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The SlingModem: cable modem plus Slingbox

(Credit: Sling Media)

EchoStar will be officially unveiling the SlingModem at next week's Cable Show trade event in New Orleans. As the name suggests, the product combines a standard DOCSIS cable modem and a Slingbox media placeshifter--which transmits live TV broadcasts to Windows PCs, Macs, and a variety of smartphones--in one compact housing. If it sounds familiar, it's because the product was soft-launched at January's Consumer Electronics Show (following several online appearances at various enthusiast sites). The SlingModem will be sold directly to cable providers, who will then sell or lease the product to their customers. Exact price and availability weren't disclosed.

Having the SlingModem in the AV rack would be potentially helpful for the increasing number of consumers using network-capable devices for home entertainment (TiVo, Apple TV, and all three game consoles, for instance). ... Read more

Updated at 11:45 a.m. PDT with Dish Network's statement.

Another court has upheld TiVo's patent suit against EchoStar Communications.

A U.S. Appeals Court on Friday denied EchoStar's appeal on an earlier court ruling that said the company's Dish Network digital video recorders violated a patent held by TiVo. The ruling was first reported by Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection blog.

Friday's appellate court decision comes two years after TiVo's initial victory, in which a court found that EchoStar's DVRs (digital video recorders) "willfully infringed" on TiVo's patented TimeWarp technology. EchoStar appealed the ruling, which awarded $73.9 million in damages to TiVo. It was also upheld by an appeals court in January.

Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo first sued EchoStar in 2004 for selling its Dish Network DVR, which, like TiVo's DVR, allows TV watchers to record one channel and watch another simultaneously.

"We are extremely pleased that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today denied EchoStar's petition for a rehearing en banc, upholding the court's unanimous ruling in our favor on January 31, 2008, in EchoStar's appeal of the district court judgment of patent infringement, full award of damages and an order for the injunction to be reinstated," TiVo said in a statement.

EchoStar said it was "disappointed" by the court's decision not to rehear its appeal. "The decision, however, will have no effect on our current or future customers because EchoStar's engineers have developed and deployed 'next-generation' DVR software to our customers' DVRs," the company said in a statement. EchoStar said the updated software has been delivered to its customers and that none of the DVRs currently infringe on TiVo's patent, and promised that customers will see no interruption in service as a result of the ruling.

EchoStar, which has since changed its name to Dish Network, said it plans to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is just getting silly.

The makers of the popular Slingbox have been promising the SlingCatcher for almost a year and half now. And once again, the projected release date will come and go quietly.

Sling Catcher delayed again. This time, they're crossing their fingers for a release date sometime before the end of this year.

(Credit: Sling Media)

Gregg Wilkes, vice president of sales for Sling Media--which is now owned by EchoStar Communications--told a frustrated customer in an e-mail that the goal to release the device during the second quarter of this year will not be met.

Wilkes writes: "Will the catcher ship in Q2? No. We are upgrading the user experience and making enhancements to the feature set. These may or may not all ship at the same time. Will the Catcher ship in '08? All indications point to this happening in 2008."

The SlingCatcher is a set-top box, separate from the Slingbox, that brings video content from a Slingbox to another TV in a house, or from an external hard drive. The SlingCatcher also lets users project Web content to a TV screen, either wired or wirelessly, through an application called SlingProjector.

The device was originally introduced at CES 2007, and shown again at CES 2008, which was when Sling was floating the Q2 time frame.

Could satellite TV provider Dish Network be planning to build a mobile TV service with its newly won 700Mhz spectrum?

That's the question that many analysts were asking after it was disclosed this week that the company, also known as EchoStar Communications, spent $711 million for a block of licenses in the auction that is ideal for offering mobile broadcast TV, according to a Reuters story.

The much-talked about auction ended Tuesday raising about $19.6 billion for the government. Wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless won the bulk of the spectrum.

The licenses that Dish bought were in the 6MHz sliver of spectrum called the E-Block. Because these licenses cover such a narrow band of spectrum, it would be hard for Dish to build a broadband wireless service to transmit two-way communication. This means that building a cellular phone or wireless broadband service using this spectrum is nearly impossible. But the spectrum could be used to send communications one-way, making it ideal for services such as broadcast TV.

