Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders
Six Months Ahead of Time-Warner CEO
Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on May 17, 2012
Last November we provided a seven minute video demonstrating how to easily watch any Internet video on a flat-panel TV. When I say easily, I really mean it. It annoys me when someone with specialized experience claims a new procedure for the uninitiated is “simple” when it really isn’t. So, let me clarify. For anyone who knows how to use an iPhone and a TV, the instructional video provided in the above hyperlink is truly easy to follow.
Download four minute audio narration to iPad, iPhone, or iPod here.
Only four items are required to get Internet video on your TV without wires: (1) a $99 AppleTV, (2) an iPhone-4s, iPad-2 or later model iPad, (3) a home Wi-Fi network, and (4) a flat panel TV capable of connecting the to the AppleTV appliance. Merely touching a single AirPlay icon and selecting the AppleTV display option enables you to “mirror” whatever is on the iPhone-4s (or applicable iPad) onto the TV screen.
It’s that simple. And, because it’s simple, it has huge implications for the television industry, including the Cable TV sector. Thus it is surprising the New York Times reported earlier this week that Time-Warner Cable’s CEO, Glenn Britt, is unfamiliar with AirPlay “although (he) loves Apple products.”
It must be really tough to run a major CATV company, because Britt is undeniably brilliant. He is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Dartmouth and a Phi Beta Kappa Key holder. He also earned a MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck Business School where he sponsors the “Britt Technology Impact Series”.
But it is not just Dartmouth that recognizes Britt’s technological perspicacity. He was one of five corporate executives appointed by President Obama to a task force “charged with strengthening America’s economic competitiveness through leadership in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. He also championed Time Warner Cable’s $100 million philanthropic initiative to inspire students to pursue STEM-related education.”
While I realize anyone graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth is undeniably bright, I scratch my head when pondering how Inside Digital Media subscribers could become familiar with innovations as important as AirPlay and screen mirroring a full half-year ahead of such a person. I can only conclude that Britt reasons the near monopolistic control CATV and Telco operators hold over broadband Internet access implies Time-Warner Cable doesn’t need to worry about promptly adjusting to technological change. They can take their time.
Yet such artificial delays are damaging to the economic prosperity of the United States because they retard the pace at which innovation can be brought to market. Ultimately, other countries that don’t permit monopolies to throttle technological innovation merely to serve the isolated interests of the monopolists will pass us by.
Categories: Podcast Audio
Tags: AirPlay, AppleTV, AppleTV-AirPlay, Internet-Video-to-TV, iPad-AirPlay, iPhone-4s, iPhone-AirPlay, Mirroring
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