CableLabs and Canoe Complete New EBIF Spec
CableLabs (www.cablelabs.com) and Canoe Ventures (www.canoe-ventures.com) completed the latest EBIF spec. This new version (I06) features functionality developed to meet competitive interactive television market requirements and will widen the range of EBIF-enhanced programming, advertising and applications.
In related news, Canoe and CableLabs announced a partnership between Canoe Ventures’ new Innovation Lab and CableLabs’ AdLab, as part of their ongoing collaboration to support the development and 
deployment of new advanced advertising technologies and services.
The first test of the new environment will prototype and evaluate the technologies required for an end-to-endinfrastructure based on SCTE 130 standards. This prototype-only environment was developed with the participation of Cisco, OpenTV, Ericsson, Motorola and This Technology, LLC. Canoe and CableLabs plan to work with other SCTE 130, OpenCable and EBIF-compliant technology and service providers for additional testing and prototyping projects moving forward.
The SCTE 130 standard is a multipart specification that defines how advertising-placement servers (ad decisions systems or ADS) communicate with video-delivery equipment (ad managers or ADM). It supports a unified platform for dynamic, addressable, and interactive ad insertion, while merging inventory metadata (placement opportunity information or POIS), content metadata (CIS), and subscriber metadata (SIS). Canoe and CableLabs are creating an environment emulating a Canoe hosted national network ADS capable of interacting with distributed MSO SCTE 130-compliant systems. CableLabs and the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers hosted an interoperability event at CableLabs’ headquarters November 9-13, 2009 to focus on SCTE 130. It was the industry’s largest and most comprehensive Advanced Advertising Interop to date, with 24 companies participating.
Mixed Signals Shows Off Loudness Capabilities
Mixed Signals (www.mixedsignals.com) demonstrated the advanced audio monitoring capabilities of its Sentry digital content monitoring solution at the recent CableLabs (www.cablelabs.com) Winter Meeting. Mixed Signals reports that it worked closely with major TV leaders to create its audio monitoring solution, which enables ops to identify loudness issues in programming and commercials, giving them the information necessary to fix volume changes that occur during channel changes and when commercials run.
The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act has already been approved by the House of Representatives and is now with the Senate, where passage is expected. Unless the industry can implement a viable solution for addressing loud commercials, it is feared that Congress will task the FCC with specifying a solution that operators must adopt regardless of cost or complexity.
Mixed Signals reports that it has upgraded Sentry specifically for monitoring audio level issues in the multichannel cable environment. Complementing its existing ability to continually monitor hundreds of channels simultaneously, Sentry now supports the ITU-R BS.1770 audio specification for monitoring program loudness. Developed by the ITU, the BS.1770 specification is shortly expected to be adopted by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) here in the U.S., which in turn will lead to its use by broadcasters and then cable and other multichannel video service providers. Mixed Signals reports that operators already using Sentrys can easily add support for BS.1770 via a software upgrade.
BigBand Goes Big on IP Video Delivery at CableLabs Confab
Among BigBand Networks’ (www.bigbandnet.com) demonstrations at the recent CableLabs (www.cablelabs.com) Winter Conference in Denver were the following:
- Delivery of IP video to multiple screen and devices leveraging existing network infrastructure
- CVEx Converged Video Exchange — a software control plane that reportedly helps ops deliver both RF and IP-based video services across the network edge
- vIP PASS — a video solution designed to help ops capitalize on existing infrastructure with a delivery of video services to a range of IP devices via DOCSIS 3.0 modems
- QAM innovation that reportedly solves bandwidth needs at the edge of the network and integrates with video delivery platforms:
- The company’s universal edge QAM platform, which includes BigBand’s double density BEQ6200 8:1 QAM and BEQ6000 QAM
Ericsson Combines Optical Transport and Packet Technology
Ericsson (www.ericsson.com) announced the newest member of its OMS 1400 family, the OMS 1460, which is said to enable operators to evolve their current TDM networks to high capacity and low-cost packet-based networks and is specifically optimized for the metro packet transport.
Ericsson says that the business reality for many operators is related to the fact that the growth of high-speed packet-based services is coming during a time when revenues are not increasing at the same rate. So they strive to cultivate the efficiency of each network layer in order to minimize costs. For this reason, and to be more in-tune with the new IP services, there is a general migration to packet-based networking.
