Cisco, Avail Media Team on End-to-End Managed IPTV Solution

Telecommunications equipment giant, Cisco, and Avail Media, a provider of managed content aggregation services, announced a joint, end-to-end solution, Tuesday, that they say will enable service providers to offer IPTV services to their subscribers quickly, easily and cost-effectively. The solution consists of Cisco’s IP Next Generation Network (NGN) and IPTV platforms and Avail Media’s content service, together with systems integration from both companies and their respective partners.

According to Cisco and Avail, the new solution will process television programming and other content and distribute it via satellite to telcos. Its IPTV services will be fully managed through Cisco’s National Control Center, thus eliminating the need for operators to hire staff for headend management, the companies say, and MPEG-4 content distribution will be provided by Avail Media’s Avail Connect service. According to the companies, the latter, combined with the Cisco IP NGN and IPTV platforms, will create a complete, end-to-end IPTV service with encoding, encapsulation, middleware, digital rights management, conditional access, scrambling and descrambling, satellite receivers, set-top provision, service management, systems integration services, and program management for video hub office components. “We’re harnessing Cisco’s networking heritage and IPTV expertise and combining it with our proven IP-based video solution to give service providers the means to launch profitable IPTV services quickly while helping them control their capital costs and ongoing operational expenses,” Avail Media CEO, Ramu Potarazu, said in a prepared statement. “Our integrated solution includes an expansive composition of industry-leading technologies for aggressive launches that leverage the two companies’ proven experience.” Added Dave Davies, Cisco’s VP and general manager of IPTV solutions: “This solution greatly reduces the complexity of and time-to-market for service provider IPTV deployments. We are extremely pleased to be working with Avail Media in our efforts to help service providers deploy flexible and differentiated end-to-end IPTV solutions that are designed to evolve and help them stay competitive in an ever-changing marketplace.”

CableLabs Trumpets tru2way and ETV Presence at Cable Show

US cable-industry research, development and standards organization,
CableLabs, recently issued a press release trumpeting the “broad
exposure” enjoyed by tru2way- and ETV/EBIF-based interactive TV
applications at this year’s NCTA Cable Show. Among the Cable Show
tru2way and ETV demos highlighted by CableLabs in the release:

• Softel-USA demo’d its multiplatform, multi-middleware MediaSphere
  TX carousel playing out both tru2way and ETV applications;
  showcased application testing via its MediaSphere Desktop and its full
  headend-in-a-box; and demo’d its MediaSphere Manager configuration
  and management tool which it says drives the same API found in the
  SDK that’s available to all users.

• Strategy & Technology and its US partner, UniSoft, demo’d its
  TSBroadcaster 2.0 for tru2way creating and broadcasting multi-service
  transport streams containing a number of tru2way and ETV
  applications. The companies’ ETV demo’s included ad-insertion and
  splicing, validation of ETV and tru2way applications, tru2way
  benchmark testing using Sofia’s Benchmark System, and the generation
  of authenticated tru2way applications using UniSoft’s tru2way Security
  File Generator.

  
  

• Zodiac Interactive demo’d its tru2way-based Zidget framework,
  which uses the company’s plug-in architecture to support such
  applications as local search, weather, traffic, sports scores and local
  news without interrupting the TV viewing experience.

• BIAP demo’d market-ready EBIF applications, including its Yellow
  Pages on TV, eBay on TV and PiTV apps, running on the company’s
  EBIF User Agent platform.

• Cisco showcased a number of tru2way applications in its booth,
  including Time Warner Cable’s digital navigator program guide,
  Comcast’s new iGuide, and Navic Networks’ enhanced programming
  and advertising.

• CNN demo’d an Ensequence-developed program and sports-news
  guide.

• Comcast demo’d its Chill Games service, which is being developed
  by Oberon Media and which offers casual games.

• Comcast Media Center showcased its new, national platform for
  deploying and managing ETV and tru2way applications (see article in
  this issue).

• Cox Communications demo’d a new user interface that has been
  developed for it by NDS (see article in this issue).

