You would be surprised how little bandwidth it takes. TV quality video is not that big, less than 640x480. Telephone quality voice, uncompressed fits easily within 56kbps and can be acceptably compressed down to 12kbps and less. Using a hardware compression on both ends, you can fit a movie and a phone call in 56kbps. It is a tight squeeze but it works, open it up to 128kbps and there is no problem at all. The customer would need to decide if that movie is worth slower surfing times :-)
As for a video server, I have already been playing with this. So far I have just been experimenting with bandwidth needs and have not looked for anything that offers the features required for distribution needs of a WISP. Here is some good news for everyone: YOU CAN RENT ANY MOVIE YOU OWN EVEN IF YOU GOT IT AT WALLMART!!! The trick is you can only allow one viewing party per video actually in your possession. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Colin Watson Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2003 11:12 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [smartBridges] Love to hate Comcast Video on Demand would be a really cool feature to add. Tho it would require 99.9999% uptime on the clients wireless link - and about 5Mbit/s of guarenteed bandwidth to the client (a/g CPE need probablly?). I've found (personally) that customers will accomodate *some* outages, but wouldn't if they were paying for a streaming movie, or getting phone services etc. Can imagine the whole family gathered round to watch some awful romantic comedy with Jennifer Lopez, then the frames freeze because the links decided to kick it's little feet in the air at the critical moment....actually - for a Jennifer Lopez movie that might be quite a mercy ;) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Haynes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2003 8:10 AM Subject: **SPAM** RE: [smartBridges] Love to hate Comcast > Some cable companies already offer video on demand (streaming video - > different name). I have been looking in to offering voice, video and data on > the same wireless connection. There are possibilities. Since my > infrastructure is still relatively small, I am planning on increasing my > backhaul bandwidth to accommodate this possibility. The only thing most of > my service area has is TV from an antenna or sat and dial-up phone service. > I know I could make a killing offering all three services!!! > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > On Behalf Of Rick Kosick > Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2003 5:49 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [smartBridges] Love to hate Comcast > > Just to add one thing Colin: > > In my opinion the big picture is that connections are going to the big > boys. Soon they will be selling unlimited phone service and will likely > bundle it all on one bill, nice and neat. In fact, Comcast is doing this > now. (go to www.comcast.com, click Products, then Digital Phone. > > I never realized until recently how powerful it is to have this > connection to the home and business. Think about what the cable company can > do with it: > > 1) TV service, what they do now > 2) Internet service, doing this now > 3) Unlimited calling plans, doing this now > 4) Streaming video, coming soon > 5) Video phone > 6) etc ?? > > The amount of money that can be generated from that one cable is > amazing. I didn't quite get why they would pay so much to deploy fiber to > the neighborhoods but now I do. Hell, if they could sell you electricity and > water through that wire, they would. > > Comcast made a statement in the paper to the effect of: "we signed up > so many residential customers for Internet service that now its time to get > down to business". Man, in my area they are on fire to get these businesses > up and running. When they do, they'll get the on Internet and phone service > and kick ass. What chance do we have? > > I am the king of optimism and have always been... but I am not stupid > nor blind. > > Just my opinion. > > The PART-15.ORG smartBridges Discussion List > To Join: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (in the body type subscribe > smartBridges <yournickname> > To Remove: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (in the body type unsubscribe > smartBridges) > Archives: http://archives.part-15.org > > The PART-15.ORG smartBridges Discussion List > To Join: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (in the body type subscribe smartBridges <yournickname> > To Remove: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (in the body type unsubscribe smartBridges) > Archives: http://archives.part-15.org > > The PART-15.ORG smartBridges Discussion List To Join: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (in the body type subscribe smartBridges <yournickname> To Remove: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (in the body type unsubscribe smartBridges) Archives: http://archives.part-15.org The PART-15.ORG smartBridges Discussion List To Join: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (in the body type subscribe smartBridges <yournickname> To Remove: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (in the body type unsubscribe smartBridges) Archives: http://archives.part-15.org
