SENSIO, Trident Team on 3D

SENSIO Technologies (www.sensio.tv) is collaborating with Trident Microsystems (www.tridentmicro.com), a provider of 3D-capable set-top box and TV semiconductor solutions. Trident’s system-on-chip (SoC) and discrete semiconductor solutions target the digital home entertainment environment, and the company will be integrating SENSIO 3D technology into its products for a 3D viewing experience in the home. First among the Trident products to feature SENSIO technology is the TV550 3DTV SoC, which will be followed by the release of new 3D chips, featuring SENSIO 3D, for 3DTVs.

SENSIO 3D is a proprietary frame-compatible format for stereoscopic signal processing, designed to be integrated into TV products.

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Tvinci Partners with PeerTV for OTT Video

Tvinci (www.tvinci.com) has partnered with PeerTV (www.peertv.com), a developer of hardware and software solutions for the Internet-based TV market, to enable paid video platforms to be launched on PeerTV’s advanced set-top boxes. The partnership is intended to enable online TV operators and content owners to launch over-the-top (OTT) video services to consumers via a PeerStation STB device using Tvinci’s end-to-end video platform.

Tvinci’s platform is based on its MediaHub (back-end) and MediaStore (front-end) systems, which are designed to fit any cross-device OTT requirements. MediaHub is the core of the platform, used for the management of video content, business rules and users on any Internet device. MediaStore is the consumer interface for the platform, designed around a set of APIs used to create storefronts on multiple connected devices.

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Mr. Cable Operator, Tear Down These Silos

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Cable operators have a big problem with silos. Not the pretty cylindrical buildings in which farmers store corn, but the kind that segregate various areas of an MSO’s business.

The incremental way in which the cable industry has evolved – adding services and gradually consolidating with other operators over time – has left it with an infrastructure characterized by a series of self-contained and for the most part proprietary operational elements that are largely separated and isolated – in other words, siloed – from each other.

Silos can be defined as self-contained centers of functionality that can’t easily interface with other systems. There are several overlapping types that operators battle against, often on a daily basis.

  • The first type of silo separates business elements such as marketing, engineering and sales.
  • The second separates applications centers, such as high speed data, voice and video service offerings. If operators don’t act proactively, wireless will soon have its own silo.
  • The third are the devices between systems originally put in place when the operators were separate companies. Consolidation has put them on the same team, though they are playing with different equipment and, to a great extent, by different rules.

The lack of coordination between the back office operational support systems (OSS) and front office business support systems (BSS) may not technically qualify as a silo, the same difficulties in communications exist.

There are cultural and physiological issues as well. The demarcation lines between each of these technologies can be accompanied by a less tangible but real dividing wall between the staffs that work on each side.

CableTEC

Departmental Angst

Perhaps the most common silo is the one that separates different departments, such as engineering, billing and marketing, from each other. An offer developed by the marketing department is difficult to quickly put into action because it requires the combination of elements that are buried elsewhere in the organization.

Stephane Bourque, the President and CEO of Incognito Software [www.incognito.com] – which conducted a survey this spring that the company says revealed operators’ understanding that silos are a problem that must be confronted – suggests that they seriously limit flexibility. “The take away for us is that there is a large disconnect between what sales and marketing want to offer and what engineering is able to provide in a timely fashion,” he said by way of an example.

CableTEC

The industry long has had an issue with silos. It has blossomed into a problem that threatens its future as cable operators evolve to triple and quad play status and the need to customize service offerings for subscribers being courted by the telcos.

The problem is deeply engrained in how the industry operates. “Yes, they have siloed systems,” said Michelle Nowak, the Director of Cable Strategy for billing vendor Convergys [www.convergys.com]. “It is not only in the order and billing systems and product catalogs. There are even further silos in having multiple vendors in the same departments doing the same thing.”

In some cases, Nowak said, the operator may have not been totally committed to settling on one vendor. Having competitive companies installed in the same MSO – for instance after an acquisition — tends to send the message to both that they are not indispensible. Thus, the motivation to centralize on one platform isn’t always strong.

Vecima

Now, however, operators are facing increased pressure in at least three areas: the number of services and applications they are called upon to deliver, the competition from telephone companies and the demands of ever-more sophisticated subscribers. This means that operators must be more strategic and less tactical. A less polite way of putting is that operators must stop playing games.

