Much to the chagrin of my dear wife, several decades into my telecom life, I often find myself directly comparing real life to the telecom industry (and vice versa).

The 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, was a landmark Olympics for many people in the world of television.

Because when the angst, pressure, and the stress of “getting the job done right,” reached never-before-known levels of professionalism, there were those in the Bavarian capital that year whose careers were made by what they did on that stage. Names like Arledge, McKay, Spence, Bader, Mason, Wilson, Jennett, and Goodrich come to mind; and careers were made by the Wilcoxes, Buffingtons, Goodmans, Fuchses, Browns, Katzes, McManuses, Peacocks, Gliddens, and the Ebersols of the TV world.

Another of ABC Munich’s top performers was a 34-year-old Canadian, with strong roots in Canadian broadcasting. That talent was Peter Jennings.

Peter Jennings had called ABC Sports’ executive producer, Roone Arledge, earlier in 1972, asking for a two-week leave of absence from ABC News, in order to join ABC Sports in August, as some kind of an on-air reporter at the Games. For several years before, Jennings had worked out of ABC News’ Middle East bureau located in Beirut, Lebanon, and he had been looking forward to a fresh assignment - if even just for two to three weeks. In response, Roone assigned Peter Jennings to report the traditional “cultural pieces,” akin to ABC Sports’ famous “Up Close and Personal” segments about Olympic athletes. When he approached the temporary job in Bavaria (which he expected to be more fun than anything else), Peter Jennings had no idea it would be one of the best decisions, yet most difficult events, of his life. More important, he — indeed we — learned some wonderful lessons.

Early in the two weeks before the XX Games began on August 26, 1972, I was moved from an ABC Sports work assignment as a pure, 20-year-old “Go-For” (meaning go for this, go for that…and that I painted doors and swept floors in the broadcast center), to that of a production assistant for Peter Jennings (because Jennings needed someone who could speak German). In the handful of blissful work days leading up to Sept. 5, 1972 as Peter Jennings’ “right hand man,” I discovered that I was expected to shadow Peter and his film/sound crew of three, helping wherever, and with whatever, I could.

Doing “cultural pieces” with Peter Jennings and our British-based crew meant early morning schedules, where we accompanied Peter Jennings to a motley group of places such as Dachau, the notorious World War II concentration camp; to Munich’s Hoffbrauhaus, then the city’s foremost beer hall; and to an occasional Olympic sporting event, when, with a shortage of “real sports announcers,” production schedules meant Peter’s amazing talents of reporting news were morphed slightly into volleyball or weightlifting coverage.

Indeed, early in September 1972, I found myself alone with the soundman, cameraman, and assistant cameraman (but without Peter), explaining (and apologizing) to the vice mayor of Munich why it was that I had arranged an ad hoc “Up With People” concert, without a permit, in order to make for a more lively set of pictures in the famed city center, the Marienplatz.

Because we had worked late the evening of Sept. 4, 1972, Peter told me to sleep in a bit, which meant I arrived at the ABC Sports production center, called Barnathan’s Bungalow, a bit past 8:30a that next Tuesday morning. The minute I stepped into the complex, it was clear that clouds, indeed storms, were brewing. Fear like I had never seen it was in the eyes of one of the American girl I met. She was Jewish, and had traveled to Israel. Elsewhere, instead of looking for sports events to cover, people were figuring out how to get into the Olympic Village, which is where we were told “guerillas” had taken over the Israeli residences. I had to be one of those seeking entrance to the Village, I quickly discovered, because my boss, Peter Jennings, and a film crew, were already inside covering the storm.

A close friend I lived with at the time had connections to the U.S. Olympic team, allowing me to borrow a U.S. team jogging suit, which I donned and then went immediately to the ABC Sports graphics department. There, a brilliant artist changed my grey and red production credential to the green and black of an athlete’s. Following a brief check in to the studio, where I was advised to carry several walkie-talkies, sandwiches for the crew, and fresh film for their cameras, I was on my way toward the Village gate, hoping to wend my way successfully - and unobserved — past onlookers and German military gate guards.

