Championing better broadband for New Zealand 2016 / ISSUE 1

NEW TUBE

Online video has exploded. At home, work and school.

What does it mean for you and for New Zealand?

VIRTUAL REALITY GIGABIT BROADBAND ‘WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN’ Brought to you by Next generation Why we really need Lightbox’s video is here that speed Kym Niblock Contents 2016 / ISSUE 1

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THE NEW HEART WHEN GIGABIT ISN'T OF THE HOME FAST ENOUGH We all know smart High-speed internet expert devices are changing Stefaan Vanhastel talks about how we live. But we the future of fibre, and why even ain’t seen nothing yet. gigabit speeds won't be enough.

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COVER STORY: NEW TUBE The impact of online video is so much more than just the Netflix effect. It's a whole new way of looking at 6 business, health, education – even Government. 14

REGULARS

1 2 LIFE, CAMERA, ACTION Editorial In brief Amy Adams wants broadband Pay-as-you-go sport; our new 19 to be our fourth utility. We agree international pipes; mobile Video is in demand. We that’s the ideal: fibre as the new broadband; solving neighbour access talk to nine (real) New electricity. But how close are we? disputes – and more. Zealanders – doctors, teachers, business people, local government and community leaders – about OPINION 16 how video is transforming 16 their working lives. Kurt Rodgers – Chorus If you think video is great, just wait until virtual reality becomes mainstream.

18 Kym Niblock – Lightbox 29 The content landscape is THE BENCHMARK increasingly crowded and The Download crunches the numbers customers more discerning. But underlying our digital economy and that’s not a bad thing. online culture.

thedownload.co.nz The Download | Editorial 1

Age of Editor Nikki Mandow Editorial Consultant Gilbert Wong Broadband Chorus Editorial Consultants New Zealand's fourth utility Ian Bonnar, Steve Pettigrew Account Director LauraGrace McFarland Communications Minister Amy Adams’ recent invited into the city to see practical demonstrations of Designer Julian Pettitt announcement that broadband is to be treated as the how electricity could transform their dull household Photography fourth utility (alongside electricity, water and gas), chores. Electric water heaters, washing machines, Robin Hodgkinson, Isabella Harrex got me delving into the parallels between broadband kettles, irons, toasters and more were all on display to a Publisher and electricity. And at the risk of seeming the saddest presumably sceptical public. Vincent Heeringa person you know, I’m just a little obsessed. Less sceptical was an Auckland Star reporter who The trouble began when I discovered a site called wrote, in 1924, under the headline “Age of Electricity”, “Papers past”, a fully searchable National Library that “Each day sees some fresh use for electricity

archive of digitised old newspaper articles. Browse discovered. Conservative though man is supposed to “electricity” and you get a treasure trove of articles be, there is something about this power which breaks Published by Tangible Media, about the early days of power in New Zealand – and a down all barriers or impediments to progress.” ICG Ltd. PO Box 77027, Mt Albert fascinating insight into Which brings me back Auckland 1350, New Zealand the process by which to broadband, and to what www.tangiblemedia.co.nz the latest, whizz-bang extent we can (or should) technology becomes ...That’s where The Download think of it as a utility. as exciting as, well, comes in. We conceived the We are, surely, past the electricity. That is, not “What is broadband?” exciting at all. project as a way to generate stage, but still far from Most of us don’t exactly a conversation around the “broadband, yawn” The Download is championed by understand how electricity purely functional phase. Chorus what fast broadband can PO Box 632, Wellington 6140 works, and we don’t care Broadband is still www.chorus.co.nz that we don’t understand do for New Zealand – and eminently desirable. Half – though we do complain not just in terms of new of all New Zealanders use The contents of The Download when it doesn’t work. In the internet for more than are protected by copyright. Please the developed world, we three hours a day; 76% feel free to use the information entertainment options. in this issue of The Download, take electricity totally for watch TV via the internet. with attribution to The Download granted; it is, as the word And that’s where by Chorus New Zealand Limited. “utility” suggests, functional rather than exciting. It has The Download comes in. We conceived the project Opinions expressed in The not always been that way. I’d bet Mrs Smith of Reefton as a way to generate a conversation around what Download are not necessarily those of the publisher or the editor. (the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to get fast broadband can do for New Zealand – and not Information contained in The electricity, I discovered) danced a little jig of joy when just in terms of new entertainment options. We saw Download is correct at the time she flicked on her light switch in 1888 and jettisoned innovative people and organisations in business, of printing and while all due care her dull, flickering candles. She probably got a wee education, medicine, the voluntary sector and and diligence has been taken in the bit excited when she got her first electric kettle in the government using fast fibre broadband to drive preparation of this magazine, the publisher is not responsible for any 1920s (her morning cup of tea without having to stoke economic and social growth – and we wanted to mistakes, omissions, typographical up the range), her first fridge in the 1930s (no more highlight that, as well as give insights into what the errors or changes to product and rancid meat in summer) and her first TV in the 1960s future will hold. service descriptions over time. (at last, she doesn’t have to listen to Mr Smith droning We wanted to be a forum to discuss some of the on all evening). issues arising from the Government’s broadband But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the new scientific rollout, and some of the solutions. advance. “What is electricity?” asked the Otago Daily Most of all we wanted to be part of a movement Connect with us Times. And in 1893, after the trustees of Wellington that will do us out of a job. Like Amy Adams, we know Facebook.com/ChorusNZ Hospital debated “the vexed question” of whether to broadband is a utility – as ubiquitous as electricity, Twitter/ChorusNZ Chorus NZ Limited on LinkedIn light their newly-built wing with electricity or gas, they and maybe twice as useful. decided gas was “quite good enough”. Later, as local power boards struggled to get Editor www.thedownload.co.nz customers to sign up, Auckland housewives were Nikki Mandow

2016 / Issue 1 2

In brief

Pay-as-you-go sport WHY IS IT that if you are a romcom movie fan, you can watch pay-as-you-go weepies 22% without coughing up for a service which Percentage of customers within includes sci-fi or horror? reach of UFB fibre who are actually connected. Up from Heavy metal aficionados can live off a diet 18.6% in Q4 2015 of Death and Anthrax, without having to pay for the rights to listen to Elton John and Phil Collins. But it’s never been the same for sports fans. In New Zealand, if the only thing you watch is rugby and English football, you’ll still have to pay $80 a month for a Sky Basic + Sport subscription, despite not watching 99.9% of the available content. That may be changing. Sorting UFB bottlenecks Netflix-type internet sports services are Communications Minister Amy Adams has recently released starting to spring up. In April, a Canadian two proposals to try to resolve consenting hold-ups for some cable TV company announced a subscription people wanting fibre connections but living in an apartment or package where viewers could stream six of its down a right-of-way. Sportsnet channels, without having to sign up APARTMENTS for a full TV package. “Once a single unit owner has placed an order for UFB, the In New Zealand, Lightbox Sport has done network operator will have an automatic right to access the the same, offering a limited range of sports common areas of that property in order to determine the for $20. (“The sports you want, without 12.8 best way to install UFB,” according to Adams. “As long as having to pay for the Kardashians!” as the installation won’t cause significant damage to the exterior marketing goes.) MILLION of the property, a body corporate will be provided with a Even more exciting for choosy punters Number of virtual reality design outlining how and where network equipment will are moves from sports leagues (or even headsets Strategy Analytics be installed. If objections have not been raised by the body individual clubs) to make coverage available expects to be sold worldwide corporate within 15 working days, UFB installation will be direct to consumers, rather than selling the this year, generating able to commence.” rights to big aggregators. Chelsea TV, for $US895m in revenue SHARED DRIVEWAYS example, offers fans of the English Premier Affected neighbours will not need to give their consent if League club live games and replays – for a work involves disturbing only “soft surfaces” such as grass, price. The World Surf League livestreams its or stringing-up overhead cables that had “minimal visual competitions, though without charging. impact”, according to the proposals. And neighbours would We aren’t yet at the stage where New have to actively object to UFB installs involving work like Zealand Rugby will offer the gamut of new drilling and small potholes on shared access ways. and past All Blacks games streamed direct However, everyone involved would still need to agree with to paying customers, but some pundits are UFB connections in the “small minority of cases” where saying it might happen. Bring it on. more “invasive” works were required, Adams says.

"THE DEMAND FOR UFB IS RAMPING UP. A 'NEIGHBOUR-AT- WAR' STANDOFF SHOULDN'T PREVENT THE ROLLOUT OF UFB." Communications Minister Amy Adams

thedownload.co.nz The Download | In brief 3

"We have a goal of connecting one in four Kiwi homes so we have challenger brands... we believe there's 25 to 30 per cent of the market that will move services to a challenger brand if it can meet their service and price expectations."

MARK CALLANDER, CEO of M2 New Zealand, announcing his company was merging with trans-Tasman telecommunications network provider Vocus Communications. The new company, Vocus New Zealand, becomes the third-largest integrated telco in New Zealand.

VDSL upgrade boosts internet speeds Global connections ALTHOUGH THE media spotlight falls largely on UFB, a recent upgrade for VDSL New Zealand's significant growth in (very fast copper broadband) has had a “dramatic” impact on internet speeds across the network traffic over the last year has once country, according to independent broadband testing company TrueNet. VDSL got a again brought to the fore the question of makeover over the Christmas holidays, with Chorus moving it to a new frequency. The our dependence on the majority Spark- upgrade saw download speeds increasing by almost 50%, with average peak speeds up owned Southern Cross cable. A proposed from 35 megabits per second to 50Mbps. Eighty-five per cent of VDSL customers can alternative, Pacific Fibre, failed in 2012 now get their internet at 30Mbps or more, even at peak times. TrueNet figures showed when investors couldn’t raise enough VDSL speeds were double those for ADSL and uploading was 10 times faster. The money. Now it looks like we’ll be getting technology gave customers the chance to “take advantage of fast broadband, without not one, but two new international cables. needing to wait for fibre to be installed in their street”, TrueNet said. They are: Check your broadband connection using Chorus’ line checker tool at www.chorus.co.nz. TASMAN GLOBAL ACCESS (TGA) Where: Raglan to Sydney When: Cable laying started March; What does speed deliver? expected to be operational end 2016 A quick guide to how your internet SUPERFAST 30MBPS + How much: $100m speed affects what you can do. • Connected HD home with smart devices Who’s paying: Spark, Vodafone, Telstra • Surveillance systems Grunt: 20 terabit/second BASIC <6MBPS • Interactive HD TV • Internet browsing ULTRA-FAST 100MBPS+ HAWAIKI CABLE • Email • Connected home with simultaneous Ultra HD • YouTube • Super HD & 3D TV Where: NZ to Hawaii and the US, also FAST 6MBPS TO 12MBPS • HD videoconferencing Australia and Pacific Islands • HDTV streamed to 1 device • HD interactive gaming When: Funding secured April 2016, completion estimated mid-2018 • Multi-media social networking GIGABIT 1000MBPS+ VERY FAST 12MBPS TO 30MBPS • 4K TV, 8K TV How much: US$300m (NZ$437m) • HD TV to multiple devices • Virtual reality video and 360-degree filming Who’s paying: Hawaiki Cable, • Reasonable speed video streaming • Life-like VC interactions with doctors, teachers Sir Eion Edgar, Malcolm Dick • Basic home security systems • 'Telepresence' for remote working Grunt: More than 25 terabit/second

customers live to the nearest cell analyst Blair Galpin told NBR Mobile broadband tower. So if five neighbours are also recently: “In areas where there is THREE BROADBAND providers than some of the slower broadband streaming a movie, or you aren’t in fibre, that will be the most attractive have now hit the market with offerings available – up to 30Mbps good line-of-sight, you might get option for those who can afford fixed wireless access broadband at times, which is in line with the problems. And grunty activities like $105 a month for a full suite of services. Instead of using copper or bottom end of the fibre range and high-definition TV aren’t going to fixed-line services, including voice. fibre to get the internet at home or better than older ADSL broadband. work that well at peak times. For those in rural areas, or people work, customers use a 4G mobile For example, streaming a movie is The verdict: Fixed wireless who can only afford around $55 a network via a special modem. within its capabilities. access broadband could be a good month, [fixed wireless access] could Positives can include the price, But there are downsides. solution for people with lower gain ground in years to come.” particularly for those who don’t use The quality of the 4G network is monthly data requirements, or if Why 5G mobile will make fibre-in- a great deal of data monthly. Also, dependent on factors like who else your existing broadband isn’t great. the-ground more crucial, not the wireless broadband can be faster is using the network and how close As Forsyth Barr senior equities opposite – page 14

2016 / Issue 1 4 At home with fibre Fast internet is changing the way we live.

