly expand the coverage all they want, IF they want to. They just don't need to in terms of regulations set with the government.

I wish to see an expansion and upgrade take place as soon as possible to make sure innovations will keep coming.

Evaluation of FreeBSD 6.2

Last week, I tried out Parallels Desktop for Mac OS X to give FreeBSD 6 a try in the virtual hardware world which sounded like a challenge suitable for someone who have had nothing but headache experiences with FreeBSD installations in the past. Being a former Linux software enthusiast I was used to doing things the GNU/Linux Way™ as opposed to doing it the traditional UNIX way. The main shell is configured with /bin/sh in mind instead of Bash. As a result the common Linux user gets ticked off who normally think pressing the TAB button for command completion is something to take for granted. Naturally it's always one of the very first priorities to take on. So I tried to fix that annoyance, but it wasn't easy to know where to start. I noticed the possibility to set things up during the initial setup process - however, I had forgot to install Bash before creating the user account and that was certainly a big mistake. If someone else reading this does the same mistake as I did, I think the easiest way to fix things is to launch vi and edit /etc/passwd as superuser or when logged in as root. Look for the /bin/sh section on the line that says your user account. For instance, it can look something like this:

jdoe:*:1002:3:John Doe:/usr/home/jdoe:/bin/sh

Changing that last piece to say /bin/bash, when you know for sure bash is in fact installed, will do the trick. Remember to try this piece of advice with some care: first be sure what you write in there actually is verified as correct, since it's a highly sensitive system file that might just as well lock you out completely from the system if you put in even the smallest typo in there. Also, don't forget to logout and re-login to confirm your system changes.

Moving on to the actual operating system itself, I must say the installation actually went on much smoother than I had expected, even with the virtual hardware that FreeBSD had to accept. The only thing that went crazy was the X server which is forgiving when you account for the poor graphics driver that VESA is in a window inside another OS (in this case as you hopefully recall, Mac OS X). There were a lot of packages to post-install, but once I had run xorgconfig and grasped which resolution and depth to use for the mysterious virtualized Cirrus graphics card, everything was up and running without any terrible issues. It did work, after all, and the colors looked alright. It was however acting slow which I blame the lack of Parallels Tools for.

Conclusion

Easier than you can imagine to install if you go for the Standard Install option (found on sysinstall's ncurses menu). With the auto-configuration alternative things went well for me. I must recommend that you never run FreeBSD with an X server if you virtualize that OS, because it won't exactly be the best experience you've had in your life. If that's what you're after, why not install Linux instead? For command-line server usage, though, FreeBSD is one of the smoothest and quickest operating systems I've tried virtualize. Go FreeBSD 6.2!

Räkna inte med svensk iPhone år 2007

En rimlig artikel finns att läsa på GöteborgsPostens hemsida om varför iPhone inte är en så särskilt stor grej i Sverige jämfört med länderna utanför Norden. Det påpekas bland annat att vi, med fri tolkning från artikeln, är lojala och trygga med Sony Ericsson och Nokia, samt att det redan finns väldigt mogna telefoner och fördelaktiga abonnemang att tillgå. Dessutom finns det en annan sorts "mobilkultur" hos oss om man får kalla det så. Det de flesta gör, förutom jag då, är att bestört SMS'a för hundratals kronor per månad (varför vet jag inte). Vanliga samtal vet jag inte statistiken för, men vi har iaf väldigt bra priser i Sverige efter de radikala priskrig som hållit i sig de närmaste 3 åren. Frågan är:

Skulle det bli en succé med Apples smartphone i Landet Lagom? Om den har 3G så hoppas jag på det, eftersom det innebär fler personer jag kan ringa videosamtal till ;). Framförallt skulle det påskynda övergången från GSM till 3G och det är i sig självt en spännande tanke.

SVT Väst kör hårt med HDTV

För en stund sedan läste jag ett pressmeddelande. I Göteborg går SVT Väst över till en ny studio som är helt digitalt kapabel. Det kommer att bli fler produktioner i höst, cirka september, för SVT HD-kanalen. Citat:

"Bland annat kommer På spåret, Filmkrönikan, Carin 21:30, filmatiseringen av Camilla Läckbergs deckare Isprinsessan och Predikanten och SVT:s nya följetong Andra Avenyn att produceras och visas i HDTV."