In addition to special offers and other customer facing elements, breaking down the silos and creating a flat operational structure is important because of the need to keep exceedingly close tabs on network resources.

The level of information necessary to keep things running smoothly has grown far deeper as operators got into the high speed data and voice. Another leap will be taken when they inevitably begin offering wireless services. Offers thrown together by marketing – which result in a spike in take-rates – could have consequences on the ability of the operator to provide adequate service.

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“What you really want in the end state architecture is to know who the sub is, what he has purchased and what resources are used to supply that service,” said Rich Mallon, the Vice President of Product Management for Sigma Systems [www.sigma-systems.com]. “For voice services, for instance, operators need to know what he bought, what telephone switch he is using, information about the MTA [and other elements] to provision him properly.”

The good news is that the industry appears to be responding to the need to create systems capable of seeing the big picture for each subscriber. “We are seeing a lot of cable companies looking at their operational models and reevaluating how to compete in the next wave of innovation and service offerings,” said Arturo Pereyra, the marketing and business development director for Oracle [www.oracle.com]. “What is driving this is the shift to IP networks and IP-based services.”

Telco TV

Not an Overnight Sensation

The change is long term. It increasingly looks like it will be based on standards, and it is a good bet that the TM Forum [www.tmforum.org] will have a hand in creating them. The cable industry is a growing presence in the IT standards group. “Over the last year or so, the cable industry has really begun to adopt [the forum's] tools and frameworks and participate in the forum,” said Craig Bachmann, who is the head of the Forum’s Cable Market Support Center.

It’s a long road from a series of proprietary systems thrown together haphazardly over time to a standards-based infrastructure in which data flows seamlessly to wherever it has to go. Bachmann said that the forum will help the cable industry create common data models, common process models, common application programming interfaces (APIs) and common architectures. Those, he said, will be used to create a common framework from which bridges between operating structures can be created.

There are five active programs in the TM Forum that involve the cable industry. They focus on business processes; the increased use by the cable industry of business intelligence, data analytics and benchmarking; the creation of updated OSS/BSS; increased flexibility for business class services and standardization of call detail records.

This is a complex undertaking, of course. But the bottom line is relatively simple: The TM Forum – which works with CableLabs [www.cablelabs.org] and, of course, individual operators — is working to create an overall infrastructure in which data can be trafficked seamlessly and operators can put together best-of-breed systems spanning native systems and systems acquired in the past and future. This approach will be enable services to be brought to market much more quickly, Bachmann said.

The increase in sophistication even is apparent at smaller operators, said Alan Creighton, the President and CEO of Momentum [www.momentumwholesale.com], a company that offers cloud-based telephone and related services to service providers, including tier two and three cable operators.

Many of these companies have rudimentary and antiquated systems – but show signs of the desire to change. “The more sophisticated operators are asking the right questions now on the integration in terms of willing systems: What level of integration, what data should be shared,” he said. “I would say that in the last year-and-a-half there have been more frequent questions and more important questions.”

Oracle’s Pereyra suggested that the industry may be at something of a crossroads. Instead of retrofitting existing services immediately to a standards-based status, operators may implement the new approach as it begins to offer wireless services and next-generation video and circle back to older services at some point in the future. “They may want to get services right for one of those and over time migrate the others to it,” he said.

The key, according to rob Kunzler, the Vice President of Marketing at CSG Systems [www.csgsystems.com], is that operators have to focus on the customers. “Continued pursuit of customer intelligence solutions is key,” he wrote in response to emailed questions. “What’s more, leveraging intelligence to then better – and proactively – communicate with customers via highly personalized channels where the customer is treated as a ‘customer of one’ is vital.”

The good news, echoed by Kunzler, Bachmann and Creighton, is that the growing importance of leaving silos to the farmers is apparent to cable executives. Integration of billing, broadband and voice systems has been an issue in three major meetings during the past couple of months for Momentum, Creighton said. “Front and center as part of the discussion is the integration of billing systems, broadband and voice and what we can do [for the operators] on the marketing side,” he said. “All elements are topics of concern for some of the largest customers we have.”

Carl Weinschenk is Broadband Gear Report’s Features Editor.

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SCTE Announces Expo Workshops

The SCTE (www.scte.org) has posted its list of Expo technical workshops to its web site. This year’s sessions cover Business Services, Cable Services and Fulfillment, Engineering, Network Operations and Technical Operations. Each category contains three or four individual workshops. For full details, go to http://expo.scte.org/content/sessions/workshopsdescriptions.cfm.

