All Articles Tagged Fcc

Robert Archer | 02/20 06:55 AM,

For several years electronics professionals have offered homeowners lighting control systems as a convenient way to manage their homes' energy consumption. About the same time installers started to offer lighting control solutions the lighting industry began to push compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL), and to a lesser extent LED lighting solutions. The only problem with CFL and LED lighting products however during this period was that they generally weren't compatible with the advanced lighting control systems installers were offering. Home Automation, Inc.'s (HAI) new Omni-Bus Lighting Control Network series of… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 02/09 08:55 AM, 4 Comments

The cable companies are pathetic, and the FCC is too if it accepts a proposition from MSOs to encrypt basic cable channels. Currently, cable companies must offer the most basic stations – usually broadcast channels – to its customers free of charge, without requiring a set-top box, i.e., without encrypting the signals in such a way that a proprietary box from the cable company is needed. Now the cable companies (MSOs or MVPDs) are lobbying the government via an FCC proposed rule-making for permission to encrypt the signals and thereby… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 07/15 08:42 AM, 4 Comments

The FCC has taken it upon itself to develop (possibly mandate) a replacement to the current CableCard standard for digital cable content. With the blessing of such giants as Best Buy, Google, Sony and Mitsubishi, the new AllVid platform would accommodate all manner of content – including cable, satellite and most notably IPTV – and support a number of payment and DRM plans. The cable industry says go away, FCC. Former FCC chairman Michael Powell now heads the cable consortium National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA). In a letter to… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 12/27 09:26 AM, 34 Comments

The Internet is broken. Billions of dollars of infrastructure lie fallow. Factories continue to churn out ever more books and discs and other archaic pieces of media that overwhelm our landfills. Americans isolate themselves without access to world news, affordable communications … and streaming Netflix. Yeah, right. The Internet in America is in such shambles that we need government to rescue us. The FCC is rising to the occasion! On a 3-2 vote, the commission passed a rule (pdf) that prohibits Internet providers from blocking or slowing access to legal… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 10/01 04:10 AM, 3 Comments

There you are watching “As the World Turns” in your slippers, sipping a hot cup of cocoa when a big bald guy starts screaming some nonsense about shiny floors, ruining the moment for you and waking up your baby to boot. Say goodbye to those too-loud commercials. The U.S. Senate passed a bill (S. 2847) on Wednesday that would ban the practice of running ads at a higher volume than the TV shows they disrupt. The bill would require the FCC to regulate broadcasters on the matter. TV stations themselves… View this story