CONNECTIONS 2014
San Francisco
Crowne Plaza Amsterdam
May 13 -15, 2014
Attendance: 400
Exhibitors:est. 25
Media: 24
Calysto Overview
The annual CONNECTIONS events hosted by market research and consulting firm Parks Associates provide insight into emerging consumer technology trends. This year’s CONNECTIONS: The Premier Connected Home conference was held in San Francisco and drew 400 attendees who were interested in the Internet of Things (IoT), along with consumers and the connected home ecosystem.
Parks analysts typically present research at these events and this year, the firm’s findings show an interesting trend. In U.S. households with broadband, TVs are outpacing PCs as the key platform for Internet video. From the announcement: “In the first quarter of 2014, U.S. broadband households watched roughly 3 hours of online video per week on each platform, but the amount of online video consumed on a TV is increasing, up from 2.3 hours per week in 1Q 2013, while online video viewing on a PC is on a steady decline.” More data on how consumers watch video:
· 81% of U.S. broadband households watch video on a TV set
· 60% watch on a computer
· 31% watch on a smartphone
· 28% watch on a tablet
According to Parks Associates Director of Research Brett Sappington, “The amount of all video consumed on PCs has declined, dropping from over eight hours per week in 2013 to 6.2 hours per week now. Ultimately, consumers can more easily access online video options on a television than ever before. In addition to smart TVs, Blu-ray players, and game consoles, consumers are also buying streaming media players and devices such as Google’s Chromecast. Pay-TV providers are making a strong push to extend TV Everywhere to a variety of devices. These trends are converging to displace computer-based video consumption.”
Over the three days of this event, attendees heard views on the latest industry trends and findings from Parks analysts and executives in the connected entertainment and digital home technology industries. Keynotes came from G.W. Shaw, vice president, U-verse and Video Products, AT&T; Charles Cheevers, CTO, customer premises equipment, ARRIS; Joe Chow, vice president, GM – Connected Devices, Cisco; and Ken Durand, vice president, Innovation and Business Development, Ericsson.
The session tracks this year covered entertainment and access services; connected CE devices and platforms; digital content discovery and delivery; the smart home: security, controls, energy, connected health and the Internet of Things; mobile devices, content, and commerce: Delivery and Apps; and tech support services and strategies for the consumer.
There was a modest exhibition area, with approximately 25 tabletop displays. This year’s sponsors were Cisco, iControl, Amdocs, Lowe’s, Qualcomm, ADT and a few others.
Wrap Up
The Parks Associates CONNECTIONS executive summits have been around in various iterations for 18 years. These aren’t events to garner significant media coverage with new product and partnership announcements, but are good settings for networking, positioning your company as a thought leader through speaking slots and hearing from others in the industry about their insight into the IoT and the connected home.
And, for some additional insight, check out the following tweets (especially the last one).
Top 5 Tweets: #CONNUS14
Articles of Interest
Locking down home automation means locking out success
Tellus Venture blog
May 1`7, 014
Parks Associates: TV on track to succeed the PC as top platform for online video
Parks Associates blog
May 14, 2014
Video viewership declining on PCs
Broadband TV News
May 15, 2014
TV to succeed PC as top online video platform
Television Business International
By Andrew McDonald
May 15, 2014