Posted in Commentary with tags Roku on September 12, 2024 by itnerd
Amid the growth in TV streaming, more Canadians than ever before are craving the best of both worlds – on-demand TV, and live and scheduled programming historically associated with cable TV (58 per cent of Canadians, up from 56 per cent in 2023). This is according to Roku’s fifth annual Video on Demand (VOD) Evolution study examining Canadian TV streaming behaviours and trends.
In the past, consumers streamed TV on-demand as a replacement for cable. Today, with new and innovative solutions in streaming programming, those consumers are reverting to more traditional viewing habits, enjoying the convenience of live and scheduled television. On-demand content still makes up a majority of TV streamers’ collective weekly viewing time (57 per cent), but more than a quarter of streamers’ time (28 per cent) continues to be spent with live TV programming.
With ongoing economic challenges, including the rising cost of living, many Canadians are continuing to cut down on discretionary expenses like entertainment. According to the study, 58 per cent of Canadians say the everyday cost of living will be their biggest concern over the next few years. As a result, cost-effective ad-supported TV streaming options have become a mainstay in Canadians’ home entertainment arsenal. According to the survey, 46 per cent of Canadian TV streamers now use at least one ad- supported subscription TV streaming service, compared with just 31 per cent in 2023.
TV streaming advertising trends for 2024
There’s an uptick in TV streamers taking measurable actions after viewing an ad (74 per cent as compared to 70 per cent in 2023). The top three responses include:
Visiting a brand’s website, online store, or app after seeing an ad (42 per cent, up from 38 per cent in 2023).
Searching online for more information about the product/brand while continuing to watch TV (41 per cent, up from 36 per cent in 2023).
Using Google/Apple Maps to work out where to find the brand, in-store (29 per cent, up from 23 per cent in 2023).
Canadian TV streamers like creative diversity when it comes to the ads they view, with 82 per cent of TV streamers preferring every ad they view to be different (up from 77 per cent in 2023).
Over the last five years, more TV streamers (45 per cent) indicate that they are more likely to pay attention to ads that reflect or are relevant to their mood (up from 42 per cent in 2023).
43 per cent say they prefer when TV ads match the tone of the program they are watching (up from 38 per cent in 2023).
Who are the “addressable streamers” and how are they watching?
For the first time since the study’s launch in 2019, brands can reach the majority of TV viewers – not just on-demand TV streamers – through ad-supported streaming platforms. For advertisers, these “addressable TV streamers” are incredibly important – and make up more than two-thirds of the TV streaming audience.
Over half (55 per cent) of TV viewers – up from 44 per cent in 2023 – are now addressable TV streamers (streamers who use ad-supported TV streaming services in an average month).
Addressable audiences are more engaged than all TV streamers as a whole – eight out of 10 addressable streamers have responded to a TV ad.
Addressable TV streamers spend more time in an average week with ad-supported on-demand TV streaming compared to all TV viewers (8.9 hours with ads vs 5.9 hours with ads).
Addressable Canadian TV streamers’ content and viewing trends
On an average weekday, 32 per cent tune into live TV during “breakfast” (6 AM-10 AM).
52 per cent are watching on-demand TV streaming with ads, on-demand TV streaming with no ads (50 per cent), and live TV (45 per cent) during “Prime Time” (6 p.m. – 10 p.m.).
64 per cent rated crime/investigation/police dramas as their #1 genre preference in the drama genre (up from 59 per cent in 2023).
62 per cent rated blockbuster Hollywood movies as their #1 genre preference for general entertainment (up from 59 per cent in 2023).
To learn more about the study, and to download the full report, please click here.
About Roku’s VOD Evolution Canada Survey
Roku’s annual Video on Demand (VOD) Evolution study examined Canadian TV streaming behaviour and trends. This is Roku’s fifth study of Canadians’ TV streaming habits and an update to its research in 2023. Like those, this study is based on the results of an online survey of Canadian adults aged 18+ who use the internet and watched TV at least once in the last month. Fuse Insights research commissioned by Roku took place between June and July 2024, with a sample size of 2,001 Canadians nationally in English and French representative by age, gender, and geography.
Posted in Commentary with tags Action1 on September 12, 2024 by itnerd
Action1 has released their latest survey taken by 250 IT leaders from educational institutions in the US and UK, to assess their readiness in combating growing cyber threats. Results showed a stark wake-up call for the education sector: 64% of school IT leaders warn ransomware threatens education quality.
