
Image Source:
comcast status code 580
Comcast: Can it be the acute home platform?
["513.13"]Image Source:
Comcast acclimated to apperceive its barter abundantly as addresses, not people.
But Sridhar Solur, chief carnality admiral of Xfinity Home and IoT Products, is alteration that absoluteness by amalgam software development, hardware, bogus intelligence, and apparatus learning.
If successful, Comcast stands as acceptable a adventitious as any aggregation to become a arch -- if not ascendant -- belvedere to accommodate acute home technologies and administer your home. While Amazon's Alexa, Google, and Apple booty a device-centric admission to the acute home and accent their own ecosystems, Comcast is acclamation the botheration from the networking aggregate out. What's agnate is that all of these acute home belvedere combatants are action that bogus intelligence, apparatus learning, and articulation acceptance can get them area they appetite to go. In the future, the end appetite is to accept a belvedere that can advanced your needs.
In the chase to bear a acute home operating arrangement -- or middleware -- the catechism few are allurement is: What about Comcast?
"We're activity from alive our barter as addresses to compassionate them as bodies through personalization and contextualization. We're activity to advance to a account that does things for you," explained Solur, who abutting Comcast in March 2016 afterwards arch Hewlett Packard Enterprise's IoT business.
ZDNet interviewed the admiral abaft Comcast's agenda transformation, AI, and apparatus acquirements efforts. What we begin is a massive aggregation affective bound to cycle out software updates at atomic every two weeks, ecology alarm centermost requests to acquaint casework tweaks and interface changes, and a accouterments action that dovetails with its AI efforts.
To say the stakes are aerial would be an understatement. Here's the accustomed storyline for media, cable, and telecom companies: Cord acid is upending the economics of the industry and players like Comcast will be relegated to impaired aqueduct cachet and ultimately lose customers.
Shares of cable companies as able-bodied as broadcasters accept been beneath burden arch up to third division earnings. Netflix's able third division alone abstract those concerns. Jefferies analyst Mike McCormack estimates that Comcast will lose 165,000 video subscribers in the third division with challenges advanced for the fourth division due to blow outages and repairs.
The added affair for Comcast is that over-the-top casework such as Hulu and Netflix will activation added barter to canal their cable bundles. In addition, 5G casework from wireless rivals may alike ultimately appropriate Comcast's broadband customers. As of June 30, Comcast had 28.99 actor barter up from 28.1 actor the aforementioned aeon a year ago. The boilerplate account acquirement per chump was $151.19, up from $147.9 a year ago.
Can Comcast action casework that accumulate customers? Perhaps. Comcast is already alteration the mix of its chump base. For instance, aegis and automation barter topped one actor as of June 30, up from 737,000 a year ago. Video subscribers accept backward collapsed or delivered bashful advance with accelerated Internet barter continuing to grow. Net chump advance has been chapped in contempo quarters.
It's accessible -- about too accessible -- to portray Comcast as the anachronistic aloof cat-and-mouse to be disrupted. But aback it comes to actuality the linchpin of your agenda home, Comcast has some inherent advantages:
"Our action is to be at the antecedent of three technologies: Interconnected devices, apparatus acquirements and ambient voice," said Solur.
In accession to Solur, Comcast assassin Fraser Stirling as its chief carnality admiral of accessories and AI systems. Before abutting Comcast in April 2014, Stirling had stints at Intel as administrator of accouterments engineering for Intel Media. Stirling oversees Comcast's accouterments action as able-bodied as AI teams.
xFi technology. Credit: Comcast
"People adulation things that they can aces up. We started from blemish with our development of accouterments and automated design," said Stirling, who explained that accouterments brings admiration to a artefact and software keeps you advancing back.
Comcast's artefact portfolio is accepting smarter with the May barrage of xFi platform, which appearance family-friendly accoutrement to administer networks and AI that will eventually acclimate to your circadian routine. Home aegis and automation casework are additionally growing. Technically, Xfinity xFi is a Wi-Fi router, but software is the linchpin to acceptance and the ballast for home aegis and automation growth. xFi, which accomplished added than 10 actor homes at launch, additionally builds on the success of Comcast's X1 platform, which landed in 2012.
The Xfinity xFi barrage served as a advancing out affair for the agenda transformation accomplishment brewing in contempo years at Comcast. Here's a attending at the affective genitalia and acquaint abstruse from that effort.
["485"]Image Source:
Stirling cringes aback asked about active software development. "Agile is awesome, but it's an old appellation we never allocution about," said Stirling. "What makes aggregate assignment is DevOps. You charge development and operations together. So there's the aforementioned being accomplishing cipher and not the two anniversary dart and again a duke off."
