Technology will be on prominent display this week at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's Cable 2002 Exhibition in New Orleans. Companies will be showing off new products and services designed to help cable operators use their digital connections to subscribers to create new revenue-generating opportunities, cut costs and increase reliability.
?Consumers today are enjoying increasing choices in broadband services, including advanced video, high-speed Internet and digital telephone service,? said Barbara York, SVP-industry affairs and chief administrative officer for the NCTA. ?Our exhibit floor at Cable 2002 will feature a glimpse into the state of the art in all of these services.?
Here are some of the exhibitors and some of the new products they plan to demonstrate on the show floor.
Arris will be showing off TollBridge Technologies' TB300 gateway. The gateway has been integrated into the Arris CompleteVoice comprehensive cable telephony solution that connects PacketCable-compliant broadband voice networks with the public switched telephone network. The new IP-based system will enable multiple system operators and other service providers to quickly increase revenues by delivering voice services over IP with their existing cable services.
Arris has fully tested TollBridge's TB300 voice gateway with its Touchstone Telephony Modem, a low-cost embedded multimedia terminal adapter; the recently released Touchstone Telephony Port; and the Arris family of cable modem termination system head-end solutions in its integration facility.
ATI Technologies will be showing off its Xilleon 220 graphics chip for the set-top-box market and its Radeon 8500 TV-on-the-PC solution.
AudioCodes Ltd. last week announced the launch of the Mediant Cable Access Gateway Family, the company's first systems offering dedicated to the packet cable telephony market. The Mediant Cable Access Gateway Family is a new product line of standards-based, scalable and open V5.2 Access Gateways and packet cable telephony Media Gateways that enable network equipment providers and system integrators to meet the packet voice needs of MSOs.
BigBand Networks, which last month closed a $27 million round of financing, is touting its Broadband multimedia-service router, which was launched commercially and is serving more than 500,000 digital cable subscribers on systems run by Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Rogers Cable and Blue Ridge Communications.
Blonder Tongue Laboratories developed a new product in collaboration with Lindsay Electronics. The new Addressable Multi-Port Tap (AMT) will combine Lindsay's LGT Multi-Tap series of passives with Blonder Tongue's new AMT Addressable Lid. The combination will allow system operators to upgrade their existing systems employing passive Lindsay taps, into addressable taps with a quick change of the Lid, at a price point significantly below currently available products.
C9 Networks will be demonstrating two of its highly integrated cable modem termination systems products, which in particular address the small and medium MSO markets.
Canal Plus Technologies, the technology arm of Vivendi Universal, will be discussing its recent deal with EchoStar Communications, which it says will accelerate the launch of interactive TV.
Chaos is planning to make a distribution deal announcement during the show for its VOD content.
Comverse-TVGate, a provider of ITV services and applications, says it plans to make several new relationship announcements and showcase its flagship iTVGate communication platform. It will also introduce the TVXML Forum, a nonprofit trade association formed to promote the standardization and development of third-party services and applications based on TV extensible markup language (TVXML).
Concero will demonstrate its Concero Marquee software suite, which enables on-demand applications including next-generation entertainment-on-demand user interfaces, interactive advertising and promotional services. Concero's product demonstrations will feature content from Starz On Demand, server hardware and technology from SeaChange and 2000 series set-top boxes from Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta.
Conexant Systems will display cable modem and set-top-box solutions, including its recently announced CX24430, which it bills as the world's most highly integrated interactive single-chip cable set-top-box system solution. Also on display will be Conexant's InfoSurge CX24943 single-chip cable modem and CX24408 silicon tuner reference design that recently received CableLabs' DOCSIS 1.1 certification.
Convergys recently announced its new IP Suite, an expanded global billing product portfolio enabling multiservice providers to support a full range of business-to-business and residential IP-based offerings with convergent rating, billing, mediation and activation capabilities. For cable operators striving to bundle services such as digital video, data and phone services, the IP Suite will effectively manage services in real time.
ICTV recently announced its new HeadendWare platform, which allows operators to run ITV applications ranging from VOD to e-commerce to video games on DCT-2000 boxes. The platform requires a rack installation at the head-end, but eliminates the need for new boxes or truck rolls to subscriber homes.