FELIX DIETER is a second-year student at found the laptop has become the hub of choice household. They love their smartphones, with Victoria University embarking on the grand at home for 79% of adults and 54% of children. their laptops a close second. adventure of flatting for the first time. His They like the portability, and how web cameras Affluent Families are households with mother Sarah was predictably skeptical as Felix can enhance how we communicate with couples at their career peak, between 30 and 59 made plans to kit out his home away from home. friends and family. For the new wired home, years old, with older children living at home. Domestic chores weren’t his forte. But in terms entertainment is video on demand. People want They want no-nonsense efficiency and to of entertainment Felix and his mates were to watch what they want, when they want. For be organized, no doubt because they are the sorted. No, they wouldn’t be looking for a telly. today’s kids, entertainment is synonymous with epitome of the time poor. They have the highest They didn’t need one. They had their laptops. the internet, with 72% of children surveyed household income and on average there will be The new essential for flatting isn’t a dishwasher, using a laptop to watch video clips. 3.4 devices online at any time. it's high-speed broadband. In the same survey, households were asked The Pragmatists are empty-nesters. The In her 70s, Auckland resident Pauline to rate what service delivered by broadband internet is a tool, rather than a plaything. They Wong discovered Skype, an experience that was most appealing. One quarter plumped for want online learning and services – none of that transformed her weekly calls to her son and his television and movies on demand, with video online gaming and social media stuff. They’d family living in Hong Kong. Pauline could see conferencing coming in a close second. much rather spend their money on something in and hear her grandkids, they could show her As marketers are wont to do, the new wired the real rather than the virtual world. As for the their latest artwork and baking experiments. household has been thoughtfully divided into latest smartphone, forget it. “It wasn’t the same as being there, but it was handy segments. The Connected Matriarchs are older and the next best thing.” She remains astounded at The Digital Natives are young, half under largely women. Also empty nesters, they use the how video chatting with her grandkids half a 30, and include the usual suspects, young internet to keep in touch with friends and family. world away doesn’t cost her a thing on top of her singles and couples, flatters and students. As They feel a little overwhelmed by the pace of usual telco bill. early adopters and keen to avoid missing out on change and talk of 100Mbps connections leaves Welcome to the wired home. A nationwide anything, a Digital Native household can easily them reeling. How it happens is not important, survey by research company Colmar Brunton have up to seven devices connected online per the social connection is.

Moving the bar How fibre is speeding up downloads 1 HD 100 MOVIE SONGS UFB UFB UFB UFB UFB UFB UFB UFB ADSL ADSL (5GB) VDSL (5MB VDSL EACH)

1GBPS 200MBPS 100MBPS 30MBPS 1GBPS 200MBPS 100MBPS 30MBPS

40SEC 2SEC 3MIN 12SEC 6MIN 24SEC DOWNLOAD TIME DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD TIME DOWNLOAD

22MIN 1MIN

33MIN 2MIN

4MIN

HR Source: consumer.org.nz 1

thedownload.co.nz Feature | At home with fibre 5

Fave fast fibre uses Smart devices or not? Colmar Brunton asked a group of New Zealanders what There's plenty of connectable hardware out there was the most appealing thing about UFB broadband for but we're not necessarily connecting it all up them. This is what they said: LAPTOP DESKTOP SMARTPHONE TV HARD DRIVE 82% 63% 60% 40% KILLER APP

1.4 1.4 0.8 0.8 1.1 1.0 0.5 0.3 TV AND MOVIES ON DEMAND IPOD TOUCH/ 25% PDA/HANDHELD FIXED GAMING TABLET CONSOLE WEBCAM SMART TV 31% 33% 38% 39% ENHANCED VIDEO CONFERENCING ONLINE 18% BACKUP 12% 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.5 0.4 0.5 0.2

TABLET MEDIA PLAYER Average number ONLINE of this device STORAGE 29% 21% Average of 3.1 per household connectable and 10% Average number PERSONAL 2.9 connected connected per HEALTH per household household SERVICE HOME SECURITY AND 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.1 % of households 4% CONTROL who have these 12% internet capable Source: Colmar Brunton Source: Colmar Brunton devices

The house of the future BATHROOM Virtual medical checks.

ROOF BEDROOM Solar panels collect and store power. Wallpaper that projects urban or seascapes in realtime. Smart fabrics regulate your temperature and health.

OFFICE

Realtime holographic communications. Contact lenses give instant information.

GARAGE LIVING ROOM KITCHEN

Car drives itself and has automatic diagnostics. Connected appliances deliver Smart surfaces interact: eg keep Smart home security system has HD facial recognition. near 4D holographic experience. coffee warm and iced-tea cold.

2016 / Issue 1 6 Cover Story | New Tube

NEW TUBE

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They call it the Netflix effect: the impact that millions of binge- watching viewers worldwide are having on everything – from Tuesday, so it must be Italy, victim from the Coromandel’s narrow, winding T’S and New Zealand fashion roads. The sole-charge emergency doctor at the TV drama and digital designer Benny Castles, one of the three rural hospital works on the patient, but cameras video content, to data founder-directors of the iconic WORLD in the resuscitation room allow him to consult fashion label, is on a buying trip in Milan. colleagues in Waikato Hospital if he needs to; the usage and broadband After a busy day of meetings, he heads high definition live images relayed to Hamilton back to his hotel room to check emails, via fibre broadband mean the specialists in the uptake. It’s nirvana for phone messages… and the new season main hospital can see the man’s skin colour, slight the punters, who get displays at his seven New Zealand stores. He movements of his chest, and details of his wound, logs in to security video footage of the store, and to help make decisions about the man’s care. choice, flexibility and pans around men’s fashion, women’s, beauty programming quality. products, watching customers interact and WHERE IT ALL BEGAN respond to the new season lines – where they go, The telecommunications industry started rolling But it’s not just at home what they take off the racks. He checks against out Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) in late 2010, in sales data, and sends a message to staff at one an ambitious $5 billion programme designed to that video is having a store with ideas about moving a certain display, bring fibre optic cable to 75% of New Zealanders huge impact on our lives. highlighting a different outfit in the window. by the end of 2019. On the way out to an evening show next day Four companies – Chorus, Northpower, We look at its growing he jumps on his mobile phone and notices Enable and Ultrafast Fibre – won contracts from more people have been stopping to look at the funding agency Crown Fibre Holdings to deploy influence in health, new range. With business taken care of for the UFB in different parts of the country, but take- business, schools, the evening, it’s time to enjoy the sights of Milan. up was initially painfully slow. By April 2012, just At Auckland Catholic boys’ school St Peter’s over 1000 premises had hooked up, less than community and local College, science teacher Dr Michael Harvey is 2% of those with fibre running past the door. A taking a year 10 chemistry class. Last night, for year later, the figure was about 3%. The problem government. homework, the students watched a video he was that although UFB made some stuff easier had posted online, giving them background and – moving big files around, for example, or instructions for today’s experiment. Then they accessing cloud services – the perceived lack of a completed a short online quiz to make sure they killer app meant many people didn’t understand understood the material. Harvey says getting the the benefits of really fast fibre, as opposed to the theory out of the way at home leaves more time broadband service they aleady had. for the fun stuff – practical experiments in class. Later in the term he’ll have the boys work CONTENT REALLY IS KING on a project about the boiling point of water – What a difference four years make. A and how it changes with different conditions proliferation in content has, as many predicted, (altitude, for example, or if you add salt). been the making of Ultra-Fast Broadband. Instead of getting them to write their findings Tech community Geekzone.co.nz lists 66 video, up, students will present their conclusions as a movie and TV download and streaming services 3-4 minute video – with popcorn. available in New Zealand – and that’s just the legal Harvey says videos solve a major problem ones. The list includes local and international for teachers in the post-Google era – students TV stations, local movie and TV show providers randomly cutting and pasting information (that (Neon, Lightbox, WatchMe and Igloo, for they may or may not understand) from the example) international movie streaming internet. And video is also a far more engaging services (Netflix, Quickflix, Popcornflix, etc), way to learn, he says. “Students tend to see and unexpected items like Crunchyroll (anime/ science as rote-learning facts. With video it manga simulcasts) and Twitch (the video becomes exciting and creative.” game streaming website bought by Amazon for A hundred kilometres away from Auckland, a $US970m). And the list doesn't even include young man is rushed into the A&E department live video-streaming mobile apps like Meerkat, in Thames around midnight, another car crash Periscope, YouNow and Facebook Live.

2016 / Issue 1 8 Cover Story | New Tube

Our changing world: (Top left) Anime/manga simulcast channel Crunchyroll is one of dozens of download and streaming services available in NZ; 360-degree cameras are transforming video (top) – and video is transforming retail (WORLD store, far left). Meanwhile, Jessica Jones never looked so good (left). Opposite page: RIngside cameras allow international buyers at the Karaka horse sales to watch the action live from their smartphone or laptop.