Det tycker jag låter bra. Personligen är jag inte peppad för SVT HD så här långt eftersom jag inte har rimlig möjlighet att se kanalen än. Det är däremot mycket möjligt att jag kommer kunna se den under 2008 om de marksända sändningarna i Västerbotten får en 5:e och 6:e MUX installerad. Både ComHem och Canal Digital erbjuder kanalen i dagsläget, men jag har bara stöd att ta emot marksända HD-signaler i dagsläget. Är inte intresserad av att lägga ut pengar på MPEG4-mottagning för andra DVB-standarder än DVB-T, tills marknaden ser annorlunda ut (läs: att det finns ett moget utbud av kanaler redo).

Skandaluttalande av huvudsekreteraren

Jag läste nyss detta från SydSvenskans hemsida, sagt om digital-tv-övergången:

"Tyvärr har det varit rätt vanligt att kabel-tv-tittare i onödan skaffat sig en box ändå. Vid en sån här stor omställning finns det alltid risk för missförstånd, säger Stina Sandell, huvudsekreterare i statliga digital-tv-kommissionen."

Vad menas?! I onödan? Digital kabel-tv är den överlägset bästa tekniken för tv-tittande idag. Nu är alltså huvudsekreteraren deppad över att flera kabel-tv-tittare förstått budskapet att tv-tittandet är på väg att bli digitalt, majoriteten av dessa har frivilligt gått över till Riktig™ TV. Nej, vad det handlar om är isåfall en nervositet hos staten att den mest populära distributionsformen för TV i Sverige (väldigt långsamt) får fler medvetna tv-tittare som vill ha ett bättre utbud och överlägsen bildkvalitet med hemmabio-möjligheter till ljudet. Nog hade jag också varit nervös över det då Teracom inte har lediga frekvenser och kapacitet nog att erbjuda hela landet ett tillräckligt konkurrenskraftigt HDTV-utbud vilket är fullt möjligt hos ComHem och satellitbolagen (vid dags dato bara Canal Digital).

The Nokia N95 - probably the best smartphone for Europe

As I read just moments ago that Apple has gotten official launch dates out for their over-hyped device that I don't care much for myself in the current design, lacking turbo 3G and targets another audience than a cellphone enthusiast such as me, my eyes have been focusing another smartphone to aim for as soon as possible:

The Nokia N95 with HSPA support

Even though I haven't come close to trying one out in the real world so far, it sure interests me to take a look at it and judging whether it suits my style or not. I really like the built-in GPS (which I hope is a transmitter and receiver which itself can support GPS tracking without network data traffic-based assist (AGPS), since that is a slow and unreliable feature I have tried too many times only to find out how bad of an idea it is.

The N92 is also an option, if DVB-H becomes popular in Sweden next year in 2008.
Nokia N92

Time will tell which one of the N-series phones gets my money.

All households in Sweden could (perhaps) get fiberoptic broadband within 10 years timeframe

Would be nice, wouldn't it? Yes, and I think it's obligatory for our nation to get the best technology out to everyone, not just specific regions. I welcome alternatives to slow and bulky ADSL connections that require modems and vary in speed depending on distance to the telephone station. Let's just hope we will see people remember that as nostalgia, 10 years from now.

Yes, let's hope so. It was about time a company envisioned it and got serious about it!

News source, in Swedish:
Alla hushåll kan få fiber om 10 år

Det är med glädje som jag kan informera att Sveriges Radio och Sveriges Television har samtal med varandra just nu, angående en eventuell digitalradiolösning via digital-tv-nätet istället för det nuvarande DAB-nätet. Som jag skrev den 20:e maj så har digitalradion hittills varit en gigantisk flopp. Förhoppningen är att detta pågående förslag kommer att leda till ett avtal och viktigast av allt: öka intresset avsevärt i Sverige för högkvalitativ radio där utrymmet för kanaler är mycket större än i FM-nätet.

