Friday 28 November 2014

Remember The Name

10% luck
20% skill
15% concentrated power of will
5% pleasure
50% pain
100% reason to remember the name

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"Remember The Name" - Fort Minor

You ready?! Let's go!
Yeah, for those of you that want to know what we're all about
It's like this y'all (c'mon!)

[Chorus:]
This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!

Mike! - He doesn't need his name up in lights
He just wants to be heard whether it's the beat or the mic
He feels so unlike everybody else, alone
In spite of the fact that some people still think that they know him
But fuck em, he knows the code
It's not about the salary
It's all about reality and making some noise
Making the story - making sure his clique stays up
That means when he puts it down Tak's picking it up! Let's go!

Who the hell is he anyway?
He never really talks much
Never concerned with status but still leaving them star struck
Humbled through opportunities given despite the fact
That many misjudge him because he makes a living from writing raps
Put it together himself, now the picture connects
Never asking for someone's help, or to get some respect
He's only focused on what he wrote, his will is beyond reach
And now it all unfolds, the skill of an artist

This is twenty percent skill
Eighty percent fear
Be a hundred percent clear cause Ryu is ill
Who would've thought that he'd be the one to set the west in flames
And I heard him wreck it with The Crystal Method, "Name Of The Game"
Came back dropped Megadef, took em to church
I like bleach man, why you had the stupidest verse?
This dude is the truth, now everybody's giving him guest spots
His stock's through the roof I heard he's fuckin' with S. Dot!

[Chorus]

They call him Ryu, he's sick
And he's spitting fire
And mike got him out the dryer he's hot
Found him in Fort Minor with Tak
What a fuckin' nihilist porcupine
He's a prick, he's a cock
The type woman want to be with, and rappers hope he get shot
Eight years in the making, patiently waiting to blow
Now the record with Shinoda's taking over the globe
He's got a partner in crime, his shit is equally dope
You wont believe the kind of shit that comes out of this kid's throat

Tak! - He's not your everyday on the block
He knows how to work with what he's got
Making his way to the top
He often gets a comment on his name
People keep asking him was it given at birth
Or does it stand for an acronym?
No he's living proof, got him rocking the booth
He'll get you buzzing quicker than a shot of vodka with juice
Him and his crew are known around as one of the best
Dedicated to what they do and give a hundred percent

Forget Mike - Nobody really knows how or why he works so hard
It seems like he's never got time
Because he writes every note and he writes every line
And I've seen him at work when that light goes on in his mind
It's like a design is written in his head every time
Before he even touches a key or speaks in a rhyme
And those motherfuckers he runs with,
The kids that he signed?
Ridiculous, without even trying,
How did he do it?!

[Chorus - repeat 2x]

[Outro - Mike Shinoda:]
Yeah! Fort Minor
M. Shinoda - Styles of Beyond
Ryu! Takbir! Machine Shop!

Sunday 17 August 2014

Mobile banking.... literally

Dear Reader,

Way back in 2007 when I was in the middle of my MBA, I came across a B-School case contest by the magazine Smart Manager. The contest challenged managers to solve a very specific business/managerial problem. In this particular case, it was about outlining a business expansion plan of the retail banking firm of a large bank. While researching more about retail banking itself, one bank's (Royal Bank of Scotland) historical method of bringing banking to communities stood out (see the links below... you should be able to get more links by Googling 'Mobile branch banking').


Although RBS probably had different reasons to provide such a service back then, it seemed like an ideal way to expand banking services to customers and communities as a whole, for the case in question. Back in 2007, I felt this would be a good method for business expansion. However, the contest judges didn't seem to think so.

Nevertheless, years later the service continues to grow in Scotland and has also gone high-tech...
and they even publish a schedule of stops...

So, what could be some of the challenges that existing banks in India may face to launch mobile branch banking?

We've never done anything even remotely close to it...
Actually, you do. Most banks send cash strapped vans to ATMs around the city/town to stock the ATMs with cash. This is pretty much the same thing, just needs to go that extra mile.

We can't send branches to rural communities, what if the van is attacked and all the money is stolen?
Get the van insured, use bullet proof glass, keep the cash balance low, square off the cash balance when it gets high, plaster large blown up posters of your CEO's face on the sides of the van, and show videos of your CEO sashaying down a ramp in the fashion show or giving a भाषण on a news channel debate. Don't forget to put the video in an infinite loop and full volume for maximum affect... that will surely drive away the vandals.