“hitting that peak three years early” – and that’s causing some problems for providers. Potential “Screenagers” are trying to connect to customers at Enable have to wait an average different video content on each of their devices 40 days to get hooked up to UFB. Meanwhile, at Chorus, the median connection time for a (and possibly a few of yours too) at the same time. single dwelling is 17 days. Part of the problem Internet service providers estimate video makes is simple logistics – Chorus CEO Mark Ratcliffe up 50%-70% of household traffic. said at the Telecommunications Forum (TCF) conference in February that fibre providers need to double the number of UFB rollout technicians Suddenly, any self-respecting household While in 2012, retail service providers found it by the middle of the year to meet demand – but has up to 14 connected devices and we’re all tough to get people to connect to fibre, now the recruitment and training take time. watching our favourite content via the internet challenge is how to meet booming demand. UFB Solving the bottlenecks around multi- at the same time. “Screenagers” are connecting statistics show connections grew 135% in 2015, tenanted buildings and rights-of-way is harder to different video content on each of their and uptake (the number of people choosing to and will involve changing the rules around devices (and possibly a few of yours too) at the connect when fibre goes past their door) was getting consent from neighbours and building same time. Internet service providers estimate up from one-in-nine in 2014, to one-in-five. In owners. Minister Adams is onto it, she says, video makes up 50%-70% of household traffic. some cities it’s higher. In Whangarei, Blenheim though the solution may be months away. Having several people in a household and Tauranga, for example, take-up is more than Meanwhile, it’s not just fast broadband watching their own content can play havoc with 25%. In early 2015, around 5000 households and connections that are booming, says Chorus quality. Even if you are home alone, there’s no businesses were being connected each month, network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers. doubt streamed programmes look smoother and Communications Minister Amy Adams says. Another consequence of the Netflix effect is we sharper with UFB. As tech writer Chris Keall Now it’s 11,000. are all using far more data. wrote with relief after getting UFB connected at Enable CEO Steve Fuller said at a conference “The long term historical growth trend was his new family home: “Jessica Jones never looked in February that his company had expected for a 50% increase per annum in the amount of so good.” demand to peak in 2018/19, but the industry was data used by each broadband customer; we’ve

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To put this into perspective, recent Chorus figures show the average New Zealand home used about 96GB of broadband data in January across the copper and fibre networks – and fibre households used nearly 200GB that month. That means the average household is using the same amount of data in a year as the whole country used in a month in the late 1990s. Chorus says 46% of its new UFB fibre connections are for 100Mbps speeds or higher. (Another interesting statistic shows that the peak time for data consumption is 9pm, which kinda makes sense – dinner’s over, kitchen’s tidy, little kids are in bed, phew, get those devices out. What is more intriguing is that almost every week, the peak 9pm loading day is Thursday. Why Thursday?) OK, so the Netflix effect is powerful – Netflix came to New Zealand in March 2015, so the dates tie up with the explosion in fast connections and data usage. But concentrating on the impact of video only in our home lives is hiding the bigger picture, which is that video, enabled by fast fibre, is transforming our lives in a broader and more meaningful way – more meaningful even than Jessica Jones. Video is becoming a vital tool in medicine, business, teaching, even government.

A RINGSIDE CONNECTION Look carefully and you find video in the least expected places. Like the Karaka yearling sales, got data for 2011-2014, and each year is tracking which are broadcast live around the world via in line with that 50% per year number. So in UFB link. As each horse comes into the sale arena, terms of our capacity, we planned for a 50% 100% growth in the ringside cameras show the horse to potential increase in traffic. amount of data bidders as far afield as Asia, the Middle East and “But the last 12 months has been different. Europe. Buyers watch the action on a smartphone, Growth was closer to 100%, and that’s more New Zealanders are laptop or tablet, gauge the tenor of the sale, and than most people in our sector expected. We’ve using was more than instruct bidders in New Zealand; the bids then had to put a lot more effort into augmenting expected. show up on their screen in different currencies. capacity and doing it quicker.” Last year, one of the auctions saw 5000 people Kurt Rodgers, Chorus on site at Karaka, plus 180,000 viewers watching EXPONENTIAL GROWTH IN DATA remotely, over six days of sales, according to Is this just a bubble? Rodgers doesn’t think Richard Naylor of tech company R2, which so. More people watching more video “Early adopters don’t impact on our handles the live streaming. The process involved (because they have nice fast broadband to network, Rodgers says. “But we notice it when 12 terabytes of data and over $90 million-worth watch it on) is only one factor that will keep a technology moves mainstream. That’s what of horses changed hands. data consumption growing in the future, he happened last year; services like Lightbox and There are exciting things going on in the says. Step improvements in quality are also Netflix, took online TV mainstream.” country’s classrooms too. The Government’s chewing through bandwidth. Tech advances Rodgers is predicting we’ll be using 100% more Network for Learning (N4L) programme has like 360-degree cameras, augmented and data each year for the next few years at least. hooked up 95% of all state or state-integrated virtual reality, 4K TV (also called ultra-high- “The cost of each additional 10Gbps of schools in the country, and will have the remaining definition TV), and high dynamic range video capacity is a lot less than it was five years ago, 5% available for connection by the end of the year. (where colours are richer and more varied), all but still the price isn’t going down as fast as the The schools network already has about require big increases in bandwidth. So as all traffic demand per customer is going up. We have 765,000 users, and usage is increasing these developments become more mainstream, to work out how to bring the two curves – cost dramatically, says Carolyn Stuart, a former bandwidth requirements are going to continue of increasing capacity, and revenues from the principal and now N4L’s education sector lead. to spiral again, he says. growth in demand – together.” In February 2015, schools collectively accessed

2016 / Issue 1 10 Cover Story | New Tube

Fast-forward learning: St Peter's College teacher Dr Michael Harvey uses video to keep science interesting.

1.8 billion web pages; that figure for 2016 is 7.3b, invaded the pitch and there were police those dull school posters!), Stuart says. The a 400% increase. everywhere, and bottles being thrown from increasing proliferation of smartphones and Meanwhile, the amount of bandwidth used by the crowd. The teacher stopped the video just tablets makes video an easy option for students schools is also rising exponentially. In February before officials called the match off and asked to present and share their work, and avoids 2015, students and teachers chewed through the students what they thought happened next. plagiarism from the internet. 188 terabytes (188,000 gigabytes) of data, but He was using the video to get students thinking But better than that, making a video requires by February 2016 it was 794 terabytes – another in different ways.” students to really think about a topic. “The fourfold increase. Increasingly, teachers are also encouraging process of putting information in a video Roughly 25% of traffic across the network students to make videos, as an alternative to changes the way students learn – takes it from is video, Stuart says, and consumption writing about a topic, or making a poster (oh, surface to deep learning. The act of teaching is increasing there too – although not so something to others through a video produces dramatically. In February 2015, schools deeper learning.” streamed around 350,000 minutes of video; in Then there are schools who video events – a February 2016 it was closer to 560,000 minutes. The process of putting kapa haka festival or sports match, for example, And no, it’s not kids downloading cat videos and send it to parents; or who use a video instead (or worse) when they should be reading information in a video of a newsletter. “It makes what’s happening at Shakespeare, Stuart says. Instead, teachers changes the way students school much more alive,” Stuart says. are using video to bring topics to life, engage Teachers are also increasingly using video in students, and make them think. learn – takes it from the “flipped classroom” model (when students, “Recently I watched a teacher showing his surface to deep learning. like the ones at St Peter’s College watch a video year 7/8 class archive footage of the All Black- as part of homework given to prepare for a Springboks rugby match in Hamilton on July 25 Carolyn Stuart, N4L lesson beforehand, rather than revise a lesson 1981. It was the match where 5,000 protesters afterwards). And video is the key feature of

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the so-called “rewindable classroom” model, world, and interact with outside experts via their own classes as part of their professional where teachers make a video to explain some video link. Teachers create and embed videos development. Harvey has only been teaching particularly difficult concept, so that when it as part of class blogs or teaching slides, and three years and finds his weekly video sessions comes to exams or tests, students can watch the students create their own online videos with invaluable. “I target one area and then look material again and again. editing tools like wevideo. to see if I’m improving between lessons. For “I was in school with a year 13 teacher where “The students are more on task, more example, class management. Making sure if I say there was a physics assessment that most enthusiastic about school. And they learn so ‘Bob, stop talking’, I don’t then go on to say it five students had failed,” Stuart says. “The next much more when there is a visual component.” more times without any repercussions for Bob." year the teacher videoed the material and put it Online video is also an increasingly important Stuart says the huge changes over the last two online. Each student watched that video eight part of teachers’ professional development, Van years will spread as schools move increasingly times on average; most of them passed the Schaijik says. She runs regular live streaming towards one-child, one-device. An N4L survey assignment.” events, where 10 teachers share their learning of more than 700 school principals published in Sonya Van Schaijik, Newmarket primary with peers worldwide. “Something happens December 2015 found the majority of schools school’s head of e-learning, has been teaching to our teachers when they present. Their (61.5%) were either using or thinking about for more than 30 years and struggles to imagine confidence builds.” using a device programme, and of these, 87.9% school before online video. Her students live Meanwhile, St Peter's Dr Michael Harvey is either had a programme in place or planned to chat with children in other classes around the one of a growing number of educators who video have one within the next 12-18 months.

A REVOLUTION IN MEDICINE It’s exciting stuff. But perhaps one area where video is impacting more than any other is in the DISRUPTING THE CLASSROOM medical field. Telemedicine, defined as the use Fast broadband in schools has produced an exponential growth of technology – including visual technology – to in students using the internet in their learning remotely diagnose and treat patients, has the potential to revolutionise healthcare, especially 800 800,000 for people in rural areas. Actually, telemedicine isn’t new. The first international forays happened half a century ago, but New Zealand has been slow to take 700 700,000 advantage of the possibilities, says Dr Ruth Large, clinical director at Thames hospital and, since August 2015, also clinical director for 600 600,000 virtual healthcare at Waikato District Health Board (the first person in the country with that job description). Large reckons after five years of telehealth proofs of concept in the Waikato 500 School 500,000 holidays DHB and over 20 years of experience, New Zealand has reached a tipping point where the technology could really take off and start benefitting significant numbers of patients. 400 400,000 Large’s own health region, which stretches School from the top of the Coromandel peninsula to holidays National Park, covers a population of 373,000 300 300,000 people, of which 60% live rurally. The most remotely-located patients have to travel for three-and-a-half hours each way to get to the main hospital in Hamilton, which is why Large 200 200,000 and her team’s main focus is on how to deliver School as much healthcare as possible at a local level holidays – either at the four rural hospitals (Tokoroa, Te School Kuiti, Thames and Taumaranui), at GP surgeries 100 holidays 100,000 and medical clinics – or even at home. Projects range from rural hospital emergency rooms being equipped with high-resolution 0 0 video units so specialists in Hamilton can FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB help A&E colleagues with complex cases, to virtual outpatient clinics so rural patients don’t Source: N4L Web data (terabytes) Streaming video (minutes) have to travel to Hamilton for appointments,