Interactive Enterprise will be showing off its broadband operating system, Conexon, which it says enables operators to rapidly deploy differentiated high-speed data, IP telephony and interactive television services across multiple broadband platforms and multiple devices. Interactive Enterprise has commercially deployed high-speed data, voice-over-IP, multiple ISP and ?triple-play? data, voice and video provisioning and service activation solutions for MSOs in North America, Europe and Asia.
iSurfTV has developed a multimedia IPG (?SurfGuide?) that it says is more visually appealing than text-based, grid-style guides and is the only patented solution that delivers a visual interface capable of displaying 3-D graphics. It announced a pilot test of its IPG with United Latin America Inc., which will deploy SurGuide on the Motorola DCT-1000 and DCT-2000 platforms. The company expects to launch this pilot test by early summer 2002.
Keen Personal Media will demonstrate the Keen SideCar PVR with TV4me PVR software, which gives users the ability to pause live TV, rewind and fast-forward as well as the ability to manage the entertainment content stored on the internal hard drive. Keen SideCar PVR is available in 50- and 100-hour-recording capacities. Keen currently offers a two-pronged approach to support PVR for cable operators, providing TV4me software and services for PVR-integrated digital set-tops and Keen SideCar PVR for the installed base of digital set-tops.
Magis Networks, a maker of 802.11a wireless chip sets, says it will offer the world's first live demonstration of a wireless 5-GHz network transmitting both HDTV and Internet data simultaneously. The company develops chip sets that enable wireless communications of high-quality video, TCP/IP data and audio throughout the home and office.
nCube Corp. will demonstrate its complete solutions for on-demand television services and will premiere a new digital advertising product line. Current on-demand offerings from cable operators, including movie-based video-on-demand and subscription VOD, are the springboard to the future of revenue-generating on-demand services such as network personal video recording and eventually, everything-on-demand. The company says it provides the only technology capable of delivering a full spectrum of personalized VOD control to the on-demand services of tomorrow utilizing today's infrastructure. New product demonstrations will be featured in partnership with Motorola, OpenTV, Scientific-Atlanta, Starz Encore, Gist and Everstream. Among its new products is an nPVR solution for the Motorola DCT-2000 digital set-top box and the nAble On-Demand Management System, which offers a complete VOD business management solution for optimizing operator profitability. nCube's Advertising Systems Group will unveil a series of next-generation digital advertising solutions, including an ad insertion system that allows cable and interconnect operators to reach both analog and digital subscribers utilizing the same platform without the expense of duplicating its advertising infrastructure.
NxtWave Communications, a developer of broadband communications integrated circuits, announced that Philips RF Solutions, a leader in radio frequency modules for multimedia and set-top-box applications, has chosen the NXT2002 VSB/QAM demodulator for its latest generation of ATSC tuners as it brings the benefits of RF-to-bits modules to the DTV market. The tuner/demodulator package is intended for digital TV (DTV), set-top box, and PC-DTV products for countries using the ATSC standard for terrestrial DTV.
OpenTV recently unveiled a suite of HTML-based products that transform Internet content into interactive TV applications for a broad range of set-top boxes. OpenTV H2O, a client-server solution for thin set-top boxes, converts online content authored in HTML and JavaScript into ITV applications, which can then be broadcast to the more than 23.5 million set-top boxes powered by OpenTV's middleware.
Pace Micro Technology and Ucentric Systems will be demonstrating what they're billing as the world's most cost-effective solution for delivering digital media and entertainment services throughout the home. The solution integrates Pace's digital home gateway technology with Ucentric's media distribution software platform and applications to distribute digital entertainment services such as multi-TV personal video recorder functionality, multi-TV video-on-demand, multispeaker digital music and shared Internet access throughout the home over a wired or wireless network.
Pioneer Electronics will be showing its Voyager series set-tops and Passport interactive guide. The Voyager 3511 HD, Pioneer's new low-cost HDTV-enabled digital set-top box, offers cable viewers the ability to decode various high-definition TV formats and enjoy maximum picture quality from both analog television sources and HDTV broadcasts. Passport On Demand, Pioneer's new integrated navigation application, provides users with VCR functionality of VOD and SVOD. Pioneer is also showing off Webnostics, the first remote access diagnostic tool for set-top boxes, which allows the cable TV operator to remotely access real-time diagnostic information from an individual subscriber's set-top through the use of a PC and the locally installed Webnostics browser.