None of my employees want to go on the roadshow...
Put them on a rotating shift with perhaps a once a fortnight roadshow duty. Make sure they also work at the nearest branch and are accompanied by a teller and an IT guy. One of them can also double up as an automobile mechanic and the other can double up as the van driver! Also, can the van be air-conditioned? and maybe have a small refrigerator to store food and even have a porta-porta-potty?

We can't afford iPads in vans... we don't even have them in our branch offices!
Sure... don't use iPads but make sure you have a good reliable network connection to sync up transactions and other data so that you don't lose any of it. Maybe having a Pico base station will do the trick.

We have invested heavily in true mobile banking, and are more-ons to a smartphone app, so why waste resources on mobile branches?
A smartphone app has its place... no doubt about that but not everyone has a smart phone. Also, to install an app, YOUR customer needs to first have Internet access, download a compatible app, and install it. Why not get your IT guy to install a compatible version of the mobile app in YOUR customers' phone when they actually visit the mobile branch. The IT guy could also trouble shoot any issues and help them understand how to use the mobile app even after the mobile branch has left their locality.

We don't have good road access to all rural areas and communities?
Humph...

I don't like the idea....
?

Easier said than done...
Absolutely. I guess that's why mobile branches have not found much traction in India. 


All said and done, at the end of the day a commoner may feel that you come in a fancy van, do the dance and just run away with their money! One can never say.

Regards,
Jyothin

Saturday 31 May 2014

Broaden your Broadcast Horizon

Dear Reader,

News of H.265 (or HEVC - High Efficiency Video Coding) have been flooding the multimedia market with numerous firms announcing solutions on both the encoding and decoding side. But the standard is yet to see wide spread adoption to the extent that new handheld devices are yet to ship with a HEVC decoder.

Why hasn't a technology like HEVC gone viral? Is the industry entrenched and invested in H.264 and MPEG-2 to such an extent that switching costs to HEVC are too high? who is most likely to benefit with a high quality of experience and a high compression ratio?

The abstract below attempts to provide a possible answer to the above question, with some fairly modest arguments and reasoning.

Feel free to comment in the comments section or drop me a note on your views.

Regards,
Jyothin




Introduction

We first start by examining the flow of media in a digital network from the time it is created/contributed till when it is consumed. We speculate on the quality and compression requirements at each stage of a media flow i.e. in the contribution stage, distribution stage and consumption stage. 

A Media Flow: is defined as the path that a media stream takes from the creation stage to the consumption stage. Examples include; 1) a local file playback is contributed and consumed at the same local node, 2) A YouTube video is contributed from a storage server, distributed via the Internet, passes through a network of nodes, and consumed on a client device, 3) the same YouTube video was contributed by a consumer on, perhaps, a handheld device and uploaded via the Internet onto YouTube storage servers., etc.

A Node: is defined as any element that is either used in the creation, distribution or consumption of media while at the same time being agnostic of the media type and/or mode of transport.

For the purposes of this blog, please refer to the 'Other Definitions' section below for additional definitions.

Media Flows

Media can be created at numerous ends of a media flow. Nodes that were traditionally considered as media consumers have now, also turned into media creators. With the advent of numerous services provided by companies like YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, Facebook, etc. to upload, store, stream and download content,  it has become more than easy for consumers to turn into creators. This shift in content creation has also seen a shift in consumption patterns of content that has traditionally been considered of type Broadcast.

Moreover, new market dynamics like OTT services are forcing service providers to monetize these services, which have traditionally been fuelled by advertising revenues.

Figure 4 illustrates an end to end media flow diagram as agnostic to where the content is created or consumed. Different flows have different quality, compression and storage requirements.

Offline media content, which traditionally accounted for a large portion of the media transport mode, is slowly being replaced with online transport modes. However, offline transport modes do not pose significant real-time encoding or transcoding challenges when compared to online modes of transport. They however do pose real-time decoding challenges.

Creator nodes are those nodes that either capture or create content or have access to pre-created content to send to a distribution node or consumer node. Media creators include nodes such as; (A) DSNG, studios; (B) handheld mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.), video phones, PCs/laptops, and other such similar nodes within an Enterprise network. 

