teach IT now - Quick Training for Today's Technologies

The Next Big Thing for Video

2012-01-13T00:15:00.000-05:00

It's the carrier's dirty little secret. More demand means more program flows. Problem is that there's only so much bandwidth. Something suffers. Can you think of what it is? It's video quality. It will get worse before it gets better. And the problem is that everyone, MSOs, TELCOs, CDNs, OTTs, and IPTVs will all suffer. What's worse is that we will be paying for intermittently degraded TV for a while.

At this point we can measure and analyze real-time video quality as it leaves the programmer and as it leaves the headend. There's talk about including a quality probe in every set-top box, but the messages that will flow back in the upstream will bring it to its knees. There's a cost for measuring too much.

So, where does that leave us? How about spatial analysis and reconstruction? It's a technique that seems a bit out of Roswell. It can rebuild an SD image into an HD, even a super HD image. If you're a member of the IPTV and OTT groups on Linkedin, you've seen samples. They are quite impressive. It is a game changer coupled with MPEG-4. This new compression technique actually improves quality and it's only going to get better.

But, with such a large embedded base of only MPEG-2 decoders, it may be a while before we see any real improvement. So, as we see more and more badly constructed compression, we better get used to more macroblocking, jerkiness, mosquito noise, and smearing.

Next, a look at the biggest contributor to poor video quality - Customer premise.

The Myth of Bandwidth

2011-10-22T10:16:00.002-04:00

TV is dead. Actually, the TV we knew as kids is dead. We no longer rush home to catch the latest episode of this or that. We've programmed it on our TiVo or DVR or better yet, we take out our tablet or smartphone and watch it wherever we happen to be at the time.

With all these video packets flying about, what is happening to our cable TV? Simple - Overcompression. Why? Because with more and more demand for high-speed access to the Internet, there's less and less bandwidth for MPEG-2 TV.

Now, you might ask, why don't the cable operators deliver all their programming over IP? IPTV has many advantages, and many MSOs (multiple systems operators, an acronym for the cable operators)have rebuilt their core networks to carry almost all their programming IP. It's the set-top-box that's the problem; over 65 million of them. These dinosaurs require video and audio in the form of MPEG-2 packets. Newer STBs, as they are called, can decode both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 packets. It's the MPEG-4 technology that uses less bandwidth and delivers a better quality picture.

It's MPEG-4 and other innovative coder/decoders that let us watch high definition TV on our PCs, Smartphones, tablets, and web-enabled HDTVs. MPEG-2? Well, let's just say it's like last month's milk - turning sour and it's killing the cable business.

Now, if MPEG-4 (MPEG-4, Part 10, to be specific) is so wonderful, why aren't we seeing more of it? We are...in Europe, Asia, Brazil...places where the existing MPEG-2 networks are few and far between.

But, let's get back to the original issue - worsening video and audio quality on regular cable TV.

Some basics:

Before IP networks, TV channels were carried within a six megahertz bandwidth. On a scope, this bandwidth resembled a haystack with evenly sloping sides and a flat top. remember, one channel occupied one six-megahertz "Haystack."

As demand for more and more channels hit the MSOs, they pushed the upper range of the broadband spectrum out from 550MHz to 750MHz to 860MHz and now past 1GHz. But, the cost of expanding the upper range, somewhat like adding lanes to a highway, is very expensive.

Adding the Internet to the cable system was even more challenging. How were we supposed to carry ones and zeros? Well, we knew how to carry Ethernet over coaxial cable; we modulated an analog carrier. ones and zeros in...which were used to rapidly change the analog characteristics of the carrier and then, at the other end were decoded back into ones and zeros.

This haystack was an analog carrier. We figured out what characteristics we could change using a stream of ones and zeros and discovered that we could generate a pretty high data rate. One problem - bit errors; the signals were getting corrupted because of the poor quality of the cable system. Like a poorly maintained hotel, the windows were drafty, the roof leaked, and we were always blowing fuses. If we wanted to rent out our rooms for a high price, we needed a renovation. It kept a lot of us employed for a decade.

