Archive for January, 2003

The new digital wave

Friday, January 17th, 2003

Shaw rolls out more, sharper movies

Dan Rowe
Sun

(A digital cable box)

(A laptop computer)

(A high-definition television)

(A arm holding a television remote)

Shaw Cable customers using the company’s digital service can now use the Internet to order movies they can fast-forward, rewind or pause at any time during a 24-hour period, the communications giant announced Thursday.

As well as its new Shaw on Demand system, Shaw also announced a new decoder will enable its Lower Mainland customers to make proper use of their high-definition (HDTV) sets for the first time.

The On Demand system, which Shaw began testing in Calgary last September, was expected to be up and running by Thursday night, allowing people who subscribe to both Shaw’s digital cable and high-speed Internet service to purchase a movie like Goldmember, the latest Austin Powers flick, and have access to it digitally for 24 hours.

In that time, they are able to watch as often as they want just as they would a DVD or a videotape.

“Once you have the digital set-top (box) and Shaw high-speed Internet access, you have everything you need for Shaw On Demand. You’re in business,” said Michael D’Avella, senior vice-president of Shaw Communications.

Of Shaw’s 630,000 Lower Mainland customers, D’Avella estimates 25 per cent have digital cable service.

Customers order a film through the Shaw on Demand Web site and receive almost instantaneous access.

“It’s a great combination of technologies and we think that customers that have both will see a tremendous value added,” D’Avella said.

The biggest difference between the new Shaw on Demand system and the long-standing pay-per-view system is the greater access to a wider range of programming and the ability to use it more flexibly.

D’Avella said there are about 250 movies available on demand right now, but the library will grow and will also include TV programs.

“We will build up this library over a period of time and you’re going to have access to every movie and every television program that was ever created.” he said. “It’s total choice.”

Boxing, concerts and professional wrestling — the big-event fare that originally stoked the pay-per-view fires — will also be available.

Shaw is still working on pricing all aspects of the service — TV programs do not yet have a set price — but the average movie will cost $3.99.

“It will be typical pay-per-view pricing,” D’Avella said.

The second part of Shaw’s Thursday rollout of new services is more pricey and, for now, mostly the domain of videophiles.

TV manufacturers have been making television sets that are capable of showing HDTV and electronics stores have been selling them, but people in this part of the world, at least, have not been able to watch HDTV programs.

HDTV offers a crisper picture by using more lines of resolution. It requires the programs — primarily U.S. sporting events at this point — to be shot on special cameras.

Shaw is now offering a new box, the DCT 5100 HD, that decodes HDTV broadcasts for people with televisions with HDTV capabilities.

HDTV is still in its nascent stages, however. Right now, Lower Mainland subscribers would have access to only three U.S. channels in HDTV.

D’Avella pledges that will change.

“There will be other services available. Some of our movies are in HDTV,” he said.

Viewers looking for Canadian content in HDTV will be hard-pressed to find it, but D’Avella said that will gradually change.

“I think they realize that this is the next wave of television and viewers will gravitate towards that,” D’Avella said.

The cost is quite prohibitive, too.

“It is a high-end product, and it is really designed for high-end users,” D’Avella said.

Shaw is selling the new boxes for $700 and the least expensive TV with HDTV capabilities being sold at Future Shop in Vancouver is a 30-inch model for $1,800.

WHAT YOU NEED

Shaw customers with both a digital cable box (either DCT 2000 or DCT 5100 HD) and Shaw’s high-speed Internet access can get Shaw on Demand 24 hours a day. The cost of a package that includes both is $73.95 a month. New customers must purchase the unit for about $200.

HOW YOU DO IT

Customers log on to shawondemand.ca and look for the movie or program they want to see. They can search by a performer’s name or browse a Top 10 list. About 250 titles are currently available.

WHAT YOU GET

For $3.99, customers get digital access to a movie for 24 hours. You can watch it as often as you like and use all normal VCR functions such as pause, fast-forward and rewind.

© Copyright 2003 Vancouver Sun

Rennie wins top Realtor award with sales of $127M

Thursday, January 16th, 2003

Sun

Hot Realtor sells $126M in housing

Thursday, January 16th, 2003

Ashley Ford
Province

CREDIT: Wayne Leidenfrost, Prov. Bob Rennie holds on to honours as top realtor.

Bob Rennie is “king” of the residential real-estate selling mountain for the second year running, according to Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver figures.

The head of Rennie Marketing systems beat out perennial championship contenders Malcolm Hasman of Angell Hasman and Ronald Antalek of RE/MAX Ridge Meadows Realty.