Highlights of the survey:
78% of schools lack a dedicated cybersecurity specialist, making it challenging to effectively manage cybersecurity and respond to threats
44% perceive a moderate risk, highlighting widespread concern about potential disruptions to teaching and learning that ransomware can cause
84% of IT leaders are not confident in the overall cybersecurity readiness as moderate or slight
Posted in Commentary with tags OWC on September 12, 2024 by itnerd
Other World Computing today announced two groundbreaking product launches at this year’s IBC2024. During the event, taking place September 13-16 at the Auditorium Complex at the RAI in Amsterdam, OWC will unveil its latest innovations — the new Jellyfish Studio and Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 SSD.
Visitors to OWC’s exhibit in Hall 7, Stand 7A.60 will have the opportunity to see firsthand how the new, cost-effective Jellyfish Studio redefines media-centric workflows with its enterprise-level performance, unmatched redundancy, and user-friendly management software. Tailored specifically for content creators and filmmakers, as well as media professionals, Jellyfish Studio delivers first-of-its-kind features that simplify collaboration and increase productivity, including:
Enterprise Ready — Powered by a Linux OS and ZFS File System, Jellyfish Studio combines file system, RAID, and volume management in one – offering a fast, secure, and scalable storage solution
Easy Setup and Management — With the Jellyfish Manager, users can easily set up, manage permissions, and connect to the cloud with just a few clicks – while Jellyfish Connect ensures secure access to assets from anywhere
Specialized Media Software — The Jellyfish Media Asset Management (MAM) and Jellyfish Media Engine provide powerful tools for media organization, transcoding, and remote access – enabling teams to work seamlessly from ingest to delivery
In addition, OWC will be unveiling the new Envoy Ultra SSD, a cutting-edge Thunderbolt 5 SSD that promises to set new standards in speed and performance. Tailored to meet the needs of media and entertainment professionals today and tomorrow, the Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 SSD is:
Faster than Fast – Revolutionary speed over 6000MB/s…up to 2x faster than Thunderbolt 4 and USB4.
Machine Maximizing – Gets the most speed possible from Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, and USB4 machines.
Ready for Anything – Easily handle daily data needs to pro-level creative projects while matching internal storage performance.
Versatile – Works with Macs, PCs, iPad Pros, Chromebooks, and Surface devices.
Rugged – Water-resistant, dust-resistant, and crushproof.
Convenient – Bus-powered with built-in Thunderbolt cable.
The new OWC Envoy Ultra will be available in 2.0TB and 4.0TB capacities for $399.99 and $599.99 respectively. It is available now for pre-order and will start shipping in late October.
First-Time Showcasing at IBC:
OWC will also be displaying several innovative products for the first time at IBC2024, including:
OWC Express 1M2 — compact, high-performance storage solution designed for professionals on the go
OWC Thunderblade X8 — ultimate external SSD for demanding workflows, offering unparalleled speed and reliability
I sat on this story for a while before posting it this morning because I wanted to see what the aftermath of Donald Trump’s disastrous debate with Kamala Harris in terms of the value of Trump Media stock after a full day of trading. Because one of the things that makes this stock a meme stock is the association of the stock with Donald Trump himself. Which in my mind isn’t a good thing because any drop in Trump’s perception means that the stock could potentially tank. And because of his disastrous debate on Tuesday night, this happened to the stock on Wednesday:
So the stock which was kind of in free fall as I’ve reported here and here took a 10% nosedive yesterday. That’s got to hurt as it takes the value of his stake in the company to below $2 billion. Not exactly chump change. But it’s a long way from the roughly $9 billion when the stock was at its all time high of over $70 a share. And you have to believe that it’s going to continue to go down further either by the fact that it hasn’t hit bottom yet, or the fact that Trump will likely cash out on the 20th of September which will make sure that the stock hits bottom in a hurry as he needs the cash to deal with his various “issues” shall we say.
Get your popcorn ready as the crash of this stock is coming. Perhaps sooner than anyone thinks.
Posted in Commentary with tags CISA on September 12, 2024 by itnerd
In a Federal Register posting yesterday, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) said that it would adopt the CISA-designed Cyber Security Evaluation Tool, a voluntary program created to help organizations “in identifying, detecting, protecting against, responding to, and recovering from cyber incidents”.
