Features
Cable Ratchets Down the Volume
The voices telling the cable industry to pay attention to its audio level problems are growing louder. For years, operators have known that there this is a problem area. There actually are three distinct challenges, all related to inconsistencies between different programming elements. The key, as the election season approaches, is that one of these issues – the volume of commercials compared to the programming surrounding it -- actually is getting Congress close to acting.
Posted in Features Comments closed
For Operators, Cellular Backhaul is a Beautiful Thing
The cable industry spent the past half-century happily bouncing from one big thing to another – and the next big thing is here.
Video was, of course, the first big thing and still is its signature service. Two decades ago, Internet access became a big money maker. Voice services soon followed. Broadband – which essentially makes [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
Why Aren’t You Thinking About TV Everywhere?
The traditional and primary job of the cable industry - long before it began delivering phone calls and linking people to ESPN.com and CNN.com - is to deliver an array of programming for subscribers to enjoy on televisions in their dens and living rooms. That business remains strong. But, goaded by services such as YouTube and Hulu, the cable industry could be on the precipice (or, some would say, the edge of a slippery slope) of a gradual transition to a significantly different delivery platform.
Posted in Features Comments closed
tru2way Fights On in a Chaotic Environment
tru2way – the consumer moniker of CableLabs's OpenCable initiative -- is progressing nicely for cable MSOs. The reality is, however, is that it hasn't been easy. tru2way's survival to this point – and any success it has in the future -- is a testament to the industry's ability to change on the fly and adjust as conditions outside of its control change.
Posted in Features Comments closed
The Industry Rushes to EBIF
Back in the early 2000s, cable operators, advertisers and related companies saw the wave of interactivity that was heading the industry’s way. They didn’t want to face it with set-top boxes that couldn’t provide more than the most rudimentary interactive capabilities to subscribers.
The problem was that that generation of STBs weren’t going anywhere. As usual, [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
The Cable Show TECH-LIVE 2010 Revisited
With three days of video casts, news from over 30 companies and 9 individual interviews with the hottest hardware companies, software companies and even some perspective from one of North America’s largest MSOs, BGTV’s TECH-LIVE from the Cable Show brought the 2010 Cable Show to you.
[...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
BGR News May 14, 2010
Cable Show TECH-LIVE Day 3 Online | CableNET Helps Cable Cope with Change
Posted in Features Comments closed
The Bandwidth Implications Surrounding 3DTV
The 3DTV buzz machine has been speeding along at high velocity, especially on the heels of recent news that major cable operators were offering live 3D broadcasts of The Masters golf tournament
Posted in Features Comments closed
The Healthy Prospects in Telehealth
The interactive telecommunications arena as it applies to telehealth is showing signs of potentially exploding in the coming year, and to say that it is a tremendous growth area for cable operators and various other service providers is quite the understatement. Very recent news along these lines involves Optimum Lightpath (www.optimumlightpath.com), a division of Cablevision [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
SCTE Standards Get Serious About Assessing Network Performance
SCTE (www.scte.org) helped put a definitive new stick in the ground when it recently announced the publication of three new industry technical standards that provide cable ops with new reliability tools to ensure, measure and improve the customer experience. These recommended practices are the first in a planned series of standards designed to provide a [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
How Advanced Advertising Is Proving It’s Finally for Real
For years, the cable industry has cited advanced advertising as a significant area for growth to expand on the profit potentials of its video services. Advertisers are demanding new ways to surgically target subscribers based on factors like specific viewing preferences and demographic data. They’re also keen to see the day when it’s a widespread reality where TV viewers use their remotes to click on ads for more info or even order an advertised product, not unlike the way consumers currently interact with Web ads.
Posted in Features Comments closed
Engineering Considerations for Pleasing the Picky Business Services Customer
Voice and data services to business customers continue to offer a hefty revenue opportunity for cable operators, but those juicy prospects come with their own special set of engineering challenges. The small- and medium-business (SMB) space has long been underserved by other telecom players and is a sweet spot for cable ops. But no matter [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
Editor’s Letter – The Big Gig
Google certainly got the buzz machine humming a couple weeks ago with its announcement that it plans to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. As you’ve no doubt heard, the company says it plans to deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
Consumers Name Cost as Major High-Speed Data Hurdle
Cost is the major barrier that is keeping people who haven’t already taken up high-speed data services from doing so, according to recent data from the FCC (www.fcc.gov). The Commission just released the results of a national random survey it conducted of adults in October and November 2009 to assess attitudes toward broadband. The survey [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
Cable Show Engineering Preview
Network architecture, operational efficiencies and advanced hardware and software services will take center stage at this year’s 2010 Spring Technical Forum, co-hosted by SCTE (www.scte.org), CableLabs (www.cablelabs.com) and NCTA (www.ncta.com). The confab – which includes SCTE’s Conference on Emerging Technologies and NCTA’s annual Technical Papers program – will take place during the Cable Show 2010, [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
CableLabs Attendees Taste-Test Taste Engine
[flv:http://broadbandgear.net/images/2010/video/InstallerCourseFullSize_512K.flv 250 206]
What exactly is a taste engine? According to attendees at the recent CableLabs (www.cablelabs.com) Winter Conference held in Denver, it’s the “The Best Product Idea” from the confab’s Innovation Showcase. Dubbed Jinni (www.jinni.com), the solution is described as the first taste engine for movies and TV shows that uses content genetics and user taste [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
DOCSIS 3.0: Keeping Up With the Upstream
By Laura Hamilton
[flv:http://broadbandgear.net/images/2010/video/InstallerCourseFullSize_512K.flv 250 206]
Last month, Broadband Gear Report asked a variety of vendors that serve the cable industry what they thought 2010 might hold for the cable engineering community. The issues surrounding DOCSIS 3.0 were particularly sizzling — especially topics that touched on its upstream channel bonding capabilities and cable operators’ commitment to deploying [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
Monitoring Multi-Channel Audio Loudness Issues
By Steve Liu, Mixed Signals
On Dec. 15, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1084, the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act. The bill will require the FCC to prescribe a standard to keep commercials from being broadcast louder than the programs they accompany. The CALM Act also makes specific reference to an ATSC [...]
Posted in Features Comments closed
Cable Engineering Outlook 2010 – Part 2
Even in relatively easy economic times, it's incredibly difficult to predict what's coming next when it comes to the future of cable technology. And while it may be more fun to gaze into the crystal ball during a period of plenty, it's often a more fascinating process to do the same thing when budgets are tighter...
Posted in Features Leave a comment
Mr. Cable Operator, Tear Down These Silos