There was plenty of news concerning television and cable networks at CES this year, as there was a clear new emphasis on content and programming. But outside of the cable arena, there were several other trends that revealed themselves in consumer electronics. From a new focus on “green” technologies, to the electronic crusade to the car, to what may finally be the end of the war between Blu-Ray and HD DVD, CES 2008 will be one that may be remembered for influencing the electronics industry for years to come.

... a tradeshow booth with a Dish!

Panasonic isn't the only company showing off its new tru2way-capable products; a quick trip around the show floor at CES along with a little bit of searching revealed many new components that are very close to hitting store shelves.

LG and Samsung each had a couple of televisions on display, all in the 40-57" range, much like Panasonic's offerings. Finding them proved to be a bit of a challenge, however, as none of the associates in the booths seemed to know anything about tru2way or OCAP. This is not completely unexepected at a show prone to 11th-hour announcements of emerging technologies.

The TV Guide booth had a display of its j-Guide, a rich java-based display that conforms to the OCAP standard. TV Guide also seems in need of the memo, as all of their signage still referred to Open Cable, rather than the rebranded tru2way.

On hand at Microsoft was a CableCard equipped device that interfaces with Media Center PCs. No tru2way capability was on-hand, but the associates were aware of the recent announcement and said products were currently in development.

by Tony Brown, a junior at the University of Missouri

Brian Roberts, CEO and President of Comcast, took the stage yesterday in the first keynote address to the assembly from a cable company chief in the entire 41-year history of the CES. Riding on the coattails of Monday's keynote by Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto in which the Roberts made a cameo to announce new tru2way devices, Roberts' Tuesday speech highlighted Comcast’s plans for implementation of DOCSIS 3.0 and delivery of more HD content.

"The age of the closed, proprietary set-top box is behind us," said Roberts, who, like others, says open source development must be a priority for the electronics industry. The new tru2way technology will allow consumers to go to a retail store, purchase a new component such as a DVR or set-top, bring it home and plug it in, "and expect it to support all cable interactive services," Roberts said. He reminded the audience that the cable industry learned a great deal about how open-source stimulates innovation and consumer adoption with the development of the cable modem, based on the old DOCSIS standards.

Yesterday morning's CES keynote with Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto brought big news to the world of cable with the announcement of Panasonic's new line of HDTVs and set-top boxes integrating tru2way technology. Joined onstage by Comcast's CEO, Brian Roberts, Sakamoto said, "Panasonic will not only deliver a Panasonic Viera Plasma HDTV with tru2way technology later this year, we are also announcing the first portable DVR and digital cable set-top boxes powered by tru2way technology, all of which truly allow consumers to maximize their enjoyment of digital cable television programming.”

The Viera televisions equipped with tru2way will eliminate the need for a set-top box and will eliminate clutter and confusion that stems from multiple components. The Viera Plasma HDTV is expected to be available at retail later this year.

Also announced was a portable DVR which will allow users to record programs at home and then watch them later, acting like a portable DVD player. The tru2way device has a fold-up 8.5" screen and speakers, and docks with a set-top box. Named the AnyPlay, it is expected in Comcast markets in early 2009.

I personally like the idea of the portable DVR, though I doubt people will choose a large portable DVD player-type device over the smaller pocket-sized digital media players they most likely already own. However, it's not hard to imagine the technology spurring a new movement in bridging the gap between those smaller media players and the home DVR.

by Tony Brown, a junior at the University of Missouri

Talk of open development was a hot topic today, with everyone from Jerry Yang of Yahoo! and Rob Stoddard of NCTA to the editors of CNET calling open source development and new industry standards the keys to creating more useful and marketable consumer electronics.

Yang’s keynote address highlighted the release of Yahoo! Go 3.0, the site’s software offering for mobile phones. In it, he explained that leaving Yahoo! Go open sourced was imperative to the continued development of the software. “Having the ability for third party software to interact with Yahoo! Go makes it easier for users to receive relevant content,” Yang said.

Yahoo! Go offers widgets to perform many different tasks, including eBay, MySpace, and MTV News integration. The hope is that software developers and other websites will develop software to work with Yahoo! Go and ultimately make the Internet more efficient and useful to consumers on mobile phones.

In a CNET-hosted panel titled “The Next Big Thing in CE,” Stoddard, along with George Kliavkoff of NBCU agreed that open-sourcing and creation of (and conforming to) industry standards would allow consumers to integrate different technology components with ease. In a discussion about the future of content delivery, both agreed that portable devices must be able to connect to televisions, computers, and DVR set-tops and share content without limitation. One of the major current limitations of programming that is available online is that it is unable to be transferred to mobile devices, they said.

by Tony Brown, a junior at the University of Missouri

I knew I should have paid more attention in typing class. It seems like I’m always getting "fat fingers" and typing the wrong thing in the Internet Explorer address bar. www.cox.com usually ends up www.cox.con and so on. The good thing is that my Internet service catches these mistakes and sends me in the right direction.