2016 / Issue 1 12 Cover Story | New Tube

THE NUMBERS March 2016 23% OF CHORUS BROADBAND CONNECTIONS ARE NOW HIGH-SPEED VDSL OR FIBRE

CHORUS FIBRE ORDERS PEAKED AT 16,300 IN FEBRUARY WITH TERTIARY STUDENTS BOOSTING NUMBERS or clinicians visit rural hospitals. There are involved in cancer care discuss the treatment of teledermatology consultancies, where primary new and existing patients) by high-speed telelink healthcare providers get help via video link from their own sites, saving hours of travelling 588,000 from consultants in diagnosing and managing time in Auckland traffic. The system, provided HOMES AND BUSINESS ARE WITHIN REACH OF skin conditions, and virtual ward rounds, where by Vivid Solutions, the largest provider of health CHORUS UFB FIBRE Hamilton-based specialists can talk to patients video conferencing services in the country, in a rural hospital via “telecart” (a trolley with a involves fast broadband networks and big screens screen and camera). in each hospital, allowing doctors to see each 46% Large says the DHB launched a new mobile other and share scans, x-rays and patient notes. OF CHORUS MASS MARKET FIBRE application in March. “This is a two-year trial, CONNECTIONS ARE 100MBPS OR looking at the applications for this sort of mobile EMERGENCY TRIAGE – BY VIDEO FASTER, UP FROM 41% AT THE END telehealth and how we deliver it. We want to Another project, still in development, aims to OF DECEMBER 2015 work with as many groups as possible, to use the use technology to reduce waiting times for some technology as much as possible and see what patients at accident and emergency clinics – and comes of it.” get urgent cases dispatched to hospital quickly. DUNEDIN (NEW ZEALAND’S GIGCITY) HAS The idea involves Auckland network and app service provider The Instillery, cloud VC company Blue Jeans and two new A&E clinics 4,000 in Auckland and Hamilton. Instead of patients 1Gbps CONNECTIONS Access to healthcare arriving at the clinics having to wait hours for in the future is going to a doctor, who may well just send them straight BLENHEIM HAS THE HIGHEST be defined by patients, into hospital anyway, the plan is for patients to CHORUS UFB UPTAKE: be triaged quickly by video conference and sent not providers. to hospital immediately if necessary. While home-based care via video conference 28% Dr Nigel Murray, Waikato DHB (THE AVERAGE IS 22%) is rare at the moment, it isn’t unknown, says Simon Hayden, chief executive of Vivid Waikato DHB chief executive Dr Nigel Murray Solutions. For example, the company installed THE UFB ROLL-OUT (ACROSS ALL FIBRE told the Waikato Times last year that access to a direct video conferencing link between COMPANIES) IS COMPLETE IN healthcare in the future is going to be defined Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland, and NZ TOWNS AND CITIES. SIX* WERE FINISHED IN THE by patients, not providers. “They will want the home of a terminally ill child in Mangawhai 19* FIRST THREE MONTHS OF 2016 access through their personal devices, their (Northland), Hayden says, allowing the boy to smartphones, or desktops. I am going to say spend his final days at home with his family. something quite bold here; I think we have way “Before that, the patient was stuck in hospital, too many outpatient appointments in our central with most of his family in Mangawhai, where 200,000th facility in the Waikato. Do we really need patients his parents also had a farm to run. One of CUSTOMER CONNECTED TO FIBRE to travel to the hospital every time? Sometimes the clinicians asked if we could put a video IN APRIL 2016 yes, many times no. Many of those appointments conferencing connection into her home, using can be delivered in a virtual sense.” their home broadband. We set it up, the quality Meanwhile, another project sees cancer was fantastic and the child got to stay at home * Waiuku, Rotorua and Queenstown still specialists at Auckland, Waitemata, Northland with his parents and siblings, with specialist subject to Crown Fibre Holdings testing and Counties Manukau hospitals holding multi- expertise, GP and nursing support from Starship

Source: Chorus, Crown Fibre Holdings disciplinary meetings (where all specialists by video link.”

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Telehealth in action: Far left: Virtual ward round at Thames Hospital. This page, left: Hamilton- based clinical director Dr Shameem Safih provides tele-acute support for a remote patient in Taumaranui. Left: Dr Ruth Large, Waikato DHB's clinical director for virtual healthcare, in a remote consultation from Thames with house officer Dane Rua

In that case, the link was via satellite, Hayden beds? Or why not manage some of the day-to- school assignments are all signs of our times – says, but these days, UFB and iPads would make day care for a patient with a heart condition at and need grunty fibre broadband to work well. the process far cheaper and easier to provide. home, using an app where the patient records As, coincidentally, do our film, video and game Another Vivid Solutions project involves their blood pressure, exercise regime and development industries. remote monitoring of tuberculosis (TB) patients medications, and has daily Skype contact with When in April 2008, John Key announced his by video link. World Health Organisation a nurse. What about more people with terminal Government would invest $1.35 billion in a $5 guidelines say that the best way to make illnesses in rural areas being able to stay at billion telecommunications industry “fibre to sure people with TB take their full course of home, with palliative care nurses and specialists the home” programme, he argued the network antibiotics, is for a nurse to watch them take doing most of their “visits” by video link? would deliver enhanced productivity, improved their drugs each day. In theory, Large says, up to 75% of healthcare global connectivity and enhanced capacity for “This directly observed therapy (DOT) is could be delivered virtually, and the aim at the innovation. intrusive, with patients feeling they can’t be DHB is to shift a “significant amount” of patient He said New Zealand had fallen behind trusted to take their own medication,” Hayden care into people’s homes by the end of this year. its international competitors in terms of says. “It also meant that communicable broadband, but that high-speed internet was disease nurses used to spend up to five hours essential for a country which was small and far a day travelling between patients, or stuck in from the rest of the world. Auckland traffic - just to spend 10 minutes with Eight years on, New Zealand is no longer each patient to ensure they took a few tablets. Do we really need patients behind in the broadband stakes. Matched up “The introduction of our TeleDOT service to travel to the hospital against projects in Australia, the US and the means many TB patients now take their every time? Sometimes UK, we stack up pretty well. So much so that medication using a secure video link from their the Australian government senate committee iPad, laptop or even smartphone.” yes, many times no. Many looking at how to whip its National Broadband Public health nurse Carolyn Pye says of those appointments Network rollout project into shape, recently TeleDOT makes a difficult medication called on two Chorus leaders – head of market management pathway easier. can be delivered in a insight Rosalie Nelson and network strategy “I have one client who is a university student virtual sense. manager Kurt Rodgers – to give them some so I used to meet her outside the university. She pointers as to how fast broadband should would sit in my car and take her medicine. She Dr Nigel Murray, Waikato DHB be done. was the first person to use one of our new iPads But even in New Zealand, what’s happening with the TeleDOT software loaded. On day one, with the use of broadband is only a glimpse of when she took her medication in the student “We could do it tomorrow,” Hayden says. how fast fibre – and the ability to use video – will café using TeleDOT, it was the first time I saw “Home monitoring is there and available. We bring fundamental change in the future – to how her smile.” just need a change to the way the health sector we teach, how we deliver healthcare, how we do The potential telemedicine applications are operates, and is funded.” business, how we run our country. huge. Take the rural mum with three small Broadband-enabled technology is moving children, one with a rash. What if she could have WHERE TO FROM HERE? so fast we can’t imagine what applications our a remote consultation with her GP, using her While Netflix and YouTube may be superficial children will be using in 20 years’ time, though webcam or smartphone to talk to the doctor and drivers of Ultra-Fast Broadband uptake in we can be sure that pictures, whether they show her the child and the rash – rather than New Zealand, the picture is far broader. involve video, virtual reality, augmented reality, bundling three kids into the car and driving for Cloud computing (which benefits from fibre's all of the above, or something quite different, an hour? What about GPs or specialists working low latency and high throughput), video will play a big part. with rest homes and hospices to do remote conferencing (which is already fuelling our Video – powered by fast fibre broadband – is consultations with patients who can’t leave their exports), virtual health consultations, and video changing the way we live. Period.

2016 / Issue 1 14

STEFAAN VANHASTEL, HEAD OF MARKETING FOR FIXED NETWORKS, NOKIA When gigabit isn't fast enough Brussels-based Stefaan Vanhastel is an international expert on high-speed fibre broadband. He talked to Nikki Mandow about mobile and fibre, the smart fridge of the future, and why fast connections don’t always make your computer faster.

How fast is fast enough? IHS is predicting global sales of 8K TVs to hit 1 The world is going mobile. Won’t that It wasn’t that long ago that 100 megabits per million in the run up to the Japan Olympics in make fibre in the ground redundant? second (Mbps) was a good broadband speed. 2020, as 8K broadcasting takes hold. Ironically, the growth in mobile (from 2G to 3G Now we are starting to see gigabit, even Another trend impacting broadband speeds to 5G, etc) makes fixed lines more and more 10Gbps services on the market. At the moment is the move to the cloud. It might be anything important. A touch of physics here. In general those speeds are mostly only available in Asia, from your tax files to the movie you are terms, the higher the speed of a mobile connection, but the US is following quickly – and Dunedin is watching tonight. If you want to rewind or fast the higher the frequency of the signal. And the the first New Zealand city with gigabit speeds. forward a Netflix movie, for example, you are higher the frequency of the wave, the shorter the It’s a cycle, as broadband speeds increase, going to need good fibre broadband speeds. distance it can travel. So with 2G mobile you could new technology develops to take advantage of have cell sites a few kilometres apart, but with 5G, that speed, and then you need higher speeds Is there a killer app for high-speed fibre? the transmission range is only a couple of hundred to make the best use of that new technology I like to say that the killer app for gigabit metres. Because the fibre network is relatively - and so it goes on. For example, ordinary TV broadband speeds is human impatience. cheap, mobile players are talking about having a became high-definition TV, then 4K TV (also Whether it’s being able to quickly download lot of small 5G cell sites connecting into the fibre called Ultra HD TV), which packs in four a high definition movie on your phone before network. So the idea is that the signal from your times the number of pixels to give far higher running out the door for a bus or train, or it’s smartphone, for example, will go to the nearest picture quality. Then at this year’s Consumer having the confidence to fast forward or rewind cell site and then connect you to the internet via Electronics Show in Las Vegas, manufacturers your Netflix movie without triggering the fibre. So the UFB network that the New Zealand were showing off their new crazy high-res 8K buffering wheel of death, as humans, we just Government has commissioned will be a very TVs, and a new report from industry analyst don’t want to wait. valuable resource to make sure 5G becomes a reality.