Rennie sold $126,838,735 worth of homes last year, just failing to eclipse his all-time record of 1996 when he sold $127 million worth.

Hasman sold $75,169,825 in homes, while Antalek weighed in with $66,955,577 in sales.

But Antalek listed and sold more units — 645 — compared to Rennie’s 609 units.

Rennie says he is confident he will create a new record this year and sees no dip in the market and a continuing high demand for housing.

“I think we are on track for our biggest year ever,” he says.

Rennie became one of the first realtors to specialize in marketing condominium projects and has performed consistently well over the past decade, backed by a small team of nine.

“I am no different to anyone in the top 10 — or any of my peers, really. We live and die by our Rolodex and would not survive without the support and loyalty of our clients and those who work with me,” he says.

One of his secrets to success is his willingness to work long hours and his company’s organization.

“My company is made up of just nine dedicated, highly organized individuals who are extremely hardworking and disciplined. That allows me to do what I do best — liaising and meeting with clients.”

Rennie is also acknowledged as being extremely professional.

“When I started out in this business in 1975, I decided it was a profession and have looked at it and practised it as one ever since,” he says.

While often portrayed as the “downtown condo czar,” the reality is that Rennie continues to spread his wings across the Lower Mainland and into the U.S.

He still works with Continental Bentall, the U.S. arm of the Bentall Group, Vancouver developer Ian Gillespie of Westbank and Land-lease of Australia on several developments in Seattle.

He has just taken on new projects at Simon Fraser University and in White Rock, where Rykon is developing four eight-storey towers with 153 suites.

The downtown core will remain particularly important, says Rennie, as increasing numbers of people relocate to new live/work suites that are now being built or about to begin construction.

Other major downtown projects for him include the first tower of Peter Wall‘s massive development on the former Maple Leaf site near Yaletown and the new Bing Thom-designed luxury hotel/apartment complex planned for the Hotel Georgia parking site.

© Copyright  2003 The Province

Pending Squamish ski resort waiting for approval

Thursday, January 16th, 2003

Sun

Nigeria scam e-mail chain letter

Friday, January 10th, 2003

Province

Housing starts take big leap

Friday, January 10th, 2003

Ashley Ford
Sun

(Peter) Simpson

B.C. housing starts, powered by low mortgage rates, charged ahead by 29 per cent last year — outperforming the national average building surge of 25 per cent, which was the highest level since 1989.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said yesterday there were 20,302 B.C. housing starts last year, up from 15,689 a year earlier. More than two-thirds of the activity took place across the Lower Mainland.

Peter Simpson, chief operating officer of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association, said starts exceeded the forecast by more than 2,000.

More importantly, he said, they created an additional 6,538 full-time construction-related jobs last year.

“We are confident this positive trend will continue through 2003,” Simpson said.

Cameron Muir, senior CMHC analyst in Vancouver, said residential construction was “the bright light in the B.C economy during 2002.”

And even better times could be ahead, provided the U.S. economy rebounds and there is an end to the softwood-lumber dispute, Muir said.

“With mortgage rates expected to remain low by historic standards, significant pent-up demand still evident and low inventories of both new and resale homes, strong growth can be expected in home construction over this year,” he said.

In the Lower Mainland, starts surged by 21.5 per cent last year. There were 13,197 starts compared with 10,862 a year earlier.

Other areas of the province also performed well, in spite of the frail economy.

Single-family-home starts in the Fraser Valley jumped 52 per cent to 3,668 units and multiples rose 76 per cent to 2,472 units.

In Abbotsford, there was a huge resurgence in multiple-unit construction. Last year, 480 units were built compared to only eight in 2001.

In Kelowna, starts surged 44.2 per cent; in Prince George, they jumped 29.9 per cent.

Surprisingly, a fall-off in multiple-unit construction in Victoria saw total starts creep ahead by just 6.3 per cent, although single-family construction jumped a healthy 39.1 per cent.

Across Canada, housing starts last year hit 204,857, up a whopping 25.9 per cent from 2001. That’s the highest annual growth rate since 1983 and the highest level of starts since 1989.

Housing starts are generally viewed as a leading economic indicator and, despite a slight cooling trend toward the end of last year, are expected to remain strong nationally.

However they are expected to taper off and average between 170,000 and 180,000 units for the year as a whole.

© Copyright  2003 The Province

Singing L’aria’s praise (condominium)

Friday, January 10th, 2003

Sun

Office Glut-Cap Rates To Stay Low in2003

Friday, January 3rd, 2003

Sun

Technology & Real Estate

Wednesday, January 1st, 2003

Sun