Mediaboss Marketing

By Jamie Lendino

Not feeling the cord-cutting craze? From live sports and 24-hour news to a vast array of premium channels, most Americans are staying with cable or satellite TV for now. The problem is, aside from the lack of la carte channel options, TV providers also make it exceptionally difficult to watch the programming you pay for from computers and mobile devices. Enter the venerable Slingbox, which since 2005 has made it easy to "place-shift" live TV and recorded DVR content, letting you watch it on any device over the Internet when you're away from home.

Now, after a four-year hiatus, Sling Media is back with the Slingbox 500 ($299.99 direct), its first consumer product since the Slingbox Pro-HD and the somewhat misguided SlingCatcher. With the 500, the Slingbox finally includes features many fans have been clamoring for, such as full 1080p streaming and Wi-Fi support. In an age of direct Internet streaming services, parts of the way the Slingbox 500 works are beginning to feel quite dated. But if you want to get the most out of your cable or satellite TV subscription, the Slingbox 500 remains a great way to stream live TV and recorded DVR content to any of your computers or mobile devices, at home or on the go.

Design, Connections, and SetupWith its twisted design, the Slingbox 500 looks kind of like an inspired piece of modern art. It's made entirely of matte black plastic with a textured finish that feels durable and scratch resistant.As a coworker commented, it's no longer flat on top, so people won't be putting stuff on top and watching their Slingboxes overheat, which used to happen with the older models.

In the package, you get lots of goodies. Aside from the Slingbox itself, there's a small remote control, an AC adapter, an HDMI cable, component and composite video cables, a pair of stereo RCA audio cables, an Ethernet cable, and a printed instruction manual.The HDMI port seems like an exciting addition at first, but thanks to encryption issues from the TV providers, it only passes through regular TV and basic cable channels like USA HD. To get around this problem, Sling Media recommends a simultaneous HDMI and component audio and video cable setup; I ended up testing with the component connection.

The Slingbox 500 also includes an internal IR blaster for controlling your cable-company-issued set-top box. This means you don't have to fiddle with the little plastic external one on a wire, as you did with older models. Sling Media says the blaster is strong enough to bounce off the walls and hit the sensor on the set-top box. If that doesn't work in your setup, the company still includes the old IR blaster on a wire in case you need it.

I tested the Slingbox 500 with a Dish Network Hopper DVR and a Samsung HDTV. From the back of the Dish Hopper, I ran both HDMI and the five component A/V cables from the output jacks to the inputs on the Slingbox 500. Then out from the Slingbox 500, I connected the existing HDMI cable (from the Dish Hopper) to the back of the TV. The Slingbox 500 took about two minutes to boot for the first time; it installed a software update during this time, which I assume was already on the Slingbox, because I hadn't yet connected it to a network.

You can connect to 802.11b/g/n networks on either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz channel. I added the Slingbox 500 to our test WPA2-encrypted 5GHz network without issue, and then picked up the new remote to control the Slingbox's new TV interface. After inputting my location and zip code, the unit scanned the connected inputs and asked about our service provider, for which I selected Dish New York. It already had the Dish Hopper in its set-top box database and loaded the appropriate remote control layout. I tested the programmed remote buttons as directed, and everything worked properly from the Slingbox remote. I had no problem bringing up the menu and channel guide, switching channels, and powering the Hopper off or onand that was without using the external blaster cable, and while standing in front of both devices.

More here:
Sling Media Slingbox 500

The refreshed 2013 Cadillac SRX will offer an entertainment package featuring a Blu-Ray DVD player that extends Cadillacs signature CUE system for connectivity to the rear seats along with a redesigned kid-tested gaming-style remote control that allows each of the 8 flip-up rear screens to play unique media.

With CUE, users can pair of up to 10 Bluetooth-enabled devices at once, including mobile phones, SD cards, USBs, and MP3 players. For the first time, rear-seat passengers can connect to and manage their own music players and playlists. A special connector cable sold separately allows watching movies stored in media players.

The addition of Blu-Ray allows families the same video quality on the road as theyre accustomed to at home. Front-seat passengers will be able to watch videos via the 8 touchscreen CUE display on the center-stack while the vehicle is in park. With audio playing throughout the vehicles speakers, the SRX becomes a home-theatre on wheels.

A dual-play capability feature allows one user to play a video game on one monitor while another user watches a movie or listens to the radio on the other.