thedownload.co.nz Opinion | Stefaan Vanhastel 15

So our movies stream better and faster and How does the internet of things fit into all this? our cat videos are high definition. But is If you think it’s complicated having all these there actually an economic benefit for New The killer app for gigabit connected devices in your house, just wait until Zealand from very fast fibre? broadband speeds is you’ve got gigabit internet and your washing There have been studies which have found that machine and your fridge and your security for every 10Mbps increase in broadband speed, human impatience. system are all connecting up to the internet as there is a measurable increase in GDP. I can’t Stefaan Vanhastel well, through your Wi-Fi and your router. There say I believe there’s such a strong correlation, will be operating systems and software and apps but I do think broadband has an important inside all the appliances in your house, plus there impact on GDP. A country like New Zealand will be VOIP and firewalls and other programmes that gets fibred up will be seen as a tech and running through the router. And all of them will innovation leader, and that attracts investment. harder. You can have gigabit speeds coming into need software upgrades and might need repairing The poster child for this is Chattanooga, the your house or workplace, but if you’ve got an old – and it will be an operational nightmare. first city in the US to get gigabit speeds. From Wi-Fi router you’re only going to get 20Mbps. Or being a dying manufacturing town of 170,000 you’ve got an old laptop that supports old Wi-Fi And the answer is? inhabitants and no venture capital, by 2014 standards. To use a car analogy, if you’ve got an Moving the complexity into the cloud. What Chattanooga had attracted five funds with old banger of a car you aren’t going to be able to about if you had relatively simple systems running investible capital of over $50 million. There’s an go at 100kmph, even if you are on the motorway. inside the device, or the router, or the appliance or incubator programme, a raft of new start-ups, whatever, and the complexity was all in the cloud? and well-paid jobs bringing young people back Isn’t that a problem for fibre companies? into the city. Absolutely. People don’t realise that their device Sorry? You’re saying I’ll be running my Separately, there’s also an important and their router and their Wi-Fi systems are part fridge in the cloud? economic benefit from fast broadband in rural of the picture. They assume that when they get Think how often you get reminded about an areas, as it gives access to tech innovation for fast broadband connected, every device in their upgrade on your phone or your computer – and farmers and rural businesses, and also gives house, or their workplace, is going to get that the reality is every device needs upgrading or students access to e-learning, which improves speed – and they get upset with their broadband fixing from time to time. But what about your educational outcomes. provider when that doesn’t happen. A lot of internet-enabled fridge or your router? How are people, for example, have one room in their house they going to tell you they need new upgrades? OK, let’s take it back the the nitty gritty of where there internet access is bad. You wouldn’t Who’s going to remember to install new software what annoys people about fast fibre. How believe how many calls helpdesks get where the for their security system every six months? If the come people can be on a high speed plan and problem isn’t the broadband, it’s the other stuff. software was in the cloud, a manufacturer would yet their internet speeds are still terrible? But it’s also an opportunity. Gigabit routers be able to automatically do the updates to all their Building high speed networks is challenging. are already available, and gigabit Wi-Fi is the fridges or washing machines or routers remotely, But getting high speeds on every device is far next thing that the industry is waiting to solve. without the consumer even needing to know.

2016 / Issue 1 16

KURT RODGERS, NETWORK TECHNOLOGY STRATEGIST, CHORUS VR: The next big thing After 20 years building broadband networks, Kurt Rodgers works in the sweet spot where fibre broadband demand meets supply. Think of it as having a day job involving working out how we might live in the future.

IT WOULD BE hard to find a more significant Remember training courses 10 years ago? Auckland Museum’s Air NZ exhibition, where change in people’s habits at home than the rise of You got on a plane and spent a day in a room visitors can feel, see and hear the future of flying video streaming on demand services. Collectively listening to an expert. You did this because through virtual reality headsets. In Wellington, it’s called the Netflix effect and it has disrupted seeing and hearing that expert was a more VR technology company 8i has been building the traditional way we watch television. Subject engaging experience than reading a manual or the software to enable virtual reality to be an to parental guidance, my kids watch what they textbook. As a way of conveying information, everyday experience. want, when they want. They don’t have to watch video is more personal and because of that it The big players are already in the market. For the same thing. Our family can never go back to is more powerful. As video on demand drives example, YouTube has set up #360, a virtual traditional broadcast television. We select (and down the cost of training, it levels the playing reality channel you can use now, with Google's sometimes binge watch) content from all over the field for small and medium businesses to low-cost VR Cardboard headsets licensed to a world, often at the same time it is reaching global develop their people the same way the major range of manufacturers. Meanwhile, Samsung audiences. Television is common to everyone players do today. and Oculus Rift are launching new mass market and that’s why there’s been so much focus on this virtual reality headsets later this year. aspect of video on demand. WATCHING SALES And film-makers are experimenting with At work, right now there’s no killer app to rival Video on demand is also changing how Jump, a camera array using 16 cameras that video on demand but there are dozens vying businesses go about selling products and effectively shoots video in 360 degrees. to be to business what Netflix is to video on services. A couple of years ago I was looking The tools are here, VR cameras, headsets and demand in the home. for a house and was able to check out potential platforms that will drive the uptake of virtual Take video conferencing. It’s been around a properties using video on Open2View. It saved reality content. VR is immersive, engaging and long time. Like a lot of people, I spend several a lot of time in open homes. A house is the most transports the viewer to a new world. OK, at the hours a week in a videoconferencing suite expensive purchase most of us ever make, so it moment you'd still look a right prat wearing your meeting with colleagues in Wellington and makes sense to add video to the marketing effort. VR headset on the train – and you'll probably get Christchurch. I routinely use Skype to catch up I predict online retailers will start using more your bag snatched too. But in five years, virtual with my peers from Sydney to Silicon Valley. video too. It’s not just about better marketing; reality will be everywhere. it’s about improving the consumer experience To take just one idea. Your body could be 3D COST OF ACCESS and having a point of difference from your scanned to create a super-accurate avatar of What has changed is that the cost of access competition. I bought a new tent this summer yourself. If you were shopping for jeans, your has come down. All you need now is a good and before we used it, I watched a 10 minute avatar could try them on and you could see hi-definition camera and screen and quality video that showed me how to pitch it. exactly how they are going to look. broadband services. So videoconferencing has Now that is useful. Video and virtual reality will become become available to just about any business, not For tourists thinking about a spot of hiking ubiquitous, and applications using these just the major players. This opens up all sorts of in New Zealand, Google Streetview has technologies will be driven by the rise of screen possibilities and opportunities for business, for had someone walk the Milford Track with a definition. Ultra high definition cameras and health and for education. Streetview camera. That video is an invaluable screens, offering 16 times the resolution of Take the emergence of “massive online marketing tool for New Zealand. existing hi-definition screens, are already open courses”, or MOOCs - a sort of distance driving change in the security industry by education on steroids, where you can watch a VIDEO IS SO 2016. JUST WAIT FOR VR lowering the cost of facial recognition. lecture from Harvard University, or complete a These are all video-related phenomena that we There’s a simple relationship at work. Better degree in ethics in your spare time. Doctors can can see now. In five years, they will be old hat. broadband enables ultra hi-definition video, watch the top surgeons in the world performing The next big wave that will drive video on and ultra hi-definition video drives the need for operations, and learn about better and new demand is virtual reality. There’s a hint of better broadband. That’s the future of video on techniques from half a world away. the potential for New Zealand right now with demand in a nutshell.

thedownload.co.nz Opinion | Kurt Rodgers 17

Tossing around ideas: Kurt Rodgers with the Google cardboard VR viewer – the first of a series of mass-market headsets.

2016 / Issue 1 18 Opinion | Kym Niblock

KYM NIBLOCK, CEO, LIGHTBOX Watch it The competition for content is fierce. But Kym Niblock believes there is room in the New Zealand market for several streaming video-on-demand services – and she wants Lightbox to be one of the front runners in that race.

IF WE ARE what we watch, then we’re doing What’s next? Some major studios, or online video content, and we have applied the well. People have never had so much choice companies with content to offer (UK football same three-pronged approach to our content about what to watch nor ways to watch it, and clubs, for example) may begin to deliver their strategy. We aim to provide hero shows (e.g. Mr the transformation is delivering power to people content directly to the public. Look at Twitch, Robot), hub content (Twin Peaks or The X Files), to be their own curators. Enabled by high the live streaming site for gamers. Twitch claims and hygiene (The Wiggles or Dance Moms, a speed broadband and the growth of personal more than 900,000 unique broadcasters a reality show about mothers who argue a lot and devices, the global online video eco-system month, 10,000 concurrent broadcasters and their daughters who dance). has experienced explosive growth. At the same something like 45 million unique viewers a These days, no venture can ever expect to be time there has been continuous fragmentation month, each watching, on average, 106 minutes alone in the online video content ecosystem. of sources of content, as more and more that of video every day. That’s 45 million people Consumers will never again want just one consumers want to watch finds its way online. spending time watching other people game! service. Instead, they expect to be able to choose It’s easy to forget that the iPad was only In order to succeed, anyone in this space has from a suite of services and they will pick based launched in 2010. to evolve fast. on the type of household they are and the People complain that streaming online content individual tastes in their household. If we get the is turning families into a bunch of individuals content selection right, Lightbox will be one of looking at their laptops. I like to compare our them – and that’s fine. new viewing habits to how people read books. If the All Blacks are There are still some frustrating technology What’s happened is that video can now be a problems that content providers can’t do personal experience. Like a book, you choose playing, half the much about. For example, manufacturers when you want to dip into it. It’s about providing country will watch. of smart TVs have not agreed standards for an option for how people use their “me time”. Streaming means the how people can access online content. That People are choosing several series and, like the means different brands of connected TVs work stack of books on your bedside table, they might other half can watch differently – and that’s a barrier. have a few on the go at the same time. something else. If I am hanging out with friends and want The audience for content is global, but how to share online video content, I don’t want to they consume it is very local. People in Sydney, Kym Niblock be fiddling around with cords and checking for example, often have long commutes on versions of smart TV software and whether public transport. Catch a bus or a train and there they are backwardly compatible. It all just will be lots of people watching on their phones It’s still early days at Lightbox and we are still needs to work. and tablets. Here in New Zealand, people might developing our strategy, but what we know is want to access content at various points during that online video has seen exponential growth Kym Niblock took over at the head of Spark’s TV the day – lunch break, on the treadmill at the every year and alongside that is the continued streaming service Lightbox in August 2014. Over gym, or whatever – not just once they get home. explosion in choice for the devices to watch it. the past two decades she has worked for a number Then of course, there is the All Blacks effect. If Our job is to know what New Zealanders of players in the TV and digital TV world, including the All Blacks are playing, half the country will be want and make it easy for our customers to find Australian pay TV company Foxtel, British Sky watching. But that means the other half want to and watch content they like. In 2014, YouTube Broadcasting and BBC Worldwide, and American watch something else – and these days they can. touted the “hero, hub and hygiene” pillars to cable and satellite channel Nickelodeon.

thedownload.co.nz 19 Life, camera, action The media's near-obsession with services like Netflix and Lightbox makes it seem that the main benefit of high- speed broadband is ensuring our high-definition streamed movies don't take too long to come down. The truth is much more significant. Video, enabled by fast broadband, is changing our businesses, our health services, our schools, our communities – even our Government departments. The Download talked to nine New Zealanders whose work lives are being transformed.

2016 / Issue 1 20 Life, camera, action | The teacher

The teacher Students in Becka Nathan's classroom are watching rap, making Dubsmash videos and retelling the 3 little pigs story, with the wolf as a cyber bully. And that's just the stuff they do in class.