Källa:
Radio i det digitala tv-marknätet

DAB aka Digitalradio

Det finns en debatt som varit väldigt undangömd och "svår" att väcka ett intresse inför, nämligen digitalradio eller DAB som det heter. Anledningen är förstås att analog TV inte har haft något att erbjuda tittaren, medan analog radio (FM) faktiskt har det, minst sagt. Det verkar svårt att argumentera för digitalradio när det finns bokstavligen miljontals jättebilliga FM-mottagare att köpa i princip överallt och det faktum att all kommersiell radio drivs med FM i Sverige, samt har ett extremt brett publikunderlag.

Jag tror faktiskt att det är en stor självklarhet varför DAB har varit en "ultraflopp" under hela tiden som det existerat fram tills nu (och det förblir också fortfarande en flopp). Det är väldigt enkel logik: fråga någon du känner om de vet vad DAB Digitalradio är för något. Om de svarar "Något som jag hörde på nyheterna i samband med den där mannen Peter Örn" så vet du att de inte har någon aning om vad digitalradio är för något. Varför vet de inget om det?

Problem 1
Det är ingen (och verkar aldrig ha varit) bred marknadsföring för DAB i Sverige! INGEN såvitt jag vet! Ändå är jag oerhört intresserad av att veta mer, men har svårt att hitta någon bra information någonstans. Hur ska då "medelSvensson" förväntas känna till vad det är och hur man lyssnar på digital radio?

Problem 2
Pga att efterfrågan och försäljningen är så förbaskat dålig i Sverige av DAB-apparater så är priset väldigt högt. Jag kan inte motivera en enda kompis eller familjemedlem att investera i en apparat för radiolyssnande som kostar mer än 500 kr. Det går helt enkelt inte. Inte när man får en ny FM-radio för under hundralappen, eller gratis, eftersom sannolikheten är att man redan har massor av FM-radioapparater i ägo sedan länge, samt någon undanstoppad på en vindsvåning, källare eller dylikt. Varför är efterfrågan dålig? Det finns inget intressant kommersiellt utbud, det som finns idag är ju endast ett "tills vidare"-utbud med restriktioner på aktiva radiomaster och sändningstider. Så varför lägga ut pengar på en DAB-mottagare om det inte finns något att lyssna till som är tillräckligt intressant att höra?

Problem 3
Sedan 2002 enligt de källor jag tolkat information från, så drogs det mesta av budgeten från SR (Sveriges Radio) in i kategorin DAB Radio-sändningar, vilket gjorde att utsändningen skulle ske "tills vidare" med täckning endast i omnejder för Luleå, Stockholm, Göteborg och Malmö. Resten av Sverige blir utan. Lysande för mig som inte bor i någon av de städerna.

Problem 4
Jag har aldrig varit med om att någon diskuterat DAB och haft intresse för att följa dess utveckling. Det enda jag hittat på nätet för svenska marknaden, är "lexikonförklaringen" av vad tekniken är för något och vilka länder som sänder digitalradio, samt huruvida det går bra eller dåligt för de respektive marknaderna, inklusive täckning i respektive land. Den informationen återfinns på Wikipedia och min länkning är specifikt till Storbritanniens info eftersom den texten är mest intressant då de faktiskt lyckats bäst i Europa med digitalradio. På andra plats vill jag säga att Danmark som närmaste land geografiskt till Sverige har bedömt det som en succé.

Sammanfattning
Det kommer krävas kommersialisering av digitalradio innan marknadsföringen kommer igång. Utan marknadsföring vet svenskarna inte vad det är för något. Om priserna samtidigt fortsätter att ligga på orimlig nivå så kommer intresset fortsätta ligga lågt. Om intresset fortsätter ligga lågt, finns det heller ingen motivation hos politikerna att satsa på en närmare 100 % täckning i Sverige för digitalradio. Varför ha ett nät igång som ingen lyssnar på? Det är frågan som politikerna bör ställa sig och försöka besvara. Lyckas de besvara den frågan och sedan komma fram till beslut runt vilka som får sända i nätet utöver Sveriges Radio, så kommer även intresset att komma igång igen. Troligen mycket långsamt till en början, men än en gång:

>> Det handlar om marknadsföring, utbud av kanaler och tillgänglighet! >>

MUX-utbyggnad i norr - del 1

Jag väntar förväntansfullt på datum för utbyggnaden av en MUX 5 i (resten av) Norrland. Just nu finns det bara på vissa specifika håll: sändare i Luleå och Sundsvall med närmaste omnejd. Det har varit tal om en MUX 6 och 7 också, men där är planerna att det mest ska användas för HD-utsändningar. Iofs är det bra eftersom intresset för digital-tv troligen kommer att öka då, successivt, sakta men säkert.

