Broadband Gear Report 5/01/2008

Broadband Gear Report for 5/01/2008

Tru2way to Show True Colors at Cable Show '08

By Laura Hamilton

Get ready for one word to repeatedly tumble from the mouths of engineers and non-techies alike at this year's NCTA Cable Show in New Orleans: tru2way. The new moniker, which is the retail brand for the OpenCable (hardware) and OCAP (software) technical initiatives, seems to have truly caught on since it rolled out in January. The name got a big boost as Comcast CEO Brian Roberts featured it heavily during his speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early this year, and the likes of Panasonic, Samsung, LG Electronics and Thomson hyped tru2way-based products in CES's exhibit halls. Major cable ops have committed to support the tru2way platform on systems covering more than 90 million U.S. homes by the end of this year.

CableLabs described tru2way like this in a press release reviewing the technology's splash at CES: It's a technology built into TVs, set-tops and other devices and enables application developers to "write" interactive applications once and see them run successfully on any device that supports the spec. Existing applications include interactive guides, "start over" apps and games. Future apps could include the likes of interactive ads, chat, Web browsing and t-commerce. With tru2way technology, consumers will be able to access two-way digital cable programming without the need for a cable operator-supplied set-top box.

Tru2way in the Big Easy

Expect to see the tru2way logo all over the Cable Show's floor in the Morial Convention Center, especially in the CableNET pavilion. What follows is an overview of some of the companies highlighting the technology there.

Sigma Designs will display an integrated tru2way-based set top box that features four narrow band tuners that can display three video channels - HD as well as SD. The tuners can be linked to enable channel bonding based on DOCSIS 3.0, enabling high-speed throughput. (While you're there you can ask the company about its recently released news that its highly integrated EM8622L media processor was selected by Panasonic to power the new AnyPlay P-DVR being jointly developed with Comcast. The AnyPlay P-DVR Model TZ-LC100 is the industry's first portable DVR player powered by tru2way technology and will allow Comcast subs to record programming at home and take it with them wherever they go.)

Softel-USA will show its MediaSphere TX carousel playing both tru2way and ETV interactive applications. The MediaSphere TX has been integrated with Motorola and S-A headends, plus with set-top boxes, automation, scheduling and billing systems. In addition, the MediaSphere line fully supports DOCSIS Set-Top Gateway (DSG) delivery via GigE and the ETV IO4 updates. The MediaSphere Lab supports integrated prototyping and testing of tru2way and ETV applications, set-top boxes and headend systems.

UniSoft Corp./Strategy & Technology Ltd (S&T) will highlight a number of aspects of tru2way and ETV application creation, testing and delivery: S&T's TSBroadcaster 2.0 for OCAP, to create and broadcast a multi-service transport streams containing a number of OCAP and ETV applications. ETV demonstrations will include ad insertion and splicing; ETV and OCAP applications validation using XFSI's XAV; OCAP benchmark testing using Sofia's OCAP Benchmark System; and generation of authenticated OCAP applications using UniSoft's OCAP Security File Generator (OCAP SFG).

Zodiac Interactive will display its tru2way Zidget framework, which utilizes its plug-in architecture to support applications such as local search, weather, traffic, sports scores and local news without disrupting the TV viewing experience.

OCAP Developers Conference

In addition to forming a major presence at the Cable Show's CableNET pavilion, tru2way technology is the subject of a two-day pre-convention conference for OCAP developers also to be held at the Morial Convention Center. More information on that is available at http://2008.thecableshow.com/Attending/Tru2Way.aspx. It'll take place May 17 and 18.

For those looking for a tru2way primer, the Developer's Conference will kick off with "Tru View: The State of the Union," featuring CableLabs CEO Dick Green. It's being marketed as a wall-to-wall update on the progress, promise and potential of the technology.

Some of the vendors slated to present at the tru2way Developer's Conference include Cisco, Motorola, Panasonic, Navic Networks and Sun MicroSystems. From the operator side, there'll be speakers from Advance/Newhouse, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable.

Hands-On

Of particular interest to those of you who want to get practical about tru2way is the Hands-On Developers Lab that's part of the Developer's Conference. This session will introduce attendees to OCAP application development, including user interfaces, remote control events, application performance tuning and delivery within a cable system. It's sponsored by Intel, with support from ADB, S&T, Unisoft and Vidiom.

Attendees will create applications using development tools and deliver the apps to set-top boxes via an object carousel. Due to the technical nature and pace of this session, attendees should have intermediate to advanced Java programming skills (at least one to two years of active development experience). If you're just interested in watching, that's not a problem. The lab "gallery" is open to all Developer Conference attendees.

Laura Hamilton is editor-in-chief at BGR. Contact her at laura.hamilton@comcast.net.