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Sky Extends Rovi IPG Agreement

Sky (British Sky Broadcasting Limited) has extended the term of its existing license agreement with Rovi (www.rovicorp.com) for interactive program guide (IPG) patents. The multi-year agreement provides Sky with a license to the Rovi IPG patent portfolio for Sky’s pay TV service platforms. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Rovi global licensing program also includes European pay TV operators and suppliers NDS, KDG, CANAL+, Portugal Telecom, SKY Italia, and UPC Broadband.

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PlayBox Joins Wohler Distributor Network

Wohler Technologies (www.wohler.com) has announced that PlayBox Technology Ltd. (www.playbox.tv), an international communications and IT company serving broadcast and corporate markets worldwide, has joined the Wohler distributor network. Headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, and addressing client needs across the globe through regional offices, PlayBox Technology will act not only as a distributor and reseller of the Wohler line, but also as a systems integrator.

PlayBox Technology is a manufacturer of “channel-in-a-box” solutions, and its solutions are tailored to the needs of each customer’s workflow and business model. Solutions from PlayBox Technology power more than 9,000 TV channels in more than 100 countries.

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Clearfield Helps with NC FTTH Project

The 30,000 residents of Salisbury, NC, are about to get a major upgrade in their telecommunications options as a result of a city-driven FTTH deployment. The project, which has been branded Fibrant, is getting an assist from Clearfield (www.clearfieldconnection.com) and is expected to launch this fall. Fibrant will initially offer voice, video and data services and provide four HD streams into subs’ homes.

The FTTH project, covering 18 square miles and connecting an estimated 12,000 homes and businesses, was launched in 2006. Clearfield was selected, via fiber contractor Atlantic Engineering, to streamline the fiber management.

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TiVo Launches Keyboard Remote

TiVo (www.tivo.com) has announced the availability of the TiVo Slide Remote with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The TiVo Slide is designed to provide users a richer TiVo experience through the delivery of progressive search in the TV set, whether that be via YouTube, Amazon VOD, or Netflix.

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TWC Picks URC Remotes, Alpha Power Supplies

Time Warner Cable (www.timewarnercable.com) has named two longtime participants in its Supplier Diversity program as the cable op’s primary vendors for customer remote controls and backup power supplies.

Universal Remote Control (www.universalremote.com) will supply 80 percent of TWC’s customer remote controls. The contract, which runs through 2011, more than doubles Universal’s business with Time Warner Cable.

Alpha Technologies (www.alpha.com) will supply the majority of TWC’s batteries and power supplies under a one-year contract. Time Warner Cable uses Alpha’s technology for backup power throughout its nationwide plant.

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SCTE Goes Solar with Alpha

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (www.scte.org) and Alpha Technologies (www.alpha.com)

Drew Zogby of Alpha Technologies (L) and Mark Dzuban of the SCTE with SCTE's new solar power system. (Photo by Derek DiGiacomo)

have commissioned an 11.28kW roof-mounted photovoltaic solar power system on the SCTE headquarters in Exton, PA.

The 11.28kW system is expected to generate 13,300 kilowatt hours annually. The 48-panel array has been designed to power the SCTE’s IT and communications infrastructure and to serve as an educational resource in conjunction with the SCTE’s Smart Energy Management Initiative (SEMI).

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ABI: Fixed Broadband Subs Approach 449 Million

The number of fixed broadband subscribers totaled just under 449 million in the second quarter of 2010, according to ABI Research’s (www.abiresearch.com) most recent broadband subscriber Market Data. This represents a 10 percent increase over the same period in 2009. The key growth was found in the Asia-Pacific region, adding approximately 3 million subs in 2Q.

ABI also reports that global pay-TV service revenue approached $58 billion at the end of 2Q 2010, approximately a 9 percent increase over the same period in 2009. The majority of pay-TV service revenue comes from cable TV. It represents approximately 52 percent of the overall pay TV market, followed by satellite TV and IPTV.

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EXFO Ups Optical Spectrum Analyzer Speeds

EXFO (www.exfo.com) has announced a processing speed increase for its FTB-5240S Optical Spectrum Analyzer, which is purpose-built for fast and accurate DWDM network commissioning and high-speed network upgrades up to 40G. The module now operates 10 to 20 times faster, depending on the application being run.