Yet, wouldn’t you know it, along the way, a radio reporter from Iowa stopped me for an “athlete interview,” for which I apologize today, because to keep my cover, I told a white lie and explained how I was a “weightlifter” (I had just seen that sport earlier on the studio monitor, and it was all I could think of). With somewhat long hair, and a skinny 150 pounds, I still laugh at how ridiculous that was.

On the fourth floor of the building facing the Munich Israeli residence that morning, Sept. 5, 1972, I saw my first, in-person sighting of the infamous terrorist with the white pith helmet. The rest of the day, I kept Peter Jennings and the crews as replenished, ready, and updated as possible. Jennings would work for another 20 hours that day, as we moved from one Village building to the next, trying to follow the hostages and their kidnappers. Later that evening, Peter had me speaking on a walkie-talkie to the main studio, standing beside David Wolper on the deck of his 14th story hotel, as we both overlooked the busses that took the nine  hostages and their eight captors to Furstenfeldbruck airport. Two hours later, all of the nine Israelis were slaughtered, and all but three of the Palestinians were shot dead by German snipers.

At Furstenfeldbruck the next morning, I was horrified by the huge pool of blood that encircled one of the helicopters where the Israelis had been shot and bombed. Later, in an effort to help put it all into perspective, I will never forget Peter flawlessly - and I believe without a second take - doing a typical Jennings “on camera” that so brilliantly summarized it all: “It is simply this reporter’s observation, that no act of such evil can ruin what is ultimately a successful experiment in human relations.” Those were the paraphrased words that concluded Peter Jennings’ 30-minute special, the one that we produced the day after the massacre, and that aired in the evening telecast of Wednesday, Sept. 6, 1972.

On the evening of the closing ceremonies, I had the honor of joining Peter Jennings and his future wife, Annie Malouf, at a restaurant. Because Peter knew the Palestinian sects, he was able to partially explain what faction of the Black September group had apparently committed the atrocity. He was able to explain some of their history and some of their motivations. Yet, at the end of that evening, we all still struggled with the same thing we struggle with today, following the massacre of another 12 innocents in Aurora, Colorado: Why? Indeed, unbelievably, 40 years later, I still ask why? What did it really accomplish?

Peter was reminded, and taught me, the career importance of hard work, substantial luck, occasional above-average competence, and how you treat people. Haunted himself by less than a high school education, he repeatedly urged others to go as far as they could with education. Security aimed at keeping the evil out, was yet another elemental course, because although most people are good, there are enough who are not.

My colleague at the time, Sean McManus, has since written about Munich, and pointed out how we, as Americans, probably learned for the first time what terrorism was about, when we watched the implosion of the Munich Summer Olympics on ABC. Indeed, it was the first of so many events Americans would see, that continue to haunt us today, and that struggle for more - and better — answers.

Peter and ABC learned through the Munich crisis that big story reporting was really important. And to be reporting live was the only real way to really do it right. Better still, to tell the truth and to know the real facts — and how to really articulate — is the real magic. Peter later made that his calling card. That helped make Peter Jennings the icon, and maybe the legend, he is today, many years after his death. Yet the one thing Peter Jennings did not learn that summer and fall of ‘72, was how to control his tobacco addiction, which took his life on August 7, 2005.

Post, post-script on the fallible human side: In all-too-typical “mad scientist” fashion, that rascal, Peter Jennings, wrote me a personal check for $100 that evening, after dinner, thanking me for the job I did. Excited, I took it to the bank. I found out weeks later after I thought I had cashed it: My revered “Peter Jennings Check” had bounced!

Mr. Jennings, what a pleasure it was to know you. Indeed, Petros, what a pleasure it was to work with you.

Jimmy Schaeffler is chairman and CSO of Carmel-by-the-Sea-based consultancy The Carmel Group (www.carmelgroup.com).