• Ensequence demo’d tru2way and EBIF applications that it has
  developed for WWE and Ford.

• Harmonic demo’d tru2way-integrated, video-rich navigation
  technologies for on-demand and user-generated content.

  
  

• HSN showcased its work with Tandberg and Ensequence on
  developing EBIF/tru2way versions of its seminal tcommerce
  application, “Shop by Remote” (currently available in around 15
  million homes).

• ActiveVideo Networks (formerly ICTV) demo’d ETV applications
  that drew on Web media to offer such services as social networking and
  personalized mosaics (see article in this issue).

• itaas showcased tru2way and EBIF applications that it has adapted for
  deployment on both Scientific-Atlanta (Cisco) and Motorola set-top
  boxes, including TAG Networks games-on-demand, Cisco Web Video
  on TV, and Integra5 caller-ID. It also demo’d its MPTV Gateway
  enabling portability of content from TV to mobile and broadband.

• Motorola demo’d the media mobility capabilities of its tru2way
  platform, including such features as whole-home DVR, caller-ID,
  external hard drive support, and a Time Warner music- and
  photo-sharing application. It also demo’d Comcast’s next-generation
  guide and a PC-based tru2way application development environment.

• Navic Networks demo’d tru2way applications for advanced
  advertising, audience measurement and interactive customer care, as
  well as the new ETV/EBIF-compatibility of its HyperCast Network
  (see article in this issue).

• Oberon Media demo’d a games service that features branded titles
  licensed from Hasbro, Atari, WPT Enterprises and the Learning
  Company, and that integrates the company’s JIVE community platform
  (enables the creation, integration and management of multiplayer,
  cross-platform games, and generates audience-measurement analytics).

• QVC demo’d a new tcommerce application called the QVC Buy
  Button.

• TVWorks demo’d various applications for advanced advertising,
  personal media and communications, navigation, customer care and
  more.

• The Weather Channel demo’d an application that offers information
  on local weather and airport conditions and that is being developed by
  Vidiom Systems.

(Note: for an in-depth review of tru2way and OCAP at the NCTA
Cable Show, see [itvt] Issue 7.81.)

2nd Annual tru2way Developers Conference Scheduled for May 17th and 18th

The second annual tru2way Developers Conference will be held in
New Orleans on Saturday, May 17th and Sunday, May 18th, just prior
to the NCTA Cable Show. The conference is produced by the NCTA,
in partnership with CableLabs (the originator of the tru2way/OCAP
standard) and premier sponsor, Vidiom Systems, a company that
specializes in tru2way/OCAP technology and that has a long track
record of offering not-for-profit classes and other educational events on
the standard. According to the organizers, the conference will provide a
forum for cable operators, content providers, Java developers, and
interactive TV developers and companies to share ideas and
information about the latest tools and trends in the roll-out of the
tru2way platform. They promise it will offer a full agenda of business
and technology sessions, as well as hands-on workshops designed to
promote “further developments in the Java-based tru2way universe.”
Areas of discussion will include programming, platforms, consumer
electronics, application development, and retail opportunities.
Confirmed keynote speakers include CableLabs president and CEO,
Richard Green, and Panasonic CTO, Paul Liao; other speakers and
panelists include John Collins (Time Warner Cable), Mark DePietro
(Motorola), Anne Dirkse (Vidiom), John Hashimoto (Weather
Channel), Sherisse Hawkins (Time Warner Cable), David Housman
(Vidiom), Chet Kanojia (Navic), Mike LaJoie (Time Warner Cable),
Arthur Orduna (Advance/Newhouse), Sam Pemberton (Softel), David
Preisman (Showtime), Gary Schanman (Comcast), Jeff Seebeck
(Cisco), Bill Sheppard (Sun), Gary Sohmers (IMAGE), Tim Spencer
(Sigma Systems), So Vang (CableLabs), and Andrew Ward (Comcast
Spotlight). Detailed information on the conference’s speakers and
sessions can be found at:
http://2008.thecableshow.com/Attending/tru2waySchedule.aspx