Keeping your service running
The majority of scheduled maintenance (routinely scheduled maintenance that ensures the service is working correctly on a regular basis) work is performed between 1am and 5am local time. This timeframe is used because it impacts the least amount of customers that have WOW! service. Preventive maintenanace (routine repair and replacement of parts) work is also performed at night Monday through Thursday. This time is used due to the low usage of Internet and Voice. Video has low usage during these hours but our VideoOnDemand product tends to have a higher usage. Because of this, we schedule maintenance for VideoOnDemand at 5am local time. Whenever maintenance is performed that will affect a large group of customers or a community for more the 15 minutes, we will deliver bulletins to the affected WOW! customers via computers within 48 hours of the scheduled work. We will also post this information on the Network Status page of the WOW! Customer Home Page. Just log in at: http://portal.wowway.net/
Equipment Life Cycles
I just had a conversation with my colleague Gary Nilsen who had flown down from Chicago to supervise change out of the VOD system in Evansville. Gary supervises our technical video infrastructure for the entire company in a Vice President level capacity, and has personally engineered most of the video infrastructure presently in use within WOW! He was shaking his head, and knowing my friend as I do, I knew he wasn’t having a good day.
The change out of the VOD system was scheduled tonight (03/22/10) within the maintenance window–a major project involving a number of his team and a number of vendors as well. After all was set up, one of the vendors called with a potentially show-stopping issue that they had discovered. This happened after months of planning and making sure that all the details were worked out.
What necessitates an equipment change out? In this case, our current Evansville VOD system is not malfunctioning or unable to deliver product. It is, however, not a consistent customer interface with our other markets, and this factor alone was deemed important enough to spend a substantial 6 figure sum to ensure a better customer experience with VOD.
In fact, usually it is the customer experience that drives technology change. Most of our carrier class equipment is quite reliable–it has to be to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our telephony switches for example have redundant systems to ensure availability of voice services at a 99.999% uptime. Even when equipment must be changed out, redundant systems handle call processing and completion while primary systems are updated or repaired. What that means is that a customer should never experience a call failure unless there is a plant issue (tree falling on line, semi truck hitting utility pole, squirrels chewing through a fiber optic cable–all of these things actually happen more often than you’d think!)
So while there are occasions that true obsolescence or malfunction dictates new technology engineering and installation, it is usually driven by the team’s desire to build a better experience for the customer. This is consistent with our basic philosophy at WOW! and how we feel about the importance of the customer experience. We hope that you sense those “behind the scenes” efforts by a dedicated engineering team.
Until next time….
Considerations for IP Video
Over the last couple of years we have seen a shift in how some users view video. Today, “on demand” video is available from many sources–cable based VOD and prerecorded DVR content, as well as several newer sources. Hulu®, YouTube®, Netflix® as well as many network providers allow streaming of popular programs over the internet as an alternative to watching a linear broadcast.
At WOW! this phenomenon has caused us to rethink how we provide video to our valued customers. It appears many viewers, particularly the younger generation, will shift from linear viewing habits to an on demand model. Fewer people will schedule themselves to be available when a program first airs, and instead will watch programs at their convenience .
To respond to this new paradigm, our company plans to make more programming available on demand. To facilitate this model we need to reduce the amount of bandwidth on our network used by linear broadcast services. For example if nobody is viewing a particular program can we shut it off and use that bandwidth for other services? Would anyone even notice? It’s like the old saying “if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around does it make a sound?” Or does the fridge light stay on after you close the door? Who cares as long as it’s on when I open it, right? Research indicates that 80% of viewers are watching 20% of available linear content. By offering more programming in an on demand environment we can increase the efficiency of our network and offer additional services.
Specifically, by utilizing IP based mpeg 4 streams that are only invoked by demand rather than the conventional linear mpeg 2 streams that are “nailed up”, video can be sent only when and where it is requested. All this happens in an environment that is transparent to the user who just knows the “light is on when the fridge is open”, so to speak. The customer experience remains the same high quality digital picture and sound to which one is accustomed with WOW!
As stated previously, internet video providers are getting better every day and are increasing in popularity, but it is difficult for them to produce a high quality picture to your television screen. Our customer research shows that most users today still want their video services provided on their television, not on a PC in their office. We expect to be able to integrate web based and network based services together, allowing our customers to get what content they want when they want it from a variety of sources, all with the crystal clear picture and sound you have come to expect from us as your video provider. More on this to come—Stay tuned!
Apple’s iPad–Yet Another Mobile Device
“Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it.” –The Wall Street Journal (a reference to Apple’s recently introduced iPad)
An interesting statement. I’m not sure how Moses would feel about it.
It is clear though that the Apple development and marketing teams have come up with a product that will increase the mobile options of those willing to ante up for the price of entry. IMHO, probably not a revolutionary product in the same way that the iPod was at the time it was introduced, but many would argue that, from an evolutionary standpoint, Apple’s iPad will likely be another product hit for the company.
America and the Western World generally is in love with mobility. Ever since the first portable transistor radio, Americans have sought for electronics that have afforded them freedom of movement–the iPad is the latest in a string of products that allow people access to “content and contentment” on the fly.
The WOW! technology team is keenly aware of this consumer trend. We currently offer products to enhance our customers’ experience with mobility, and there are a number of initiatives in various stages of investigation, evaluation, development and deployment:
1) 802.11n networking for the home–One call to WOW! and our team will set your home up with wireless “wi-fi” service to the internet to allow mobile computing within your home. This is available now for a very modest cost for your premise equipment, and WOW! maintains the network as part of your regular service.
2) “Fixed Mobile Convergence”–New voice technologies allow your land line to be “portable”–that is, ring to your desk, to your mobile phone, to your computer, even to your iPod touch. First device to answer gets the call–all with famous WOW! quality and reliability, and no “per minute” charges to count during the month! These technologies are currently in our development lab, and are working in a number of commercial beta deployments. More on this to come shortly in this column.
3) VOD–While WOW! currently maintains a fine video on demand platform, ways are constantly being evaluated so as to improve that experience in a number of ways, including portability. As technologies and products evolve in this space, WOW! expects to offer flexible and cost effective product to our customers as demand for video portability increases.
More to come–Stay tuned!
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