For its own migration, the transport network welcomes new functionality such as the transport profile of MPLS and Ethernet ring protection, while other technologies like WDM, ROADM and OTN play an important role in ensuring ever increasingly more cost-effective, high bandwidth networking. All features mentioned here appear as modular options on the OMS 1460. The company reports that the OMS 1460 will be commercially available within a year.
Rovi, FourthWall Collaborate on Enhanced TV
FourthWall Media (www.fourthwallmedia.tv) and Rovi (www.rovicorp.com) signed an agreement to offer an Enhanced Television (ETV) solution to many of Rovi’s Interactive Program Guide customers throughout North and South America. In 2010, Rovi will offer an integrated ETV Platform, including FourthWall Media’s EBIF User Agent, ETV Server, and TV Widgets as part of Rovi’s guide solutions.
Under the agreement, Rovi will make available seamlessly through its guides an initial set of pre-integrated TV Widgets from FourthWall. These include eBay on TV, Yellow Pages on TV, News, Weather, and numerous Sports widgets for nearly every major league, team and college. Each TV Widget can be hyper-personalized turning the television into an interactive, tailored experience for the viewer. In addition, the integrated solution will enable service providers to launch new EBIF applications developed by third-parties.
Active Broadband Displays App Based on D3 IP Detail Records
Active Broadband Networks (www.a-bb.net) recently demonstrated what the company calls “the first DOCSIS 3.0 IPDR collector and the first application using the new DOCSIS 3.0 IPDR capabilities,” the Subscriber Experience Manager.
Active Broadband Networks demonstrated a beta version of the Active Resource Manager Subscriber Experience Manager at the CableLabs (www.cablelabs.com) Winter Conference held earlier this month in Denver. The Subscriber Experience Manager is said to leverage new information provided by IPDR to profile network conditions and subscriber usage identifying periods where subscriber experience is impacted. The Subscriber Experience Manager then computes experience in the form of bandwidth supplied, demand served and interface delay. The solution reportedly offers increased visibility into the impact of network congestion to manage customer satisfaction and network capacity.
Active Broadband Networks is also announcing the availability of Active Resource Manager Release 4.2. This release is said to add new business intelligence style dashboards and reporting, a Web services interface with more than 60 queries that can be used to integrate accurate IPDR information with existing operational applications and updated system management capabilities including a new Command Line Interface.
DVEO Ships New MPEG-2 to H.264 Transcoders
DVEO (www.dveo.com) is shipping three new Linux-based MPEG-2 to H 264 transcoders. The MPEG Gearbox is the company’s new family of Linux-based MPEG-2 to H 264 transcoders or MPEG-2 to MPEG-2 scalers for the IPTV and cable industries.
Three systems are available: ASI to IP, ASI to ASI, and IP to IP. Each system transcodes one HD (720p) stream or two SD streams into H.264 and outputs the streams over ASI or IP. The MPEG Gearbox ASI/IP can also receive 1 to 4+ MPEG-2 channels and output them to a dedicated IP network as MPEG-2 streams. Audio support is MPEG and AAC (MPEG-4).
• Motorola Ventures participated in financing for Zenverge (www.zenverge.com). The financing will support production of a family of single-chip media ICs based on the Zenverge Entertainment Nexus (ZEN), a new architecture for digital HD convergence.
Jones/NCTI (
SCTE (
Product News for March 4, 2010
Innovation Showcase a Centerpiece at Canadian Summit
SCTE (www.scte.org) will host its first Innovation Showcase March 9 in conjunction with its Canadian Summit in Toronto. The following vendors will participate in the inaugural Showcase:
ARRIS Completes Testing of Digital Ad Splicing
In addition to ad splicing capabilities, the EGT VIPr can rate-shape the video traffic while maintaining the highest video quality through a unique, patent-pending, encoding capability called “Intelligent Recode.” This feature provides full program decode and re-encode, closed loop Statistical Multiplexing, SD and HD programming.