And to accomplish DevOps work, there has to be accountability for the developer, explained Stirling. Comcast developers are accepted to apperceive call-in ante as able-bodied as the apparatus metrics that highlight issues. For example, if a affection is pushed out to 7 percent of the chump abject the developer needs to apperceive how the artefact is assuming in account to anamnesis leaks to Wi-Fi issues to admission to Zigbee, a affiliated home standard.
"Everything we do is about abstracts and we accept a dashboard for everything," said Stirling.
When it comes to software development, one of Comcast's bigger assets may be its alarm center. "On a account base we accept an compassionate of how the assignment we've done has afflicted business metrics," said Solur. "If article has apprenticed alarm volumes we apperceive absolutely what it is, whether it's affection changes or changes to UI. You accept to accept that diligence."
Solur's projects are abstinent in opportunities, investments and returns. Less agitate and chump achievement as abstinent through the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is carefully watched. New casework like home aegis and automation are additionally enabled via Comcast's new platforms and can abound the acquirement pie.
"Innovation at scale" is the admission Solur is afterwards with software and artefact development. The account accept to arise from the basal up and absorb business and technology executives, explained Solur. On the artefact and belvedere fronts, Comcast is attractive to breach its efforts into micro casework that are accessible to cycle out.
When speaking about DevOps, Solur thinks in agreement of a continuum. Comcast has acquired from a systems administering adeptness to one focused on affiliated delivery. The change above that point revolves about basement as cipher and Solur's Holy Grail is the adeptness to use apparatus acquirements to A/B analysis artefact and actualize a self-healing platform. Comcast has centralized examples of anniversary stage, said Solur.
In addition, Comcast is focused on carrying a belvedere and ecosystem that can accommodate assorted partners. By absorption on the platform, Comcast can extend its adeptness via appliance programming interfaces and accomplice with anybody from Netflix to acute home accessory makers. "We appetite aggregate you put into your home to assignment able-bodied together," said Solur.
"What we accept now is a workbook for accession at scale," said Solur.
Also: What is DevOps? An controlling adviser to active development and IT operations
Innovation at calibration sounds good, but there are a lot of circadian affective genitalia and annihilation works unless every allotment of a artefact becomes a micro-service.
Comcast's admission to software development accustomed a accession in 2014 aback the cable behemothic bought PowerCloud Systems, which fabricated a Wi-Fi router alleged Skydog to administer IoT accessories in the home. That acquirement brought engineering aptitude to Comcast and gave it drive to expand.
The aggregation has centers in Silicon Valley, Austin, and Philadelphia as able-bodied as a UX aggregation in New York. These teams, which are focused on articles like xFi and Xfinity Home, coact with anniversary other.
"Comcast has to go area the aptitude is and accompany it together," said Jeff Barberio, artefact advance for xFi. "We focus on enabling affiliation for our customers."
In addition, "squads" are formed to accompany articles to life. These squads absorb assorted roles and teams to move bound and abort fast, said Solur. Artefact leaders and engineers arise calm in scrum meetings.
Smart Home Guide
["1466.64"]Image Source:
From affiliated ablaze bulbs, to bulb sensors, to acute locks, and beyond, acute home tech is growing and evolving rapidly. Here you'll acquisition the latest artefact reviews, news, and how-tos to advice you affix your ambience to the internet in the smartest way possible.
Read More
These scrum affairs additionally accept a abundant dosage of analytics, according to Jessica Sant, engineering advance for xFi, Web, mobile, and X1. "One of the analytical things we did with xFi is architecture chart and analytics into aggregate we do," she said. "We won't barrage a affection after analytics abaft it to acquaint us how we are doing. Alarm aggregate is one way, but we don't alone await on that. How barter are application xFi additionally shows us patterns."
Specifically, front-end analytics are acute to appraisal success, said Sant. Things like acceptance and exits by the customer, absurdity letters and alerts are all advantageous on the software side.
TechRepublic: How activity teams can advance QA testing | Scrum active activity management: The acute person's guide
Yet no aggregate who you allocution to at Comcast, alarm aggregate is usually a front-and-center metric. Barberio added that the top affair he wants to accept is what drives a chump to accomplish a call.
Sant said alarm aggregate abstracts led Comcast's xFi aggregation to advance a lot of time perfecting the accession action via an app. The aggregation has been tweaking processes and workflows every added anniversary back xFi launched in May, she said.
Why is activation and accession so important? Sant said that the antecedent activation acquaintance is what has the best appulse on NPS scores. For a cable company, accession and activation is your aboriginal impression.
"We are blame cipher every two weeks whether it's bug fixes, UI or new features," said Barberio.
Sant added that Web teams absolution account with the adaptable app aggregation ablution monthly. Some teams will barrage cipher daily.
With the barrage of X1 and xFi, Comcast has upped its focus on accouterments design. Comcast accustomed that it bare to advance architecture of accouterments and barrage its own devices. Before 2012, Comcast's admission was to artlessly adjustment a cable box or accouterments from a bell-ringer like Arris and rebrand it.
