Congratulations to the CES and their attendees

What a difference a few weeks makes!  At the CES in January the Moxi was hailed as the best new contraption at the show,  just the thing for all the "Rube Goldberg couch potato's "  Steve Perlman,  Moxi's  founder and CEO was making the rounds to all the press events showing off the new product.  He had trouble trying to make the thing work at his press event, but the press seemed to take him at his word, after all he is the inventor of WebTV.  When asked by Electronicsinventions if he would ever allow Moxi to be sold and fade away, due to lack of support from its new owner, like WebTV and the Dishplayer, he said that would never happen.  By February Moxi had burned through much of its capital and Steve Perlman was removed as CEO.  It was rumored that Moxi was in play with some media and investment companies as well as EchoStar looking. Financial conditions seemed to have worsened and it isn't even April Fools day yet.  A few years ago in the dotcom craze  Moxi would have been able to raise all kinds of capital, after all the thing does hook up to the Internet.  It will be too bad if at least the Moxi concept doesn't survive.

     Here we go again, add another paragraph!   Microsoft partner Paul Allen, through his investment firm Vulcan Ventures has just acquired Moxi and will fold it into his Digeo firm.  Moxi went from top of the heap to gone within 90 days and it isn't April Fools Day yet. 

   Another week, other story.  Latest word has XM radio's auditors telling them to get some more money or go out of business.  Even the "healthy" may not be doing that well.  Pegasus , the DirecTV folks in some places" has seen their stock price drop to the $3 a share  range, and they have a steady income. On March 19th EchoStar finally announced that they have suspended supplying Starband hardware to their dealers for technical and financial reasons.  Lockheed Martin is looking to unload some of their satellite operations. Global Crossing, which was the "toast of the town" in financial circlers is now toast.  What a difference a few weeks makes,  and the economy is  supposedly coming out of the recession.  From here it looks like the satellite/broadband  car on the consumer electronics roller coaster  has just entered a steep downturn,,,,,  Oh oh what is that ahead? Not the tunnel of love,, is it a rock wall?  XM is now telling analysts not to worry, they are on track.......

     More bad news,,,,  Starband, EchoStar's Broadband stepchild has left home.  In an E-Mail, the night of  3/20,  to all of their certified installers and known dealers, Gilat-to-Home announced that they were going "Dealer Direct".  It appears that they were not able to patch up their differences with Echo.  With only 40,000 subs, many of whom may be non paying "Pilot" customers, things don't look good.  According to Charlie Ergen, Echo's CEO, each customer costs $140 a month to provide service to, half of which is for satellite time.   If SB can't cover their short term variable costs. conventional economic wisdom says they should shut down.  Lets hope that they have a plan to avoid this.  MR. GAT,,,, "WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS PLAN".  Without a wealthy partner it is hard to see how Gilat will make it.  

       As for EchoStar, it is unknown if they are still in talks with Gilat or if they are looking at a more DirecWay to serve their broadband customers in the future

Read down for more information on Moxi Digital.

      Many arrived at the 2002 CES at the first of the year after hearing all kinds of horror stories about convention attendance being  way down.  Comdex, the other big Vegas show was way down in attendance  according to reports, but that was not the case at the CES.  Floor space  in the LVCC had been greatly expanded with the opening of the new two floor South Addition.  Gone were the tents from last year, and the Sands Convention Center from years past.   The LVCC is just plain Big.  It  is about 3/4 of a mile from one end of the North Hall to the far end of the South Hall.  With 1.2 million square feet of show space, which seemed to be filled, unlike other shows that had a significant number of no show exhibitors, the miles of exhibits were  nothing short of spectacular. The CES seemed to move right in on top of  the construction workers.  With the exception of a few support areas, like unfinished kitchens, and some motor stairs that weren't running at the start of the show, the facility was up and running.  As for attendees, the came in droves. The CES reports over 100,000 attendees, which puts it right up there with this year's Comdex for the largest convention in town a truly amazing feat in this most difficult of times.  Yes, the CES professionals may have equaled if not  outnumbered the Comdex Geeks.
       A drive down South Las Vegas Boulevard on several evenings indicated that tourist traffic was definitely down.  Traffic was heavy but moving  right along, certainly down from the virtual gridlock that is normal for boulevard during past shows.  Inside the casino's the lines for the shows and buffets were very short. Business was definitely down at  the casinos.
        The CES is to be congratulated on a great show in a very tough time.                                        

         Bloody Raw,   IT Must Be Vegas
       What would the CES be without visiting a few of the award winning buffets at the Casinos.  No need to mention any names, this food is all the same.  It is the Prime Rib, which with the exception of a few end cuts it is always rare, very rare.   Reminds one of the old joke "I have seen a cow hurt worse then this get up and walk away"!   CES to the rescue!!!  After visiting the exhibits at the Hilton, the first thing that came to mind was a frying pan.  Not any frying pan but the "Smart Pan" from the folks at www.digitalcookwareinc.com.  This pan has a digital thermometer in the handle to let the cook know exactly how hot it is.  It even goes further to tell the cook what temperature to cook a specific item at. "Steak" 410 deg f., that should fix that raw prime rib.  Still confused, it even comes with a cook book, and if you loose the book you can get help on the web.  This seemingly simple, yet somewhat complex and well thought out and made item did not escape notice at the show.  The pan won a "Design and Engineering Honors" Innovations award from the CES.

