CALGARY – This year’s WABE predicted change. Entitled “The Convergence of Change 2005,” the three-day convention took on many television, radio and IT topics in the hopes of “bringing things together”. From “The Impact of Networking on Broadcast Technology and how the dinosaurs are dying” to “The Future to Technology”, the topics are large and exciting.
Here is a snapshot of this year’s Western Association of Broadcast Engineers conference, held at the Telus Convention Centre in Calgary.
There’s no stopping it. The HD convoy is rolling through. The message: Be ready.
Phil Keeling of consultants Cocos and Keeling Inc….
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MONTREAL – In a high-level executive move not often seen in the Canadian telecom industry, George Cope has jumped from president and CEO of Telus Mobility to president and COO of Bell Canada, it was announced Wednesday.
However, both companies were basically mum about the non-competition agreement Cope surely has with Telus Mobility and how it will affect his new job, which he’s scheduled to begin in January. Executives in such senior positions normally are bound by contracts which do not allow them to go to a direct competitor for a long period of time – much longer than…
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CALGARY – Each year the Western Association of Broadcast Engineers (WABE) holds its annual convention highlighting the best of radio and television technologies – and provides a venue for engineers to share information and their experiences.
This year’s begins this Sunday, October 23rd at the Telus Calgary Convention Centre. Technical papers and awards generally draw up to 500 attendees.
Each year the WABE also recognizes engineers for their personal efforts to improve the standards and technologies of broadcast engineering.
First organized in 1950, the WABE has now a long tradition of promoting broadcast engineering and has advanced technology through…
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OTTAWA – Personalized media will take centre stage at next month’s Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual convention in Winnipeg, November 6 to 8.
This year’s plenary sessions examine the industry’s “big picture” issues, including the prospects for regulation in a broadband universe, and the future of advertising in a digital environment.
The concurrent sessions tackle such hot-button issues as the impact of new personal media devices; the prospects for Canadian HDTV; the new marketing imperative for broadcasters; the upcoming CRTC review of the Canadian radio industry; and the future of news.
On Tuesday November 8th, the ever-popular closing plenary…
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OTTAWA – Not every intervention filed with the CRTC over the four new pay TV license applicants were negative. Many were overwhelmingly supportive.
As reported previously, four groups are vying for new must-carry pay TV licenses from the Commission and will face a hearing on October 24th.
The applicants are: Spotlight TV, a bid led by former Alliance Atlantis executive George Burger (backed by Insight Media and now Bell ExpressVu); One from Allarco (backed by the Allard family, the former owners of WIC Broadcasting); another from a division of Quebecor Media for BOOM TV, and a unique…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian cultural and broadcasting communities say that the new wireless video services now in the market from Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility and Telus are certainly a form of broadcasting and as such, should be subject to regulation under the Broadcasting Act.
Phase I and II comments were filed recently with the CRTC by all parties and while the wireless providers insist that the service falls under the CRTC’s 1999 New Media Exemption Order, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, its members, and cultural groups like SOCAN, CIRPA and even the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union all say…
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TORONTO – Canadian cable companies can look forward to adding millions of voice customers says a report out today from Convergence Consulting Group.
According to the company’s oft-cited and comprehensive Battle for the North American Couch Potato: Bundling, Internet, TV, Telephone report, by year-end 2007 Canadian cable companies will have 16% of residential telephone subscribers (or 2.1 million – of which 70% will be VOIP). By the end of 2009, MSOs will have 27% (3.8 million). This is up from the end of this year, where the report says cable will have 6.5% or the telco market, or 850,000…
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VANCOUVER – The B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU) is stepping up its support for locked-out members of the Telecommunications Workers’ Union (TWU) by urging its members who are Telus customers to switch internet providers.
“This is a warning to Telus that this lockout is more than just an attack on TWU members. It’s an attack on all working people,” said George Heyman, BCGEU president, in a release. “We are mobilizing our 57,000 members to send a strong message to Telus: get back to the bargaining table and negotiate fairly with your employees or you will risk your…
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CHICAGO – Canadian VOIP provider babyTEL is expanding into the United States market to offer regional cable companies, Internet service providers, network integrators and others its VoIP services and products, the company announced this week.
“It is still early, but clearly the beginning of mass adoption of VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) services by consumers and business is here,” said Stephen Dorsey, babyTEL president and CEO. “Regional cable companies and ISPs must offer their customers VOIP or risk losing them to others who will.
“As a ‘provider of providers’, babyTEL has built a robust VOIP network that has already…
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THE CABLE INDUSTRY MIGHT not like reading this, heading into the local forbearance hearings next week, but residential phone choice seems pretty real to me.
If there was any doubt about it, my local newspaper, The Hamilton Spectator, delivered ample evidence last Wednesday. In the mess of inserts I curse about that usually flutter out of the thing, three glossy direct marketing pieces caught my eye: One from Primus; another from Rogers; and the third from Direct Energy.
Primus was a pure low-cost sell. “Get TalkBroadband and save big on your home phone service,” it said, beside a garish…
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