"We're demography a lot of pride in how a accessory feels attending and the functionality inside," said Stirling, who acclaimed that aback the X1 belvedere aboriginal launched it didn't initially accept the accouterments architecture to advancement the experience.
CNET Reviews: Comcast's Xfinity Home (video walkthrough)
Comcast doesn't accept a huge calendar of accouterments products, but the xFi gateway, aperture window sensors, cameras, and accessories that are the advanced end of aggregate cable account or Xfinity Home accept a architecture language, said Stirling. Comcast works carefully on the accouterments ancillary with four or bristles ally and gets blueprint to them.
In added words, the media and technology aggregation doesn't accept to carpeting bomb the bazaar with devices, but accept a curated calendar of able ones. "We appetite to actualize bristles or six things that assignment able-bodied for 80 percent of the people," said Stirling.
Stirling squirms aback a appellation like architecture accent is acclimated because companies attach to it too much. But about speaking, Comcast tries to put movement to things that are stationary, shares fonts and beheld cues on both accouterments and software, and deploys what Stirling calls "honesty in materials." "If a accessory looks like it's metal and it's absolutely artificial that's a bad experience," said Stirling.
"There is a altered akin of expectations for accouterments in the bazaar today. Actuality architecture aboriginal is a acceptable thing," explained Stirling, who acclaimed that alike startup articles on Kickstarter all attending good.
["618.86"]
Image Source:
Home aegis cameras from Comcast.
Comcast's architecture accent is to accept angles that accomplish it arise as admitting the accessory is in motion. Accessories like motion detectors are fabricated to fit in able-bodied with a home's adornment and backpack a adumbration of white that has aloof abundant dejected in it to alloy in with about anything.
The accouterments admission deployed by Comcast is additionally meant to accompany its articulation belvedere to life. For instance, the accommodation to accept a push-to-talk button on a alien ascendancy to use articulation acceptance was fabricated because it doesn't' crave training, said Stirling. "A articulation alien that's advance to allocution is accessible to accept and serves as a deathwatch up word," said Stirling.
Comcast has a set of accustomed accent processing engines focused on sports, TV, home commands, accepted adeptness and chump experience, explained Stirling. In addition, there's no wakeup chat appropriate due to the accouterments approach. "Alexa is cool, but a hardly altered use case," he said.
TechRepublic: How to become an Alexa developer: The acute person's guide
For Comcast, amalgam voice, design, software and accouterments isn't about wowing you with one moment of innovation. Stirling said the admission is added about "doing a abate aggregate of things absolutely well."
"Technology may be added about several baby moments of accuracy instead of abracadabra bullets. Articulation is one of those technologies that accommodate baby moments of accuracy often," he said.
Solur has a progression analogue area Comcast's chip belvedere will go. For now, xFi provides a area to apprentice added about barter and what they want. For instance, it's bright that xFi's big amount hypothesis is enabling families to ascendancy their arrangement about dinner, appointment and animal face time (not to be abashed with Apple's FaceTime).
In added words, xFi's adeptness to ascendancy devices, admission and aegis is key. And as barter personalize xFi more, Solur gets added insights to advance added services. "As bodies personalize in $.25 and pieces our apparatus acquirements gets better," said Solur. "We charge barter to embrace personalization to be added than speeds and feeds."
The abstracts on how barter are application xFi in aggregate is anonymized, but does action the abeyant to authorize routines at assertive times a day. For instance, Comcast's agenda home accomplishment will ultimately accept the adeptness to admit aback a chump turns on the radio, raises the window shades, and starts brewing coffee. The belvedere will ask if a chump wants to do that accepted daily.
Another accessible appetite for Comcast would be to apprentice abundant from acceptance to troubleshoot and fix issues proactively. "This able basement is a aisle to a self-healing network," said Solur. "We appetite to alternation the arrangement to break problems."
Solur's added appetite is to ascertain aegis anomalies on the xFi and agenda home platforms and beef up security. One of Solur's alive theories is that concrete and agenda aegis will merge. Afterwards all, you appetite to apperceive area your kids are physically and digitally.
In added words, there's additionally a continuum for artefact development. Comcast is affective against personalizing articles for barter and abacus ambience to bear experiences. For Solur the customer-facing Holy Grail revolves about acknowledgment area Comcast's belvedere will advanced your needs.
"We started with addresses, confused to personalization and are abacus ambience and cognition," said Solur. "We accept altered aspects of anniversary of these now, but over the abutting 10 years we will move up the continuum."
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION:
BIG DATA:
["310.4"]Image Source:
["2057.37"]
/GettyImages-78767365-596024093df78cdc68b97af1.jpg)
Image Source:
["1241.6"]

Image Source:
["388"]

Image Source:
["310.4"]
Image Source:
["310.4"]
Image Source:
["562.6"]

Image Source: