Pace Micro Technology rolled out its latest all-digital DVR product, the Vegas TDC575 SD-DVR. The dual-tuner SD-DVR includes advanced connectivity, DOCSIS/DSG and "a processor powerful enough to support both current and future technology requirements," according to Pace. Vegas supports OCAP and also has been integrated with the latest EPG and VOD apps deployed in the market today. Pace claims that the "slim case design and low cost make Vegas the best choice for large-scale DVR deployments."

Ojo Casts a New Shadow

After recently parting ways with Motorola, WorldGate Communications introduced the Ojo Shadow, a lower cost version of its personal videophone that is expected to be priced at $249.

WorldGate also announced that it is reducing the manufacturers' suggested retail price of its original Ojo Personal videophone. The MSRP will now be $499 for the original Ojo and $399 for the Ojo Shadow. A rebate of $150 will be available for either phone, with Ojo service activation, which would reduce the expected street price to consumers to $349 and $249 respectively.

Users connect their Ojos to their cable or DSL networks for videophone calls. The Ojo includes a 2.4 GHz cordless handset.

Engineering, Management and Training Services

LaJoie on the Vanguard

Mike LaJoie, CTO of Time Warner Cable, has earned this year's Science and Technology Vanguard Award from the NCTA. The 2006 awards will be presented on April 10, at an evening awards ceremony and reception during the 2006 National Show, NCTA's 55th Annual Convention & International Exposition, April 9-11 in Atlanta.

This award honors individuals who have played a significant role in product improvement, and design and development of engineering techniques.

According to NCTA, the entire industry has benefited from LaJoie's imagination and vision, especially during the creation of the Full Service Network (FSN). LaJoie embraced the digital vision with FSN and took a lead role in inventing the interactive services of FSN and created much of the hardware and software in conjunction with Time Warner's vendor partners, including Scientific-Atlanta, Silicon Graphics and AT&T Network Systems (now Lucent Technologies). LaJoie's contributions continue as he plays an active role in the industry through his work with CableLabs, SCTE and as a member of the next Generation Network Architecture Group.

Distribution

Outside plant, construction, installation and transmission products including amplifiers, test and monitoring equipment, fiber-optic cable, conduit...

Digital Simulcast Easy and Affordable? Radiant Says Yes

Radiant Communications introduced the QRF5000, the first in a series of QAM channel inserters. The single rack-unit device encodes local baseband video and audio channels into QAM signals via a built-in modulator.

Users can select bit rates ranging from 32 kbps to 44.8 kbps, configure four different PID values from 30 to 8192, and output either 64 or 256 QAM signals for TV channels 7 to 137. With a password-protected front panel controller, the plug-and-play device is remotely configurable and features built-in SNMP for status monitoring. In addition, ops can use the QRF5000 to encode 12 or more local channels with Radiant's QRF5010 expansion module.

Cox Upgrades With Juniper Routing Platforms

Cox is expanding its network with Juniper routing platforms. As the second phase of its national backbone evolution, Cox is upgrading its entire core network with Juniper Networks T-series core routing platforms.

Cox previously deployed Juniper's M- and T-series routing platforms to support multiple applications including peering, CMTS aggregation, high-speed data and video in its metro core networks. Cox is now upgrading with T640 core routers to ensure the company can continue to meet more stringent SLAs and maintain customer satisfaction.

WiFi/WiMax

Alliance Announces New Security Certification

The Wi-Fi Alliance announced that the WPA2 Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 security certification program, the second generation of Wi-Fi Protected Access, is now a mandatory feature for all new Wi-Fi Certified products, marking the next step in the evolution of Wi-Fi security.

Nearly 600 products have been Wi-Fi Certified for WPA2 since it was introduced as an optional program in September 2004, building on the existing WPAWi-Fi Protected Access.

A complete list of certified products incorporating WPA2 is available at the Wi-Fi Alliance Web site.

Transport Platforms and Solutions

Fujitsu Rolls Out New 7420 Access Platform

Fujitsu announced a new release of its FLASHWAVE 7420 wavelength access platform. The WDM system has a new optical layer design and a hybrid implementation of both static and dynamic photonic components that is said to allow ops to lower the cost of deployment of broadband optical services over a shared, survivable access infrastructure.

The 7420 is fully incorporated into the Fujitsu WDM portfolio through a four-year OEM relationship with ADVA Optical Networking. The flexible system will multiplex and offer transport for high-speed voice, video data and storage applications. The carrier-class platform is available in both a standard (seven-rack unit) and slimline (one-rack unit) chassis version. Individual wavelengths can be provisioned with or without protection to offer QoS differentiation.

Next-Gen Voice

VoIP, wireless voice, media gateways, multimedia terminal adapters, call management servers, PacketCable, SIP...

Whaleback Spears Two New SMB Features

Whaleback Systems introduced two new features, Road Warrior Functionality and OrcaDial, to the CrystalBlue Voice Service, which provides SMBs with access to VoIP functionality that they can leverage via a broadband cable or DSL connection.

Road Warrior allows businesses to extend their office communications to employees that are on the road or working from home — irrespective of their location, underlying access network or endpoint device. It allows SMBs to connect multiple offices, mobile employees and telecommuters as if they were all located under a single roof.

The OrcaDial feature delivers click-to-dial functionality across multiple applications. A user can highlight a phone number in a desktop application and hit the F10 key to establish a call. Unlike traditional click-to-dial features that work only with contact directories, OrcaDial works with diverse desktop applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint as well as Adobe PDF files. It also allows users to click on phone numbers displayed on Web pages or email clients to initiate calls.