A distributor node typically helps in only the transport of media, with or without a change in the quality/compression ratio of the media itself. Media distributors include nodes such as DBS, Cable, DTT, streaming servers/gateways, network switches, network routers, local headends, set-top box, residential/home gateway, DSL CPE, Wi-Fi router/access point, base-stations, and DVR/DVD players, etc.


Network Digram
Figure 1: A comprehensive media flow diagram

A consumer node typically consumes media by either displaying/rendering it for viewing purposes or storing for later viewing. Media consumers include nodes such as; A: digital televisions, B: handheld mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.), video phones, PCs/laptops, and other similar nodes within an Enterprise network.

Quality vs. Compression

A break down a media flow into different stages helps in examining video processing requirements at each stage by plotting a two dimensional chart; video quality requirements on one axis, and compression requirements on the other axis. The table below describes the nomenclature used in this blog.




Finally with this categorization we see which elements in a media flow are best suited for the adoption of HEVC 'first' which will then lead to adoption of HEVC in other stages, with an overall compelling advantage for using HEVC.

Quality-Compression
Figure 2: Quality vs. Compression trade off for various nodes in a media flow.


  • Creators (A): Typically would need to capture content at the highest quality to have minimum loss of information and detail. However, the captured content needs to be transported to a studio or post production center as efficiently as possible. For example, a live sporting event that is captured using high end cameras is transported via satellite to the studio for post processing and distribution. Hence I've positioned creators of type A with the need for high quality and high compression.
  • Creators (B): Content captured via handheld devices for upload to video servers will need high compression ratios in order to shorten the upload time as well as lower costs for the consumer. Hence  a need for higher degrees of compression is felt here while at the same time not sacrificing quality greatly.
  • Distributors: Being agnostic to the content format, such nodes will need to optimize bandwidth usage and hence need high compression ratios to pack more channels in the same available bandwidth.
  • Consumers: For the best quality of experience will need high quality content for playback and viewing. However, cost sensitive consumers will also need to keep an eye on their bandwidth usage to keep costs under control and hence the need for optimal compression.
  • Mass Storage: If the marginal cost of adding an extra Gigabyte of storage is higher than the marginal increase in content that needs to be stored then the need would be for higher compression. If on the other hand the marginal cost of adding an extra Gigabyte of storage is lower than the marginal increase in content then compression ratios can be sacrificed for storing high quality content.
  • Offline Distribution: Offline storage media being cheap it would make sense to storage high quality content for later viewing by consumers that anyway expect a high quality of experience from offline storage medium.

Conclusion

Maybe HEVC just needs that one viral video for it to go viral !!

Other Definitions

  • Media refers to audio, video and graphics but in this blog the primary emphasis is on video.
  • Media can be contributed/created at the any end of a media flow.
  • Media can be distributed via numerous transmission modes but here we primarily focus on digital mediums and digital modes of transmission.
  • Media can be consumed at any end of a media flow.
  • An "Enterprise Network" is any closed network that can distinctly be isolated from the Internet.
  • A "Short form" video is user-generated video and other video clips generally less than 7 minutes in length.
  • A "Long form" video is content generally greater than 7 minutes in length.
  • Video calling is video messages/calling delivered on fixed Internet initiated by smartphones, non-smartphones, and tablets.
  • Internet video to TV is video delivered through the Internet to a TV screen, by way of an Internet-enabled set-top box (for example, Roku) or equivalent device (for example, Microsoft Xbox 360), Internet-enabled TV, or PC-to-TV connection.
  • Live Internet TV is peer-to-peer TV (excluding P2P video downloads) and live television streaming over the Internet.
  • Internet PVR is recording live TV content for later viewing.
  • Ambient video are nannycams, petcams, home security cams, and other persistent video streams.
  • Mobile video is all video that travels over a 2G, 3G, or 4G network.

References

According to Frost & Sullivan, the market for video transcoding will grow to $630 million by 2017, up from $264 million in fiscal year 2012.

Models, models and more models...

"You! Yes, you! Stand still laddy!
.......
.......
.......
"If you don't have a model, you can't make an estimate. How can you make an estimate if you don't have a model?"

- The Wall

PS: Models don't always work (except if it is a model in the fashion industry!) and some would also say that all forecasts are wrong

PS: Here is a link to my Masters thesis - "Packet Data Network Traffic Modeling"