Cisco Announces Winners of Its Lifestyles of The Tech Frustrated Competition

Cisco today revealed the winners of its “Lifestyles of the Tech Frustrated” competition. The Lifestyles of the Tech Frustrated competition started early July and offered customers the chance to win a Flip Mino HD Camcorder. The competition closed in August and now winners have been selected. The winners and their stories can be found at our Lifestyles of the Tech Frustrated website: http://www.networkmagic.com/techfrustratedwinners.
Highlights

* The winners of the Cisco Lifestyles of the Tech Frustrated contest were announced today and can be found here: http://www.networkmagic.com/techfrustratedwinners
* Winners will receive a Flip Mino HD Camcorder
* The Cisco Consumer Products group invited entrants to tell their stories that depict the challenges and advantages of home networking. Cisco wanted to hear about what customers use their home networks for and what they accomplish in their lives through technology. The competition also asked how customers' problems were solved through the use of the Network Magic software.
* Stand out entries included Gerard from Albuquerque who wrote a poem about home networking, Lisa from North Carolina talked about her experience of her network working one day and then next it wouldn’t, while John from Virginia wrote in about the different Network Magic offerings and how they help him and his network.

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AVnu Alliance Launches to Advance Quality of Experience for Networked Audio and Video

Founders Include Broadcom Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Harman International, Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., and Xilinx, Inc. A group of industry-leading Audio/Video (A/V), consumer electronics and silicon companies today announced the launch of AVnu™ Alliance. The Alliance is an industry forum dedicated to enhancing professional-quality audio/video by promoting emerging IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) networking standards for a broad range of markets including automotive, consumer electronics, and professional A/V. The founding members of the AVnu Alliance include Broadcom Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Harman International, Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., and Xilinx, Inc. In addition to the Founders, Avid Technology Inc., Marvell and Meyer Sound Laboratories, Inc. have joined the AVnu Alliance as the first Promoters.

AVnu Alliance aims to establish a professional quality A/V experience in networked environments, whether an HD television or music studio, a car, a concert hall, a stadium or a home theater. Today, out-of-sync audio and video, glitches and delays can occur in many of these settings, unless complex, proprietary solutions are deployed. For example, in networked whole-home audio systems, there is no standards-based solution to make the speakers play in sync.

To address these issues, the AVnu Alliance is promoting the IEEE standards, currently in development, for 802.1 AVB (Audio Video Bridging) and also the related IEEE 1722 and 1733 (which extends RTP for use with AVB).

The draft AVB standards are designed to work over widely-used IEEE 802 layer 2 networks. These new standards provide networking features for tightly controlled media stream synchronization, buffering and reservation. Use of AVB enables higher layer protocols and applications to realize professional-quality A/V even if there are various lower-layer network links in the path between endpoint devices. AVnu expects to see initial deployment of AVB on Ethernet networks and anticipates other home networking standards will follow.

“The AVB technology developed by the IEEE has reached a level of maturity that permits its use in the creation of innovative new products,” said Rick Kreifeldt, AVnu Alliance chairman and president. “Our mission is to drive these cutting-edge technologies into the professional A/V, automotive, and consumer electronics markets, enhancing the quality of experience across a broad range of products and applications.”

AVnu Alliance is committed to bringing together leading companies to promote and advance these technologies. The organization will support the creation and implementation of compliance test procedures and processes that promote interoperability of AVB-enabled networked products, helping to ensure A/V devices work together to provide a professional level of quality. These efforts will enhance the network backbone, complementing the ongoing work of existing organizations and standards bodies specifying higher layer A/V protocols and applications in each market space.

“A/V networks are becoming burdened by greater complexity and the ever-increasing demands of streaming content, yet there are few options to ensure reliability in a heterogeneous network based upon open industry standards,” said Jonathan Gaw, Research Manager at leading IT market research and advisory firm IDC. “Broad, cross-industry efforts are crucial to ensure that the quality-of-experience is addressed early in the product development cycle, and to promote the interoperability of products being deployed in professional A/V, automotive and home networking scenarios that are more demanding than ever before.”

