Klaus Milczewsky, Senior Mgr. Technology Management, Products & Innovation, Deutsche Telekom AG and CONNECTIONS Europe speaker recently shared his insights on the developments in smart home and entertainment services. Klaus will be speaking in the 9:00 AM Session, The Future for the Set-top Box, on November 13.
The interactive panel, moderated by Brett Sappington, Director, Research, Parks Associates, includes the following participants:
Darren Fawcett, Chief Technical Engineer, Pace plc
Richard Crossley, Business Development Director for EMEA, Intel
Klaus Milczewsky, Senior Mgr. Technology Management, Products & Innovation, Deutsche Telekom AG
JT Taylor, Director, Service Provider Video Technology Group, Cisco
Jason Wong, Senior Director of International Products and Services, TiVo Inc.
1) What do you feel is the biggest obstacle to growth in entertainment services and/or smart home services?
I see the biggest challenges in the diversity of approaches. TV device manufacturers and the smartphone / tablet industry will follow different directions. Service providers will have to support both directions. Main business models will be monthly flat rate charges.
2) What features should service providers focus on to convince consumers to sign up for new services?
The focus should be on simplicity of the service itself and the offerings / contents. A wide content catalogue will be key, too.
3) How is your company helping to excel growth in the connected home in Europe?
We as Deutsche Telekom group support different strategies to get into this market: For Germany we started our Qivicon Initiative to support customers even using sensors from different device vendors. For the international partners, even in smaller countries, we think a router based approach using DECT ULE could be a good solution for low cost products.
4) What is one key issue that people can’t stop talking about regarding entertainment or smart home services?
Smart integrations of tablet / smartphone apps with locally installed hardware, like the big TV screen, Audio devices and smart home devices like AC plug, LED lightning etc.
