NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. – Each year the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance honours their member and supplier of the year during their annual conference and in 2009, the winners are Mascon Cable, and Fox Cable Networks.
Mascon has been serving British Columbia’s Shuswap and Thompson Okanagan regions for 25 years and company leaders like Darren Muloin and Craig Mackay have been very active within the Alliance. CCSA president and CEO Alyson Townsend called Mascon “a pragmatic and enthusiastic voice for small systems.”
The supplier of the year is represented in Canada by a man whom just about everyone in the industry calls a…
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TORONTO – Canada may not be the “ideal” mobile nation, but we’ve come a long way in the last two years, technology consultant and blogger Tom Purves told mobile developers at the FITC Mobile conference in Toronto.
The mobile industry in Canada has seen “something like progress” since 2007 he said, and while mobile penetration and affordability are still low, Purves said the availability of “leading” devices and network speed have helped to increase Canada’s international profile.
“In April 2007, Canada had some of the worst data rates in the world”, Purves said in his standing-room only presentation. “And it…
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NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. – While the future of high speed data for cable operators is DOCSIS 3.0 and whatever comes after that, it may not yet be necessary to dive into that cost and upgrade for most CCSA members.
Thanks to an ever-increasing array of new bandwidth-hungry applications (to say nothing of the oldest, biggest, app, analog television), all network operators are finding network management a challenge.
So this morning, Chris Lammers, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Cable Television Laboratories, the cable industry’s R&D consortium, told delegates at Connect 2009, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual conference, a bit about…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Despite the fact the CRTC is set to take a new look at fee-for-carriage for local broadcasters in a hearing this November, Minister of Heritage James Moore today announced that the Government of Canada issued an Order-in-Council requesting the Commission “hold hearings and provide the government with a report on the implications of implementing a compensation regime for the value of local television signals, more commonly known as fee-for-carriage.”
The CRTC, says the government’s release “is to consider the views of the general public regarding the impact of such a measure. By making this request of the CRTC,…
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FOUNDED IN 1999, THE SHERIDAN Visualization Design Institute was – and is – a pioneer in understanding the concept of "visualization". That is, essentially deploying technology to create simulations of that we cannot see or fully imagine.
Launched with funding support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, VDI is dedicated to innovation in the field of computer visualization, and specializes in developing high-quality, interactive digital media applications for education, training, and entertainment. Situated within Sheridan’s renowned high-tech animation teaching environment, the institute’s team of researchers, artists, and technologists has a successful ten-year track record of diverse projects produced in collaboration…
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TORONTO – Astral Media Radio staged a live webcast on Wednesday afternoon to guide its advertisers and agencies through the first portable people meter (PPM) radio data from the Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton markets.
The first commercial release of this PPM data will be on December 10, 2009, which is also when the industry will begin buying and selling using PPM data as its new measurement currency in these markets.
The PPM is a pager-sized device that respondents carry with them to pick up inaudible, encoded signals buried within each radio station’s broadcast. That data is then uploaded to BBM each day…
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GUESS WHAT? Canadians don’t want to pay any extra per month for their television. They also don’t want to lose their local TV stations.
Independent producers think that broadcasters should have to buy lots of shows made by them and those broadcasters would prefer to use those producers a little less, so that they can make (and sell) some of their own dramas.
The creative side of the industry is afraid of the word “flexible” when it comes to the broadcasters’ requests for changes to their Cancon requirements because flexible might mean less Canadian drama and comedies altogether, fewer hours in…
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TORONTO – Canadian wireless operators will likely see a three percent decline in their service ARPU for 2009, with data accounting for 20% of wireless service revenue – and all of the growth, says a new report from Toronto’s Convergence Consulting.
Over the last year Canadian wireless voice revenue growth has moved into negative territory, while data growth continues to be robust, thanks to the growing adoption of smartphones/data devices, which the report estimates will reach 23% by year-end 2009 (and break 50% in 2014).
Based on what Convergence projects in terms of new entrants pricing (Wind, Dave, Public Mobile), and…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL – The sale of Look Communications’ spectrum and broadcast licence to Inukshuk Wireless Partnership has cleared its final hurdle after receiving approval from Industry Canada Friday.
Inukshuk, a joint venture between Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, agreed to pay $80 million in cash for Look’s 92 MHz of spectrum and its mobile broadcast license in May.
In keeping with the agreement, Inukshuk has asked Look to support its application to the CRTC for the grant of a licence under the Broadcasting Act.
Look said that it will no longer offer services to subscribers as of November 15, 2009. It…
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TORONTO – The latest regulatory skirmish between an incumbent wireless operator and the new kids with the spectrum is “about fat cats looking to get fatter,” according to Public Mobile’s CEO Alek Krstajic.
In an e-mail to Cartt.ca, the former Rogers and Bell executive lashed out at Rogers Communications request for a review into the ownership of both Public and DAVE Wireless.
Rogers said in a letter to the Regulator that the ownership of both companies may not be sufficiently Canadian, as our regulations require, and that the Commission should analyze them in a public hearing, as Cartt.ca reported first…
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