Predictive Networks will be demonstrating its SmartVOD system, which is designed to bring a personalized VOD entertainment experience to satellite subscribers, a market previously constrained by the limited storage capacity of PVRs. SmartVOD automatically detects household interests without requiring viewer interaction or personal information, selecting relevant movies based on each individual's channel surfing behavior and delivering customized VOD libraries to PVRs, all while using content delivery technology already in place.
Scientific-Atlanta plans to debut its PVR system in its advanced box. Hands-on demonstrations using a live head-end will allow attendees to pause live TV, record one channel while watching another, record two channels simultaneously and enjoy picture-in-picture on any consumer television set as well as surf the Web, play games and download MP3s from the Explorer 8000 home media server. Scientific-Atlanta will also display its current family of Explorer digital interactive set-tops, including the new Explorer 3200 set-top with Digeo TV; Explorer 4200 home gateway designed to support wired and wireless connectivity; and the Explorer 8000J set-top designed exclusively for a leading Japanese MSO.
SeaChange International will be showing off its Product Showcase system, which enables advertisers to enhance relationships with consumers through cable's VOD advantages. Product Showcase is a cost-free capability of the SeaChange VOD Systems deployed by Adelphia Communications, Cablevision, Comcast Communications, Cox's Hospitality Network, Rogers Cable, Time Warner Cable and others. Product Showcase allows cable advertisers to launch tiers of on-demand content, such as do-it-yourself home repair videos, real estate showcases, health care education, cooking ideas and automotive test-drives.
Sigma Systems launched the Sigma Self-Service Manager, allowing cable subscribers to manage their own residential and commercial data services in real time through an intuitive Web interface. An earlier version of this product is currently in production at one of North America's largest cable operators. It allows the operator to offer its subscribers the ability to self-activate services including the ability to select a service plan, its attributes and review the terms of the service agreement.
Stargus will unveil and demonstrate its new systems, which are designed to manage DOCSIS networks of any size. Stargus solutions provide a unique information advantage ? capturing, analyzing and reporting a full range of key operating, performance and settings ? information critical to maximizing network reliability and capacity while enabling new, advanced IP-based services and enhancing the customer experience.
Static 2358, a wholly owned subsidiary of OpenTV, will provide live demonstrations of its interactive television games. For those in a ?Headfunk? about their ?Day Job,? there will be a couple of ?Thievin' Monkeys? ready to play a fast-paced game of ?East End Arrows.? Attendees who are ?Nutz? for ?Blackjack? can try their luck under the ?Boogie Lights? on the demo station. Attendees can experience these interactive games (as broadcast across Static's interactive entertainment channel, PlayJam) at several locations throughout the conference, including OpenTV, Pace Micro Technology and Motorola booths.
Texas Instruments will be demonstrating key products including home networking capabilities and software upgrades.
Thomson Multimedia will display its line of consumer premises equipment products such as new CableLabs DOCSIS 1.1 certified digital cable modems, the new VoIP and DOCSIS 1.1 wireless gateway units, a new high-definition set-top gateway and HDTV monitors with digital copy-protected DVI-HDTV interfaces. Other Thompson businesses include: Technicolor, which provides the digital building blocks for the deployment of electronic entertainment services and is a pioneer in digital cinema distribution technologies and services; Thomson Broadcast and Grass Valley, which provide hardware and software for broadband, broadcasters and video professionals; Nextream, a joint venture with Alcatel that offers integrated solutions for interactive cable networks to support Internet, interactive TV and voice applications; and Singingfish, a private label developer of multimedia search services enabling Internet users to locate and access popular streaming media content via any Internet accessible PC or CE device.
WaveCom Electronics will be displaying several products, including the WaveCom TM2020B QPSK to QAM transmodulator, which provides a complete solution for a transparent QPSK to QAM transmodulator and the HD404X high density 64/256 QAM block upconverter. One HD404X system can block upconvert up to 64 channels in two-rack units with up to 16-frequency agile block upconverter cards. There are three different HD404X card types, which can upconvert one, two or four channels.
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