Silicon Image Impresses CableLabs Crowd
Silicon Image, the fabless semiconductor company best know for inventing the core technology for HDMI, nabbed the bragging rights for "best new idea for a product" at this year's CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, CO. Attendees voted the company's next-gen connectivity solution as the best entry in the Innovation Showcase, which featured 11 vendors demonstrating solutions for the likes of commercial services, tru2way, network management, advanced advertising and more.
Silicon Image used the confab to demo its micro-client architecture. "It allows you to put a very inexpensive chip on a television or other display device with some software that would run on the cable set-top box," the company's CEO Steve Tirado, explains. "It would allow you to distribute your video and your user interface with interactive performance that I think the industry has not seen before. And I think what really impressed people was that you could send it out to many televisions and have absolutely superlative performance so that consumers really feel it's directly connected to the cable box that might be down in the living room except that you're now you're up in the bedroom." Tirado expects the chip to run in the $8-$10 range.
Fujitsu Boosts FLASHWAVE 4500 Capabilities
Fujitsu Network Communications released new enhancements for its FLASHWAVE 4500 multiservice provisioning platform (MSPP) to provide a more efficient way to deliver Ethernet services over existing networks. The company says these features enable aggregation and transport of Ethernet circuits to deliver an alternative to high router/switch costs. Other new features include an SFP-based multiport, multirate interface card, a full C-band tunable OC-48 line card and a 140 G switch fabric to support the advanced density that the platform can provide.
New in the release is the availability of trunking port (TPORT) functionality that reportedly lowers capital costs for operators by aggregating multiple 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps VLAN and Ethernet over SONET (EoS) circuits from the access network into GigE circuits. By packing and transporting optimized circuits across the network, bandwidth requirements are minimized while also reducing the number of Ethernet ports required on destination routers and/or Ethernet switches, according to Fujitsu.
Moto Aims to Accelerate Tru2way App Development and Deployments
Motorola released its DEVPlatform for OCAP for cable ops and app developers. Designed for rapidly developing tru2way apps and expanding the experience of traditional TV, Motorola's Integrated Developer Environment gives the tru2way developer what the company calls "a comprehensive toolkit for creating and debugging on the CableLabs' tru2way platform."
This new toolkit provides both a Windows PC simulator and commercial set-top environment. It also allows cable ops and developers to load, run and debug on actual set-tops without the need for a cable headend or any additional software licenses. The DEVPlatform for OCAP runs on Windows XP SP2 and is integrated with Motorola's tru2way-enabled advanced set-top box.
World's First Palm-size GigE Test Set Debuted by Sunrise Telecom
Sunrise Telecom unveiled the SunLite GigE, which it reports is the world's first palm-size GigE tester. This tool is said to help ops meet the demands of using Ethernet to deliver robust and differentiated services to their business and municipal customers. "Until now, the combination of high performance and high functionality were only found in bulky hard to use Ethernet testers," Bahaa Moukadam, Sunrise Telecom's VP of marketing, says. "Telcos' and cable operators' urgent need for a quantum leap in productivity improvement and CAPEX reduction has been addressed with this breakthrough product."
The SunLite GigE provides multistream, multiservice testing capability for installation and maintenance of differentiated Ethernet and triple-play services, and all of the needed functionality for "quick and easy service provisioning." Field techs can use the unit to verify end-to-end transport of GigE/IP traffic, transmit and analyze eight independent streams and run test methodology based on RFC2544. Techs also can use the SunLite GigE to determine throughput, link utilization, latency and IP connectivity. The company reports that highly accurate results enable techs to quickly make pass/fail, go/no-go decisions. In addition, the SunLite GigE's 10/100/1000BASE-T and 1000BASE-X interfaces enable copper and fiber GigE testing in the same tester.
Integra5 Buddies Up to Social Media Apps
Integra5 expanded its i5 Converged Services Platform (i5 CSP) with MediaFriends, a suite of social media apps that blend real-time communications and community features across TVs, PCs and mobile phones. The initial app, MediaFriends TV Chat - which was be showcased for the first at the recent CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, CO - allows users to invite members of online buddy lists to join a group chat on TV and participate in the live discussion via SMS text messages sent from their mobile devices.
