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Liveblog: Bradley and VJ bring APC home

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LAS VEGAS – HP Americas Partner Conference 2011 heads down the stretch Wednesday morning with a keynote session that features the top executives of two of its most important business units.

The morning session will include Viyomesh Joshi, who heads up HP’s Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) and Todd Bradley, chief of the Personal Systems Group (PSG).

Join us here on ChannelBuzz.ca for a blow-by-blow account of what both men have to say, as well as the rest of the presentation, slated to include the CIO of the Green Bay Packers discussing the IT impact of the Super Bowl.

The liveblog should go live shortly after 8:00 am Pacific Time Wednesday morning.

  HP APC wrapup: Joshi and Bradley (03/30/2011) 
8:18
Good morning from Las Vegas! Stephen DiFranco just taking the stage now to get things going here for the final keynote session of APC.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:18 
8:18
“Today’s going to be about how things are changing,” DiFranco tells partners.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:18 
8:20

DiFranco offers IPG chief Vyomesh Joshi a warm introduction, and then brings VJ out.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:20 
8:22

In the last eight months, 5.6 million “cloud-aware and Web-connected” printers shipped from AP, Joshi says. 
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:22 
8:22
Every printer over $99 will be cloud-aware and Web-connected, he says. Expects 20 million units this year, and virtually all HP printers in use to be connected over the next three years.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:22 
8:23

“We’re on this path with connectivity, with the cloud and with software for the past 24 months,” Joshi says. 
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:23 
8:25

“Content is exploding,” Joshi says — digital content climbing by 10 times , printable content growing 3x – “We believe that as things go digital, they come towards Hewlett-Packard.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:25 
8:26

Joshi detailing ePrint again — every printer has an e-mail address, print anywhere any time from any device. “We believe we are going to get incremental pages from all the mobile devices,” and it doesn’t matter which platform. “This is a big deal. This is tremendous growth.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:26 
8:27
Every single media is going digital, Joshi says. “And those digital pages will come to HP because we have the broadest portfolio to make it happen.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:27 
8:29
Joshi says HP transitioned from printers to printing to print services, and now looking at transitioning to content digitization.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:29 
8:30
Joshi says home market share is 55 per cent, but office share is only 22 per cent, tells partners to target customers moving from copiers to MFPs. “This is a tremendous opportunity for all of us here.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:30 
8:32

Joshi sees a big opportunity in going after print service providers as they transition from analog printing to digital.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:32 
8:34
Four key assets the company is building —

  1. ePrint Center for cloud-based consumers and micro-businesses – focus is on making printer a Web service.
  2. Managed SMB and enterprise cloud-based solutions
  3. Global print service providers
  4. Partners, who are key in building an integrated go-to-market.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:34 
8:41

Midmarket opportunity is all about streamlining printing, Joshi says, making paper-intensive processes more efficient and reducing time. “This is an IT problem, not just a printing problem. I don’t believe copiers can solve this. Only HP can make this happen.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:41 
8:45
Joshi loves webpress for print service providers because it consumes “gallons of ink” rather then cubic centimeters. “I love things that consume gallons of ink,” Joshi jokes. Not surprising given the proportion of the printing business — an particularly the profitability of that printing business — that’s attributed to consumables.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:45 
8:47
Touching on the efficiency of print-on-demand — estimates it can save $3 per book in supply chain costs, as well as offering the ability to do personalized books.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:47 
8:48
“We need your help” on building an integrated go-to-market strategy, Joshi says, particuarly in the midmarket and below. “We need your help to sell hardware, supplies, services and solutions.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:48 
8:49
And with that, Joshi wraps up his presentation, and Stephen DiFranco is back on stage.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:49 
8:51
Rick Chernick, CEO of Camera Corner/Connecting Point hits the stage to introduce the next speaker.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:51 
8:54
Chernick is introducing Todd Bradley, EVP of PSG, talking up Bradley’s role in increasing both the business and the profitability of PSG over the last few years. “This man is not only feared by some… including some of own people I suspect… he’s respected by everyone and loved by us.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:54 
8:54
And with that, here comes Bradley.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:54 
8:59
Chernick and Bradley doing a little Q&A.
Q1: What will the situation in Japan do to the supply chain?
A: Job one was making sure HP’s 5,000 employees in Japan were safe and have what they need. Says there’s still “a lot of assessment” still going on in Japan. By Friday morning after the quake/tsunami, HP had pulled all of its inventory of components in Japan and Asia. Still, “It’s going to be a challenge, but at the same time, an opportunity. We will leverage our scale and strength, and you’ll see our strength through this process.” Predicts it will take a long time to play out.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 8:59 
9:01

