• Cable Gets Down to Business -- Part 2 Conclusion of coverage of SCTE's Business Services Symposium that took place in mid-October near Chicago. Also, BGR speaks to Casero about how cable can actually make money from user generated content.

Products

Broadlogic Says It Has Power to Reclaim Lots of MHz

BroadLogic Network Technologies announced the availability of the TeraPIX video processor, a technology that the company says enables cable ops to triple their digital spectrum. "This additional bandwidth elevates cable MSOs' network performance to the equivalent of FTTH, allowing dozens more HD channels, VOD services, telephony and ultra-high-speed cable modem service transparently to subs, without requiring MSOs to make extensive network upgrades," according to the company.

The BL80000 TeraPIX chip is "the world's first massively parallel, multichannel video processor, capable of decoding dozens of digital video streams and generating a full analog and digital service tier, including an 80-plus analog channel lineup, that any number of cable-ready devices (TVs, DVRs, PCs with tuner cards, etc.) can view, plus up to 160SD or 50HD programs." The TeraPIX processor powers a new type of residential gateway, installed outside or just inside a residence, which allows the network to be all-digital, while subs continue to receive cable-ready analog video, digital video, high-speed data and voice services. Conventional set-tops output one channel at a time and thus feed only one TV.

C-COR Boosts On-Demand Efficiencies With Unified Platform

C-COR is integrating its on-demand video and ad insertion servers into a common, open and interoperable hardware and software platform. The new Unified Platform eliminates the need for currently required multiple hardware and management systems to deliver and manage VOD, linear and on-demand advertising (AdVOD), network PVR (nPVR) and switched digital video (SDV) services. In addition, the company says by eliminating the platform silos between advertising and on-demand content, ops will be able to stream content and advertising to any device -- mobile, IPTV, PC or TV -- from a single server. The platform will start shipping in 2007.

A single open management software system combines on-demand video and advertising platforms with session and resource management. This reportedly simplifies the training tools for system personnel by using one single interface for the management of all advanced services. Reducing the required amount of hardware, software and training will dramatically decrease the capital and operational expenditures associated with implementing an on-demand offering.

BigBand, TVWorks Show Off ETV Capabilities

BigBand Networks and TVWorks, a joint-venture between Comcast and Cox focused on developing next-gen interactive technology and services, announced that they demonstrated enhanced television (ETV) capabilities as part of a series of interoperability testing at CableLabs. BigBand expanded the functionality of its Broadband Multimedia-Service Router (BMR) to enable insertion of applications such as interactive advertising, TV-based eCommerce and interactive programming based on CableLabs' ETV specifications. BigBand's network equipment communicates with TVWorks' set-top box client and a range of other elements, including ad servers and set-tops from multiple vendors, to deliver interactive TV programming to subs.

Radiant Claims Industry First with Bandwidth-Saving Channel Replacement Unit

Radiant Communications announced the release of the QRF5200, what the company calls "the industry's first channel replacement unit that enables the cable plant to insert local channels in place of existing channels within a 6 MHZ QAM channel without losing any bandwidth." The device works in conjunction with Radiant's QRF5000 that encodes local baseband video and audio channels into QAM signals via a built-in modulator enabling cable operators to rapidly and cost effectively deploy all-digital lineups to local low-cost digital set-top units for all customers.

The QRF5200 provides a full view of the QAM channel and can be controlled using keypads on the front panel of the unit or via an Ethernet connection. Users can designate the removal of one or more channels, including encrypted services, while ensuring that all other services within the QAM channel pass through unaffected. Once an encrypted service is deleted, it can be replaced with an unencrypted channel.

BigBand Gets Personal

BigBand Networks announced new capabilities in its Broadband Multimedia-Service Router (BMR) platform that give ops the ability to deliver TV commercials to individual recipients. BigBand conducted demos of addressable advertising in tests with solution partners OpenTV Corp. and INVIDI Technologies Corp., at CableLabs.

Traditionally, service providers have been limited to delivering TV commercials to mass audiences in large geographic zones of viewers -- southern California or western Chicago, as examples -- based on assumed demographics for the specified regions. The collaboration between BigBand Networks and its solution partners gives ops the ability to address ads to individual viewers based on relevant, but anonymous data such as viewing preferences, hobbies, interests, personal demographics, zip code, ethnicity and other parameters.

• Tektronix announced that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Minacom. The companies' combined products reportedly "will provide an integrated end-to-end NGN network and service quality test platform for Tektronix customers worldwide, enabling them to provide the highest quality of service to their subscribers and to rapidly identify, localize and quantify service and network issues at all points from the core to the edge of the network."
• Belden announced that it is phasing out its X-Mark branded line of cable management products. Going forward, the X-Mark line of free-standing and wall-mount metal enclosures, racks, hardware and accessories will be marketed and sold as Belden Cable Management Solutions.
• Mixed Signals signed a reseller agreement with TVC Communications. TVC will resell Mixed Signals' monitoring products in the U.S., Canada, and South America to cable ops.