WATCHING VIDEO IS instantly engaging. I put in a totally different way showed deeper we are reading, and we also used Skype to leave a video on, and my students are captured. It's a understanding. videos for a couple of classes in the US who were way of making learning fun. And it’s repeatable Connecting: Last year we made videos using reading the same book as us. I’m planning to do – if you’ve made a video to explain a particular the lip-syncing app Dubsmash and put them a virtual field trip this year connecting students concept and a student finds it hard, or has on our YouTube channel. We showed our to experts in science and technology. forgotten it, they can just watch again. Dubsmash videos to a class in Napier, and they Professional development: We are doing a I use video in all sorts of ways: created some videos as a response. Then four lot of work with [NZ professional learning and Watching: Video is a way to get information classes used Google Hangout to have a live development organisation] CORE Education quickly and enjoyably. Students work at their lip-syncing competition. Maybe it doesn’t sound this year, which uses video a lot. There is a own pace; watch again if they want to, or skip like a lot of learning going on. But an important tonne of professional development video online, through to information they need. For example, thing about teaching is building a relationship including on the Ministry of Education’s Te in a recent topic on digital citizenship I chose with the students – if you don’t have that, it’s Kete Ipurangi site and the Network for Learning three very different videos (including a rap) to hard. There was one student who was really portal Pond. We’ve started using video in staff get them thinking. If I’m at the front talking, it quiet, and she made a dubsmash and she had meetings – playing a YouTube clip for example. might be too fast for some and boring to others. this crazy sense of humour that I didn’t know Recently someone chucked in a clip from The Big Anyway I’m not that good at rapping! Using about. After that I could make a connection with Bang Theory to illustrate a point. I know teachers video is also good for complex topics. Like when her. Collaborating with people outside school is who video their own classes and then go back we were talking about how red and white blood also a powerful tool – for teachers and students, over them, either on their own, or with a mentor, cells work. Being able to watch an animation of who love having an authentic audience for their to improve their teaching practice. the cells solidified what we had learnt. Other work, and so much better if it is other children. times I make short instructional videos so It makes them more curious about other people. Becka Nathan is a Year 7-8 teacher and e-learning students can go home and remind themselves of Recently we did a Skype session with an author leader at Karori Normal School in Wellington. what they’ve learnt. Or I give them a video and they go home and watch it, and we talk about it in class the next day. It can really save time. Making: Students love presenting information in video form. In the past we often asked students to create a poster, but it’s easy for them to just regurgitate ideas they have found online – it doesn’t always encourage them to think deeply. With video they think about the information they’ve gathered, and then put it in their own words and work out how to present it. Learning through video is especially good with a student who isn’t a high achiever in traditional skills – writing or publishing, or being quiet and making nice borders. Suddenly video will capture them, and you’ll be surprised at their thinking and learning. With the digital citizenship project, students had to create their ICT user statement. One group of girls decided to do a video retelling of the three little pigs story, with the wolf representing a creepy cyber bully-type, and the pigs representing different reactions to things that are unsafe online. Students can get quite “yeh, yeh, don’t be mean online” about cyber safety – they know what adults want them to say. But for these girls, thinking about representing the information

thedownload.co.nz Life, camera, action | The doctor 21

The doctor Dr Ben Wheeler is running remote diabetes clinics for rural Otago families, saving them the long trip to Dunedin.

TYPE ONE DIABETES is the second most common chronic condition in children, after asthma. In my region, from South Canterbury to Stewart Island, there are up to 200 children and young people with diabetes. Being a kid with diabetes is no fun. You have to be careful about what you eat, put up with finger prick blood tests and injections every day, and often wear a bulky insulin pump under your clothes. When I first started working here, children with diabetes in Otago had to make the trip to Dunedin every three months, sometimes more often, to see me for their clinic. For some families that meant a round trip of up to nine hours. It meant mum and dad having to take a day off work – sometimes two days, if they had to stay overnight. Often brothers and sisters would need to come too, with everyone missing school – all this for a half-hour consultation. In 2014, I started running quarterly check- ups via video link from two other hospitals, Dunstan and Oamaru, which are far closer for some of the families. Now I sit in front of my screen in my office in Dunedin and the children, their parents, and a diabetes nurse specialist sit in front of a screen in a consultation room in Dunstan or Oamaru. With diabetes care, much of the clinic is education and support, and we do a lot of looking at numbers – readings from their blood glucose meters and insulin pumps. We an additional consultation. The patients and room. We have proven with our clinics that for a download the readings from the cloud and their families have gained a lot from that. couple of hundred dollars of equipment at each we look at them together and talk about the My dream is for telemedicine to allow more end, and a good broadband service, you can do problems they are experiencing. It’s perfect for and more patients to get care delivered close to pretty much the same as you can do with a big VC a telelink consultation, and if I need to examine their home. There is always going to be a need suite. And it makes everything easier when I am the patient, to look at the injection site, for for face-to-face consultations, but for follow up in the comfort of my office. example, the nurse can do that. and maintenance of these complex conditions The future? I can see the use of telelinks in I suppose you could do it by phone, but seeing – for keeping people well – technology can save other chronic specialties, and for follow up for each other adds an important dimension to a time and money for everyone - and cut down on patients who have been released from hospital. conversation and to building a relationship. the stress. There’s definitely the potential for links from An unexpected consequence of these All the hospitals have video conferencing home. Over the next two years it’s going to video conferences has been how it’s helped facilities - big screens and flash cameras, and become a vital tool for doctors – I can see my build relationships between the teams in the we use them for meetings between healthcare own use of telemedicine doubling from where different hospitals. I had never met Sharon, professionals in different cities, and for remote we are today –- expanding to other regions like the nurse specialist from Dunstan, but after lectures with medical students. But I think the South Canterbury or Southland and into other doing the video conferences, we’ve built a good future of telemedicine isn’t flash hardware, conditions, like thyroid problems. relationship. Now she contacts me at least but using more powerful personal computers – once a week to talk about one of the patients; having everything at your fingertips in your office Dr Ben Wheeler is the paediatric diabetes specialist sometimes she asks me to “meet” a patient for – not high cost equipment and going to a special at Dunedin Hospital.

2016 / Issue 1 22 Life, camera, action | The cloud guy | The retailer

The cloud guy Mike Jenkins is using video (or video in video) for product launches and client updates, so he and his staff don't have to spend so much time on the road.

THE INSTILLERY IS a business born in the go to a studio, possibly a home studio, wherever smarter – often pitching by video to potential cloud era; we’ve been operating just under they are. Maybe the guy laying down the bass is partners who then represent us in their market. three years. I’d estimate video and associated in San Francisco, drums are recorded somewhere For example, there’s a New York tech conference use is the driving force behind 50% of the UFB in New Zealand and the featuring artist options in June where we are launching a new cloud connections our clients sign up to. are in the UK. But they want to turn that song out service product. We’ll do a video launch from Clients are using video as a way to differentiate as quickly as possible, so they will collaborate live here at the same time that we launch it live in themselves from their competitors, accelerate from their different parts of the world, and they’ll NYC, with demonstrations scheduled for media decision making, communicate core messages be able to see each other in real time using video. over VC from New York, or even “video in video”, and facilitate business in a global marketplace. Within our own business, video means we can where we play pre-recorded video case studies For example, we work with a worldwide record employ people across the country and/or globe during a video conference. label. In the past, when you were recording an for different jobs. For example, we’re working on Finally video plays a big role in training and album, it could take months to get everyone a project where one person is in San Francisco, enablement, for our geographically-dispersed together in the same studio. These days people one in the Coromandel, one in the Auckland team, and our clients. We often evolve or refine can record together without necessarily being office and a fourth in Te Atatu (the latter our products and we’ve learnt from experience in the same country, let alone the same town. finds it easier to work from home than battle there’s no point emailing to explain updates. You might have a recording artist in Auckland Auckland traffic). If we all had to meet, what Instead we schedule a video call or invite writing lyrics and a base track and sending it with travelling time and the price of air travel, people to a video webinar. This also provides to her producers in Los Angeles. The first thing the cost of a project would be unaccessible – or our dev team the opportunity to collect real they’ll do is jump on a video call to either listen at least unpalatable – for our clients. time feedback, which shapes our product live or play the raw track recording versions. If the We also use video collaboration for marketing development roadmap. producer likes the track he’ll bring a couple of his and product launches. As a startup we simply team into the same video call, then book time in can’t be at every retailer or SaaS [software as a Mike Jenkins is founder and CEO of The Instillery, a recording studio. The different contributors will service] conference around the world, so we work a cloud-based network and app service provider. The retailer Pharmacist Nai Yeat is using high definition security footage to keep him and his staff safe – and protect his stock.

THE PHARMACY BUSINESS can be risky, what network with video connections, so staff can with large quantities of drugs being stored on contact each other. Some pharmacies are quite site. I’m always concerned for the safety of my isolated, so having a video link would mean you staff, and aware of issues around theft of stock. wouldn’t feel so much that you were stuck alone Once UFB was available in New Plymouth I in your store. And if you were worried about a got my Bell Block pharmacy connected up, particular person and their medications, you and I have installed high definition security could tap into your colleagues’ knowledge. cameras. If something were to happen, I have Video links would also be a good way to have good quality footage which I could give to the team meetings. At the moment we are using a police, and with the pictures streamed directly text-based system but video would be far better. to the cloud, there’s no on-site storage box that Until I signed up to UFB I didn’t realise it an intruder could damage to avoid recognition. doesn’t just provide benefits like video, but I can also download all the footage to my it’s also much cheaper. My UFB package at smartphone, if I need to. Bell Block gives me three phone lines for $50 Nai Yeat has recently taken on a new role as As UFB gets rolled out to other areas in a month, but at the Inglewood pharmacy, for regional manager for a network of Unichem and Taranaki I plan to link all the pharmacies in the example, I’m paying up to $390 a month. unbranded pharmacies around Taranaki.

thedownload.co.nz Life, camera, action | The VR content creator 23

The virtual reality content creator Danu Abeysuriya's company Rush Digital is working on a bunch of crazy (and not so crazy) virtual reality projects for a range of clients in New Zealand and overseas.

