LOUISVILLE, Colo. – The cable industry – in the U.S., anyway – has decided to dump the old OpenCable term in favour of an even odder combination of letters and numbers by adopting the “tru2way” brand.
It will be used as it applies to the marketing and branding of the interactive video platform for consumers and in retail markets, says CableLabs, the industry’s research and development arm, of which there are several Canadian MSO members.
The organization will license the brand to cable companies, cable programmers, and consumer electronics manufacturers that will deliver, create or build devices to access tru2way applications and services. Most cable companies plan to advertise, use, and support the tru2way technology, says CableLabs. Use of the mark on devices capable of receiving such services is strictly voluntary for manufacturers.
Tru2way technology is built into televisions, set-top boxes, and other devices enabling cable companies and other interactive television service and application developers to “write” interactive applications such as games once and see them run successfully on any cable television system that supports the specification.
The technology has been licensed by several dozen application authoring entities and equipment manufacturers, including Digeo, LG Electronics, Panasonic Corporation of America, and Samsung Electronics Co., and by chip makers Broadcom and Intel.
The tru2way technology enables consumers to access two-way digital cable programming without the need for a cable operator-supplied set-top box and is capable of supporting all cable services now delivered to devices currently leased to consumers as well as future services written to the tru2way technology. Major cable operators have committed to deploy support for the tru2way platform in service areas covering more than 90 million U.S. homes by the end of 2008.
There is no such official commitment by Canadian cable operators who all plan to stick with their set tops for the time being.
The tru2way brand was developed by the global brand consulting firm Siegel + Gale, in consultation with the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), and marketing and technology representatives of a variety of major cable providers.