Feature: Getting Busy on Business Services -- Part 2

Last month, cable engineering execs met near Chicago at SCTE's Business Services Symposium to discuss the huge potentials surrounding the market. Part 1 of this story ran in the last issue of "Broadband Gear Report." Click here to read it.

During the "Business Voice Services" seminar, ARRIS VP of Marketing and Business Development Stan Brovont stressed the importance of differentiating the business customer's need from other traditional subs. Challenges include defining who the customer really is, and remembering that QoS is king. "Business has a strong desire for control over phone services," he said. "Engagement with the customer is fundamental to what each customer wants, and engagement with business customers is much more dynamic than with residential customers."

Jason Welz, VP of Cox Business Services agreed that responsiveness to a business customer's specific needs is key. "It needs to work and do what it claims," Welz said. "Our ability to respond is our advantage. Our competitors don't do this well."

Maintaining that advantage over the competition means keeping an eye out for the telcos' future ability to go into a price war to win back customers. "Even a gerbil can be vicious if cornered," quipped Tom Buttermore, Nortel's VP and GM of global cable solutions.

Kristine Faulkner, VP of product development and management of Cox Business Services, kicked off the "Operational Opportunities in Building Business Services" seminar with a quick review of what had been addressed at the symposium so far. With the business services opportunity estimated at $120 billion-$130 billion, cable is at about $2 billion of that opportunity, she said.

"We excel with providing excellent customer service," Faulkner continued. "It's going to be solution-based selling."

Steve Santamaria, SVP and GM of business services at Vyyo called for "proactive, not reactive support" and stressed the need for the customer to have a SPOC -- single point of contact. "In return you get huge margins and long contracts," Santamaria said.

Perhaps summing things up best was Kurt Fennell, VP of product management at Time Warner Cable, when he said, "There's still gold in the HFC," meaning that there is a lot more business services play left for the cable modem, packet prioritization, security bundles and storage. "Proactive care from reactive care is the key difference in business services," Fennell concluded.

Feature: User Generated Content: Can Cable Cash In?

"Broadband Gear Report" recently spoke to Casero VP of Marketing and Corporate Development Gemini Waghmare about user generated content, and the profit potential it holds for cable ops.

BGR: Cable ops don't seem to be heavily tapping into the revenue potentials created by user generated content (UGC) even though their HFC networks are supporting sites like MySpace and Kodak Photos. How can an MSO start to tap into the potentials without affecting subs that are currently enjoying those sites?

Waghmare: If the cable operator can't create a differentiated experience for UGC, they will continue to be left out of the revenue opportunity. In order to tap into UGC revenue, they must aim to offer a superior experience without worrying about people defecting from Kodak or MySpace. Kodak certainly doesn't worry about the network burden they impose upon an operator whose subscribers upload millions of photos to their site.

With only about 40% of broadband users posting UGC today, and lack of integration among photo, video, music and blog sites, there exists an opportunity for operators to tap into a huge existing base of subscribers with a simple, integrated, operator branded suite of UGC applications. While the 'digital youth' segment might be sold on MySpace, there is still plenty of room to compete for the attention of everyone else.

BGR: From an engineering perspective, how will tapping into these revenue potentials influence the way the HFC network runs? That is, how would a solution integrate into a cable system, how long would it take and what would be a common ROI timeframe?

Waghmare: From an engineering perspective, it's a software installation and integration project. The network will actually breathe a sigh of relief as less traffic is carried off-net and content stays on the operator's footprint.

Casero's white-label suite deploys in eight weeks and return on investment would be in-year, with revenue and savings derived from multiple sources. For example, the solution we delivered to enable Bell Canada's Personal Vault solution drives premium services revenue through a "vault" offering, a digital photo printing service and also drives network savings by reducing the amount of network squatting by keeping UGC on-net.

BGR: Casero is working with RCN with its WebWatch project. Will you describe that, and explain any engineering challenges that Casero and RCN have tackled during implementation?

Waghmare: Casero's white label home monitoring application was deployed at RCN for their WebWatch service in 2005. From an engineering standpoint, the secret sauce to making a service like this appealing to the mass market is an easy installation and usage experience. The deployment at RCN was without incident, but that's due to up-front work Casero has done around device management.

In order to simplify the offering, a significant amount of engineering has gone into the Casero platform that manages devices like IP cameras. Without the maturity of device management standards like TR-69 (and no real common standards in sight), a certain amount of heavy lifting goes into delivering device-based white label solutions.

Deployments

• ARRIS deployed wideband data service to customers of South Korean MSO Hyundai Communications and Network (HCN), the nation's third-largest cable system operator serving over 1.1 million video customers. The deployment was completed with the aid of ARRIS Korean value-added reseller AJin Techline, and is the second ARRIS FlexPath wideband high-speed data service deployment in Korea.
  