Having multiple media connectivity options really gives owners flexibility with entertainment, especially families, said Charlene Goike, rear seat entertainment lead engineer. One can easily pop in their cameras SD cards on the way home from their kids sports games to let the young ones instantly relive the action.

The rear-seat entertainment package also gets an all-new cordless remote control, designed for familiarity and ease of use. Shaped like a video game remote control, it mimics the layout of buttons to help young users access their favorite media more easily. A quick-reference sheet will also be provided so users know what each button on the remote will do.

We actually invited a group of kids to test and interact with the new rear-seat entertainment features, said Shannon Chiarcos, human factors engineer responsible for gathering consumer feedback on entertainment options in the vehicle. The data we collected allowed us to go back and make several adjustments to the system, including simplifying the remote control so that kids could use it without the help of an adult.

The SRX gets a pair of updated wireless headphones designed to fit more comfortably than previous versions as well as the ability to toggle between what is being played on either back-seat monitor. Users can also adjust volume directly on the headphones themselves.

The rear-seat entertainment package will be available as an option on Luxury (with navigation,) Performance and Premium SRX trim models and will retail for $1,595.

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2013 SRX delivers home theatre-like tech

DANVILLE The media circus you've seen surrounding major political events this year has landed at Centre College for Thursday night's vice presidential debate between incumbent Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan.

A huge portable stage for MSNBC arose behind the statue of President Lincoln sporting his own, personalized debate credential and a line of TV broadcast locations was forming along the sidewalk outside of the Norton Center for the Arts, where the debate takes place at 9 p.m. Thursday.

Inside, the college's gymnasium has been converted into a massive media center complete with "spin alley," where, immediately after the contest, representatives of each campaign will try to convince reporters their guy won.

It's all in preparation for Danville's international media close up.

"It offers us a chance to get out and about and talk to folks about what's on their mind and where they're at in the election," says Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who will anchor the network's coverage from Danville Thursday night along with Megyn Kelly. "There's always a lot of energy at the event."

Baier and Kelly are two of numerous Fox News personalities slated to be in Danville Thursday including Shepard Smith and Neil Cavuto. But in addition to them are numerous producers and technicians behind the Fox operation.

"There are a lot of people who make it work and thousands of feet of cable," said Baier, who has taken over anchoring duties this year following the retirement of Brit Hume. "I don't know how many people we're bringing more than a hundred."

CBS News is sending only two on-air reporters to the debate Nancy Cordes covering the Barack Obama and Biden ticket and chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford covering the Mitt Romney and Ryan campaign. But supporting them is a crew of producers, technicians and off-air reporters for the broadcast that will be anchored by Scott Pelly in New York.

"We're setting up a mission control," said Tim Gaughan, CBS News director of digital news gathering and special events. "It's essentially a remote bureau ready to do anything we need."

At the MSNBC tent, approximately a dozen technicians were working to set up the broadcast stage where shows such as The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd and Chris Matthews' Hardball will originate Thursday. The network is offering free coffee and network souvenirs to people who come watch from the lawn between the stage and the Lincoln statue.

Link:
Media circus pitches its tent in Danville for Biden-Ryan debate

There's also a lucrative market for telling conservatives what they already believe. It's now theoretically possible to go from evangelical homeschooling to a conservative college where debating abortion is verboten to a job at a conservative think tank, reached via a talk-radio-filled commute. On Fridays you can attend a happy hour hosted by a right-of-center networking organization, start dating a fellow attendee, and marry, at which point you can split a subscription to Glenn Beck TV for evening infotainment. Thirty years later you can both move to a retirement community where Fox News plays 24/7. Epistemic closure is more possible than ever.

Dennis Prager reminded me of this subject. "There is no greater uniformity of thought than at our universities: Their much-ballyhooed commitment to diversity is about race and ethnicity, not about ideas," he wrote in his latest column. "So, too, the great majority of news-media people live in the same bubble, the left-wing herd that covers national and international news. Reading the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, or listening to the BBC is essentially reading or listening to the same selection and presentation of the news. One reason that leftists talk to, read, and listen only to fellow leftists is that they are certain there is no other way to think rationally, compassionately, or morally. Therefore, there is no reason to debate conservatives, let alone expose oneself to their ideas."

Credit where it's due: Prager frequently invites people with whom he disagrees, myself included, on his talk-radio show, and his output there is far superior to most people in the medium. He also has a long history of engaging in interfaith dialogue and political debate. But his sweeping statements about academia and media aren't supported by the facts, and he ought to know better than to make them based on both personal experience and easily made observations.