VIDEO IS AT the heart of so much of what bandwidth. Imagine instead of pictures with a in that place in the real world. And that’s going we do at Rush Digital. Marketing apps, game 70 degree angle lens, you have video where your to happen more as the headsets get smarter, as development, 3D graphics, augmented reality, pictures have a 360 degree perspective. I predict well as smaller and less intrusive. implementing other companies’ crazy ideas. virtual reality video [like the New York Times’ At Rush Digital we are looking actively at Probably our most high-profile project was the video The Displaced, directed by the Pulitzer video streaming technology, trying to work Amazing Race virtual reality Tug of War – where Prize-winning videographer Ben Solomon] is out how to stream more interactive content. real teams in New Zealand and Australia battled going to change the film industry and the way Imagine if you were watching a sports match, against each other using real ropes, large blocks we do storytelling. Just one example: VR filming and instead of just seeing the angle the of concrete, wide angle cameras and big screens is a big challenge because it’s hard for the crew broadcaster wants you to see, you had access to (so the teams could see each other), and lots to stay out of the shots when the camera rig is footage from multiple cameras, on demand. If of video streaming power. There was also the capturing 360 degrees around the subject. you wanted to see that All Blacks try again, from 1000 km tennis court, a virtual match between We are working on VR video experiences for a different angle, you just pick another camera players in Auckland and Christchurch, where clients that want their customers to have near- feed. Maybe you could sit in front of your smart computer vision tracked the (real) tennis ball hit to-real-world experiences – whether it’s looking TV and if you leaned to the left, you got a feed by one player, digitised the ball trajectory and around their factory, their store, or their tourist from the left. Then throw in virtual reality then activated a tennis ball machine at the other site. Imagine test-driving a Mercedes with Lewis video and you are right in the game. It’s pretty end to fire out a ball with a similar trajectory and Hamilton – you are in the car and can look all exciting, but it’s a lot of data. speed – all that within 200 milliseconds. around, like you are really there. Or you could walk What broadband speeds would we like to have? This all requires really fast broadband; when around an Icebreaker store and get teleported to That’s like asking how much pencil do you need? we do an interactive project that involves video the farm where the sheep is raised. Or a buyer in In an ideal world we’d have infinite speeds. Until we tend to max out the available bandwidth, the US could get the same experience. then we tailor our projects for the broadband that and we are sending huge files all over the world Then the next wave up is introducing a is available - and as more bandwidth is possible, for our clients to look at – New York, London, level of interactivity – being able to access so we are able to do more. Australia, Quebec, Chennai. information, or talk to Lewis Hamilton or the But that’s nothing compared to what’s coming merino farmer. People won’t want just video, Danu Abeysuriya is CEO of creative technology with the development of virtual reality video. they will want the sights, sounds, maybe even studio Rush Digital, and a finalist in the Young That really has the potential to use lots of smells that you might get if you were actually Achiever category of the 2015 NZ Hi-Tech awards.

2016 / Issue 1 24

to the fibre. Coincidentally, Matihetihe Marae had been selected to be part of TV3’s AIA Marae The connector DIY programme and it made sense for the telecommunications project to be part of the Auckland-based IT consultant Robyn Kamira (Te Rarawa) marae renovation. I talked to Antony Royal, then Chair of had long wanted a telecommunications infrastructure at her Nga Pu Waea, and he introduced me to key home marae at Mitimiti in the Far North, as one way to stop the telecommuncations people I could engage with. For example, Chorus supplied the fibre population drain and start revitalising the settlement. In late connection and oversaw the work, MyRepublic February 2015 it happened: Mitimiti was “on the grid”. provided a fibre broadband internet service, Vodafone set up a 2km-range femtocell for local cellphone coverage, and a team of voluntary I WAS BORN in Auckland and my business, hundreds when families return “home” for the technicians provided the overall technical Paua Interface Ltd, is there, but Matihetihe holidays. The community struggled to figure design and installed Wi-Fi access points around Marae in Mitimiti is my marae and there are out how it was going to survive as a settlement the marae complex. They continue to provide many of us who call it home, whether or not we with such depleting numbers and how it would remote technical assistance and training to live there. It’s very remote, on the west coast continue to participate in an increasingly locals. We got funding support from the Far on the northern side of the Hokianga Harbour, connected world. North District Council and InternetNZ, and a five-hour drive from Auckland, including I first started thinking about getting cell there was also huge local support – from the a car ferry crossing, and a three-hour return coverage and fast broadband to Mitimiti nearly a Marae Trust, and local people. For example, the trip on metal roads to the nearest doctor or IT decade ago and began lobbying through various cost to dig the 320-metre trench along the access technician. Like many settlements in the Far technology groups I was involved in. However, road to the wharekai building was prohibitive, so

North, it used to be a hub of activity; thousands the Government and telecommunications that was all done by volunteers. KAMIRA ROBYN TV3, of people lived along the inner harbour coastal companies were not focused on such remote At a wild guess, I estimate that we had settlements and it was a destination for trading places and it appeared Mitimiti would become $150,000-worth of donated goods, services, ships. But it’s been hard hit since the 1950s by a permanent “black spot”. Then, late in 2014, labour and expertise leading up to the DIY urbanisation. People needed to leave for jobs when the Rural Broadband Initiative fibre was Marae weekend and beyond. We called the and education and most never came back. laid on the road that passed the marae on its project “Mitimiti on the Grid”. Now there are only about 100 permanent way to the school, we approached Chorus to The marae provides fibre broadband internet

inhabitants, although the numbers swell to find out whether the marae could also connect and Wi-Fi for free for anyone who goes there – BY SUPPLIED PHOTOGRAPHY

thedownload.co.nz Life, camera, action | The connector 25

and people can access mobile coverage using about the fundraising and its aims. Following their existing plan. Most families in Mitimiti the programme, some of the watchers sent in have a laptop or device and Mitimiti on the I would like to see donations. I believe people want to participate Grid allows them to try out the new fast speed those who have been in their marae, no matter where they live in the broadband to reconnect with whanau and to world, and the experience of live streaming is explore income earning possibilities. disconnected over bringing that possibility closer. Fast broadband makes it possible for people generations return to The marae has also live-streamed Te Reo to set up small online businesses, allows visitors reconnect and strengthen Wananga (language workshops) and an online to stay longer, enables online working, gives income-earning project is under way with our access to online education, provides tourism the inter-generational sponsor MyRepublic. We are also planning to opportunities, and much more. ties that we value and set up a basic telehealth project for non-urgent Video, accessed through Mitimiti on the consultations with a GP or nurse - saving people Grid is changing the way people do things, and that hold us together as a three-hour round trip to Kaitaia. opening Mitimiti up to the outside world. One whanau, hapu and iwi. We’re also discussing options for a drone with important activity has been the live streaming a camera for environmental monitoring, disaster of hui and other events (using a simple iPhone Robyn Kamira recovery, and search and rescue. However, Mitimiti set up on a tripod). The first live streamed hui is located in an exposed coastal environment, and resulted in around 20 whanau watching remotely so drone technology would need to function in from around the world, and we expect over time potentially challenging conditions. this will grow. Watchers can make comments of watching the live streaming, they are now Research, mostly from the US, shows that or ask questions via the marae Facebook page considering bringing their families “home” to small towns that are “fibred up” can measure or through the live stream service which is reconnect in person. This is one of the marae the positive impact on their economy. My monitored by a local in attendance. community’s most exciting outcomes. greatest hope is that fast broadband and video Some of the whanau who are overseas have Another unexpected result of the will be part of the solution to see Mitimiti once experienced intergenerational disconnection livestreaming occurred when the TV3 Marae again become prosperous and populous, with with “home”. Some are the children of families DIY programme went to air last year. The a strong economic base, and a thriving and that moved away before they were born. The marae live streamed the programme so whanau vibrant community. I would like to see those live streaming helps people to reconnect in their overseas could watch. And at the same time, who have been disconnected over generations own time and to get to know their relations, they had a fundraiser event at Mitimiti. During return to reconnect and strengthen the inter- the place, the tikanga (cultural protocols) and the ad breaks they had a video camera and generational ties that we value and that hold us marae processes. Some have said that as a result encouraged locals to talk to the remote viewers together as whanau, hapu and iwi.

2016 / Issue 1 26 Life, camera, action | The GigCity guru

thedownload.co.nz 27

The GigCity guru In 2014, Dunedin won the Gigatown competition – a Chorus-run nationwide competition to give one town UFB speeds of 1 gigabit per second. But for City Council CEO Sue Bidrose, the work was just beginning. Now she had to work out what to do with New Zealand's fastest internet speeds.

DUNEDIN’S BID TO be New Zealand’s Already the number of users has increased Meanwhile, a change to local government Gigatown (since rebranded as GigCity Dunedin) from 300 a day in October 2015 to 800 in January. legislation allows local councillors to Skype into wasn’t led out of the council, but we got involved, Now we’re planning a Gig ‘living hub’, probably council meetings. Combined with a good quality and then when we made it through to the last in the library. We are thinking about banks of big video link, that will make a heap of difference five, we got intensely involved. I was part of a screens which might show something happening to councillors who live a distance out of town - team that visited the world’s first gigabit city, in the city, or could allow educational learning we’ve got one in Middlemarch, an hour away. Chattanooga in the US, and we then realised exchanges. Dunedin is a UNESCO-designated The potential is really exciting - people are what getting gigabit speeds could do for the city. City of Literature, so why not have live-streamed coming up with so many ideas. For example, a There was a huge sense of people coming book readings from overseas authors, or video few weeks ago the Department of Conservation in behind the bid - for the last few days I was links from our writers to overseas audiences. put a camera near one of the nests at the sleeping about three hours a night; the rest albatross colony, live-streaming a pair of birds of the time I was on social media, pushing brooding a chick* (www.doc.govt.nz/royalcam). our bid. I sent 21,490 tweets in all, and in the And we thought, we’ve got the Gig, why not final morning of the campaign, the entire city I look out of my window stream it into the i-SITE. So now visitors can go responded – there were 235,000 Facebook and I see students, and check out how the chick is getting on; and it comments, and 135,000 tweets. That’s in a city might encourage them to head out to the colony. of about 120,000 people. tourists, locals in town, So far, we’ve got UFB to the gate for 60% of Winning ‘the Gig’ has huge implications for business people on their premises in Dunedin, and nearly 24% of people Dunedin. As part of the prize, Dunedin gets that could connect to fast fibre have done so – gigabit speed connectivity at the entry level lunch break, all using the ahead of Chorus’ expectations. That’s almost UFB retail price, plus $700,000 funding from Octagon Wi-Fi. 9000 households or businesses on UFB, with Chorus for entrepreneurs and community 42% of these on a gigabit plan. groups to kick-start fast fibre-related projects, Sue Bidrose I see our GigCity status as another thing that plus a creative business ideas incubator series. makes Dunedin unique. Our vision statement There’s also an additional $250,000 funding City planners in other places around the world says we want: “to be recognised as one of from council. And interestingly, one of the most are thinking about the potential to use video to the world’s great small cities, renowned as a exciting aspects has been a big shift in attitude connect residents to councils. Instead of ringing confident, competitive knowledge centre; a from people here about the attributes Dunedin the call centre, you’d be able to see the person community where enterprise and creativity already have and how access to the Gig will help you are talking to. Or you could introduce video support a productive and sustainable city”. us shape a new future. into planning consent processes. Then there’s We want creative people to choose to live and Mostly we are still in a connect-up and the potential for using cameras to keep people work in Dunedin, students to stay after they development phase, but already there are some safer. In Dunedin we are exploring video drop- finish their degree, and local innovators to be exciting projects happening. ins, and we are looking at sensor technology for working together. One of the first things is getting free high- things like wastewater, or parking. The Gig helps make that happen. speed Wi-Fi internet access through the Octagon area in the centre of the city – and we’re planning a wider corridor in the coming months. Users get plenty of data a day; enough to download a movie or TV show, or catch up with family overseas via Skype or local equivalents. I look out of my window and I see students, tourists, locals in town, business people on their lunch break, all using the Octagon Wi-Fi. Then From live camera footage at the Otago Peninsula when the cruise ships come in I can see some of albatross colony – www. the older people sitting outside the i-SITE (we doc.govt.nz/royalcam. had to put new benches there!) talking to their * Warning: Addictive material. This link could children, letting them know they are okay, that seriously impact your at- they are having a great time; I love to see that. work productivity.