Vad är egentligen Kvalitets-TV per min definition?
Personligen tycker jag att det är ett kanalutbud som gör att man kan titta på segling eller tennis så ofta man vill utan att sändningen bryts för en rugbyturnering, eller en kanal som bara visar underhållning medan samtliga sportsändningar visas någon helt annanstans. Inga kanalhopp, inga förvirringar och konstigheter. Bara det som man är intresserad av. Spela in, lagra, titta på innehållet när man själv önskar. Bekvämt ska det vara, enkelt men fortfarande med stil och stabilitet. En programguide, s.k. EPG, är något jag tar för givet numera. Ett tryck på fjärrkontrollen ska visa informationen inom 3 sekunder, max.

Så fort du gått digital och vant dig vid det så verkar analog tv gammalt, förlegat och väldigt, väldigt tråkigt!

23 analog towers yet to be turned offline

In roughly three weeks from now some areas up north in Sweden will turn their analog-transmitting terrestrial towers offline and turn over to digital-only transmissions. At this point in the project of turning off all the analog towers, a majority of them have completed the transition to digital-only. Approximately 64 % of Sweden's terrestrial viewers will by then have left the analog tv world behind.

In the meantime, my own survey made at an online forum showed that there are still a strong opposition against digital tv broadcasting over cable for those who now only view it in analog form. A company called ComHem is the dominant leader on the Swedish cable tv market and they insist via Press Releases that their customers do not have to do a single thing with their decision making for their future tv viewing. They can continue to watch analog tv via cable, not being bothered with any forced transitions. While such a thing normally is good, I am very displeased with the behaviour ComHem shows towards adoption of digital television in Sweden. The fact is, they dominate the market in this country and as such the broadcasting companies stand in the middle trying to figure out how they should proceed to make money off customers. Will it be either via analog or digital, will they focus solely on the old market that stands still or will they instead have their focus on the exciting growth in the digital television market? It can't be easy today for broadcasting companies to make bets.

Chicken and egg is not the biggest problem here, because the chicken already decided that digital television is the future. No .. the problem is whether the cable tv industry here will act for the better of the consumers and broadcasters. They hold the last piece of the puzzle and so far they have resisted from helping the rest to solve the puzzle. Why is that? With going 100 % digital in cable transmissions, the legacy that still remains can finally be a thing of the past and the circle will be complete once and for all.

But I'll just continue to dream and monitor the growth for digital cable among Swedes, see how it progresses. No records I've seen show any real signs of interest in households for future's television, but once the analog terrestrial network goes entirely offline (100 %) late this year, the market outside the analog cable world will eventually show people how to do things right:

Electronic Program Guide (EPG), Scheduling of recordings for tv shows and movies, Widescreen support and anamorphic capabilities, DVD quality with standard definition signals and HD quality now and in the future, nisched channels popping up to serve certain audiences, etc.

More to come as things progress! :-)

Update, 2007/05/29: There are now 16 towers left instead of 23 and less than 100 days until the "digitalization".

Your computer is about your needs - it's not about impressing your neighbour

What do you do with your computer?
I asked myself that question. If you never asked yourself that question before you might find it to be an eye opener. When I decided what cellphone and cell provider I would sign up with, my decision was similar. I asked myself *where* I needed call and data coverage, geographically. I also asked myself whether I was after a fixed or a variable price for calls. In this case it's computers, and so you should think about which tasks you use it for. Examples of tasks are as following:

- Writing documents, school papers, doing spreadsheets and corporate/school presentations.

- Gaming, situation A
Lots of so called "dedicated PC gaming", where it matters to have the coolest and fastest computer. Upgrading and experimenting with the hardware is of greatest, critical importance.