  The deployment now delivers full duplex data speeds in excess of 100 Mbp/s to HCN customers using the ARRIS FlexPath wideband data solution contained in the ARRIS Cadant C4 CMTS and the ARRIS Touchstone WBM650B wideband modems.
• EGT announced that Click! Network, the nation's largest municipally-owned telecommunications system, is deploying EGT's Quartet and Encore systems for MPEG-2 encoding in their new digital simulcast architecture in Tacoma, WA. Click!, an operating section of Tacoma Power, provides cable TV, high-speed Internet and business data services within the company's service area covering greater Tacoma.
• ntl Telewest, the U.K.'s largest cable op, is using a Nortel optical solution to deliver its triple-play of voice, video and data services to residential and enterprise customers. The Nortel optical solution is said to significantly increase the capability and capacity of ntl Telewest's UK backbone network and helps support the company's newly launched quad-play services including digital TV with VOD, unlimited broadband, home telephony and mobile services.
• James Cable of Troy, MI, is rolling out ParaSun's Operations Support System (OSS4) broadband provisioning software and ISP Services.
  
  "We were looking for a software solution to support our core broadband services, but as we began investigating the possibility of expanding our broadband business into new markets, such as VoIP, we quickly realized that we would require a single, secure platform to work from," said David Moore, director of technology for James Cable. "The fact that the ParaSun OSS4 can integrate with third-party vendors, such as billing providers and VoIP partners, made the decision to select their OSS4 software and support solutions an easy one."
• Scopus Video Networks Ltd. announced that Cass Cable TV, which provides cable in central Illinois and Missouri, has selected the company's encoding, grooming, rate-shaping, and decoding solutions to enable digital simulcasting of its cable programming.
  
  Cass is deploying Scopus E-1200 encoders, IVG-7100/7300 Intelligent Video Gateway (IVG) platforms, UID-2912 dense edge decoders and NMS management software into its headends. Scopus E-1200 encoders will be used to digitize TV feeds prior to transport over an IP network to multiple Cass cable headends in Central Illinois and Missouri. At each headend, the Scopus IVG aggregates the feeds and provides advanced processing capabilities such as joint transrating, grooming, and rate shaping for better channel utilization and bandwidth efficiency. The UID-2912 IP dense edge decoders will decode the digital feeds back to analog, enabling Cass to broadcast content to digital and analog subscribers simultaneously using a single IP video distribution network. The entire system is managed and monitored by Scopus' Network Management System (NMS).

The Playing Field

• BroadLogic Network Technologies appointed Danial Faizullabhoy as president/CEO. Faizullabhoy comes to the company from venture capital firm Walden International where he served as a general partner.
• C-COR appointed cable industry vet Bob Greiner to VP of strategic accounts. Greiner brings 40 years of cable experience to C-COR and will work with the North American sales organization to set strategy for key account opportunities, while concentrating on Comcast. Greiner will report directly to corporate VP of worldwide sales, Tim Gropp.
• Harmonic announced the retirement of Israel Levi and the appointment of Charles Bonasera to the position of VP of operations. Reporting to Patrick Harshman, Harmonic's President and CEO, Bonasera is responsible for the company's worldwide manufacturing, quality and operations organization. He joins Harmonic from Solectron Corp., a global provider of electronics manufacturing services and supply chain solutions, and also previously held senior management positions at Sun Microsystems.
• SCTE promoted two members of its professional staff. Loaida Rodriguez moves up to manager, accounting and payroll. Heather Gosciniak was promoted to the manager of the marketing department and will continue in her current job functions and assume increasing levels of responsibilities in the overseeing of SCTE marketing and business development projects.
• 
  

  Donoghue

  Time Warner Cable named Patrick Donoghue VP of interactive TV. Donoghue will oversee the company's lineup of interactive features and will lead the development of new interactive features leveraging the company's advanced digital network. He will report directly to Bob Benya, SVP of on-demand and ITV. Donoghue joins TWC from Cablevision where he most recently served as VP of digital TV and broadband development.
• Robin Main was named SVP of application software development by Tandberg Television. With 20 years of experience in developing solutions for service provider networks, Main will lead the research and development of software technologies for TANDBERG Television's global customer base.
• Vyyo named Maggie Bellville to the company's board of directors. Bellville, one of the industry's most respected and recognized senior execs, established a reputation as a leading operations expert at positions with Charter, Cox and Century. During six years with Cox, she led the company's new services initiatives, including telephony, high-speed data and digital video.
  
  Currently a partner with CarterBaldwin, a national executive search firm, Bellville most recently served as EVP/COO of Charter from 2002 to 2004. From 2001 to 2002, she was president/CEO of Incanta, a technology-based streaming content start-up based in Atlanta.

Website | White Papers | Advertise | Subscribe/Unsubscribe | Calendar | Links | Advisory Board | Archive | Contact Us | Contact the Editor