OK, so most of the cable operators have upgraded and fixed physical sytems and improved the culture of quality. Sure, there will be spots in any system that need rebuilding, but all-in-all, the MSOs run pretty tight ships.

In a frustrating turn of events, just as the cable industry got its act together, the wireless industry developed WiMax and LTE, over-the-air two-way, high-speed technologies that rival cable modem speeds. And, the Telcos rolled out Fiber to the Home (FTTH).

OK, OK...what about all this overcompression?

So, you're a cable operator. Your sources of capital have dried up. Your cities and states are regulating you like mad, requiring you to do things that use up valuable bandwidth for no additional revenue. Your customers are demanding more HDTV programming and faster Internet access speeds.

What gives in this scenario? Video and audio quality.

Remember the haystack; that 6MHz "channel?" We can modulate that carrier and decode a bit rate of 38.8Mbps. A good standard television program can be digitized so that a rate of about 3.8 Mbps will be enough to run the decoder and regenerate the video and audio. This means that we should be able to fit 10 programs into the space of one. Many operators stuff eight, but some stuff twelve programs into that 6MHz carrier.

So, "big deal" you might say. "Cool!" Not so cool.

MPEG-2 has a few quirks. It requires very precise timing so the packets can be reassembled in order. Funny thing about MPEG-2, some packets carry the information that tells the decoder when pixels on the screen are supposed to move. If we lose that "motion vector" packet, the pixels, in the form of 8X8 blocks, just stay on the screen while the rest of the screen changes.

MPEG-2 is sensitive to timing and to data corruption caused by noise. Artifacts caused by overcompression become more observable as the effective data rate falls below 3.8Mbps.

Is there a solution? Yes.

I'll cover that in my next article.

Wonders and Mysteries of Social Networking

2010-04-21T08:00:00.003-04:00

For anyone just starting out with social media, the choices can be daunting. Where is the best place to invest my precious time? What shall I tweet or post? Is one enough? Are ten too many? How can I measure the effectiveness of a campaign of posts and tweets?

We hear these questions every day. These are the kinds of issues our clients face and I bet they are ones you ask yourself, too. Our answer..."It depends."

Before you jump in the pool, you need to ask yourself some challenging questions and be ready to develop the answers.

Stay tuned, next installment - The Top Five Questions You Need to Answer BEFORE you begin your Social Network Marketing.

Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin - Oh My!

2010-04-09T22:59:00.001-04:00

Just like Dorothy, you might feel swept up in a frenzy of marketing strategies. You can't stay up in the air forever. Sooner or later, you'll slam down on some poor unsuspecting client base and they won't know what hit them. The sad thing is that you'll never know how your landing impacted them.

Business marketing has a new paradigm - Social Networking. It's Web 3.0, the neural web, where you always know what your clients and prospects think about your company, its products, its services, and most importantly, its people.

Social Media Best Practices for your Business - It's not just the next wave, it's a Tsunami

2010-04-03T23:58:00.000-04:00

Are you ignoring the potential of social networking?

Case Study: A growing litigation finance company sales agent wished to expand her reach into her client base. She was making 100s of calls a week, mailing letters and brochures. She attended conferences. She needed to market with a personal touch.

We started her on the path. Facebook page first, Twitter second. Using Twitterfall (www.twitterfall.com) she started following the people in her universe. In every phone call she made she mentioned she was on twitter and facebook. In three weeks she went from zero to 225 followers, quality followers. She's converted conversations to sales. She's a "New Socialist."

Now, the reality...

Are you or your clients afraid of Social Networking for business? To some it's a security issue. To others, it's a legal minefield. For the IT department, it's a support issue. For the sales manager, it's too personal. But to the salesperson, it's nirvana.

We have to face it. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and the rest...you can't stop it. You can try, but this is the new marketing, the new socialism, and you either learn to control it or it your competition will.

Where to start....