Qualcomm already owns spectrum that is adjacent to the spectrum that Dish bought. Qualcomm uses its spectrum to deliver its MediaFlo TV mobile broadcast TV service. Qualcomm had also been bidding in the auction and was attempting to get the E-Block licenses. The fact that it wasn't able to get those licenses is a negative for the mobile technology company.

"It makes more sense for one provider to operate both pieces of spectrum," Steve Clement, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities told Reuters.

Dish hasn't said yet what it plans to do with the spectrum. Some analysts in the Reuters story speculate that it could cost the company between $3 billion and $5 billion to build a mobile TV network. The company said in a financial filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February that it might "make investments in or partner with others to expand our business into mobile and portable video, data and voice services."

There's also a possibility the company could work with Qualcomm.

Dish bid on the spectrum through its partner Frontier Wireless.

One of the largest satellite TV providers is slicing itself into smaller pieces.

Formerly called EchoStar, it will be split into two businesses: the satellite broadcast service will be called Dish Network, and its fixed satellite services and set-top box business will be called EchoStar Holding Co., according to SEC filings dug up by GigaOm.

(Credit: Dish Network)

Current chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen will retain both titles as head of both companies.

EchoStar Holding Co. (EHC) will include Sling Media, which was bought by EchoStar in October for $380 million. The Slingbox is now one of several set-top boxes that EHC could possibly sell to other cable operators or other satellite companies.

There had been rumors earlier this year of AT&T being interested in buying EchoStar, and Dish Network as its own business could be easily snapped up by the cable operator.

FOSTER CITY, Calif.--Some of Sling Media's peers and competitors applauded the company a day after word came that it had been acquired by EchoStar Commmunications for $380 million.

At the IPTV World conference here, attendees said they were happy to see a fellow Silicon Valley company striking pay dirt. Many of them also said they owned a Slingbox, the hardware that beams shows from a home TV to anywhere in the world an owner might be.

"This is an excellent outcome for the Sling Media guys who really executed well," said Ward Williams, vice president of marketing for iChip India, an IPTV start-up. "They did a good job of taking what is essentially a great feature and communicating to consumers why they needed the service. For the rest of us, deals like this are encouraging."

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) describes the distribution of digital content to televisions over broadband networks. A score of companies are here showing off their wares and exchanging estimates on when mass adoption may finally arrive. Another reason for the sector to feel encouraged is that Sling Media's acquisition is a sign that big media firms may be eyeing the sector, according to Conleth O'Connell, chief technology officer for Vignette, which develops content-management software.

O'Connell recalled hearing News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch say in a speech that the public has grown weary of information traveling down a one-way street. Murdoch said, according to O'Connell, that everything from video sharing to blogging indicates that consumers want some control over information.

"The Slingbox is inside a person's home but allows them to send their TV experience outward," O'Connell said. "We had all better listen to what consumers are telling us. They want this notion of sharing. In the future they'll want to send a favorite TV clip to a friend or community. In the past, the direction of information has gone one way: from broadcasters to viewers."

Buying an IPTV property may provide media companies with a way to help users become more interactive with content, but Henry Choy, a video and TV analyst with Jon Peddie Research, said Sling Media offers EchoStar a chance to branch into a mobile market without having to depend on others.

"EchoStar is a satellite company and they don't have the broad access that the telcos or cable guys do," Choy said. "This is clearly a way for EchoStar to appear in any device they want. They don't have to rely on AT&T or other carriers. If you have Slingbox you can see EchoStar programming anywhere you want. It moves EchoStar out of the home. "

Provided it works, cautions Choy.

He points out that the Slingbox is a beautiful way to distribute content when there's enough available bandwidth. He argues that anybody who owns a Slingbox knows what it's like to see grainy or choppy images due to an overtaxed network.

Choy predicts that as compression technology improves, bandwidth will be less of a concern. When that happens, it's going to be tough to compete with the Slingbox. While many IPTV companies are trying to combine traditional TV with Internet video, most of the Web's top video sites would love to offer premium TV shows.

"Rather than having to look for Web content," Choy said. "It's much more compelling to watch the exact same content that you have at home."