WHAT IS EVERYONE TALKING about at the National Show in Atlanta?
Same thing as last year, switched digital video, only now, it’s being deployed. A number of U.S. systems have begun rolling it out and Canadian companies – led by Rogers – are looking towards 2007 for its rollout.
So, if switched digital is in deployment mode, it loses its status as the next big thing. So what is the next big thing? Channel bonding developments sure seem to be
In the meantime, here are a few things we saw on the floor of the show: 
It’s not ready for mass deployment yet, but the Scientific-Atlanta MCP-100 – a PVR that’s also a DVD burner (left), was attracting attention. With a dual-tuner high-definition (HD)-DVR, this set-top burns programs stored on the hard drive onto a DVD, allowing consumers to archive their favorite shows and/or watch some of their favorite programs when they’re away from home – extending the cable operator’s brand beyond the home. S-A has a content deal with Sony and the security function allows just one copy per video. This is also the last show with a separate S-A booth as it will all be under the Cisco umbrella by the time Cable-Tec comes around.
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Inside the S-A booth, one nifty new remote control from Advanced Navigation uses a gyroscope inside the unit (about the size of a sugar cube, we were told, to realize what the user is pointing at. The user interface, while clearly not ready for prime time, was far different than what’s deployed now. Shows – all of them – are arranged in genres and alphabetically on screen. All users can see at first are tiny colored bars. But point the remote at the screen, which the gyro senses and as the user points it at the screen, the show names pop up much larger, kind of like mousing over an interactive web ad.
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Also at S-A was its DCAS (downloadable conditional access system) solution. DCAS is meant to be a cost-effective, network-agnostic solution for interactive two-way devices that connect to cable systems. DCAS allows the cable operator to download its conditional access system to any range of devices consumers connect to the cable network. It would also allow digital set tops to go from system to system, whomever the manufacturer. DCAS is designed to operate with interactive cable set-top boxes as well as integrated DTVs (digital televisions with built-in set-top capabilities).
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It wasn’t on the show floor per se, but a new channel for men called MAV TV certainly gets marks for original marketing: Battery-powered audio tracks – inside plastic urinal pucks. The, er, disconcerting aspect is that the audio is a loud laugh track, just as we guys step up to, well, do our thing, as it were. For the cleaning staff’s sake, we hope these are single-use marketing tools…
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Motorola was pushing its "Follow Me TV" branding, allowing MSOs to give their customers the tools to take their television content anywhere. It was showing the DCT3080, a standard-definition, dual-tuner digital video recorder (DVR), as well as the Motorola DCC100, a slim, small-footprint set-top with built-in Follow Me TV in-home media networking capabilities. The DCT3080 can act as a hub for a whole-home media network – moving content such as recorded shows, photos, or music to other devices in the home while the new Digital Cable Client (DCC) 100 set-top enables the Motorola Follow Me TV experience on additional screens in the home by linking to a Motorola DVR through existing in-home coaxial cable. Slightly bigger than a paperback book, the product can bring all-digital programming, interactive applications and the convenience of whole-home DVR through a simple "one-wire" connection. Moto demonstrators were also showing how to remote-program a DVR with a mobile phone.
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As switched video clears more bandwidth for MSOs, so does channel bonding and Motorola was just one of several vendors demonstrating its channel bonding abilities. The company’s channel bonding implementation bonds together four downstream channels to deliver over 120 Mbps of downstream DOCSIS data services from the CMTS to a cable modem. When deployed, it will provide up to four times the downstream capacity as defined in the DOCSIS 2.0 standard. This additional downstream bandwidth enables operators to cost-effectively provide customers advanced multimedia services without upgrading the hybrid fiber coax (HFC) network.
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At C-COR (distributed in Canada by TVC Canada) it was headlining its triple play service acceleration. It was demonstrating its linear and dynamic VOD ad insertion, dynamic bandwidth management of VOD streams – over DOCSIS, as well as its end to end work flow automation solutions.
OpenTV and C-COR were also demonstrating the industry’s first open architecture switched digital video system. The open architecture switched digital video solution involves the integration of an interactive program guide based on OpenTV Core 2.0 middleware running on Motorola’s DCT-2000/2500 set-top boxes and C-COR’s nABLE Global Session and Resource Manager (GSRM
) providing the session and edge resource management. The solution offers cable operators the ability to employ switched digital on the Motorola box as well as any other set-top box on the market, freeing up bandwidth.
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Over at RGB, which features Torontonian Stephen Sacks as its senior director, business development, operators were taking very close looks at its new high density Broadcast Network Processor (BNP) for grooming and digital program insertion. The second product based on RGB’s Video Intelligence Architecture (VIA), the BNP is designed to enable cable operators to deliver highly targeted and personalized video services. Housed in a one rack-unit platform, the BNP delivers the cable industry’s highest density solution for digital video grooming, statistical multiplexing, transrating and digital program insertion. With the ability to process more than 500 video streams in a single rack-unit, the BNP lowers the cost of delivering advanced digital video services.
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Comcast and Sony’s movie division announced at the show that it will debut a new Horror and Thriller multi-platform network on Halloween, October 31, 2006. Plans for the new advertising-supported network – to be available on demand and on line – also call for a wireless platform in the future. The channel is the first multi-platform network that leverages the combined assets of the Sony and MGM libraries, which make up the largest collection of its kind in the world. Comcast and Sony announced their intent to create new distribution platforms for this content when the companies and other investors purchased the MGM library last year. The horror/thriller genre, which now features top Hollywood stars and grosses more than US$1 billion a year, has a growing fan base in the sought-after 18-34 demographic.
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Comcast also announced it will provide millions of Wal-Mart customers with access to broadband, digital video, and voice services through new Wal-Mart Connection Centers, which will be launching in approximately 500 Wal-Mart locations across Comcast’s national footprint. The store-in-store locations will offer consumers a range of service-based home-entertainment products, including: video, phone, high-speed Internet, wireless, and audio services.
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Surf back here later – as well as on Wednesday – for more from the NCTA floor.