Current rate-shapers typically have limitations on the amount of bit rate reduction before causing video degradation. The EGT VIPr is said to not suffer from such high bit-rate video limitations. It reportedly can routinely process high bit-rate video while preserving the best possible video quality for both the program content and the actual ads being spliced.
Clearfield Gets Clear on Fiber Protection
“When landing small port count fiber, we went back to the field and asked broadband service providers what they needed,” Johnny Hill, Clearfield’s COO says. “They told us they had the highest standards for fiber protection and reliability – but deployment needed to be fast, intuitive, small count and small form factor. And the product needed to be so inexpensive, that techs could conveniently keep small lot counts in their trucks and deploy as service calls were scheduled.”
“We get into a lot of buildings that were built more than 100 years ago, and the communications space inside those buildings is a premium,” explains Alan Shaw of Time Warner Cable’s Business Class team. “As we bring business class services to these tight spaces, Clearfield’s xPAK design delivers the functionality we need.”
Infinera to Show Off New ATN Metro Platform
The Infinera DTN is a digital ROADM based on large-scale photonic integration. With the new ATN platform, Infinera says it offers an end-to-end solution providing scalable optical transport from the metro edge through regional networks and across the national backbone. The ATN has been deployed by service providers in the U.S. and Europe, including one of the top five U.S. cable operators. Infinera also reports that the DTN is already widely deployed by MSOs, including all of the top five U.S. cable operators.
The Infinera ATN will be on display at the Canadian confab, along with a 3D interactive virtual screen that will allow visitors to view the Infinera platforms from any angle and “fly” inside the system to explore the components and product architecture.
Antronix Rolls Out MoCA Product Family
Three MoCA product lines will be on display:
In related news, Antronix also announced two new VoIP residential amplifiers: the VRA50, a five-port device featuring a passive VoIP port and four amplified output ports with unity gain in the forward direction and passive return; and the VRA900, a nine-port device featuring a passive VoIP port and eight amplified output ports with unity gain in the forward and return directions.
Both offer a passive VoIP port providing for reliable service, even when power to the amplifier is disrupted, according to the company. These amplifiers employ the Antronix patented CamPort auto seizing F-port, ensuring maximum contact area and reliability for multimedia applications. The all ports down configuration allows for ease of installation in a NID enclosure.
Jones/NCTI Takes Aim at Contact Center Profitability with New Tool
Accessed through an agent’s desktop, Jones NCTI says the LogiCALL Smart Path provides the tools necessary to enable agents to make better real-time decisions in resolving problems, while standardizing and ensuring accurate resolutions across the organization. It eliminates the time and expense of incorrect diagnoses and miscommunications while reducing the length of call times by keeping the call more focused, the company reports.
In addition, Smart Path’s administration screen allows company administrators to create and edit text, modify fonts, insert links and manage processes, including billing, sales and troubleshooting flows. It also can integrate with other applications currently used by employees.
Features include:
BigBand Outlines Centralized IP Video
BigBand Networks (www.bigbandnetworks.com) says it will discuss the cable’s evolution to a centralized IP video delivery system where video is video, regardless of its destination and can be delivered seamlessly to multiple platforms at the SCTE (www.scte.org) Canadian Summit 2010, March 9-10, 2010, in Toronto.
As part of the company’s participation, Jay Chambers, principal engineer for BigBand Networks, will present his paper, Challenges in Migrating Cable Networks to IPTV, during the session, IPTV—Enabling Next-Gen Service Delivery on March 10. Chambers will discuss the evolution of today’s networks into a centralized IP video delivery system and dig into specific technologies that are needed today to help bridge the migration to full IP networks using DOCSIS 3.0. He will also consider a variety of technical considerations including platform selection, bandwidth availability, edge QAM technology, in-home equipment strategy, personalization and implementation.
EBIF-Enabled TV Caller ID Application is Ready for Commercial Launch by Ops Using HITS AxIS
MediaFriends’ TV Caller ID is an EBIF-enabled ITV application that delivers personalized caller ID notifications with on-screen call logs to multiple TVs in a home and is fully controlled by the user. MediaFriends enables users to personalize caller ID notifications with nicknames and send them to multiple TVs and PCs in the home. HITS is also working with MediaFriends on field-testing their EBIF-enabled Social TV application – MediaFriends Chat.