Industries that may benefit from the technology include professional A/V equipment manufacturers and installers, automotive A/V equipment suppliers and automotive OEMs, consumer electronics manufacturers and silicon manufacturers.

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RVU Alliance Forming to Accelerate Development Of RUI Technology

Broadcom, Cisco, DIRECTV and Samsung are forming an alliance to develop a specification for a full-featured “pixel accurate” Remote User Interface (RUI) that will form the core of the new RVU technology. The RVU Alliance complements and benefits existing industry interoperability initiatives and underscores its founders’ commitment to the sharing of digital content in the connected home.
Highlights/Key Facts:

* RVU Alliance’s pixel accurate RUI technology will provide an identical user experience on all RVU-based thin client CE devices throughout the connected home, including digital TVs (DTVs), digital media adapters (DMAs) and set-top boxes (STBs).
* Refinements to the user experience can be deployed in the home with a single update in the RVU-based media server appearing on all subscribing thin client CE devices.
* RVU technology is expected to accelerate the availability of service provider content throughout the connected home. A server-controlled, common user experience helps enable the rapid introduction of new features and applications that typically accompany commercial content.
* One important industry interoperability initiative is the Digital Living Network AllianceSM (DLNA®), of which RVU Alliance founders are promoting members.
* The RVU Alliance is an Oregon-based non-profit mutual benefit corporation with membership participation at Founding Promoter, Promoter and Contributor levels. For more information about the RVU alliance, visit www.rvualliance.org.

Supporting Quotes:

Rômulo Pontual, DIRECTV’s chief technology officer:

“We believe both consumers and service providers will embrace consumer electronic equipment with RVU technology because it enables a high quality digital entertainment experience throughout the connected home. We are committed to the RVU technology and are planning to deploy it in media servers and clients beginning early in 2010.”
Martin Manniche, chief technology officer for Cisco Consumer Business Group:

“Cisco’s vision is to enable people to live a connected life that is more personal, more social and more visual. The RVU technology represents an excellent step towards achieving that vision in the home entertainment environment.”
Rich Nelson, Vice President of Marketing for Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group:

“As consumers look for new ways to connect, share and enjoy commercial content throughout the home, Broadcom is committed to enabling connectivity for an enhanced digital entertainment experience. By supporting RVU technology on set-top box, digital TV and Blu-ray system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, we are enabling a consistent look and feel on connected devices in the home.”
Thomas Rhee, Samsung's SVP of Digital Set Top Box:

"With the addition of RVU technology, device software integration process is simplified for consumer electronics manufacturers such as Samsung. We're excited about the RVU RUI and how this technology has DLNA as its foundation."

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Cisco Is Holding A Contest For Consumers to Submit a Story

Cisco today announced a contest called Lifestyles of the Tech Frustrated, starting today through August 16, 2009 that asks consumers, who have a home network, to send in a 500 word story of their networking set up frustrations and how they solved their problems. The top 10 entries as deemed by a panel of judges will win a Flip Mino HD Camcorder.
Competition Highlights/Facts:

* The Cisco Network Magic website is inviting entries where consumers can share their stories which depict the challenges and advantages of home networking. Cisco wants to see what customers are using home networking for and what they accomplish in their lives through technology.
* Contest Story Assignment: Tell us about your home or office computer network, and any difficulties or frustrations you have or have had with setting up and using it. We’d also like to hear how you fixed the problem using Network Magic or the networking software or hardware solutions. Please submit your written story in no more than 500 words.
* The top ten stories, as judged by a Cisco independent panel of judges, will have the chance to win a Flip Mino HD Camcorder, valued at $229.99*.
* To enter the Contest, log on to http://www.networkmagic.com/techfrustrated and fill out the registration form, including reviewing the Official Rules and checking the box indicating acceptance of the rules. When finished reviewing the rules, click "Submit" and follow the instructions to summit your 500 word story.
* The contest is open from July 1 to August 16, 2009 to legal residents of the United States and the District of Columbia who are at least 18 years of age.