- Gaming situation B
Casual gaming to relax in front of the computer. This can be tetris-like games or a strategy game that is both entertaining to the person and the mind. Perfect after a tough day at work or school.

- Computer leisure activities such as managing photos, arranging holiday cards, etc.

- Professional editing of movies, music and photos / images.

Note: Unlike what I have seen others do when they write about this subject, I am not going to recommend which operating systemyoushould make based on your tasks. I say: find this out for yourself by giving Mac OS X, Linux distributions and Windows a try on the tasks you need to have done.
The ultimate decision is such a personal choice anyway that you are most likely to disagree with my standpoint in any case if I interfere with my personal opinion on the matter.


If you decide to go an alternative route, how scary is it to be introduced to something new and different?
This is probably the hardest thing for most people. Being scared to something that works very different from what they are used to. While people like me LOVES new things and innovation, a lot of people hate it when they feel lost and almost inprinted with the idea that something is supposed to work in the way *they* want it to work.

The solution to above problem? Be open and be willing to listen and learn.
Accept the fact that there are more than one operating system out there and while A and B can be similar to each other, they are likely to be designed to do at least one thing different. This should logically come from a desire to improve on how things are done in the system.

How likely is it that person A or person B will succeed with learning a new system?
The willingness to adapt. It's all about adapting to the new environment. Feeling at home. If you dare to, you can compare it with changing from living in a big house to living in a medium-sized apartment in another city.

Personal choice
I myself chose a Mac. I did so because it fulfills all my needs on all aspects. I belong to gaming situation B above, and I also extend my gaming needs through gaming on Playstation 2. Again, I repeat: my needs. Not necessarly yours. The perfect machine for me is either a failure or success for someone else.

Good luck! :-)

Yesterday's red moon: Lunar eclipse

I cannot believe that, for once, the lunar eclipse was visible. I have never seen one before.
This time there were no dark clouds in the way as it normally is whenever there's any spectacular sky event happening at all. I looked up the details on when it was going to happen and for how long it would last. At 22:30 CET (10:30 pm) I watched outside the window and noticed that the moon had its bottom left piece "chewed off". At that point it wasn't much to shout about. 30 minutes later it was obvious something big was going to happen. At 23:50 CET (11:50 pm) the moon looked amazing! Somewhat red and partially glowing. Luckily for those who weren't paying attention in Europe or witnessed dark clouds instead of a clear sky, some of you will have another chance to see it in the near future, because unlike solar eclipses lunar eclipses happen regularly. Wikipedia says it happens at the least, 2 times per year. Here is a link also to what it looks like:
Red moon during the eclipse

For those of you in the US who weren't able to witness it, you will have a better chance on August 28th according to NASA.

Cellphones of yesterday and today: my own experience

My first cellphone ever was a Nokia 2110i which connects to GSM 900 networks. Back in those days, all you could do with a prepaid subscription was call landline and other cellphones. My operator of choice at the time, Telia, initially didn't allow sending SMS - only receiving them. For that to work with Telia you had to sign up for a bill-based subscription paid monthly. Of course, you also had to be 18 years old or above that age. Things were very different back then from how things are now. The most significant difference is that the average Joe did not see the need to own and carry a cellphone with them everywhere they went.

History
Since I belonged to the early adopters, from time to time I always heard from people when they saw I possessed a cellphone, "why do carry one of those? what's the need anyway?". It was as strange for them as carrying a tool with you such as a hammer for no obvious reason. For me it was all about learning the technology and getting used to the features, menu systems and things like that. I kept up to date with which models Nokia and Ericsson had in stock for both standard consumers and business users. As months went on, I noticed around me how other people more and more were getting exposed to cellphones and considering to get one of their own. Numbers of subscribers grew and so did the coverage with GSM 900 cell towers around the country. Call rates were high up in the sky but it didn't scare off regular people to call from their cellphone. The convenience and status it meant to own a cellphone made up for the expensive bills it seemed.