When equipped with in-band optical-signal-to-noise-ratio (OSNR) measurement capabilities, the FTB-5240S is a 40G and ROADM network commissioning tool. The company’s proprietary in-band OSNR test method is designed to deliver accurate measurements for next-generation systems in which noise can fluctuate from channel to channel. The built-in patent-pending hybrid detection capabilities on EXFO’s optical spectrum analyzer enable customers to obtain accurate and automated OSNR measurements from a next-generation network.

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Draka Debuts Indoor MDU Drop Cable

Draka Communications Americas (www.draka.com/communications) has introduced a line of indoor drop cables intended for use in multi-dwelling units and multi-tenant units. The Draka Indoor MDU Drop fiber drop cable is designed to meet the installation conditions of apartments, condominiums, high rise buildings and business retail centers. It uses the company’s portfolio of bend insensitive fibers.

It is available with choice of BendBright-Elite fiber (5 mm fiber bend radius) or BendBright-XS fiber (7.5 mm fiber bend radius); indoor riser, indoor plenum or indoor outdoor riser ratings; and as bulk unconnectorized cable or with factory installed SCA connectors.

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IBBS Closes SinglePipe Buy, Expands Leadership Team

Integrated Broadband Services (www.ibbs.com) has announced additions to its leadership team in conjunction with the close of its acquisition of SinglePipe.

Carpenter

Former COO of SinglePipe Cynthia Carpenter will join IBBS as vice president of sales and marketing. Prior to joining SinglePipe, she held leadership positions with Level 3, Rainbow Media, High Speed Access, Time Warner Satellite Services (dba Primestar) and Starz.

Mark Hayes from SinglePipe also will move to IBBS as vice president of CLEC operations. Through the course of his career, he has developed successful phone service delivery companies including his own CLEC.

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Quintech Announces New President

Quintech Electronics & Communications (www.quintechelectronics.com) has announced the promotion of Frank Elling to the office of president. Elling previously served as the company’s vice president of operations and has been with the company since its inception in 1989.

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Over-the-Top Is Off the Hook

Tim Hermes, BGR CEO

Tim Hermes, BGR CEO

Where was I. Oh yeah. OTT.

OTT taxes the limits of my meager understanding of cable, alternate technology, the three-screens phenomena, how ad revenue works, and simply, where the bucks come from and go to.

I love OTT programming. In fact, most of my TV watching this summer has been via my Wi-Fi card, streamed to my computer. Since being a cable-isto pays the bills here at Chez Hermes, I am devoted to my COMCAST Xfinity service. It kicks butt. (COMCAST tech team – we got hammered with t-storms here in Virginia this summer and not one outtage. Bravo.) So, the flow of content went as such:

I want to watch the new episode of Mad Men, now available on iTunes.

I buy said program – completing the transaction through my provider – COMCAST.

The program hits my laptop.

I watch it, commercial free.

Now if I was watching Mad Men on an expanded tier from my TV service, I’d get both top- and bottom-of-the-hour commercials as well as mid-show ads. In addition, I would have had to purchase the whole tier, or, use On Demand, which I don’t have. For me, to get the programs I wanted, the choice was easy.

The local COMCAST ad sales rep has to tell prospective local advertisers that Mad Men pulls x -1, instead of x amount of viewers per show. Now just one viewer won’t change that ad buy, but several thousand will. And that is replicating across the country. So is cable cursed with a catch-22? The speed and bandwidth that made them a leader and allowed me to download Don Draper’s latest stroke of ad brilliance, is also – probably – costing the cable companies tiered subscriptions and ad revenue. While at the same time that killer shows like Weeds, Mad Men and Dexter are making iTunes and the networks happy, this strategy also bypasses the cable companies themselves. Granted, many cable companies own some networks, or at least a piece, so I recognize that. But again comes the model – where revenue is lost, revenue must be gained. I’ll admit – my main value from COMCAST is the broadband internet access, not TV programming except SportCenter and Fox NFL football. Now, my son’s Wii can get NetFlix – which has equal on-demand choice (for me) including Mad Men.