Network Magic Facts/Highlights:

* Cisco Network Magic is a home and home office network management software solution which helps users set up, manage and protect a home network. The software program helps enable users to connect their devices such as routers, PCs, printers, media hubs, media adapters and internet cameras etc., along with share printers and files. Users can also control access to the Internet and track online activity to ensure no users are abusing their privileges.
* Network Magic also helps protect networks with enhanced WPA security capabilities and status alerts to block intruders and warn of any attempts from unauthorized sources. Network Magic can also help to repair network and Internet connections to keep everything running smoothly and optimize productivity.

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AT&T, BT and Tata Demonstrate Industry's First Cisco TelePresence Call

Significant Milestone Achieved in Developing Global Public Cisco TelePresence Network. AT&T, BT, and Tata Communications, today took a significant step forward to deliver Cisco TelePresenceTM services globally, by conducting the industry's first multipoint, intercompany Cisco TelePresence meeting across multiple carrier networks. AT&T, BT and Tata, together with Cisco, demonstrated the technical ability for a Cisco TelePresence user to call others on any carrier network with high levels of security and reliability.
Highlights / Key Facts:

* Inter-carrier intercompany services have the potential to allow Cisco TelePresence users to call one another across participating networks, reliably and with high levels of security.
* The demonstration at Cisco Live 2009 consists of inter-carrier Cisco TelePresence connections between the following sites on AT&T, BT, and Tata Communication's networks:
o AT&T Telepresence Solution sites in Bedminster and Morristown, N.J., and Chicago, Ill.
o A BT site in Colorado Springs, Colo.
o A Cisco site at Cisco Live in San Francisco
o Tata sites in Boston and London
* This demonstration is another key step in Cisco's strategy to bring Cisco TelePresence to everyone, everywhere. It comes on the heels of recent announcements including Cisco TelePresence Extended Reach for one-screen systems over T-1 speeds, HD video conferencing interoperability, and Cisco WebExTM video interoperability.
* More than 350 organizations have selected Cisco TelePresence for more than 2,300 rooms to improve collaboration and productivity and accelerate business decisions. Cisco TelePresence is one of the fastest-growing emerging technologies.
* Cisco has also installed more than 500 Cisco TelePresence rooms on its own internal network for greater productivity and effective collaboration.

Executive Quotes:

* Marthin De Beer, senior vice president, Emerging Technologies Group, Cisco

"Today's demonstration marks a significant milestone for Cisco's service provider partners and our customers. With inter-carrier intercompany Cisco TelePresence, we're extending the power of video communications and collaboration across network service providers to bring people a new visual experience that's as easy as making a phone call."

* Bill Archer, chief marketing officer, AT&T Business Solutions

"Inter-carrier connectivity is the next step in building out telepresence for improved collaboration for businesses throughout the world. With the AT&T Telepresence Solution we are providing companies today with the ability to interact with customers or other key businesses in a highly-secure environment. Looking to the future, AT&T is committed to working with other network service providers to bring this proof of concept to market as soon as possible."

* Jeff Prestel, general manager, Video Business Unit, BT Conferencing

"To drive the ultimate value from telepresence services, enterprises need to be able to collaborate with colleagues, partners and customers, regardless of their network provider. We are delighted to participate with Cisco to help empower our customers to experience the versatile, easy-to-use and reliable communications of the future and to enable customers to maximize the return on their TelePresence investment."

* Peter Quinlan, director, Managed Telepresence Services, Tata Communications

"This proof of concept with AT&T and BT showcases how Tata Communications will conveniently support B2B sessions among any connected private and public Cisco TelePresence rooms, on the Tata Communications global network and also inter-carrier. This pioneering global service pushes managed telepresence from being a private intra-company experience to an open inter-company experience able to bring together the full ecosystem of employees, partners, customers and prospects. This open intercarrier B2B capability enriches Tata Communications' comprehensive approach to managed Telepresence services."