Feature: The Best of the Best Cable-Tec Expo Products: Part 2

by Laura Hamilton, Editor, Broadband Gear Report

For Part 1 of this story, scroll down to the "Feature" section of the March 9th issue of BGR.

If you're attending SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo in Denver this year (June 20-23), you won't want to miss Broadband Gear Report's Second Annual Diamond Technology Reviews. Since there'll be so much to see in the exhibit hall, we picked five engineering experts who'll tell you what they think some of the "can't-miss" demos will be.

Our judging panel includes Bright House's Gene White, Charter's Tom Gorman, Comcast's Wayne Hall, Technology Planners' Robert Schaeffer and Time Warner Cable's Paul Stephens.

In the distribution and testing arena, among the products that the judges are considering are field analyzers, IP test points, QAM channel inserters and solutions for QAM analysis, DOCSIS network and VoIP testing. Solutions for inserting local ads over IP-based networks, video servers and video mosaic products are some of the advanced video entries. Next-gen provisioning systems, advanced fiber and multimedia switching solutions and a wide variety of other technologies for the HFC network are also being considered by our panel.

The results of the judging will be published both in Broadband Gear Report as well as a special print issue of BGR that will be distributed at Expo in Denver.

About Expo

SCTE expects more than 10,000 attendees at this year's show. The event will feature more than 20 technical sessions and 400 plus exhibitors.

For registration info on Expo, visit http://expo.scte.org/registration.htm. To see the schedule, visit http://expo.scte.org/schedule.htm.

Advanced Video and Interactivity

EnCentrus Recording Enjoys a CableLabs Nod

CableLabs approved EnCentrus Systems' Content Protected Digital Output (CPDO) technology that allows cable content marked as "copy freely" or "copy once" to be securely stored on hard drives internal or external to Digital Cable-Ready (DCR) devices. In addition, CPDO enables secure "pause" and "trick play" functions for interactive digital cable-ready devices that access "copy never" content.

The CableLabs approval extends to all DCR products built in compliance with standards and regulations applicable to unidirectional digital cable products, as well as two-way interactive digital cable products built to the OpenCable Host 2.0 specifications. Draft license terms, including compliance and robustness rules for use of CPDO, are available. However, business terms and third-party use of the CPDO technology remain under consideration by EnCentrus.

Under the FCC Plug & Play Rules, CableLabs may approve the inclusion of new digital outputs and recording technologies for use in DCR products that are compatible with CableCARD removable security modules. The CPDO technology is the first secure hard drive recording solution approved by CableLabs for use inside and outside such products.

A New Way to Improve Video Reliability

Radiant Communications released its VPS700 protection switch. The unit enables cable ops to deliver a constant, active video stream in the event of source or line failure by automatically switching video and audio inputs from the primary path to a secondary path. Another feature is the product's ability to project a color bar test pattern when the primary video feed fails.

The VPS700 is an automatic 2 x 1 stereo-balanced, audio-following active video switching system that reacts to the loss of either horizontal synchronization pulses or black burst signals. The VPS700 monitors the primary video source, and when it detects a failure, the unit switches both the left and right stereo-balanced audio sources. An op can set the potentiometer on the back of the unit to control the amount of time that will elapse before the unit switches to the secondary source. Once the VPS700 detects the return of the primary feed signal, the unit automatically switches back to the original signal source.

The Digital Home

Set-tops, DVRs, home networking,CPEs, CableHome, integrated cable modem gateways...

First HD-Capable Receiver in UK Launches

Scientific-Atlanta announced that UK-based Telewest has fully launched the TVDrive service using the Explorer 8300DVB HD PVR.

The S-A HD PVR is the first HDTV-capable cable receiver in the UK, supporting Telewest's launch of HDTV content on its Teleport VOD service, which provides access to a huge library of TV and movie content via the remote control. In addition to being the first PVR in the UK, the Explorer 8300DVB HD PVR is S-A's first-ever PVR with three video tuners. The box also incorporates a DOCSIS tuner for high-speed data access.

Network Management, OSS and Software

Bandwidth management, tiering, service control switches, provisioning and support

Blue Ridge Taps Ceon for Provisioning

Blue Ridge Communications inked a multi-year contract with Ceon for the company's Integration and Provisioning Suite (IPS) for order management and provisioning of VoIP and high-speed data. services. Blue Ridge Communications is a leading regional provider.

The Ceon IPS platform is said to provide fully automated and flow-through provisioning. The solution includes automated interfaces to network equipment such as Cisco's Broadband Access Center, Tekelec's T6000 and T7000, and Genband's G6 gateway. Ceon also will deliver automated interfaces to the Convergys ICOMS billing system, Sprint's e-bonding VoIP interface, and a third-party verification partner.

Measure for Measure

Rentrak introduced AdEssentials, the company's newest product in the Entertainment Essentials suite of media measurement services. Similar in functionality to Rentrak's OnDemand Essentials (the cable industry-focused on-demand content measurement and analytical system) AdEssentials incorporates an array of transactional measurement tools and analytical capabilities designed for use by cable ops, content providers advertising agencies and advertisers.

Key features of AdEssentials Traker module include reporting and verification that provides info about the number of impressions achieved by an on-demand advertising spot (cable or broadband) at the household level, including day part viewing data and demographics to the ZIP code level.

Spotlight

Viva the Vegas DVR