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Ezra Olman

Technical Writer

Service Provider Video Software & Solutions Group

Ezra Olman is a writer and editor in the Service Provider Video Software & Solutions group. He regularly blogs on trends in the broadcast industry. Ezra is fascinated by how technology is changing our TV viewing habits and how those changes ripple into how we process information. Trained as a journalist, he is always on the lookout for a good story. He also has an MA in Creative Writing, and enjoys writing fiction – though not when he’s blogging for Cisco!

 

 

 

Articles

September 10, 2014

SP360: SERVICE PROVIDER

Endpoint Management: The system that allows you to speak everyone’s language

Imagine standing in front of a crowd constituting a random cross-sample of the world population. You want to convey a single message that everyone can understand – but will your audience understand your language? Some might, but certainly not all. Some would pick up your message right away, others w…

September 10, 2014

SP360: SERVICE PROVIDER

Policy and Resource Management – The Traffic Police of Video Services

Operators like to provide their subscribers plenty of services. It’s how they win loyalty and differentiate themselves from the competition. They want to offer HD channels and Video on Demand (VOD), they want to optimize delivery by means of Switched Digital Video (SDV) and Adaptive Bitrate (ABR), a…

Addressable ads – getting them right the first (and second) time

A generation ago, part of the TV viewing experience was an unstated compact that in exchange for content, viewers would be subject to a certain amount of advertising. These ads may or may not have been relevant, but viewers nonetheless sat through them – what choice did they have? These days, servic…

Finally offer your viewers the packages they’ve wanted all along

To keep their viewers happy, video broadcasters find themselves increasingly eager to offer the best possible deal. Crafting offers that win business has not always been easy. Traditionally, offers have been tied to a single device, such as a set-top box, and limited to rudimentary models such as su…

Identity Management: It’s About You, Not Your STB.

In an age where we routinely view content on our STBs, laptops and handheld devices, service providers are revisiting a fundamental issue – how to define their subscriber base. For decades, subscribers have been associated with the STB sitting in their homes. But as subscribers watch content on an e…

February 17, 2014

SP360: SERVICE PROVIDER

The Low Rumble of the 4K Resolution Revolution

It hasn’t been all that long since HD-quality video gained widespread acceptance as an industry standard. Yet a new resolution standard is capturing the attention of the broadcast world. It’s known as 4K (or Ultra High Definition – UHD), and it offers viewers four times the picture resolution of sta…

January 21, 2014

SP360: SERVICE PROVIDER

AutoGuard: Keeping your Car Safe from Hacks

Like everything else in the forthcoming Internet of Everything era, cars, which today already rely heavily on digitized systems, are well on their way to connectivity with their surroundings. This is a welcome development. Already we have Bluetooth (radio to cellular) to help us speak hands-free whi…

January 15, 2014

SP360: SERVICE PROVIDER

Unmanaged Networks: Disruption or Complement to Pay TV?

For a long time, the Pay TV world had a reliable division of labor. It used to look something like this: Film and TV studios generated content. Aggregators purchased this content and packaged it in the form of linear TV channels. TV operators acquired channels and offered it to viewers by means of…

Cloud DVR: Reaching back in time for the shows you’ve missed

Some of us still remember, in the pre-DVR days, when missing an episode of your favorite show meant it was lost forever – unless you chanced upon it in reruns. Even when technology allowed us to book content for recording, whether by VCR or DVR, you had to plan beforehand what you intended to…