The FHWA said it’s adopting the tool because it’s often called in to deal with cyber incidents with federal and state agencies “whose primary missions revolve around securing critical transportation infrastructure,” and this should streamline the process.
“The FHWA provides subject matter expertise to those agencies in identifying potential physical and cybersecurity threats and appropriate mitigation efforts.
“When presented with physical or cybersecurity questions, concerns or incidents from State, local, Tribal, and Territorial transportation authorities, or other stakeholders, FHWA routinely assists in connecting these entities to security-focused government agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the posting states.
The announcement comes after the Transportation Department solicited public feedback on the tool in March. The goal was to avoid building a duplicative cyber tool and to take advantage of the work already done by CISA.
“The Federal Highway Administration’s decision to adopt a streamlined cybersecurity evaluation tool is a prime example of how leveraging existing frameworks can prevent inefficiencies and unnecessary complexity. Rather than reinventing the wheel, organizations are empowered to strengthen their cybersecurity posture without overwhelming their tech stacks or stretching resources thin. This kind of inter-agency cooperation fosters resilience by aligning efforts, avoiding redundant solutions, and ensuring that critical infrastructure is protected from evolving threats in a cost-effective manner. Ultimately, the collective defense approach is key to sustainable, effective cybersecurity.”
This is a move that will reap benefits in the long term. Hopefully this is something that other sectors copy and implement because more robust cybersecurity with a consistent approach to delivering cybersecurity is always better.
Arcitecta, a creative and innovative data management software company, today announced it is expanding its data management ecosystem with three new solutions that address today’s dynamically changing and increasingly distributed data and workflow environments: Mediaflux Multi-Site, Mediaflux Edge and Mediaflux Burst.
The new solutions enable users within geographically dispersed workforces to collaborate more efficiently, spend far less time waiting for data when it’s needed and avoid unnecessary investments in compute resources when usage times peak. They exemplify Arcitecta’s evolving ecosystem of advanced data management capabilities that ensure data is moved to the right location for the right user at the right time, accelerating innovation, discoveries and business outcomes. Arcitecta will showcase the new solutions, bundled with Dell PowerScale and ECS/ObjectScale, in the Dell Technologies booth #7.A45 at IBC2024, September 13-16 in Amsterdam.
Transmitting data over distances has become commonplace for organizations with increasingly distributed workforces, leading to latency and application performance issues. Content production organizations, such as those in media and entertainment, that operate on a global scale, often face hurdles accessing shared data and resources in real-time, hindering collaboration and productivity. Organizations’ data compute services are vital to modern workflows but often face resource challenges to meet peak usage demands, which can drive excessive budget allocations and poorly utilized capacity.
Arcitecta’s Mediaflux Multi-Site, Mediaflux Edge and Mediaflux Burst enable organizations to solve these challenges and more:
Mediaflux Multi-Site – A Single Global Namespace for all your Data: Streamlines data management and facilitates global data accessibility, collaboration and project completion. It enables widely distributed organizations, including those operating across multiple countries, to overcome the hurdles of accessing shared data and resources in real-time or near real-time. These organizations often need “follow the sun” pipelines where data can efficiently move across networks and transparently arrive at its destination, regardless of where the expertise, talent or computer resources are located.
Mediaflux Multi-Site allows customers to choose between two options depending on their workflow requirements and the distance between locations, to achieve optimum data movement and fluidity: 1) a global file system (GFS) that leverages the power of a single global namespace, and 2) a federated file system (FFS) that uses multiple independent synchronized namespaces for data sets that are separated by greater distances – across oceans, for example. FFS is especially beneficial for content and creative organizations such as visual effects production, where teams may collaborate between New York and Tokyo, or Los Angeles and the United Kingdom.
Mediaflux Edge – Consolidate, Centralize, and Optimize Your Data Across the Globe: Dramatically reduces redundant data transfers, eases network traffic and meets applications’ low-latency requirements. Using a hub-and-spoke model for caching data at the edge, it enhances application performance and eliminates unnecessary end-to-end data transfers by keeping frequently accessed content close to users – at the edge where individual users and their devices reside. Mediaflux Edge keeps data safe and secure, maintaining a copy of the data within a central repository to provide a full recovery capability should a threat or unplanned event occur at the edge. It also allows organizations to realize the cost efficiencies of centralized hubs, while enabling edge users to run applications at full speed without overprovisioning multiple data centers.