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Cisco's Smart+Connected Communities Provides Sustainable Economic Opportunities

Smart Connected Buildings Solution to Transform Energy Demand and Utilization. Cisco today announced Smart Connected Buildings as its latest emerging technology, a key component in delivering on its vision for Smart+Connected Communities, one of 30 key market adjacencies the company has identified. Smart+Connected Communities addresses the growing need for sustainable energy to meet the demand of increasingly urbanized populations by providing a network-enabled blueprint for successful smart cities of the future that run on networked information. The solution builds on Cisco's networked sustainability platform to further utilize the network to increase energy efficiency, create new tools for 'energy-aware' city management, and enable economic opportunity and quality of life gains for citizens.

As a key component of delivering on the Smart+Connected Communities vision, Cisco today announced the availability of the Cisco® Network Building Mediator, a Smart Connected Buildings solution that provides the intelligence to interconnect and enable building systems such as heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC), lighting, electrical, security, and renewables over the IP network to build smart and energy-efficient buildings of the future. This provides operators and owners of these buildings with new ways of managing how energy is used based on policies that make sense for occupants.

As the majority of electricity in the US is consumed in offices and commercial buildings, Cisco believes the network has the potential to create a significant impact on global energy efficiency and reduction of Green House Gas emissions by further integrating information technology into Smart Connected Buildings. By continuing to extend our networked sustainability platform, Cisco will help accelerate energy innovations over IP from energy generation across the grid to commercial buildings and all the way to the home.
Highlights / Key Facts:

* The new Smart Connected Buildings solution, Cisco's latest emerging technology, aims to enable sustainable energy reduction and the future-proofing of facilities through a flexible integration of new technologies that help deliver energy efficiency and environmental stewardship for Smart+Connected Communities.
* This represents the first Emerging Technology business unit incubated from Cisco's Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore, India. The business unit integrates technologies from Cisco's acquisition of Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Richards-Zeta in January 2009 with Cisco networking technology and concurrently develops innovative software solutions for energy management.
* Sandeep Vij, vice president and general manager, leads the team out of the Globalisation Center East, reporting to Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of the Emerging Technologies Group.
* Smart Connected Buildings first solution, Cisco Network Building Mediator, provides an extensible architecture to allow building operation managers to easily monitor, measure and act on energy systems while adding renewable technologies such as solar, wind and fuel cells as well as energy-efficiency programs such automated demand-response programs to reduce capital and operating expenditures.
* The Cisco Network Building Mediator communicates "southbound" with building systems using a variety of industry open-system protocols. It then converts the data to open XML/SOAP Services which connect "northbound" to applications, utilities, enterprise management systems and cloud services.
* The Cisco Network Building Mediator extends Cisco EnergyWise technology to deliver the most comprehensive business energy-management solution, providing energy monitoring, reporting and saving to more systems and devices in any building.
* Cisco also announced that more than 20 technology partners will join the Cisco Development Technology Program for the Mediator in bringing solutions and services to Smart+Connected Communities.
* In addition, Cisco plans to introduce an Authorized Technology Provider Program for channel partners and system integrators who will be supporting sales and services for customers.
* The Cisco Network Building Mediator is orderable now and is available in two configurations; the Cisco Network Building Mediator 2400 and the Cisco Network Building Mediator 4800. Pricing starts at USD $4995.

Executive Quotes:

* Marthin De Beer, senior vice president, Emerging Technologies Group

"Today's announcement of Smart Connected Buildings as Cisco's latest Emerging Technology highlights the strength of our internal innovation engine for identifying and developing solutions in key market adjacencies. Our aim is to create a new set of systems and solutions that take the network and extend the power of the platform to deliver sustainable energy management from information technology and commercial buildings all the way through to smart grid and the home."

* Wim Elfrink, chief globalisation officer and executive vice president, Cisco Services

"Over the next three to five years, as more people around the world migrate to urban centres, 3 billion individuals around the world will connect to the Internet. Cisco envisages a future where successful communities and cities will run on networked information, and where information technology will help the world better manage its energy and environmental challenges. Cities of the future, and many innovative cities now, are addressing the issues and opportunities of this new world by thinking about the network as the platform for economic development, better city management and an improved quality of life for citizens. Everything connected to the network in these smart+connected communities can be greener."

