By Laura Hamilton, Editor-in-Chief 1. Cable Wows Telephony Subs — Many cable ops are outperforming traditional telcos in satisfying telephony customers, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Residential All-Distance Telephone Customer Satisfaction Study. Cox ranked highest in three regions, while Bright House and Time Warner Cable each ranked highest in one region. For more on the study, visit this link. 2. Playing the M-Card — CableLabs recently qualified Motorola for its multistream CableCARD (M-Card). Earlier this year, Scientific-Atlanta was the first company to receive the CableLabs nod for an M-Card. The M-Card enables set-top box and integrated digital TV consumers to watch and/or record their programming from multiple simultaneous tuners using a single CableCARD (e.g., handling picture-in-picture or simultaneous watch-and-record of multiple digital video channels). M-Cards should be available from major MSOs within the next few months. 3. Sizzling VoIP Numbers — Cablevision reports that its digital voice-over-cable product, Optimum Voice, passed the 1 million-customer milestone. "The cable industry's first broadly-deployed VoIP service, Optimum Voice has already attracted one-third of Cablevision's cable TV customers and more than half of the company's high-speed Internet customers," the company said in a statement. Cox officially announced its launch of Cox Digital Telephone in Cleveland. With additional launches scheduled later this year in Santa Barbara and Palos Verdes, CA, Northwest Arkansas and Sun Valley, ID, VoIP will be available in all Cox markets by the end of year. Cox reports that its telephone penetration today is the highest among all cable ops. The MSO's telephone penetration is 33% of total cable customers and 24% of all homes passed by Cox's network. |
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ProductsImagine This: Quality On Demand for MPEG-2 VOD
The QOD Gateway leverages a novel video analysis, quality measurement and indexing technique that "ensures the best video quality at any given bit rate," according to Imagine. The company reports that its different approach to video processing and multiplexing adds negligible incremental consumer response delay (1/10 of a second) for trick modes in VOD and channel change times in switched digital video (SDV) and IPTV, compared to competitors' typical delays of 1-4 seconds.
Vyyo Goes Ultra With 3 GHz Passive Suite
All the passives are engineered to meet SCTE and FCC standards, and install in the same way as existing passives, using industry standard connectors and standard test equipment.
Quality Cable & Electronics Updates Pre-Distortion Circuitry
Quality Cable & Electronics updated its pre-distortion circuitry in its 860 MHz stand-alone fiber-optic transmitter. It features improved CTB and CSO numbers, and the improved laser has six new alarm status features shown in the accompanying table. A unique test report is issued with each new transmitter, which is said to ensure the final quality control.
Extend Simulcast into Local Communities With EGT's Beefy HEMi
EGT built HEMi to perform a key function in digital simulcast and all-digital networks by enabling cable ops to cost-effectively convert local analog channels to digital. The HEMi provides an integrated and scalable solution that encodes, multiplexes, modulates and converts up to nine community channels, such as security cameras, community programming or events calendars. In support of digital conversion, HEMi encodes the local program, multiplexes the signals to form a new multi-program transport stream (MPTS), modulates and upconverts the MTPS to be re-inserted back into the RF cable spectrum, sending the local channels throughout the community.
Fast Times at Steren: New CAT6 Products
The Fast Media Category-6 product line also includes bulk cable, which is said to be excellent for data communications systems up to 550 MHz.
Integra5 Gets Personal With New App SuiteIntegra5 introduced the i-Inform application suite. Powered by the i5 Converged Service Delivery Platform (i5 C-SDP), i-Inform apps leverage Web services technology, RSS functionality and IMS/SIP architectures to deliver applications featuring personalized Web content and interactive advertising in real time to multiple TVs and PCs. The i5 C-SDP is a platform that puts the intelligence at the edge of the network, enabling and managing the delivery of converged services to the home without requiring an advanced set-top box.
Would Your Data Subs Like to Pay As They Go?Next Generation Broadband introduced its Pay As You Go Broadband system that enables potential subs to purchase high-speed Internet access time on a per usage basis. The system requires no major changes to a cable op's existing infrastructure and can be deployed in three months, according to NGB. The system features built-in session management, tracks customer time usage, automatically notifies the customer when the time limit is being reached, and allows the customer to "top up" their account at any time. It is completely self-contained and communicates and functions cooperatively with an op's core backend systems.