NBCUniversal and its new majority owner, Comcast, paid an awful lot of money to the International Olympic Committee for the exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to the XXX Summer Olympic Games from London, which wrapped up Aug. 12.

Indeed, the combined rights-fee figure for London and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, is believed to be some $2.1 billion. Thus, when Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and the Republican Party decided to essentially pre-empt NBC’s second-to-last-day of Olympic morning programming, it took away a large part of what NBC had paid for. In some circles, that’s called a breach of contract.

Yet, NBC is not likely to bring suit against the elephant and its progeny, if for no other reason than this was just one of those things that happens sometimes. In addition, legally, NBC wouldn’t have much of a leg to stand on.

Yet, from a practical and professional standpoint, the GOP took NBC for granted, and NBC could sure argue for a “make-good” (another way of saying a future bargaining chip or a credit in NBC’s favor).

When the Grand Old Party let the word leak Saturday night that Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan was to be the 2012 vice presidential nominee, it basically said to the media, “Tomorrow at 9 a.m. EST, and for about an hour, at minimum, we are taking over your airwaves with our story.”

As part of that, the GOP decided to draft on the strong audience NBC had built during the prior two weeks of the Games. The Romney camp also decided not to wait another 40 hours until the Olympics had ended. Indeed, the GOP decided to do a lot of things that especially impacted NBC and its very positive Olympics coverage with something that most were not expecting during the games — something that probably half the audience was not all that eager to absorb during the games, and something that probably could’ve waited a tiny bit longer.

So, yes, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, you should certainly send that bill directly to Mitt Romney, today’s head of the GOP. I’m sure will be given it ample professional attention, after all, Mitt’s a businessman. And I’d imagine — especially when he has the money in the bank — that he pays his bills.

As part of a recent client business plan - written for a client in the laundromat business, called Clean View Media Network (CVMN), wishing to use digital signage in dryer doors — we ran across a graphic that told so much about where the digital signage industry is today (and will be tomorrow).

The graphic compared the laundromat industry’s rating of “flat”, to that of the digital signage industry’s rating of “growth”. That said, literally billions in terms of the digital signage’s future revenue and growth prospects (and, interestingly, also at least many millions of dollars’ worth of unexpected growth for industries like laundromats, if new businesses like CVMN take off).

Yet, it took another recent visit this past week to the annual Las Vegas, NV confab called the Digital Signage Exposition, held March 6-9, 2012, to truly drive home the point. Not only were the attendees numbers solid, but what really caught me was the both the solid “big company” participation (e.g., Dish, DirecTV, Intel, Cisco, and Sprint), and the sense that true optimism was ‘the buzz,” rather than doubt about “will this great (digital signage) communications vehicle ever really take off?”

Moreover, in 2008, when I wrote “Digital Signage - Software, Networks, Advertising, And Displays: A Primer For Understanding The Business”, “the buzz” noted above appeared to be just quarters, or, at most, a couple of years, away. Yet, probably because of the baneful economy, and a few other missing parts like lack of a clear “amazing app,” and continued concerns about where to place the right signage message, digital signage grew, but not according to its true potential.

Today, because of lots more investment, and developments like more municipalities loosening digital signage restrictions in return for new fees and tax revenues, digital signage has legs, and true legs at that. If those implementing digital signage can remember that truest of digital signage mantras, i.e., that content for the location must forever be relevant (and therefore appropriate) to that audience and locale, the future uses of digital signage are boundless.

New Digital Signage Products

Another way I think I saw the bright future of digital signage was in the following handful of new products that were presented as part of a special DSE show tour, called the “New Product Pavilion Briefing.” The total list of new products included the names of nearly 50 companies.

• Restaurant Touch Screen Menu Tablets: Both 22 Miles, Inc.’s Interactive TouchMenu for iPad and AOpen America’s WT22M-RH Interactive Ultra-Slim Multi-Touch System, are aimed for food service-type venues, making ordering and information/entertainment for customers that much more accessible and efficient.