2016 / Issue 1 28 Life, camera, action | The storyteller | The exporter

The exporter Video is an important part of a major factory innovation process for Florentines Patisserie, says managing director Greg Knight.

FLORENTINES STARTED over 20 years ago with one patisserie in Tauranga, and three staff, making premium cakes and desserts in the middle of the night. But as demand grew we started freezing and wholesaling our products to cafes, restaurants, hotels, caterers and other food outlets. Now we have a staff of 40, making up to 3,000 cakes a day and we export to Australia, Tahiti, the Pacific Islands and the Middle East. Video meetings – with reps on the road and customers – are far better than talking on the phone, and save a lot of time and money in terms of travel. I used to fly to Australia all the time; now I can make immediate contact with them whenever I need to via Skype video conference. We might, for example, show them samples of a new product we The storyteller are developing, and talk about the look and the texture. Or they might demonstrate how a dessert prototype was damaged in transit, and we For Rhonda Kite, founder of interactive book can discuss modifying the design. Having a fast broadband connection means we can share big documents or design files, and everyone can publisher Kiwa Digital, video is a marketing be looking at them on screen at the same time. Another advantage of tool, a learning feature, and a way to add sign video conferencing is that other staff members, such as our product development team here in Tauranga, can take part in discussions with language to books. customers, without the cost and time of travel. That makes our food technology experts feel part of the process, and customers get to know I STARTED OFF telling stories through television – Maori programmes the people who are designing their cakes. and documentaries, bringing to life everything from Maori legends to life Our goal for this year is to double our turnover. This includes a in Otara when I was a kid. major process improvement project for the factory. Software will give My creative philosophy has always been to “show, not tell” and that’s us instant or live data and KPI [key performance indicator] reporting, the basis behind the books we make at Kiwa Digital. When we first and putting video cameras in the factory means we can look for started creating books in 2009 we had to be mindful of the restrictions continuous process improvements. Our plant is running 20 hours of broadband speeds in terms of streaming and downloads, and that put a day, so management will be able to “see” what’s going on in the creative restrictions on us. We knew children needed instant feedback; if production process, both from the office and from home. In the future I a feature took too long to download, or didn’t work, they weren’t going to can imagine using the technology to give virtual tours of the factory for come back to it. We wanted to do these big wonderful books, but we had overseas customers – they could watch their desserts being made and to pull ourselves back. Over the last two years the rollout of broadband even ask questions of people on the floor. has made a big difference. I see video not replacing our product, but being integrated more and more into it. For example, we’ve used video Greg Knight is MD of to introduce another language – sign language – into some of our books. Tauranga-based frozen Now deaf children and their classmates can learn to sign together using dessert manufacturer Hairy Maclary. Another project involves bilingual English/Arabic comic Florentines Patisserie, books, with a video introduction telling people how to use them to and its retail brand enhance learning. When I’m designing a book, I’m thinking of how I can Mor & Mor. give access to this book to as many people as possible, including those with special needs, and video is a big part of that. It’s my TV production background coming out. Video is also a cornerstone allowing us to penetrate international markets – telling the stories of what our company is doing and is able to do. We recently made a video about an indigenous language project we did in Alaska.

Rhonda Kite is a TV producer, founder of Kiwa Digital, Maori Businesswoman of the Year, and now CEO of Kiwa in the United Arab Emirates.

thedownload.co.nz 29 THE BENCHMARK The Download crunches the numbers underlying the rise and rise of our digital economy and online culture.

OUR NEED FOR SPEED DEMAND FOR FIBRE GROWS TOTAL NZ FIBRE CONNECTIONS GREW 1 in 5 New 135% IN 2015 – NOW USED BY Over 920,000 10,000 2020 Zealand homes and households are fibre connections TARGET 200,000 businesses are now in reach of fibre; are being added HOMES & BUSINESSES connected to fibre 184,000 have every month ACHIEVED UFB uptake is now 20% connected More than double that four years early of end-users able to This represents 135% 12 months ago 46% connect (February 2016) growth in 2015 of Chorus' total new fibre plans were 20% in 100Mbps or faster in Total NZ UFB connections growth March 2016 Q1 2016, up from 41% 180,000 20%

18.6% FIBRE USERS CONSUME 160,000 18% 16.4% 184GB of data 16% A MONTH, TWICE AS MUCH AS 140,000 COPPER USERS 14% 120,000 New Zealand has the 12.2% 12% third fastest fibre growth 100,000 in the OECD 10% 80,000 DUNEDIN HAS AN AVERAGE 8% BROADBAND SPEED OF 60,000 6%

107Mbps 40,000 – 3X THAT OF EVERY OTHER 4% CHORUS UFB CITY AND AHEAD OF LEADING CITIES 20,000 2% AROUND THE WORLD 0 0% Over Jun Sept Dec Mar Jun Sept Dec Mar Jun Sept Dec Mar Jun Sept Dec 700,000 2012 2013 2014 2015 broadband users (58%) could move to UFB connections Uptake of end users able to connect a faster speed

THE AVERAGE SPEED ACROSS NEW ZEALAND IS 25Mbps Data sources: Chorus, Statistics NZ, IDC Consumerscape 2015, MBIE

2016 / Issue 1 30 The Benchmark | Numbers, facts and metrics

TOP TOWNS*: HOW YOUR PLACE CONNECTS TO THE FUTURE Chorus is the largest company building the broadband spine nationwide. This infographic shows how different towns are doing and which are the frontrunners.

UFB UPTAKE, MARCH 2016 Build complete 0% 10% 20% 30%

1 BLENHEIM

2 TIMARU

3 ROTORUA** TOP UFB UPTAKE 4 ASHBURTON

TIMARU 5 OAMARU has edged ‘GigCity’ DUNEDIN 6 MASTERTON for 2nd spot in terms 7 TAUPO of uptake. 8 GREYMOUTH

However 9 QUEENSTOWN** BLENHEIM, 10 WAIUKU** one of the first towns completed, holds the lead at 28% Build in progress

11 NELSON

NELSON, 12 P. NORTH GREYMOUTH, 13 DUNEDIN KAPITI, WAIHEKE 14 INVERCARGILL AND PUKEKOHE 15 AUCKLAND show strong uptake growth over the quarter 16 NAPIER/HASTINGS

17 WELLINGTON

There are 18 WAIHEKE ISLAND

10 PLACES 19 PUKEKOHE with uptake rates above 20% 20 WHAKATANE 21 FEILDING

22 GISBORNE Overall, 1 IN 5 end-users are connected 23 KAPITI

24 LEVIN

10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% % OF BUILD COMPLETE AS OF MARCH 2016 * Chorus fibre build areas only ** Completions subject to CFH testing UFB Uptake Sept-15 UFB Uptake Dec-15 UFB Uptake Mar-16 % of build complete

thedownload.co.nz 31

STRONG GROWTH IN INTERNET TRAFFIC UFB take-up and streaming services are producing an exponential growth in internet traffic

0.60 100

50% growth 0.55 WatchMe debuts Traffic growth now at 100% Average throughput per user 90 0.50 Average Monthly Data Traffic (GB) Freeview launches per Broadband Connection streaming service April 2016: 0.45 200,000 UFB connections 80 0.40 100,000 UFB connections Data traffic (GB) 0.35 70 Netflix launches in NZ Internet traffic is now 0.30 growing at roughly Mbps March 2012: Traffic growth 0.25 Quickflix 60 100% becomes NZ's tracks PER YEAR first movie & around 0.20 50% twice the pre-UFB rate. TV streaming Growth is driven by factors service 50 such as: 0.15 • Broadband penetration, • Proportion of faster 0.10 August 2014: Spark launches 40 connections Lightbox • Streaming video 0.05

Traffic data not available 0.00 30

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

THE FASTER THE CONNECTION THE MORE DATA WE NEED The rising demand UFB subscribers use more than twice as much data as people on copper for data is building the digital economy 190 Average monthly use is 170 ~100GB per month across all connections 150 Average monthly data consumption on 130 fibre connections is ) per broadband connection ) per broadband

B typically more than 110 2x that of copper

90 Average monthly data usage has 70 doubled 100 50 80 60 Average monthly data usage (G monthly data Average 40 30 20 0 Oct 2015 Nov 2015 Dec 2015 Jan 2016 Feb 2016 Mar 2016 Jan-15 Jan-16

Copper Fibre Average

2016 / Issue 1 32 The Benchmark | Numbers, facts and metrics

AVERAGE BROADBAND SPEEDS ARE NOW 25Mbps Kiwis are gradually moving from basic copper broadband to UFB. But there's a way to go The average speed Fibre across all Chorus High speed copper connections at the end of 2015 was 25 25Mbps, Mbps up from 16Mbps a year ago, and 2.5 times what Standard broadband it was at the start of UFB (10Mbps)

Average speed 16 increased Mbps 52% in 2015

10 However 58% of Mbps users could get better broadband today Average speed

Basic broadband

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

KIWIS CHOOSE FULL SPEED AHEAD Chorus customers are choosing faster UFB plans

76% 75% 73% of new fibre THE LEAP connections were FORWARD Consumers are 30Mbps 100Mbps 54% upgrading from or more in Q1 2016 30Mbps to 100Mbps, Nearly 46% of Chorus’ 200Mbps and more mass market fibre connections are now 36% 100Mbps over 100Mbps. That’s up from 25% at the beginning of 2015 24% 24% GigCity Dunedin 200Mbps (or faster) now has

8% 4,000 1Gbps connections 0.03% 1%

Dec Mar Jun Sept Dec Mar Jun Sept Dec Mar

2013 2014 2015 2016

thedownload.co.nz MIND THE GAP Connections are getting faster, but we need to make more use of what UFB delivers*

KEY Potential speed Additional speed if everyone on the best Current average speed

WAIHEKE IS. AUCKLAND

GIG CITY DUNEDIN PUKEKOHE NOW A WORLD WAIUKU LEADER WITH WHAKATANE 100Mbps+ SPEED ROTORUA GISBORNE TAUPO Speeds more than 3X GREATER than every other area NAPIER/HASTINGS

PALMERSTON NORTH Average speed increased by LEVIN FEILDING

15Mbps KAPITI in the Dec quarter alone MASTERTON NELSON

WELLINGTON

BLENHEIM

ALL REGIONS HAVE GREYMOUTH EXPERIENCED A JUMP IN AVERAGE SPEED HUGE POTENTIAL Average speed increased between ASHBURTON FOR FURTHER 1-3Mbps TIMARU GROWTH

Speeds increasing Fibre uptake in Chorus as more connections areas was just under QUEENSTOWN OAMARU move to VDSL 20% in Dec 2015 and fibre AND 22% IN 23% DUNEDIN MARCH 2016 of broadband connections are now high-speed INVERCARGILL If everyone was on the VDSL or UFB best broadband available to them, average speeds could increase a further 55Mbps

* As of December 2015

2016 / Issue 1