Scopus Scopes Out New Video Management and Decoder Solutions
Scopus also will use IBC to roll out its MPEG-4 H.264 decoding solution leveraging its IRD-2900 series. It decodes either MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 SD content. The MPEG-4 decoder takes advantage of the IRD-2900 platform reception front-ends such as: DVB-S2, single or dual L-Band inputs, DSNG, dual MPEG over IP input, G.703, and more. It features IP technologies, decryption, IP data output (MPE decapsulation), SNMP and Web-based management.
Monitor and Record 500 Video Channels for Audio/Video Integrity
In addition to alerting the op of signal issues, the RPM records the content in question for later review and includes the capability to stream a questionable TV channel over the Internet, allowing an op to view the video/audio on a standard Windows-based PC. Features include instant alert; the ability to identify and evaluate severity and cause of failure remotely; and the option to record, log and stream a problematic channel 24/7 for closer scrutiny.
ICM Walls Up the InstallInternational Communications Manufacturing Corp. has developed a new wall plate system that includes:
Everything for the job is included in the system, eliminating multiple trips to buy parts. And, by stocking only those parts that are needed, installers are able to control their inventory and reduce storage space. The system features ICM's 360-degree compression technology.
Feature: Blasting Through Cable Telephony Myths, Part 1Michel Nadeau, president/CEO of Minacom, recently shared with BGR what he calls "the Top 10 myths about cable telephony direct from the trenches." What follows is a review of the first five myths, and Nadeau's explanation of what he believes is the reality. The other five will be covered in the next issue of BGR. BGR: You list Myth #1 as "cable is the problem." In other words, if the phone service does not work, then the problem is the cable network. What's the truth? Nadeau: Cable voice is new, and grabbing residential market share from a service provisioned by the telcos for over a 100 years. The feeling that the cable network is not being designed for servicing telephony is very much across the industry. So if any problem occurs, the cable network quickly gets blamed, and then the digging of root cause and troubleshooting starts. But the problem could be just somewhere else like:
BGR: That brings us to Myth #2, that the PSTN is perfect. Nadeau: Yes, there's the idea that with over 100 years of tweaking and optimization, the PSTN must be perfect. For example someone may think, "I wonder if a MOS of 4.1 is enough, because the PSTN is so perfect they must be at 5.0 all the time." Consider the following:
BGR: Myth #3 is that the HFC network is always faulty. Let's talk about that. Nadeau: As soon as there is a problem, people just go digging right into the HFC network, which is perceived as the "biggest problem area." The first step in troubleshooting cable voice issues is to get through the proper high level diagnostic process to quickly identify the domain of the trouble, such as:
BGR: There's an idea out there that goes something like this — "We have the whole company focused on getting subs hooked up to our new cable voice service, but should we care about what happens when that traffic leaves our network?" You dub this "Myth #4 — Traffic? What traffic?" Nadeau: Since their inception, cable networks have delivered content one-way, from the central to the subscriber. Cable TV service was all about streaming content one-way — broadcasting. More recently, high-speed data service and digital TV have introduced interactivity into the cable service model. These services have electronic devices at each end talking to one another, buffering, correcting and so forth. Along comes telephony. Two-way. Interactive. Real-time. Human beings at each end. And the MSO's switch is not where all the service comes from. It is only a part of the whole network. The real network is from end-to-end, from one subscriber to another, probably outside of the cable network. Outside? That means I should care about quality outside the network? Absolutely. Off-net traffic and quality must be managed. The current operational focus in cable is from the switch to the subscriber, as if cable telephony was like cable TV. BGR: Myth #5 involves the "I called. It works!" frame of mind. Will you explain? Nadeau: An installer might say, "I went to this lady's house, and RF levels were good, the Internet was up. I called John at the NOC and it worked. I wonder why that lady is complaining now." VoIP uses RTP (real-time protocol). No buffering, no error correction. That's nothing like Web browsing or email service. Every glitch affects quality. Placing a test call verifies the ability of the network signaling to register and connect the subscriber to the outside phone network. Listening on that call verifies the audio quality very subjectively. But how good is the voice quality truly? Are the touchtone buttons on the subscriber's phone well recognized on the other side of the switch? Is the codec in the MTA well setup? Are the levels in the MTA properly configured? Is the delay on the voice path within an acceptable range? Because when the calls go global, that delay will add up to all others! Several issues can be overlooked at installs if the testing does not cover enough scope and objectivity. Watch for Part 2 of this interview in the next issue of BGR. Deployments
The Playing Field
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At IBC in Amsterdam in September, 
The new 
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