Cox calls this Enhanced Error Results – but not everyone likes it. Some argue that it interferes with their Internet experience. Here’s how it works: when you type in a misspelled Web address or simply a keyword in your browser bar, the network attempts to find what you’re looking for online, but if the information you typed is not resolveable to a valid URL, you see a results page with choices. More often than not, the Web site you were looking for is right there, just a click away. This option is presented along with results from sponsors who pay to have their links provided alongside the search results. This is really no different than seeing sponsor ads when you Google “new movie releases.”

Because not everyone likes this service, Cox makes it easy for you to opt out – even providing step-by-step instructions online. Personally, I’m keeping it – it keeps my fat fingers from interfering with my Internet experience.

We couldn’t be prouder of our leader, Pat Esser, who is named as the first Executive of the Year by Multichannel News in this week’s issue. The caption on the caricature of Pat says it best, “Recognized for outstanding leadership and corporate management, the Executive of the Year demonstrates that success in the marketplace is achieved by putting customer satisfaction front and center and that by focusing on customer service, a company also serves its employees, investors and the overall industry.”

Pat is prone to describing himself as one of the luckiest guys in cable, but we all know that the “luck” is the sum of opportunity and preparation. While Pat entered the industry as an average communications graduate from the University of Northern Iowa, he has consistently positioned himself to meet opportunity (like when he packed up all of his belongings into the back of his car to try and get a job with Cox in Virginia). His preparedness is second to none. As detailed in the story, Pat spent his first 60 days as president interviewing Cox employees to talk about what they expected of him and the company. Pat understands that listening is an essential ingredient in leading.

Perhaps the best thing about Pat is that, at work, he’s just another member of the team with a contagious excitement for the possibilities ahead.

Have you been to a Wal-Mart lately? If so, Wal-Mart’s latest in-store adventure, “Connection Centers,” might have caught your eye. It’s a consumer-electronics experience, backed by specially trained Wal-Mart employees who are there to sell popular home electronics products like high-definition television, telephone and broadband Internet services. And there we are, Cox, inside the nation’s largest retailer, showcasing our bundle of Internet, video and phone services and making it even easier for consumers to connect their new high definition televisions, personal computers and more to Cox services. And with more than 140 million consumers nationwide visiting a Wal-Mart store every week, this translates to LOTS of HDTV’s being sold. So, yes we are elated to have our services located in the same spot that consumers make their electronics purchase. Talk about convenience. Now, Wal-Mart shoppers can go home complete: A new HDTV, an extra surge protector from aisle #7 and a bundle of Cox services to enhance their home communications experience (and save some money too). It’s the Wal-Martization of Cable and it’s long overdue!

Cable often gets a bad rap for customer service, but recently Arizona State University’s business school recognized Cox’s customer service achievements. Over a decade ago, as Cox transitioned from a cable company to a multi-service telecommunications provider, it became clear that the best way for us to compete was to make sure all aspects of our business focus on the customer first. Cox invested in training for customer service, and training remains a key priority for our company today. So while we all can get a laugh out of the hijinks in the 1996 movie The Cable Guy, we work hard everyday to make sure that plot line remains only a work of fiction for our customers. To read more about Arizona State’s write-up on Cox’s customer service, click here.

Cable companies rank highest in telephone customer satisfaction in all six U.S. regions, according to J.D. Power and Associates’ latest study. Cable completely beat out the traditional telcos for the first time. Cox Communications is again tops in three of six regions, while Bright House, Cablevision and WOW! each top a region. Verizon, AT&T and Qwest were shut out at the top of all regions.

The study measures telephone customers’ satisfaction with their local and long distance providers in six major areas: performance and reliability, customer service, billing , image, cost of service, and offerings and promotions. The findings underscore the critical importance of bundling for service providers.

While I’m not technically a cable employee, I write about the industry here on DST. And, for some people, that seems to grant full license to give me an earful about their cable experiences.

A few weeks ago, I was in the middle of an interview for a local moving company when the manager, looking over my previous employment, asked about my arrangement with DST. After a quick explanation he sat back and said, “I hate my cable. It’s terrible.”

Okay, this one may scream self-promotion, but we simply couldn’t ignore an article in the current BusinessWeek, “A Cable Company People Don't Hate – How Cox is keeping customers happy and stealing business from the phone giants.” Yes, we cringe a bit at digs like the one in the headline, but, then again, we have to admit it’s a fair dig since Cable’s customer service record hasn’t always been sterling. But back to the present: the article addresses not only Cox Communications', but the industry’s, successful entry into the phone biz and our push into wireless. Here’s a snippet:

There's a ton of money to be made in phone service--about $60 billion of yearly revenue just on voice plans for U.S. consumers. And don't cable companies know it. For years they have been laying miles of new fiber-optic cable and doing everything they can to steal chunks of that business from the phone giants. So far they've managed to pull away about $4.6 billion in phone revenues, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

In the scramble for every customer, one cable outfit seems to have hit upon a formula that works: beating the phone companies at customer service. In recent surveys conducted by J.D. Power & Associates Inc., owned by Business Week parent The McGraw-Hill Companies, Atlanta-based Cox Communications outscores traditional phone providers such as AT&T, Verizon Communications, and Sprint Nextel. On a variety of metrics, from network performance and reliability to billing and cost, customers in several regions describe Cox as their preferred provider.

Techdirt has a post about the BusinessWeek article, here.