2001 - the year we made contact from cellphones
As I remember it myself, 2001 was the year when people in Sweden and Finland had accepted the fact that cellphones were simply part of our everyday lives from now on. There was this documentary on television that confirmed this as well. They claimed that the success in Finland came from the fact that they are seen as shy people, so a phone call was more comfortable than meeting someone in person. I do not know to this day if that was the reason for the success over there, but here in Sweden I have a theory about how the idea of having a personal phone with you everywhere was an advantage not because it meant fewer person-to-person meetings, but rather an advantage in the sense you could be reached even if the household landline phone was busy. Also, being able to call someone directly in a more private manner rather than calling the family household phone and asking the person answering the phone, "may I talk to ?".

2004 - The price wars
After the market penetration got high, startup carriers/operators wanted to take part of the potential profits out there, steal some market share from the leading companies. How do you steal customers from a competitor? The most common method is to compete in price, so they did! For me, the most fascinating thing was not that the prices fell lower and lower, but that they fell lower and lower for so long! When you thought they had hit the bottom low, another competitor set it even lower. This kept on for TWO YEARS in a row, as far as I can tell! Not until 2006, last year, did I see the market stabilize around the prices.

What happens next?
In a market where there are enough competitors already and hard to squeeze prices (as profits is a sensitive thing), the only way to compete with better prices is to offer something new. The first serious attempt I have seen in this area is X-series™ from Three, which is an operator that operates services over 3G and HSPA (3.5G) networks. Even though they target mobile internet customers, the bundle includes Skype calls, too. This means you can initiate and receive calls for a very attractive price. You can expect more telecom companies to start offering either same or similar services in the future, if they see a need to get a piece of the market there.


I follow the telecom market closely every week. If you're interested in updates on the industry as it is today, you can always go to places such as Google News and search for HSDPA. For an insight of the progress of 3G networks, I suggest searching for HSUPA instead, as that will be the missing piece of HSPA in 3G technology.

Which digital TV solution did you choose?

As digital tv adoption keeps growing for every year and quarter, the question popping up is:
Which one did you choose and what is your experience from using it so far?

Technical standards (and the lack thereof)
There are currently three ways to receive digital television by the means of common standards: Terrestrial, Cable and Satellite. Here in Europe they have technology definitions for each one of them: Terrestrial is dubbed as DVB-T, digital cable uses DVB-C and finally Satellite which uses DVB-S. Apart from this you can also receive it through what is called IPTV (nicknamed 'Broadband TV' sometimes, for consumer clarity).

IPTV aka Broadband TV - Why no standards yet?
I don't consider the fourth alternative (IPTV) even close to being mature yet, though, because of the inconsistency broadband internet suffers from. Today you cannot compare ADSL2+, fiberoptics and cable internet with each other in terms of IPTV experience since the technologies and flexibilities differ from each other.
So, when someone wants to sell you IPTV, there may be a disappointment if you choose to subscribe and expect a certain quality .. and then you don't get the quality you anticipated.

What will it mean to the future of IPTV if the consumers get different experiences from it depending on what broadband connection they have got, AND they do not understand why their experience is bad when someone living in another part of the city sitting on another connection type is more than pleased over the excellency? Just as "broadband internet" means that the bandwidth (frequency) is broad and not autonomously "ADSL2+ connection", IPTV or Broadband TV shouldn't immediately translate to one way of receiving TV over fastlane internet infrastructure. In my view, on contrary, IPTV should get a set of standards itself to allow consumers to tell a distinct difference between the offerings.

Let's examplify this ...

IPTV over ADSL2+ could be dubbed "Copperlane TV"
IPTV over cable could define itself "IP over cable"
IPTV over fiberoptics could have it's name be "Neighbourhood super-highway TV"

Now follows a translation to consumer language (expected to show up in advertisement):

IPTV with ADSL2+
IPTV Light

IPTV with Cable
IPTV Cable

IPTV with Fiberoptics
IPTV Wideband


Feedback, please! :)

Installation of OTA Freeview digital TV

So .. yesterday the unexpected happened: I was able to plug my set-top box for digital television reception, right into the wall plug where you normally connect to analog cable. Instead of connecting up the analog TV to analog cable, I did this:

------- represents coaxial cable
===== represents European SCART cable

[analog cable wall plug] ------- [digital TV set-top box] ===== [Television set]

The very simple accomplishment of mine allowed me to instantly access terrestrial free-to-air digital television channels. Because of the fact that cable companies normally block access to their terrestrial antennas, I had not expected this to work. However, since I had been informed by this cable provider that they do offer this digital tv option I just had to give it a serious try. It just worked, much the same way I am used to Apple products just working right out of the box. Now I'm just pondering about when the right time will be to purchase a prepaid subscription to the full channel plan.

