|
Archives
 November 1999 Issue
News & Opinion
Deployment Watch
Consolidation: Where Do You Start?
By Arthur Cole
Fiber optics and advanced transmission technology finally are making it cost-effective to consolidate headends to create large regional networks. However, getting from point A to point B is not as easy as it sounds.
Multiple systems operators (MSOs) usually can complete the task in one fell swoop, but smaller players likely will pull systems in one by one to spread the cost out.
But which system should go first?
Where to begin?
For Insight Communications' Indiana operations, the logical choice was ad insertion. The company recently installed nCube's SkyConnect ad insertion system at its Anderson, Ind., facility, from where it will deliver spots to 20 headends throughout the region. The deal marks nCube's first major ad insertion deployment since it acquired SkyConnect.
Bill Gilbert, vice president of ad sales at Insight, said the move is the first step in a consolidation project that will result in a network serving some 40 small cities in Indiana from six headends.
Why start with ad insertion? With a single network now delivering a market almost as large as Los Angeles, Insight will be better able to draw national and regional ad spots, directly boosting the bottom line. That revenue then can be put toward consolidation of systems such as transmission and monitoring, which will help reduce costs. And there is the little matter of network digitalization, which requires considerable cash flow.
"The biggest growth potential for us is in national and regional business," Gilbert said. "We'll also be able to do a lot of cross-promotions for all the new services coming to our digital system."
The system also will allow Insight to take better advantage of Comcast's Indianapolis interconnect, which gives Insight access to nearly 250,000 subscribers.
Nuts and bolts
Insight's SkyConnect system consists of a Compaq AlphaServer scalable to 48 channels. The system will allow each headend to deliver 12 to 24 channels, far better than the four to eight channels that each headend has available today.
All traffic and billing will be handled at Anderson, a cost savings for Insight because it no longer needs traffic and billing hardware and personnel at each headend.
Spots will be Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) encoded at Anderson and five other locations that have local sales staff. The spots are transferred to the Anderson traffic system (via fiber links in the case of the five remote encoding sites) and are then routed to servers at each headend. Spots will be scheduled at the local headend, with run schedules wired to the main server in Anderson.
At the moment, only five of the headends are connected to Anderson by fiber. The remainder receive spots on 2 GB Jaz drives delivered by mail. Gilbert admits this is an inefficient system, but it beats the analog days when spots were delivered on tape. A single Jaz drive can hold up to 80 30-second commercials. As consolidation continues, all of the remote headends will be connected to Anderson by fiber.
Each headend is outfitted with nCube's MDS-420 decoder, which contains switching mechanisms, audio level adjustment, measurement and dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) detection in a single rack unit.
As with most digital ad insertion systems, SkyConnect lets Insight segment its market, targeting spots at different regions or consumer profiles. A digital system also offers quick turnaround in getting ads on the air and takes up much less space than the cart machines and videocassette recorders (VCRs) of old.
nCube is relatively new to ad insertion, with only six months or so under its belt following the SkyConnect purchase. nCube's main business is video-on-demand (VOD), but the company is planning to make the same use of the Compaq servers in the ad insertion market.
Now, wait a minute &
In case you were wondering why a fiber/mail delivery system is called SkyConnect, John Boland, executive vice president of sales at nCube said the product originally was intended as a national satellite insertion system. However, the cost of satellite time proved too high, so the system was re-engineered.
Boland added that the satellite method has not been shelved for good.
"Now that price points are coming into line and satellite time is more reasonable, we are seeing renewed interest in that kind of business," he said.
Vital Statistics
Application: Digital ad insertion
MSO: Insight Communications
Vendor: nCube
Location: Indiana
Contact Info
nCube
Foster City, CA 94404
SkyConnect
Louisville, CO 80027
Art Cole is a contributing editor to "Communications Technology."
 Back to November Issue
Access Intelligence's CABLE GROUP
Communications Technology | CableFAX Daily | CableFAX's CableWORLD | CT's Pipeline
CableFAX Magazine | CableFAX databriefs | Broadband Leaders Retreat | CableFAX Leaders Retreat
|