Anyone can see that The New York Times and The Washington Post, whatever their faults, don't publish "only fellow leftists." David Brooks has been at the Times for years. Ross Douthat took over after a short stint by Bill Kristol. William Safire preceded them both. The Washington Post publishes George Will, Charles Krauthammer, and Jennifer Rubin, among other conservatives.The Los Angeles Times, one of the newspapers Prager criticizes for being part of a closed loop including only fellow leftists, has published Prager himself. It's one thing to argue these efforts are insufficient, or to observe that these are generally center-left publications, especially in their cultural coverage. It's quite another to write as if efforts to have diversity of though aren't happening.

Prager's biography states that he is "widely sought after by television shows for his opinions," noting appearances "on Larry King Live, Hardball, Hannity & Colmes, CBS Evening News, The Today Show and many others." He writes that "there is no greater uniformity of thought than at our universities," but his biography also states:

None of this is to deny that there are more liberals than conservatives in academia and media. It is only to say that conservative complaints about how closed those worlds are is dated and exaggerated. Media organizations from CNN to Reuters to NPR actively solicit content from conservative contributors. Ombudsmen are increasingly frequent, in part to field complaints of ideological bias. Calling out ideological bias, when it exists, remains perfectly legitimate. But right-leaning institutions have made nothing like the same effort to ensure that they are ideologically diverse, a quality accorded very little value in their aspirations and business models. This would be less bothersome if conservatives hadn't insisted for so long that diversity of thought is vital if you're to run a quality institution of higher education or mass media.

For a while, conservatives will keep getting away with complaining that liberals control academia and media. But that can't and shouldn't last forever. Folks on the right need to compete for spots in existing academic and media organizations, start alternative institutions of comparable quality and ambition, or else quit the interminable complaints that things are stacked against them. Specific complaints against inaccurate information will always remain legitimate. The sweeping generalizations about liberal universities and media outlets, and how hostile they are to diversity of thought, have already gotten old -- they are certainly prone to groupthink, but not nearly so much as the conservative institutions that have sprung up in reaction to them. And those new conservative institutions are growing big and influential in their own right.

So conservatives, is diversity of thought important or isn't it?

Go here to see the original:
Conservatives Preach Diversity of Thought Without Practicing It

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Media Excel, an innovator of adaptive bitrate, multi-device transcoding for multiscreen video delivery, sweeps the South Korean Telco industry by winning the large-scale multiscreen transcoding projects of the three largest Telcos in South Korea. Combined, SK Telecom, Korea Telecom, and LGU+ serve more than 20 million paid subscribers, compared to more than 18 million paid subscribers for Media Excels US customers.

The three Korean operators utilize Media Excels HERO platform to prepare, package and deliver more than 120 HD live channels over wired and 4G/LTE-wireless networks to all connected devices, ranging from smartphones and tablets to PCs and connected TVs.

Over the last nine months, SK Telecom, Korea Telecom and LGU+ individually performed extensive evaluation tests comparing solutions from all major encoding vendors. Each chose Media Excels HERO multi-screen encoding solution based on its reliability, scalability and extensive feature set.

Given the coverage, depth and duration of the evaluations, these wins are a major endorsement of the HERO product line, as well as a testament to the responsiveness and commitment for which Media Excels Team has been recognized, commented John Hotchkiss, COO, Media Excel. Operators looking for a highly-available, large-scale, multiscreen transcoding solution appreciate the way HEROs management system (HMS) assumes control, alleviating the complexity of their customers SLAs and the associated OPEX.

About Media Excel, Inc.

Media Excel defines the adaptive bitrate, multi-device transcoding standard for multiscreen video delivery. The companys hybrid approach of using software and hardware transcoding solutions power more than 18 million live mobile/tablet TV viewers daily in the US alone. Across the head-end, cloud, or edge video distribution, the companys solutions are used in a variety of markets including broadcast, government, telecom, MSO and CDNs. Founded in early 2000, the company continuously innovates services and offerings for large-scale mobile carrier customers such as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, to high-profile event-driven organizations such as Telstra Australia, NFL, NBA, and the Olympic Games. Media Excel is headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices in Seoul and Silicon Valley. For more information about HERO, please visit the HERO product page. For more information about Media Excel, please visit http://www.mediaexcel.com. To contact Media Excel, email pr@mediaexcel.com.

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Media Excel’s Multiscreen Transcoding Solution Chosen by the Three Largest South Korean Telcos