2 posts categorized "Kurt Scherf"
Parks Associates' Kurt Scherf Provides Insights on Wired Home Networks, G.hn and more...
April 09, 2010 11:04 PM in Kurt Scherf , Parks Associates | 0 comments | 0 TrackBack
Kurt Scherf is Vice President and Principal Analyst with Parks Associates in Dallas. Here's his take on wired home networks, the role of HomeGrid Forum and the impact of G.hn.
The Everywire Conversation with Parks Associates’ VP and Principal Analyst, Kurt Scherf
March 19, 2009 12:03 PM in 802.11n , CEPCA , Kurt Scherf , Parks Associates , UPA | 0 comments | 0 TrackBack
Parks Associates’ VP and Principal
Analyst, Kurt Scherf, has been a long time observer of home networks, IPTV and
broadband technologies. I recently
spoke to Kurt about his view on G.hn, the global economy, and home networking
trends around the world.
Kurt’s take on G.hn is that it is
an important step to resolving much of the confusion that has existed in the
powerline networking space with the existence of three major specifications – Universal
Powerline Association (led by Spanish chipmaker DS2), Panasonic’s HD-PLC
(supported by Japan’s Consumer Electronics Powerline Communication Alliance, or
CEPCA), and HomePlug. Both UPA and CEPCA are on board with G.hn, leaving
HomePlug and the Multimedia over Coax (MoCA) solutions on the outside looking
in.
Standardizing on a powerline
networking solution for the service provider community was critical, according
to Scherf, because it is among broadband service providers where the need for
powerline bridges between modems and set-top boxes are critical in reducing
CapEx costs for the installation of triple-play and IPTV services. This is most
evident currently in the highly-dynamic European marketplace, where incumbent
telephone providers compete in each other’s territory, thanks to aggressive
local loop unbundling. Despite the current economic slowdown, Scherf points to
home networking deployments as but one example of continued investments by
service providers to innovate with new services and to seek ways to lower
deployment costs at the same time.
He sees the shift to G.hn as being good
for vendors like CopperGate as they seem to have been early in the notion that
having industry standards best serve the industry at large. He thinks the move by CopperGate in buying
the HomePlug AV business last year from Conexant was a smart move, as it gave
them the industry’s only coax, phone and powerline solution. As for Intel and
their being the driving force behind the HomeGrid Forum, Kurt sees the
semiconductor giant as looking for new markets into the home, particularly with
high-end processors that the company is aiming at the connected TV and
connected set-top box markets.
Although MoCA representatives were
unhappy with how the G.hn development transpired, Scherf said that this home
networking technology has room to expand in regions where cable operators have
a stronger presence, such as North America and Western Eruope, Scherf applauded
MoCA’s success in the cable space, but sees it as limiting compared to other
regions of the world, where operators will seek the ubiquity of powerline
networks to distribute triple-play and high-definition video services. A good
fit for MoCA technology is in multi-room DVR applications, Scherf noted.
However, rollouts are still limited to a few service providers at present,
including AT&T and Verizon in the U.S. and Telefónica in Spain.
As to the emerging class of
next-generation wireless solutions (including 802.11n and proprietary
technologies), Scherf said that they bear watching as a potential fit for networked
consumer electronics, but he has not heard of strong demand from the service
providers for wireless solutions to distribute high-quality video around the
home.
Overall, my conversation with Kurt
was engaging and positive. Parks
Associates continues to offer innovative research, events and industry
conferences. They also seem to
really get social networks, as evidenced by their recently announced report
that ties social networking with advertising and connected TV.
My goal is to check in with Kurt on
a quarterly basis and get his sense of the forward moving momentum for G.hn and
wired home networking in general.
Everywire is a blog that will talk about G.hn and related wired networking news.
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