With MediaFriends TV Chat, users are able to set up and manage buddy lists on their PC, which they can then access on TV. Using their remotes, they can invite individuals or groups to watch TV programming together. Buddies can accept or decline the invitation. If they accept, their TV automatically tunes to that channel, and a live group chat is visible on the screen. Viewers can then participate in the group chat by sending text messages via their mobile phone to the phone number displayed on the chat banner.
SeaChange Shows Off Axiom On Demand Breakthroughs
SeaChange International demonstrated Axiom On Demand software and systems at the recent CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, CO. "This year we're showcasing SeaChange Affinity, which introduces social networking to TV, along with VOD Now and Spot Now, which we designed for an entire segment of our industry to make its own start in on-demand delivery and multichannel advertising," Alan Hoff, senior director of on-demand solutions at SeaChange, said. SeaChange reports that it developed Affinity to create a more personalized subscriber experience without the need for a forklift equipment upgrade. Running on the set-tops and on-demand infrastructure that SeaChange customers have in place today, including Axiom On Demand, Affinity is said to empower subs to program their on-demand experience and ensures that they more readily and intuitively find what they want amid thousands of on-demand movie and TV program options.
Affinity provides next-generation recommendation, search and social networking capabilities to increase the use of an operator's entire on-demand library by integrating Web convenience with the on-demand TV subscriber experience. It is comprised of an operator customizable Web portal where subscribers set preferences, rate content, and write and share recommendations with other subs; and, at the operator's site, a software application that adds personalized on-demand content navigation to the subscribers' existing on-demand guide. The embedded recommendation engine, an opt-in feature, responds to intelligence such as content use, sub history and profiling to automatically promote movies and programs according to subscriber preference. A SeaChange-developed application will also be offered for Facebook and other social networks, further extending subscribers' ability to rate and recommend content.
BigBand Implements Remote Monitoring Services Suite For SDV
BigBand Networks announced that its Remote Monitoring Service (RMS) suite has been implemented in over 25 BigBand SDV network locations in North America.
The RMS is available to any BigBand SDV customer. It offers proactive and preventive monitoring to predict and prevent problems from occurring, as well as comprehensive reporting. BigBand RMS provides a variety of service levels, with add-ons for future needs, including:
SCTE Approves First Half of DPI Standard
The SCTE Engineering Committee approved the first four parts of SCTE's Digital Program Insertion - Advertising Systems Interfaces standard. The standard, SCTE 130, is being developed by the SCTE Digital Video Subcommittee (DVS) and currently comprises eight parts.
Work remains on the other four parts, which will be voted on by the engineering committee when they are completed. The 11-member committee, chaired by Charlie Kennamer of Comcast, oversees the ANSI-accredited SCTE Standards Program.
- Blonder-Tongue completed an $8 million refinancing transaction with Sovereign Business Capital to refinance its existing indebtedness with National City Business Credit.
- EchoStar Technologies proved its intent to provide products and technologies to the cable industry by recently signing the tru2way Host Device License Agreement with CableLabs. This agreement grants EchoStar the rights required to implement OCAP middleware and the CableCARD interface on devices using tru2way technology, allowing users to take advantage of two-way, interactive cable services.
- Scopus Video Networks entered into a non-binding term sheet to acquire the business of Optibase Ltd., the company's principal shareholder. Optibase provides professional encoding, decoding, video server upload and streaming solutions.
- SCTE and IneoQuest Technologies have teamed to offer a new course titled "Troubleshooting Digital Video, SDV and MPEG Video in the HFC Network." The "Virtual Classroom" course will explore the components and architectures that make up an SDV network, give real-world examples and explain how digital video and MPEG video are being integrated within the HFC network. For details, visit http://www.scte.org/content/index.cfm?pID=1506.
Hermes Media + Research