1. Admit that your salespeople will text, Tweet, and Post.
2. Determine what's appropriate and what's not.
3. Follow their tweets and posts, coaching and praising.
4. Lead by announcing that your sales team is available via Social Networking.

Cautions:
The legal issues are still not well defined. Is a Tweet where a salesperson makes a statement to a client binding the company to deliver what's in the tweet?

Some ideas:
How about a corporate Twitter and Facebook client/server that runs through the firm's proxy? This way all outbound and incoming, direct messages could be monitored and intercepted if needed.

In Summary:
Don't go blindly into the social network, plan and act carefully.

Is eLearning failing its audience?

2010-02-18T16:31:00.000-05:00

Are you faced with demands from managers to "Get my people up to speed ASAP!" Are your timelines and budgets shrinking? Of course they are! If you are like most Instructional Designers, expecting to perform a needs analysis, define your client's Knowledge Skills, and Abilities and respective gaps, and develop a prototype and shake it out over time, you are living in the last century.

As wonderful as PowerPoint is, it has clouded the eLearning vision. Can we all agree that PowerPoint is NOT eLearning? One of my client's managers all screamed for PowerPoint to load on their LMS (Learning Management Systems) but the users begged me not to do it. When I slipped them a Flash simulation, accessible via a public website, that gave them the same information but was branchable and self-directed; they loved how they could find answers quickly and how empowered they felt.

My mantra? eSimulation!

Cheers,

Doug

Big Changes for 2010

2010-01-24T10:20:00.000-05:00

The challenge of 3D. What does this mean for cable TV and satellite? Is there enough bandwidth? Will this benefit Verizon (FiOS) over copper?
Microsoft Office 2010. Just when you thought it was safe to use Word, here comes a MAJOR shift in the office suite we all love and hate. Is Google Docs a real threat to Office?
Adobe Creative Suite CS5. Do away with all those plug ins and think - "They finally got it!" We'll see a lot more user-friendly WOW-factor stuff built right in to Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver.
e-Learning struggles for true acceptance. With drop-out rates still high across the board, will e-Learning ever win the hearts and minds of the masses? What has to change? Is it Management or Development that doesn't understand the mind of the user?

2009-12-06T22:13:00.000-05:00

ESSENTIAL TOOLS for 2010

Articulate
Engage

Engage is the package I've been waiting for. It will speed up production of snippets using the Media Tour interaction. I caution ISDs from using Interaction for Interaction's sake. Suggest that you use interaction ONLY when needed, not to act as a break in an otherwise boring show and tell. As you can see in the figure below, Engage offers quite a number of useful interactions.

Articulate Engage

Articulate Quizmaster

If your company or client already has an LMS, we don't see much use for this tool. It's more likely that you will be writing assessment questions on Excel templates which will be easily uploaded to an LMS like Sum Total or Lectora. While Quizmaker has LMS output options (SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC), your LMS team would still have to validate the Schema. Most of my clients with an LMS want me to use Excel templates.

Always ask your client first. If using Quizmaker can save your client time and money, do it.

Articulate Engage

Articulate Presenter

Turn PowerPoint into a Flash authoring tool with Articulate Presenter. One of the benefits we see is that now PowerPoint can be a usable storyboarding tool. Remember, just because you CAN add all this functionality doesn't mean that you SHOULD. Always assess the learning you develop based on the needed outcome and your client's budget for money and time.

Articulate Presenter Ribbon in PowerPoint

2009-07-25T19:54:00.000-04:00

EZLCMS, a Fully-Featured LCMS at Bargain Prices!

Looking for an affordable SCORM Compliant LCMS? Look no further. We recommend EZLCMS.

This powerhouse of an eLearning application is Software as a Service at its best. EZLCMS lets you develop your lessons using a wide variety of applications and instantly generate a SCORM (1.2 or 2004) compliant course.

Don't believe it? Try it yourself. Get a trial today.

Here's what we've used it for...

1. Storyboarding

2. Asset repository

3. Quick and Dirty eLearning, OK we admit it, we use PowerPoint.

4. Large-scale deployment (up to 2500 simultaneous log ons)

5. Refresher scenarios and quizzes

6. Mastery training

Is Training Rebounding?