Mediaflux Burst – A Hybrid Solution for Data-Intensive Burst Computing: Enables organizations to meet peak usage demands cost efficiently, avoiding unnecessary budget spend on underutilized compute resources. Peak usage demands for compute resources can differ significantly from daily operational requirements. Mediaflux Burst allows organizations to expand access to compute resources and processing power in the cloud or any another site that has additional resource availability, when they exceed their current on-premises computing resources. Traditionally, computing power and data storage were closely linked, with tasks performed near storage for efficiency. Mediaflux Burst breaks this paradigm by decoupling computing from the data’s location, allowing it to be stored for optimal cost or security, while computing tasks are optimized for performance or scalability.
Availability
The new Mediaflux Multi-Site, Mediaflux Edge and Mediaflux Burst solutions are available immediately and can be purchased from Arcitecta, Dell Technologies or any Dell reseller. For more information, contact talk@arcitecta.com.
As ransomware incidents continue to grow, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 has discovered a new ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group. Unit 42 has released research on the group, Repellent Scorpius, and how they’re distributing Cicada3301 ransomware.
Highlights include:
Based on the timeline from a Unit 42 IR engagement, it’s estimated that the ransomware group began their operations in May 2024
Despite its recent inception, the group is quickly picking up pace by setting up an affiliate program and recruiting partners. This has increased its number of victims
Repellent Scorpius employs a double extortion scheme of encrypting systems. This entails stealing data and threatening to publish it if the victim doesn’t pay the ransom
You can find the full report here which provides more insights into the new attack group and attack strategy.
DomainTools recently published their latest blog exploring how threat actors are taking advantage of this growing retail sector and how their activity can be “clustered” to help organizations defend themselves. The various clusters include:
E-commerce Domain Fraud
Brand Impersonation for Financial Fraud
Success Sadly Has a Thousand Cousins
The retail sector faces not only the broader threats that businesses more generally face such as ransomware, phishing, and BEC, but threats that try to leverage brand loyalty.
Posted in Commentary with tags OWC on September 11, 2024 by itnerd
Spoiler alert: If you want a fast and high quality portable SSD that will fit a number of use cases, and will likely survive a zombie apocalypse, the OWC Envoy SSD is the one that you should get. You can stop reading the review now.
I’m just kidding. This is why I feel that way. Let’s start with the size of the drive:
I put this SSD next to a mouse so that you can get an idea of the size. It’s tiny. In fact, my wife saw this and said that she could carry a couple of these in her purse. It’s made of aircraft-grade aluminum which makes it not only rugged, but it dissipates heat as well. In fact, during my testing, it was warm to the touch versus other SSD’s of this type that can get very hot to the touch. It’s also very light. On my wife’s kitchen scale it was 45 grams.
The drive comes with a cable and OWC didn’t cheap out on it as you can see here. This cable which is about a foot in length, does 60W power delivery and up to 20 Gb/s in speed. I am pointing this out because this is one area where companies often cut corners. OWC not only didn’t do that, but they went overboard in terms of the cable that they provide. Thus that has to be noted as a big plus.
The drive is bus powered and is USB-C only with a light to right of the USB-C connector. That means that it has a theoretical maximum speed of 10Gb/s.
OWC quotes a speed of “over” 1000MB/s for this drive. As you know, I take any speed claims for any device with a grain of salt. But when I tested this drive, I was pleasantly surprised:
The read speed is pretty close to 1000MB/s, and the write speed is above that speed on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro. Thus I can see this drive doing better than the speeds I got. It also means that OWC wasn’t just throwing a number into the product’s web page to get your attention, and hoping that someone like me wouldn’t call them on it when those speeds didn’t measure up to reality.
Another interesting thing that I want to point out is this:
If you look at the top right corner of this picture, you’ll see a picture of the drive rather than some generic macOS icon. It’s a little thing, but a nice thing.
I’ll also note that the drive comes with a piece of software called Drive Guide which will help you to format it for anything from APFS for use with modern Macs, to exFAT for cross platform compatibility, to HFS+ for older Macs. What’s nice about this is that it saves novice users from having to figure out how to use Disk Utility on Mac to format the drive. OWC also has an app called Copy That Mobile to copy photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to the drive. I am pointing that out because using this drive with a phone that has USB-C like the iPhone 15 series is a use case that I can see this drive being used in.