• Wearable Screens: Black Box’s iCompel EDS system offers a 2.4″ screen and batteries that can power the content message for at least two hours. Our demo included a in small form factor that actually was worn on a suit lapel.

• Audience Measurement: myAudience-Measure’s anonymous identification of audience gender, age, number of viewers, and attention periods, is the Holy Grail for advertisers, in that they can then judge the effectiveness of their ad pitches, and which audiences are “relevant.”

Broadcast and PayTV?

And BTW, watch for ad-supported video coming to tens of thousands of laundromats nationally beginning in May 2012. Could this be developing a new growth venue for the broadcast and pay TV industries, as well?

Jimmy Schaeffler is chairman and CSO of Carmel-by-the-Sea-based consultancy The Carmel Group.

It’s been more than a decade since I saw, in person, the former head of and founder of ReplayTV.

His name is Anthony Wood, and he used to attend and speak at conferences produced by my company, The Carmel Group. We had fun reminiscing recently for a few precious moments at the 3d annual OTT Con in Santa Clara, Calif., from March 20-21

Yet, it is fascinating to note that Wood today is not so famous for his first foray into the world of digital video recorders, but rather for how he went from there to the world of add-on set-top boxes, in the iteration of today’s Roku. Some of that success comes from Mr. Wood practicing some sage advice from a well-known historian, named George Santayana.

Wood went from a bankrupt ReplayTV in 2001, to a much more financially viable Roku today, on the basis of a lot of hard work and a handful of lessons, one or two of which is worth passing along to every entrepreneurial newcomer in the telecom business today.

Indeed, one is a lesson portrayed by many a successful business person, and one that Wood would likely say he is lucky to have learned young enough in his failures at ReplayTV, to be able to take that lesson and apply it to a success at Roku.

That lesson is to remember those among the status quo, when pioneering new products and services, be they hardware, software, or something or someone else.

In the case of ReplayTV, it was a fierce rival of TiVo for dominance in the emerging DVR business, going back to the 1997-1998 timeframe (See, Digital Video Recorders: DVRs Changing TV and Advertising Forever, by Focal Press, for a more detailed account of this earliest DVR era.

And, by his own admission, what Wood and his ReplayTV team did back in this timeframe was to push changes in front of the studio status quo a bit too quickly and a bit too aggressively. This occurred to the point where ReplayTV was sued by Paramount and other studios and networks, for various copyright infringement claims. And that, in essence, helped lead to bankruptcy and the eventual demise of ReplayTV.

TiVo, on the other hand, also pushed the envelope, but simply not as aggressively, and not as carelessly. Indeed, TiVo was more respectful of the existing studios, networks, providers, operators, and content owners (which is some of why TiVo is around today and ReplayTV is not).

Which bring us full circle to the OTT Con show and Mr. Wood’s opening keynote address on March 20. When asked a question about lessons learned, his first response, somewhat humorously, was “Buy more Apple stock.” But his next, absolutely serious, response, was to “Pay a bit more attention to and work with the traditional stakeholders.”

And that, interestingly enough, is what is helping to make Roku work so well, in the 2012 version of a Wood company.

The lesson here for young entrepreneurs, a la Wood: create lots of new things and ideas, but remember to find a place at the table - a respectful and productive one — for the existing players. Indeed, as I look out at the ivi’s, the Sky Angel’s, the Aereo/Bamboom’s and, to a lesser extent, the Boxee’s, of the telecom world’s current newcomers, I can’t help but more firmly wish this “Santayana Lesson” upon them.

After all, wasn’t it Santayana who coined the phrase: “Those who cannot learn from history, are condemned to repeat it”?

Jimmy Schaeffler is chairman and CSO of Carmel-by-the-Sea-based consultancy The Carmel Group (www.carmelgroup.com). He can be reached at jimmy@carmelgroup.com.