The premise of three screens – hand-held smartphone, computer, TV – has exploded faster than many thought. Can the operators figure it all out? They probably have, and I’m too slow to see it. But I see my cable bill, then I see my iTunes charges and wonder when I’ll see, as Malcolm Gladwell calls it, “the tipping point.” I bet my cable and iTunes bill are less than what I would have had to pay to get the same programming choices if my internet was too slow to stream these same shows to my computer or iPhone (side note – yes, the iPhone 4 drops a ton of calls but the 5 megapixel camera more than makes up for it). Slow the pipe and make the customers pay for speed? That’s one way to make up for lost ad and tier revenue. I get it, it’s being done. Can it be sustained?

Probably. Those Harvard guys in Philly and Stamford probably have a plan. And my guess is they have a few episodes of Mad Men on their phones, too.

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BelAir Wins “Best New Product Idea” at CableLabs Confab

Jones NCTI

In the Innovation Showcase at this week’s CableLabs (www.cablelabs.com) Summer Conference in Keystone, CO, BelAir Networks‘ (www.belairnetworks.com) BelAir100SP Strand Picocell was voted the best new product idea likely to succeed.

“What we’ve introduced is the ability to leverage the cable network in a way to connect the DOCSIS infrastructure that’s widely deployed pretty much everywhere, and connect up licensed band and unlicensed band picocells in the streets,” said Dave Park, BelAir VP of Product Marketing. “It opens up whole new business models for MSOs and mobile operators to work together.”

The recognition is based on an informal poll of attendees at the conference, and the selection of a wireless product raised a few eyebrows.

Vecima

“Something about the Showcase is that, like BelAir, they’re bringing technology to the cable industry that people don’t always necessarily associate with the cable industry,” said Dr. Paul F. Liao, president and CEO of CableLabs. “All of these present tremendous opportunities for the cable operators.”

BelAir’s (www.belairnetworks.com) BelAir100SP Strand Picocell is a compact wireless base station designed to leverage available broadband infrastructure to deliver mobile broadband Internet via both licensed and unlicensed wireless spectrum.

The BelAir100SP is designed to be mounted on existing cable infrastructure, with both power and backhaul provided by the HFC plant. Available in a range of mounting options, it can be deployed from cable plant installed on poles, in cabinets and pedestals, and underground. Its modular design currently supports a range of licensed 3G radios, with a migration to LTE, along with dual 802.11n Wi-Fi radios. It also includes a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, plant power supply and power protection/splitter.

Vecima

A dozen companies participated in this year’s Innovation Showcase. Besides BelAir, they included:

Aside from the Innovation Showcase, some other vendors running demos at the Summer Conference included:

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Sandvine Upgrades Traffic Management Software

Sandvine (www.sandvine.com) has released the latest version of its Fairshare Traffic Management for fixed and mobile broadband customers. The new release, version 3.2, is in beta trials in four tier 1 cable service provider networks in North America and Europe.

Fairshare Traffic Management release 3.2 includes broadened capabilities in advanced cable networks, including interoperability with DOCSIS 3.0-compatible CMTSs; enhanced policy options designed to address and manage network resources based on application, subscriber, time of day and congestion awareness; reporting tools to deliver detailed descriptions of policy actions, outcomes and impact; and customizable congestion management policies that operate only when and where they are needed.

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Inlet Presents Ad Insertion

At the CableLabs Summer Conference, Inlet Technologies‘ (www.inlethd.com) presented automated ad insertion capabilities for live streaming, via its Spinnaker solution. The Spinnaker is designed to reduce the complexity and cost of media preparation for “TV Everywhere” and reach a set-top box, PC or iPhone, iPad, Droid or any 3GPP device with one solution.

The company’s adaptive bit rate (ABR) technology is designed to hold video quality and reliability to broadcast expectations and scale. Ad marking technology lets service providers create new ad inventory and monetization opportunities by repurposing broadcast streams for variable digital simulcast, enabling web-like ad targeting.

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BigBand Shows Latest IPTV Advances

At the CableLabs Summer Conference, BigBand Networks (www.bigbandnet.com) demonstrated managed IP video delivery using its vIP PASS to enable cable operators to deliver and monetize video to IP-enabled consumer devices in the home leveraging existing network infrastructure.

The company’s demonstration featured managed video services delivery to a range of out-of-the-box IP-enabled consumer electronic devices such as game consoles, PCs and mobile tablets; ability to leverage existing SDV and narrowcasting technology to meet multi-screen video service demands with substantial time-to-market advantage; use of the DLNA approach to access VOD, broadcast TV, and Internet video streams; and operational tools that combine RF and IP viewership, capacity management and transport.

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