The OWC Envoy comes in 1 and 2 terabyte sizes. I have been using the 1 terabyte model and that’s $129 USD. The 2 terabyte model is $249 USD. And I have been impressed enough by this drive that it is going into my Tech Sling as part of the toolkit that I bring to customer sites. It’s small, fast, rugged and decently priced. Simply put, it checks all the boxes for me. And I believe it will check all the boxes for you as well.
Posted in Commentary with tags Apple on September 10, 2024 by itnerd
Something that I noticed yesterday is that Apple Maps transit support has quietly been improved. It now has the ability to see transit options like buses in real time relative to your location. This was rolled out in Tokyo a month ago, but it now seems to be live in the Greater Toronto Area.
Let me demonstrate.
Let’s say that I want to go from my current location which is a client’s office in Mississauga Ontario to the nearest Home Depot. I enter that into Maps and here’s what I get:
You’ll note what looks like a WiFi icon next to the words “Bus departs at 1:51 PM.” That indicates that it is getting live updates about the location of the bus from the relevant transit operator. In this case, MiWay which also known as Mississauga Transit. If I click on that I get this:
If you look at the third item from the top where it tells me to board the MiWay 39 bus, it has the same icon with the word “More” next to it. Clicking more takes me here:
According to this the bus is “on time”. But there’s one more party trick that I noticed:
If you see the blue bus icon that has the text “50s ago”, that’s a semi live look at where the bus is as I watched it move on the Map. That way, you know roughly where the bus is so that you can ensure that you are at the right stop when it arrives. Alternately you can also see if the bus is running late for whatever reason, which would allow you to make alternate arrangements. That’s pretty cool. I’ve only tested this with MiWay and TTC (Toronto Transit Commission), but it is possible that this also works with other Greater Toronto Area transit operators. If you try this, feel free to drop a comment below and share what you’ve discovered.
The only bad news in this is that apps like Citymapper and Transit may have had their careers ended by this move. But that would depend on how good this addition to Apple Maps really is. Time will tell on that front.
Live and scheduled TV streaming on the rise in Canada Says Roku
Posted in Commentary with tags Roku on September 12, 2024 by itnerdAmid the growth in TV streaming, more Canadians than ever before are craving the best of both worlds – on-demand TV, and live and scheduled programming historically associated with cable TV (58 per cent of Canadians, up from 56 per cent in 2023). This is according to Roku’s fifth annual Video on Demand (VOD) Evolution study examining Canadian TV streaming behaviours and trends.
In the past, consumers streamed TV on-demand as a replacement for cable. Today, with new and innovative solutions in streaming programming, those consumers are reverting to more traditional viewing habits, enjoying the convenience of live and scheduled television. On-demand content still makes up a majority of TV streamers’ collective weekly viewing time (57 per cent), but more than a quarter of streamers’ time (28 per cent) continues to be spent with live TV programming.
With ongoing economic challenges, including the rising cost of living, many Canadians are continuing to cut down on discretionary expenses like entertainment. According to the study, 58 per cent of Canadians say the everyday cost of living will be their biggest concern over the next few years. As a result, cost-effective ad-supported TV streaming options have become a mainstay in Canadians’ home entertainment arsenal. According to the survey, 46 per cent of Canadian TV streamers now use at least one ad- supported subscription TV streaming service, compared with just 31 per cent in 2023.
TV streaming advertising trends for 2024
Who are the “addressable streamers” and how are they watching?
For the first time since the study’s launch in 2019, brands can reach the majority of TV viewers – not just on-demand TV streamers – through ad-supported streaming platforms. For advertisers, these “addressable TV streamers” are incredibly important – and make up more than two-thirds of the TV streaming audience.
Addressable Canadian TV streamers’ content and viewing trends
To learn more about the study, and to download the full report, please click here.
About Roku’s VOD Evolution Canada Survey
Roku’s annual Video on Demand (VOD) Evolution study examined Canadian TV streaming behaviour and trends. This is Roku’s fifth study of Canadians’ TV streaming habits and an update to its research in 2023. Like those, this study is based on the results of an online survey of Canadian adults aged 18+ who use the internet and watched TV at least once in the last month. Fuse Insights research commissioned by Roku took place between June and July 2024, with a sample size of 2,001 Canadians nationally in English and French representative by age, gender, and geography.
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