• Toward Localized, Personal Advertising Terayon's Matthew Ott considers the additional capabilities within the cable infrastructure and backoffice that will be necessary to enable new advertising business models.

Products

Modular Media Converter Soothes GigE Transition Headaches

RGB Networks rolled out its new Modular Media Converter (MMC). Said to be ideal for environments with existing ASI interfaces, the MMC supports routing and conversion of any ASI input to any GigE output port, facilitating cable ops' transition to GigE nets. The MMC also supports routing and conversion of GigE inputs to ASI outputs.

The one-rack-unit MMC accepts any standard-def or high-def MPEG-2 transport streams carrying MPEG-2, MPEG-4/H.264 or VC-1 compressed programs, and supports up to 24 ASI ports using four ASI modules and up to eight GigE ports.

Antronix Steps Up to the Retrofit Tap Plate

Antronix announced a new line of retrofit tap plates that mate with existing Regal narrow and wide body housings. The retrofit series tap plates enable cable ops to upgrade their existing multitap to current digital broadband system standards without resplicing. The Regal Retrofit Tap Plate features Antronix's patented drop signal conditioning, dubbed E-Option.

E-Option plug-ins affect all of the drop ports, while not impacting through loss. Design difficulties are overcome by equalizing forward and return drop signals with tilt compensation, return path attenuation, or overcoming excessive loss in high tap values for reliable cable modem transmission, according to Antronix.

CableMatrix, VCom Team for Videoconferencing Over WiMAX

CableMatrix Technologies and VCom Inc. -- soon to be Vecima Networks -- demonstrated a videoconferencing over WiMAX solution employing enhanced QoS and policy management control for end-to-end service quality. Targeting broadband service providers, videoconferencing over WiMAX offers a path for penetrating low density subscriber areas and the commercial services market with high-quality voice and video offerings.

Powering the WiMAX demo were the CableMatrix On-Demand Service Platform (ODSP) integrated with the VCom VistaMAX 802.16-2004 based transmission gear. ODSP is a standards-based policy management platform for delivering next-gen IP-based services such as SIP voice, streaming video, multiplayer online gaming and videoconferencing with dynamic QoS, on a per-session basis. The combined elements enable QoS-enhanced audio and video sessions over the standards-based WiMAX air interface.

SCTE Joins Cisco Networking Academy Program

SCTE has become part of the Cisco Networking Academy Program and is now authorized to include certain Cisco networking curriculum into the Society's current Professional Development offerings.

The goal of the relationship is to provide an opportunity for individuals to learn about networking and IT to advance their careers in cable telecommunications. Initially, SCTE periodically will offer certain Cisco courses in the Greater Philadelphia area. The goal is to eventually expand the reach of SCTE's Cisco Academy offerings throughout North America. For more info, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/netacad.

Stress Test: Minacom Intros Long-Duration Tests for VoIP

Minacom introduced long-duration stress-testing for VoIP services, allowing service providers to test speech-quality with test calls up to 24 hours in duration. Similar to the way bit error rate testing (BERT) is used to validate the integrity of PSTN voice services, Minacom's VoIP stress-testing helps ops detect long-term and transient speech-quality degradation.

Minacom's PESQ advanced test agent for PowerProbe service-level test probes provides standards-based speech-quality stress-testing from 2 minutes to 24 hours, reporting mean opinion score (MOS), clipping, distortion, noise, packet transmission and speech power measurements every 15 seconds. Thresholds can be applied to minimum, maximum and averaged results to highlight call-quality degradation and provide alarms to existing fault-management systems. To accelerate troubleshooting, MOS can be graphed against other metrics such as packet loss and signal-to-noise ratio to correlate VoIP quality problems with their underlying service issues.

• CableLabs qualified Siemens' PCS-5000 as a PacketCable Multimedia (PCMM) compliant Policy Server. PCMM compliance assures cable ops that the PCS-5000 is certified to support a wide range of multimedia applications, such as IP telephony, multimedia conferencing, interactive gaming and streaming video.
• C-COR and Technetix Group Ltd. made an agreement wherein Technetix will become C-COR's primary distributor in Europe and use its engineering, logistics and fulfillment services to support C-COR's line of broadband access products. Under the agreement, Technetix will provide product stocking and distribution, technical support and customer service, and product repair and customization. The agreement covers C-COR's cable op customer base in Europe, except certain major accounts that will continue to be fully and directly supported by C-COR.

• Fujitsu Network Communications and Fujitsu Microelectronics America recently revealed a WiMAX strategic vision that includes development of every major component in the WiMAX network, including silicon solutions, electronic devices, radio access network solutions, professional services and backhaul infrastructure solutions. The new Fujitsu WiMAX product line includes two models of base stations for indoor or outdoor use. These base stations include a very compact RF unit with high-efficiency RF amplifiers and a high-performance, compact baseband unit. The system is based on the ratified IEEE 802.16-2005 standard and the WiMAX Forum definition of mobile WiMAX.
• JacobsRimell made available on its Web site "Telecom Information Management and Analysis (TIMA): Challenges and Solutions," a white paper that describes how an important strategic priority for service providers is to create an operations infrastructure that allows them to roll out new services much more rapidly, and with fewer errors, than in the past. According to the white paper's authors Lorien Pratt and Nancee Ruzicka from Stratecast, a division of Frost and Sullivan, an effective data management strategy -- not a functional focus will drive the operationalization of next generation services and, in turn, ensure profitability and subscriber satisfaction. The effective management and delivery of next generation services is only possible using an information-driven OSS, according to the paper.