* David Shroyer, controls engineer, NetApp:

"Within 20 minutes of the demand-response signal from the utility, the Cisco Network Building Mediator reduces lighting by 50 percent and raises the temperature set point by four degrees, shedding 1.1 megawatts. In conjunction with other systems, the Cisco solution has helped us reduce energy consumption in our Sunnyvale location by 18 million kilowatt hours in 18 months. We have reduced our carbon footprint and have saved an estimated $2 million in energy costs."

* Peter Kelley-Detwiler, SVP, Demand Response, Constellation Energy Group Inc.

"We have created a load-response solution in which the customers get paid for curtailing their consumption during the period of high or peak demand on their systems. The way we help them is we take the Cisco Network Building Mediator and use that to coordinate with the building and send a signal to automatically shut down systems."

* Norm Campbell, manager, Metering Systems, Simon Property Group

"Organizing our energy and building systems required an equally dynamic infrastructure to coordinate meter data, EMS and external inputs in unison. The Cisco Network Building Mediator is such a platform and enables us to pursue energy efficiency, load response and sustainability while maintaining comfort for our tenants and customers."

* Achuthan Nair, vice president and business head, Wipro Technologies

"Cisco Network Building Mediator technology has an open approach in a pre-dominantly multi protocol and proprietary area. We have been able to innovatively leverage it to enable management of non-IP systems, thus bringing the rigor of IT service management to non-IT equipment. This brings tremendous value to our customers by lowering their energy consumption and reducing the service costs."

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Cisco and Colombian Government Announce Entrepreneur Institute

Institute Is Part of Agreement Between Cisco and Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism to Promote ICT Skills Enhancement for SMBs. Cisco today announced the establishment of the Cisco® Entrepreneur Institute in the Caribbean region of Colombia to help entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) improve their use of information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance business acumen. The Cisco Entrepreneur Institute in Antioquia is supported by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia and falls within the framework of the agreement announced in November 2008. The agreement seeks to further the development of SMBs through the use of information technology and knowledge sharing.

Cámara de Comercio de Barranquilla (the Chamber of Commerce of Barranquilla), an organizational member of Red Nacional de Emprendimiento (National Network of Entrepreneurship) of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, will be the second training center of Cisco Entrepreneur Institute in Colombia. It will bring courses from the institute to six centers in the towns of Barranquilla, Valledupar and Cartagena in Colombia. During the first 12 months of operation, the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute is expected to train more than 500 entrepreneurs in this region.

"ICT is a key element for entrepreneurial productivity. Initiatives like the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute, a public-private partnership, show the country's commitment and continued effort to be more competitive," said Luis Guillermo Plata, the Colombian minister of industry, commerce and tourism. "Entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium-sized businesses now have a training tool available that provides true value to their professional career as business professionals, including how to start and grow a business."

Cisco Entrepreneur Institute courses, which teach successful entrepreneurial practices, will be delivered through a combination of e-learning, in-person workshop attendance and audiovisual materials. Participants will have access to Web 2.0 technologies and advanced open-source tools such as Moodle. They will also use collaboration technologies such as Cisco WebExTM for an even richer learning experience.

Simbad Ceballos, the general manager of Cisco Colombia, said: "In Colombia the entrepreneurial spirit is flourishing, and we need to be sure we have the ability to help achieve its maximum potential by encouraging diversification and innovation. Cisco is very proud to sponsor this initiative to help build the entrepreneurial capacity of the country. Entrepreneurs are the core of economic growth, and we look forward to seeing Colombia benefit from this new program."

The Entrepreneur Institute also works in Colombia with the Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA, the National Service of Learning), which is delivering institute training courses to 115 training centers in the country. The Cisco Entrepreneur Institute expects to train about 5,000 entrepreneurs nationwide during 2009 though SENA training centers.

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