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Friday, March 27, 2009
The Ef Word
Broadband boosterism blooms on Newbury Street
By Efrain Viscarolasaga
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Ten years ago last week, the first cable modems were certified for version 1.0 of the then-new data-over-cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) standard, making it possible to send data over coaxial cables and marking the entrance of cable operators into the broadband market.
It’s an obscure holiday to be sure, particularly to anyone outside of the networking geekerati, but a fitting opportunity to take a look at the future of broadband with Rouzbeh Yassini, the “Father of the Cable Modem.”
By way of background, Yassini is the founder of Andover-based LANcity Inc., the creator of the first cable modems, and was one of a handful of representatives tapped to write the first DOCSIS specification for industry non-profit Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs), a group with which he is still affiliated.
In short, Yassini knows broadband. While he is thrilled to see the fruits of his labor now enabling millions to get reasonably-priced broadband service through coaxial cable, he is somewhat frustrated by the direction in which he sees the industry going. Why?
“Broadband is more than just the Internet,” he said, emphatically.
For Yassini, broadband connectivity means the interconnection of many devices and software, not just the connection of devices to the Internet, and while he concedes he is thinking a few years into the future, he is passionate in his assertion that the true capabilities of broadband have yet to be fully realized.
“When Edison pioneered electricity, he didn’t say ‘just lightbulbs,’” said Yassini.
But Yassini isn’t just talking about it. He has spent the past four years, and approximately $10 million, renovating a Newbury Street brownstone to be a showcase of broadband technology. It is his way of yelling to the masses “this is what is possible!”
The building itself, called the Yassini Broadband Knowledge Center, looks no more like a technology lab than any other Newbury Street dwelling. It’s home to an art gallery on the bottom two floors and the center’s offices on the upper two. But inside, the building is wired to a level that would make 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL take notice.
The entire building is controlled by two 61-inch touch screens in the main conference room. From here, using software developed mostly by Yassini, a user can control and monitor most of the functions of the building, from multi-media and electronic security to environmental controls and physical security.
Some basics: room temperature, humidity and other air quality characteristics are tracked and stored every five minutes, in every room, including the sensitive art galleries; high-definition cameras around the premises can be manually or automatically controlled, or triggered by movement, with a resolution clear enough to read the license plate of a car parked across the street; lights and shades throughout the building can be controlled automatically, as can all digital signage for the gallery.
Naturally, control and alarm systems for sensitive criteria can also be forwarded to a user’s Blackberry or a remote computer. Likewise, the home automation systems of Yassini’s residences can be controlled from the center.
The frosting in the glass in the doors to the conference room is even controlled through LEDs — certainly the most visually impressive, though possibly the least useful, application in the house.
The coolness factor of the place is enough to make any technophile salivate. But, I asked Yassini, is there a point to all this?
“Simply put,” he said, “to show what is possible.”
His goal is to get the juices flowing in the next generation of broadband entrepreneurs, be they students or seasoned veterans. To attract the former, the center has established a $200,000 grant program for post-graduate entrepreneurs to come in and develop their new ideas. For the latter, Yassini offers the center as a place for government agencies, dignitaries, universities or other small groups interested in broadband to meet and discuss how broadband not only can get us access to the Internet, but how it can change the world for the better, through efficiency, employment and innovation.
Ten years ago, Yassini was celebrated for bringing the Internet to cable customers. Ten years from now, his center may be celebrated for much more — helping make data communications a platform from which almost anything is possible.
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