As it turned out I not only need the prepaid subscription but also either an investment in a so called "CI module" or a complete set-top box with built-in support for terrestrial non-free reception.
The latter seems to be a much better choice because of the small difference in price between the two options:

* Buy set-top box that out of the box provides built-in support for commercial content
* Buy extension card to my current digital set-top box (CI module for DVB-T)

Price for choice 1, a new set-top box purchase bundled with prepaid subscription: 1695 SEK
Price* for choice 2, an extension card: approx. 525 SEK


*= Obligatory prepaid subscription plan (starter kit): 795 SEK + the extension card á 525 SEK equals about 1320 SEK in total.
Not much different from 1695 SEK is it ..?



All in all, I believe the complete package with set-top box, CI module integration and prepaid subscription is worth the extra hundreds. Why? Because it's a complete package ready to plug in and run! Simplicity wins me over, just as MacOS X did for me.

Received a mobile dishwasher

People I know are renovating their kitchen. Among things, there's a new dishwasher being installed and the previous installed dishwasher was today considered obsolete. Kindly enough, the obsolete dishwasher was given to me for free as they have no need for it any longer and wanted to get rid of it somewhere - they thought I would be able to make good use for it as soon as I find a vacant apartment to move into.

Now all I need is that vacant apartment, of course! As if that would happen anytime soon in this town ...

How finance affects the mood

It may not come as a surprise that money is key in modern society, but depending on who you are it affects you differently on the emotional level. It is not so much the money itself that controls one person's mood but the anxiety vs cheerful mood that you won't vs will be able to pay upcoming bills. I mean, at least for me it is much easier to be happy about life if the financial part is currently working out and I know the near future will prosper financially as well.

This is why I think it's so important to have a longterm job settled for you: not for the income itself, because money is not everything. But rather because money is one of those critical things you need to have, and if you know for certain that money will keep stumbling in for months to come, you don't need to worry about your bills, food purchase plans, leisure activities including misc purchases. Of course, there are other ways to gain income than having a job. I for one know this very well because I haven't had a job for more than 3 years - my current income comes from the study loan I have.

However, I have been searching for jobs lately since I am hoping to get an employment somewhere, as soon as possible. Even though I have an opportunity to continue study for years to come, my biggest wish right now is to get job experience (including a better income). It's a huge problem in Sweden today, to get just *any* job at all - no matter what grades from school you have. Obviously I can only speak for the city I live in and the northern part of the country in general, but I'm sure more cities in Sweden have job opportunity issues too. It's a shame really, when there are a big bunch of people who desperately want a job and they are ambitious about it, while the corporations who previously offered jobs nowadays tell you that they currently have no room for more employees. It is as if, either it is:

1) Lack of balance in the economy (growing pool of unemployed vs much less-growing demand)
2) Too few companies established - we need more so more people can get employed
3) Political issue with taxes and regulation - scares away the corporations from establishment

I am optimistic about the future of job opportunities, but I don't count on finding a job this year. Maybe in 2008, who knows! Still trying, though! :-)

Temperature dropped to -18˚C

This is the coldest month of the year, it always is. At least for us who live here up north. I saw weather statistics scroll by on the TV earlier today and noticed how one city clearly is not even close to being part of the "winter cold" climate I'm used to. The numbers showed an astounding +1˚C in Malmö (Malmo, located deep down in the southern parts of the country).
Obviously living in the northern hemisphere has got its disadvantages for people like me who prefer a milder climate, but on the other hand we have not had problems with heavy storms. That is something Gothenburg experienced just a while ago, including other nearby communities on a wider scale.

I expect it to continue be cold for another three weeks, then we'll probably see temperatures leave the minus scale and hit zero, if not even more than zero. Maybe I'll post a blog entry when the time comes to see how my prediction turned out!