The Digital "Smart Pan"(R)

 Michael Powell, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Misses Show.

      Chairman Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission,  was scheduled to speak to the CES giving an update on FCC activities.  Unfortunately, according to a CES official at the door, Mr. Powell had eaten in Las Vegas and had contracted food poisoning.  The session was canceled .  No one seemed to be willing to say where he had eaten. Next time he should bring his  own "Smart Pan".

      Satellite industry Pioneer Royal Lamb Introduces the MotoSat DataStorm.  Mobile Internet from Anywhere. 

        Hidden in a small booth in the satellite section of the CES, which was spread all over the lower section of the new South Hall of the LVCC was Royal Lamb and his latest invention.

         Old satellite hands will remember Royal for the MTI actuator controller he built in the 1980s.  His product allowed a big 10 foot satellite reflector  to be moved across the arc stopping at each satellite, and it was automatic. Royal, a true industry pioneer, has been active in satellite since 1979.

        His latest device allows the user to mount a two way  satellite antenna on the roof of a Motorhome,  known as a coach to owners, and take on the road.  Dishes can be either a Hughes or Starband compatible.  The truly amazing part of the DataStream is that it will automatically find the satellite, lock on to it, and set itself for minimum cross polarity and activate the system.  Installers who have spent hours trying to install  Starband or Hughes systems will find this truly amazing.  Mr. Lamb was  not able to explain how the system minimized cross pol  or authorize the station other then to say it was automatic.  The price is $4995 and FEMA, the federal emergeny people have already ordered 400 of the systems for the mobile emergency response offices.  It looks like this new MotoSat product is off to a good start.  Presently MotoSat is waiting for certification of the product.

Royal Lamb with his new DataStorm (R) Satellite System

How Viable is 2 Way Satellite Internet?

    If you believe Charlie Ergen, whose EchoStar is bankrolling Starband, the future is not very promising,,,  unless platforms can be merged.   Charlie says that Starband costs $140 per month per subscriber to keep running. With less then 40,000 subscribers,  sub numbers  are WAY below expectations.  We have learned that Wildblue, a service that sounded too good to believe when it's CEO announced to Dish Network dealers that its service would cost customers $39 a month  WAS too good to to be true.  Wildblue is basically toast.  Starband will acquire their unfinished satellite according to industry sources.

    According to Mr. Charlie, the only way that this service will survive is if Hughes and Echo can merge and offer one platform. Mr. Ergen has also said that Starband is at about stage two in a five stage process of  product evolution.

1And The Winner Was; Moxi Media Center

      Steve Perlman is back.  Most industry veterans remember Steve from his days Apple and the development of "Quick time", and then as inventor of Web TV.  Web TV was incorporated into Dish Network and other satellite receivers.  Steve sold WebTV to Microsoft for just under half a billion Dollars,  and then watched its new owner let it slide due to lack of support.  When asked what happened to the DishPlayer, a WebTV based satellite receiver, Mr. Perlman said that Microsoft was mainly interested in their Windows operating system and failed to support WebTV.  Mr. Perlman told ElectronicsInventions that this would NOT happen  with Moxi.  

     Many of today's modern homes are filled with entertainment devices,  including mp3 players, dvd players, video recorders,  high speed internet, satellite tv, and the list goes on and on.  Unfortunately too many people have these devices and really don't know how to hook them up or even control them.  Enter Moxi!  Moxi is a DVD Player, an MP-3 player.  It will have a 95 gig hard drive to record video programming.  It is a high speed Internet  router.   Moxi will be incorporated into satellite tv systems.  Dish Network is a development partner with Moxi.  Cost of the Moxi is expected to be about $500 for the central unit with units available for additional rooms.  So far Moxi  looks like a great idea, the concept is great, now all they have to make it work.  The Moxi Media Center operates on its own version of Linux with an interface based on Macromedia's Flash 5 Player.

       Mr. Perlman can be very proud of his new Moxi Media Center.  Even though the product is still in development it managed to win the Tech TV award for "Best of Show".  If it even comes close to doing what it is billed to be able to do, it should be a great success in the market place.