By Andy Marken

I don't bother watching vampire, werewolf or zombie TV shows because they're myths, folklore passed down for generations.

I do watch alien shows because everyone knows those suckas are real! And I watch them on my TV OTT (over the top) because it's real.

But Cisco, Ericsson, Alcatel, AT&T, Verizon and all the bandwidth lustors say bunches of people are running around watching TV on their smartphone ... the rest want to.

By Andy Marken

1973 was a big year for my kids and they weren't even born then.

It marked the beginning of the mobile world they can't live without.

It changed the business of business ... forever.

IBM's Palo Alto Scientific Center introduced a cute big thing called SCAMP (Special Computer APL Machine Portable) which was the forerunner of the portable computer which became the ultralite notebook.

Of course, it probably weighed a freakin' ton, but it was portable.

By Andy Marken

With the content industry in an era of rapid transformation, AJA Video Systems showed NAB attendees it isn't just one of the best disk recorder producers around, it's also destined to be on the cutting edge for cinematographers.

At its press breakfast, Nick Rashby, AJA President, proved that he and his team have been listening to customers by unveiling the company's new CION 4K cinema camera, which should be available for delivery mid-year.

By Andy Marken

Content was king at this year's NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), especially 4K content.

While all the servants of the king jockeyed around to see who was going to be the favorite court jester, most didn't pay a lot of attention to the power of the throne ... Queen Storage.

That's right, without Queen Storage; content would be mere fleeting bits/bytes that disappeared into the atmosphere.

By Andy Marken

"You have this incredible confluence of a medium coming into its own just as the technology for that medium is drastically shifting. Studios and networks who ignore either shift will be left behind," Kevin Spacey, star of House of Cards, recently wrote regarding the fading importance of cable/satellite, compared to OTT (over-the-top) streaming content.

If you weren't careful, you might have missed that Samsung introduced an awesome new smartphone at MWC (Mobile World Congress).

A few others introduced some very excellent smartphones, but Samsung had come to Barcelona to play.

O.K., technically, it's a phablet – larger than a smartphone, smaller than a tablet – but it was awesome.

True, a few experts said phablets would fail miserably because no one would want to carry such a big stupid thing around to use for just everything.

By Andy Marken

Being a social media guru, expert, ninja, maven, genius used to be a great gig.

No one had a clue what you did but you were freakin' awesome.

Admit it, even you didn't know!

It came fast and is dying fast because people are finally figuring out that social media was unleashed on the world for folks – friends, family, similar mindsets/hobbies – to connect with other folks.

Of course, then the people who came up with the social media ideas decided they wanted to make buckets of money and began offering companies landing/loading space and the opportunity to sell the information they had gathered on the visitors.

By Andy Marken

You probably never thought much about why Google bought YouTube or why they're building out fiber in the U.S. and putting wireless blimps up in Africa.

Maybe it's their unofficial motto, "Don't be evil."

Or maybe it was because they could see around the corner that video wasn't going to just be big, it was going to be huge. And to view it properly, you need really big pipes.