2009-07-19T10:13:00.000-04:00

Is business getting better for training professionals? Here in South Florida, the buzz is getting louder. "We need ISDs!" We need Technical Writers!" In the past, when companies felt that the upturn was about 6 months away, that's when they:

scrapped old business practices,
streamlined with new practices and technology,
trained their existing staff on the new stuff, and
built tools to use for new employee training.

So, smart companies are investing in training.

Now is the time to let your clients know about this simple method so that they will have a leg up on the competition when demand picks up.

How to sell training

We examine ouselves to determine if our message is getting across to our prospects.

We so-called training professionals like to think we have an edge over a manager who finds herself (or himself) facing a team of depressed and nervous people. What we have that they don't have is insight and objectivity.

We have the luxury of observing. We have the luxury of listening. We have the opportunity to take what we see and hear and convert it into beneficial action.

If you had seven seconds (14 words) to explain the benefit you offer to your client, what would it sound like? This simple phrase is your mission, it defines why you do what you do.

Now, use no more than four words for a tag line. Ours is "Accelerate success!"

Finally, the next time you are talking with a prospect and they ask you to describe who you are and what you do, just repeat the tag line first and then your mission. Then ask, "What challenges may I help you solve today?"

2009-02-22T17:51:00.000-05:00

What Are We In For?

In researching how economists and business owners responded to the depression,and the recession of 1990-92, I've been reading two books. The first, by Stuart Chase, is titled The Nemesis of American Business, Macmillan, 1931. Chase was the man who coined the phrase, "A New Deal." This book is a collection of his essays from a variety of business magazines of the day. While a bit naive and self serving, Chase's insights into the problems of his day are worth a re-read. The second book I am devouring is by Murray Raphel and his son, Neil. It was published during the last major economic storm of the early 1990's. It is titled Tough Selling for Tough Times, Raphel Publishing, 1992.

What is most fascinating is that Chase took a positive view of what had to be done to fix the problem, both economically and socially and the Raphels took a positive attitude in order to entice their readers that they had nothing to fear but fear itself (sorry for that, it seemed so apt). Neal Raphael and his team have updated the original to cover some of the challenges that did not exist in 1992. I recommend all my readers to take a look at this practical guide for thriving in today's economy, Business Success in Tough Times, Raphel Publishing, 2009.

Regards,

Doug

Sorry for the delay

2008-06-27T11:23:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been some time since we posted something here. We've been busy, busier than we've ever been in our history.

1. We are providing guidance and development for a powerful business in the financial services industry (yes, there are some shining stars out there). They have us analyzing their business processes, documenting them, automating them, and writing the training materials so they can scale their business.

2. We are still engaged with Jones University/NCTI in developing field manuals for the broadband industry. So far, we've covered MPEG and are now finishing up advanced digital devices.

3. Along with NCTI, we've uncovered a big gap in guidance and practice when it comes to the cable industry's roll out of business-grade telephone service. Standard telephone company industry guidelines, designed over the past 50 years to protect both the network and customer equipment are NOT being put into practice. Heck, they are not even known or taught. We are working with the major standards bodies to get everyone talking and implementing best practices to ensure reliability, accuracy, and quality.

4. Our Social Networking guidance is quite popular. We've been invited to talk at a local Rotary club lunch next month. Even with 30 Million people on Linkedin, there is a bit of confusion on how to use it, especially in these tough times.

5. New eLearning applications continue to pop up. TechSmith released Snagit 9 and Camtasia Studio 5. Our initial evaluation of Snagit 9 has us scratching our heads. We like the library approach but miss the speed of 8. Also, 9 has a glitch so that the one-click feature dissapears at random. For now, if you have Snagit 8, wait until the bug are fixed before moving to 0.

6. Illiteracy in the workplace continues to get worse. We are seeing major complaints from new clients who want to lift the professionalism of their workforces. This concern covers emails, general correspondence, report writing, "Death by PowerPoint," reviews, blogs, texting, and other forms of communications. We're working on it but feel it is another result of a permissive approach to managing employees and not following through on managing expectations. We can hold remedial classes all day, but the real answer is can managers really motivate their employees anymore to be the best they can be? We think we know how to help them.

All for now.

Don't have time to read 1000 words? Use TagCrowd

2008-06-27T11:11:00.000-04:00

Face it, we are always strapped for time. Today somebody suggested I look into Perceptual Control Theory - PCT says that how we perceive changes to our environment determines our behavior. To get a better idea about PCT I found Dr. Powers' talk about it from 1990. It was quite long and instead of reading through, I copied the text and pasted it into http://www.tagcrowd.com/ the result is shown in the illustration to the left.

teachITnow presented at SFTA event

2008-06-27T09:12:00.000-04:00

Last night, about eighty people showed up for our talk on Linkedin and other social networking tools that help to build a brand on the Internet.

With more and more companies trying to understand what it means to be "Web 2.0," last night allowed us to share our experiences in developing our brand.

I would like to acknowledge Jay Berkowitz and his 10 Golden Rules of Internet Marketing, too. Jay spoke at the May event and his suggestions are working for me and teachITnow.

Much of what we presented last night was a result of that investment in time.

I hope this event was valuable to all. At the SFTA we strive to make workshops like this relevant to our membership, so please tell me what else you would like to hear about.

You can download the PowerPoint we used at www.teachitnow.com/SFTA.

It's Monday and we're farming for great links.

2008-06-16T22:15:00.000-04:00

We just got this link off of the Teach and Learn Online group on Google. It's worth a look.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/textbookdisclaimers/textbookdisclaimers.pdf

Some groups we suggest include:

Teach and Learn Online (TALO) - Google Groups
trdev - Training and Development - Yahoo Groups
elearningDev - Yahoo Groups

Hot New Links:

Looking for the right video tutorial? Stop searching each video site one at a time. Use this valuable tool from video fetcher.

http://www.videofetcher.com/search_screen.cfm?s=eLearning

While we love LinkedIn for its social networking among professionals, we also like Spoke.com
It is like Hoovers on steroids. You get access to email top leaders of thousands of companies.

www.spoke.com

2008-06-12T00:51:00.001-04:00

ASTD Ft. Lauderdale Chapter Meeting
Tonight I met a great crowd of people. I learned a lot from them as my talk on e-Learning unfolded. We had a small intimate discussion about what was going wrong in their attempts to design, develop, and deliver e-Learning. Some shared their own experience in using it effectively. What struck me was that we all still need to keep the conversation rolling along until we understand how to convince our teammates about the value of well-written e-Learning.I promised to provide a link to the PowerPoint slides. Here it is in pdf format. Click here to load in Acrobat Reader or right-click and select target as... to download and save.Thanks again for a great evening!

teachITnow to Present at ASTD Chapter Meeting

2008-05-27T23:32:00.000-04:00

ASTD June Chapter Meeting
Speaker: Doug Marlowe
Topic: What's Wrong with My e-Learning? or "Please Click Next to Continue."
Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Time: 5:30 - 8:30 pm
Location: Crowne Plaza Hotel Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise

Doug will present a paper on "What's Wrong with My e-Learning?" The talk will cover the pros and cons of e-Learning in light of its history and use in business over the last 20 years.

For more information, go to http://www.astdftl.org/.

Business Writing Redux

2008-05-25T00:23:00.000-04:00

A curious thing happened last month. I was asked to teach a course on business writing to a local hospital's IT department. It seemed that the IT Director was sick and tired of reading illiterate memos, reports, and letters. Her biggest complaint was that her people had forgotten how to write a formal letter with concise paragraphs. In addition, spelling, punctuation, and grammar were in need of CPR.

The first step in fixing a problem like this is to get everyone to agree on a standard reference book. The book I chose to use as a text for the course was the Business Style Handbook, by Helen Cunningham and Brenda Greene. In addition, I like to use The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin.

