The Diffusion Group (TDG) believes that the standardization of MPEG and the availability of ASIC-based low cost/high volume MPEG4 systems and set top boxes will ultimately prevail in the world of PayTV. WM9 may make some sense for content distribution to the PC. However, with media giants such as News Corp entering the broadband fray, we may soon see MPEG4-H264 become widely used on the Net for IPTV distribution. Microsoft has been fighting the video battle on many fronts, arguably too many �- from video codec format to encoder systems; from VOD servers to Digital Rights Management; from PayTV middleware platform to Windows Media 9 play list & trick play modes and signaling controls. It seems that Microsoft is doing its best to own a piece of every stage of the video experience �- far too many for other media giants like News Corp to be comfortable. Moreover, in a system like a TelcoTV platform �- where the integration of stable, coherent, and well-defined system components is critical �- TDG believes that providing too many pieces of the system actually works against both the vendor and the service operator that deploys them.
The industrial sector is on the eve of a wireless transformation, driven by an urgent demand for greater network capacity, reliability, and deterministic performance. Historically, manufacturers and mission-critical operations have relied on wired networks — favoring their predictability — because spectrum congestion in legacy 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands limited confidence in wireless for operational technology (OT) environments. However, with the introduction and rapid adoption of the 6GHz spectrum, compounded by significant advances in Wi-Fi standards, industrial facilities are now poised to embrace wireless LANs as the backbone for automation and digital innovation. Industrial WLAN Market Development Recent research from ABI Research forecasts that over 70 percent of industrial-grade wireless LAN access points (WLAN APs) shipped in 2030 will support the 6GHz band. This is a leap from 2 percent in 2023, highlighting a rapid and profound technological shift. The market for ruggedized indust...