Q: Rick asks about displays and where HP’s going.
A: “We think about displays pretty broadly,” Bradley says, from its high-end Dreamcolor monitors on down. Predicts thinner displays, bigger role for digital signage. “The combination of scale, innovation and breadth of our portfolio” is a differentiator for HP. 
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:01 
9:02
Chernick observes that the room accounts for more than 80 per cent of HP’s commercial channel business.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:02 
9:04
Q: What’s going on with the cloud? How am I going to make money with it?
A: “The cloud is such a broad term,” thinks about safe, secure access to content. “We’ll work very closely with you to define what this new set of capabilities is.” Between the business groups, says HP understands the technology, but needs to work with partners to define what it is customers need from that technology.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:04 
9:06
Bradley on the “invent” tagline: It’s not so much about what HP invents as what it allows partners and customers to invent.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:06 
9:08
Q: Has the strategy changed at all with all the board and executive changes?
A: “Our commitment to all of you is unwavering. Our strategy and how we engage with you has never changed. We were unfortunate enough to have a personal situation that affected the highest levels of our company, but through that difficult transition, none of us lost sight on what’s important — supporting our partners, meeting the needs of our customers.” When Hurd was ousted on Friday, the first thing everyone had to do on Monday as “get up and sell something, get up and build something.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:08 
9:15