Well, it took about six hours and we covered punctuation, grammar, spelling, formal and informal styles, writing exercises, discussion, discussion, and more discussion, especially about how to separate the new-speak of texting from the business-centric world of a professional life.

I'm hoping that the result of the workshop was that the participants came away with a commitment and confidence to write better. The feedback immediately after and a few weeks later was very positive.

In closing, everyone can benefit from learning (or relearning as the case may be) proper English usage. If we allow ourselves and our employees, managers, and coworkers to abuse the language, then we allow our society to descend into babble, where neither of us truly understands what the other is saying.

Comments?

2008-05-25T00:03:00.000-04:00

Training in the UK

In March, I went to the UK for a month-long training assignment for a major telecom company. In four weeks I visited over a dozen sales offices in Scotland, England, and Wales. It was my third time over and I have to say I had been unimpressed before. Training overseas has its unique challenges. In Scotland, the dialects take some time to decipher. In England, it's their wicked sense of humor, and in Wales, it's both.

But as I said, before, the UK seemed grayer, dismal, lazy and stubborn. This time I found a new energy. The learners were enthusiastic, engaged, attentive, supportive, and motivated. In addition, management was firmly behind the initiative and once I started training, the news of my visit traveled fast.

In each of my training assignments to the UK, I've attempted to blend classroom, self-paced, and e-Learning together. So far, the feedback is this, "Ditch the CBT and give us classroom training with web-available simulations."

Works for me and when I showed them their software simulation, they ate it up and it spread like wildfire across 600 sales desks.

A month-long assignment seemed like forever when I landed in Heathrow Airport in London. It went fast, too fast.

Some tips for England Travel
1. Avoid Heathrow - Try Gatwick instead
2. Always buy your train tickets before 6PM the day before
3. Tipping is not common, but I still did it.
4. Avoid the fast-food restaurants, too expensive. Try the all-night take-aways instead. Personally, I rent an apartment/flat with a kitchen and stock up at Sainsbury's or Tesco. Eating out gets to be a bore after a few days.
5. Edinburgh - The George Hotel - Outstanding
6. Newcastle - The Royal Station - Victorian decay but close to everything
7. Birmingham - The Home Serviced Apartments on Granville - Outstanding, even amazing
8. London - The Chelsea Cloisters - Quiet, clean and comfortable in Kensington.
9. Avoid Heathrow, I can't say it enough and avoid British Airways, too.
10. London - Harrods is a must. I felt like I was five years old.
11. London - Portobello Road is the place for gifts.
12. London - Walk everywhere.
13. Fall, Winter, Spring, everyone wears a scarf. Get a long one and don't tie it, loop it.
14. Visit Stratford-on-Avon and see Shakspeare's grave.
15. Watch footy (football) especially Manchester United.
16. F--K is a common adjective, adverb, verb, and other colorful parts of speech.

Learning Office 2007

2008-01-26T09:30:00.000-05:00

We have been asked recently to hold a class for a company about to move from Office 2003 to Office 2007.

Just when you thought it was safe to try something new, here comes mass confusion. We expect tears, screaming, fist fights, and a number of resignations.

Office 2007 is one of the most advanced office suites to hit the market in a decade. We love it but... and this is a big BUT, you are going to feel stupid the first 20 times you open it...maybe 50.

Now, you may be asking, what's so different?

Everything! The most common shortcut icons are gone (but you can put them back), the menus are now iconized with fewer drop down choices. There are way more clicks to get anything done but there is way more control over what you are doing. And don't get us started on the new amazing features...throw away your Photoshop and Corel!

Initially, you will tell yourself, "%^$*&" and stare at the screen in disbelief. Even the snotty kid with the tattoos and nose piercing in IT won't be able to help you, even your 14-year-old daughter won't be able to help you (as if she would anyway). You are on your own...but now you have us - TeachITnow. We're experts on Office 2007 and are teaching it in class in South Florida right now.

More to come, maybe screenshots and links to our vids on Youtube.

later---Doug