Feature: Taming the Localized, Personalized Ad Beast

By Matthew Ott, Terayon

The simultaneous presence of multiple competitive factors -- Internet and telco video, time-shifting and ad-skipping -- is presenting cable with its greatest threat since the emergence of satellite a decade ago. The personalized experience delivered via the Internet provides advertisers with the opportunity to target viewers with specific ads and messages. When combined with the previously mentioned factors, a clear trend is presented: Over the next five years or more, operators, programmers, vendors and advertisers will need to work together to provide the types of personalized experiences that viewers are getting from other sources.

Local, On-Demand

A key factor -- the transition to digital architectures -- is well underway. Through the bandwidth efficiencies inherent in that transformation, programming and advertising can be localized on-demand at the network edge to more closely meet the immediate interests of viewers. The reclamation of analog bandwidth and the adoption of switched digital network architectures will give cable an unprecedented opportunity to provide a depth of content that is orders of magnitude beyond that which is offered today.

Ironically, while these same network architectures will prove liberating from a programming standpoint, they will dramatically highlight the inefficient nature of current advertising models. Assumptions of how many viewers may be watching a given program at a given time will be replaced by exact metrics of not only how many viewers are watching, but also who those viewers are.

The New Beast

This additional information will make advertising on "traditional" television a completely new beast. Advertisers may ask for "per-viewer" pricing. A more reactive "spot-market" model may replace traditional "upfront" ad sales. Cable ops may need to offer more advertising options to ensure that advertising on traditional television remains an attractive and cost-effective way of selling. For example, the time between purchasing ad time, delivering the advertising to the operator and showing the ad on the air will need to take place in a matter of days or hours rather than weeks.

So the key to remaining relevant for operators will be offering localized, and eventually personalized, advertising in traditional and new forms. Graphic overlays to personalize traditional 30 seconds spots, in-program advertising or even interactive ad spots that allow viewers to request additional information or receive some sort of incentive or coupon from the advertiser are all possible advertising techniques that will become commonplace. Accommodating these new forms of advertising will require new standards, not unlike the SCTE-30 and 35 standards that made digital ad insertion the successful practice it is today.

The increased integration between programming and advertising, and even between multiple programs or ads, will require additional capabilities within the cable infrastructure that will enable new business models among operators, programmers and advertisers. In addition, in an increasingly on-demand world, operators will need to implement new back-office technologies to provide programmers and advertisers with assurances that content and ads have been viewed.

While the changes to network infrastructures, architectures and back office systems may seem daunting, these new advertising and programming opportunities will present operators with new revenue and subscriber retention opportunities.

Matthew Ott is marketing director at Terayon.

Deployments

• Scandinavian cable provider Get (previously UPC Norway) selected NDS technology to support its digital cable TV platform. NDS will provide Get with VideoGuard, its end-to-end conditional access solution, as well as MediaHighway middleware and its DVR and EPG solutions. Get is planning to launch its new service using NDS technology before the winter holiday season, which will include the introduction of new set-top boxes and the deployment of new smart cards to the company's cable TV subs.
• Synergetic Technologies announced that Ad Systems Inc., its wholly owned subsidiary, has deployed its RTC System master control and remote tone generator in a cable system in Oregon. Ad Systems, now through its partners and alliances, will begin to deploy video ad insertion systems in cable TV systems, both franchised and private. According to the company, "this untapped and underserved market opportunity exceeds 20 million homes and now can additionally be deployed in hotels, resorts and MDUs."
• Wave7 Optics announced that En-Touch Systems, a "quad play" provider delivering service to over 11,000 homes and businesses in southeast Texas, selected the Trident7 optical access platform for multiple FTTP networks.

The Playing Field

• Aurora Networks named Dennis Hallman as regional account manager for its U.S. mountain region, which includes Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. Hallman's cable experience dates back to 1970, and includes time with Time Warner, Kelly Cable and Sachs Communications. Most recently, he was district sales manager for Power & Telephone Supply.
• Carl Redfield joined the Infinera board of directors. Redfield is SVP at Cisco Systems where he ran worldwide operations for over 10 years. He also serves on the boards of Cincinnati Bell and VA Software.
• Jones/NCTI announced that Mark Grant has joined the company as its senior manager of marketing. Grant comes to Jones/NCTI after several years of operating his own agency, Real World Marketing, where he worked with companies in the training and cable industries. His background includes positions at The International Channel and Educational Discoveries, Pencom and CareerTrack.

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