Q: WebOS and the Touchpad and the opportunity around it.
A: Palm was a “very strategic decision” for HP, and the focus was a precursor to what the cloud strategy. “Look at content consumption and content creation, we’re pretty good on the creation side, but there’s a whole new range of models in terms of consumption.” By purchasing webOS and launching Touchpad, HP has an opportunity “to leapfrog” the Wintel model. Focus with Touchpad will be on a product and suite of services that are enterprise-ready. 
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:15 
9:16
Putting tablets in context: About 50 million tablets this year. We’ll consume over 400 million PCs. “This is not the end of a sprint but the beginning of a marathon. And all of you have seen this many times… when we show up to a fight, we show up ready to fight.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:16 
9:17
Bradley says there are 46 tablets in the market today, almost 100 introduced at CES in January. “This isn’t an Apple vs. HP thing,” Bradley says… HP will take on all tablet comers.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:17 
9:17
“They should be worried more about how they’re going to compete with HP,” Bradley warns.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:17 
9:21
Chernick urging Bradley to stick with HP for the long run.
“These is no one-year deal,” Bradley says, leading Chernick to admit “I made that shit up.”
Bradley: HP “is almost an unmatchable platform in the world.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:21 
9:22
Chernick, out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, introduces a video to set up the guest speaker from the Green Bay Packers.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:22 
9:26
Up comes Wayne Wichlacz, IT director for the Packers.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:26 
9:32
Wichlacz comparing the company’s IT sophistication in its 1996 Super Bowl win and this year. With new restaurants, special events, expanded shop and a Hall of Fame, the football team has gone from 10 days per year with Lambeau Field open to 350.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:32 
9:33
In 1996, the technology toolset included Windows 31, DEC VAX gear and “a rudimentary e-mail package.” Floppy disks were the norm for software updates.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:33 
9:34
Today, it’s “always on,” and that’s only growing with cloud expectations.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:34 
9:37
They’ve gone from videotape in 1996 to instant anlaysis with Powerpoint presentations and digital video for scouting and teaching.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:37 
9:41
The business backend has remained fairly consistent — Great Plains Dynamics back in the day, Microsoft Dynamics GP today. Reason for choosing it? Needed software that can cut million-dollar cheques, and most midmarket biz software could only do six digits. They would have had to cut three cheques to deliver a $3 million signing bonus, Wichlacz says.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:41 
9:43
Focus of IT has expanded from just on-field performance to now include the full game experience, Wichlacz says, which includes things like supporting NFL Game Day and other content packages.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:43 
9:45
Having to deliver Fibre Optic to all camera locations thanks to the move to HD broadcasting — that’s 35 cameras just from the big networks for the average game. HD also coming to a new scoreboard/stadium big screen in the near future.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:45 
9:48
In 1996, Wichlacz was the only IT staff “I was the director of myself,” he jokes. Now, it’s a ten-person system, “in about the top third” of the NFL… typically IT teams get larger if the team owns the stadium, as the Packers do.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:48 
9:49
For the Super Bowl in Dallas this year, The Packers had less than a week to set up an on-site IT environment — included a bunch of laptops, four ProLiant servers and networking infastructure — two networks, one for business operations and one for video.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:49 
9:50
And they got to do that within the confines of the Internet connection available in the hotel. As someone who’s tried to do something as simple as upload HD video over the average hotel user network, I can’t imagine how impossible it must have been to make that happen.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:50 
9:52
DiFranco back on stage (in a Packers jersey) to wrap things up… pointing out the changing role of the CIO, as illustrated by Wichlacz. 
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:52 
9:53
Out comes Jerry Gepner of SportsVision, the folks responsible for the “1st and 10” digital markup that’s now superimposed on football games.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 9:53 
10:00
Gepner detailing the differences in purchasing in broadcast/video and IT. Also a mix between direct and dealers, but the priority is on buying best-of-breed. “What matters to them most isn’t TCO, it’s performance and operational features… of any technology they buy.” Largely because they need to “shoehorn any new technology into existing workflows.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:00 
10:01
SD = 270 Mbit/s video, HD either 1.485 Gbit/s or 2.97 Gbit/s… and broadcast production works with uncompressed video almost exclusively.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:01 
10:02
1.485 is 720p/1080i — 2.97 is 1080p.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:02 
10:03
True 2.97 Gbit/s 1080p is two to three years away, Gepner says.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:03 
10:03
On compression, Gepness says the difference in video quality is “the difference between the cartel and the street dealer.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:03 
10:05
One hour of HD video uncompressed is 671 GB — and avarege number of sources for a single NFL game is 10 — 6.719 TB for a game. 15,000 to 10,000 live events televised annually in the US. Pretty stunning data consumption.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:05 
10:10
In 1994, adding graphics to a game, like time and score, involved “a couple of Hail Marys, a couple of shots of whiskey and you hope it all holds together for the next three hours.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:10 
10:13
Ahhhh… and Gepner brings up everyone’s favorite video graphics innovation, the FoxTrax glowing hockey puck from 1996. The first time an object had been tracked and put graphics on-screen. “It increased viewership,” he says. “People who loved it watched the game because they loved it. People who hated it watched the game because they hated it.”
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:13 
10:14
“It was nothing short of a miracle that the thing worked,” and took a week to set up at the venue — they had to crawl around the ceiling of the stadium and install 40 IR cameras to track the puck.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:14 
10:16
Today, video is ingested to servers over a Gigabit network. Starting now to use more IT-like workflows, but “shoehorning it into the existing workflows for the business.” And that’s including new usage patterns like allowing users to view from any of the connected cameras via the Web.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:16 
10:23

Video moving to much more virtual and seamless workflows, Gepner says. Upcoming production trucks include 15,000 processing cores and 20 TB of SSD storage on 18 wheels.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:23 
10:25
This is a model that will work in broadcast and entertaining until such time as multi-GB connections are available between shooting locations and production centers.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:25 
10:27
Furture growth of the industry is largely dependent on applying IT in new an innovative ways, Gepner says.
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:27 
10:28
Gepner wraps up his presentation on that note, and hands it back to Stephen DiFranco to bring the presentation homes. And that’s the wrapup from here. More news to come in the hours to come. Goodbye from Vegas!
Wednesday March 30, 2011 10:28 
10:28