DOCSIS 3.0 » DVR

More Fiber, More HD, More MoCA, More DOCSIS 3.0…

polszewski — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:46:10 +0000

This was a big week for broadband. The combined news of growth in HD, FTTH, Multimedia-over-Coax (MoCA) technology and DOCSIS 3.0 deployments shows just how important broadband infrastructure has become. Sure, the financial markets may knock things back a bit, but our growing dependence on broadband suggests that the industry isn’t likely to slow to a crawl. We have too much riding – literally – on our broadband pipes.

More DOCSIS 3.0

Comcast made a big splash this week by extending its DOCSIS 3.0 deployments into Boston and Philadelphia. With the technology comes a new tier of service: 50 Mbps downstream and 10 Mbps upstream.

More HD

According to research firm iSuppli, shipments of HDTVs shot past shipments of standard-def televisions in 2008. The forecast is for HDTV shipments to increase to 241.2 million by 2012.

More MoCA

Broadcom is getting in on the MoCA game with integration of the technology into its latest modem, router and set-top chipsets. Verizon currently uses MoCA for its multi-room DVR service. Will more operators finally start offering in-home TV networking? Broadcom seems to be betting on it.

More Fiber

Fiber is growing as a share of broadband access technologies around the world, according to the latest report from the OECD (via GigaOM). Both Japan and Korea have more fiber-based broadband connections than anything else, 45% and 39% respectively. In the US, 3% of connections are fiber-to-the-home.

source: connectedhome2go.com

The Cable Show: Photos from the Booth

polszewski — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:51:33 +0000

I’ve been collecting content from panels, conversations, and demos, but it takes time to turn that raw information into coherent posts. So in the meantime, here’s a selection of photos from the Motorola booth on The Cable Show floor: 3D TV, new DOCSIS 3.0 retail modems, Internet apps on the set-top, and more.

source: connectedhome2go.com

(drumroll, please…) Here’s tru2way

polszewski — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:53:24 +0000

It’s official as of this morning. CableLabs announced that the “tru2way™” brand will replace use of the term “OpenCable Platform.” You may recall that the initiative, which began back in ‘97 with the goal of helping the cable industry deploy interactive services, was previous known as OCAP.

Why the name change?

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.

Which basically means that, based on talking with consumers, it was felt that a new name would help with branding. Manufacturers can then make products under that name.

For example: Panasonic and Comcast Announce Products With Tru2way(TM) Technology. Specifically, this means that you’ll be able to soon be able to get a portable DVR which you can take on the road, watching those TV shows you recorded.

source: cabletechtalk.com

Cable Brings You More

polszewski — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:24:17 +0000

I’ve been to CES a few times over the last five years. On my first few trips, it did seem a little odd to notice cable’s absence. Comcast Chairman & CEO Brian Roberts described a very similar experience in his keynote this morning, talking about walking the show floor a few years ago with Time Warner Cable’s Glenn Britt. As Roberts put it, “Cable was almost invisible.”

Following that experience, the cable industry reached out to the consumer electronics industry. He said that they heard complaints that cable was a regional business that operated in silos, that cable set-top boxes are closed and proprietary, and that, in general, cable made it too tough to innovate and to create products and services that could be sold in the retail environment. This morning’s address seemed a valuable pay-off to those efforts, with Roberts describing cable as a real partner to consumer electronics and retail.

He went on to describe the latest stage of his company’s development: Comcast 3.0. As part of the new Comcast, he said they were committing to a series of issues:

Having the best fiber optic networks and IP infrastructure
Delivering superior experience in hi-def and interactive
Providing new levels of excellence in customer service
Being a leader in innovation by providing “products and services that are converged, plug-and-play, user-friendly, and most important, easily open for third-party innovation.”
Many in the cable industry have debated over whether content is king or distribution. Roberts said that today the answer is clear: The consumer is king. The best way to serve consumers is by offering a wide array of choice.

He went on to profile such new services as wideband, Fancast, Project Infinity, the AnyPlay portable DVR, and the SmartZone communications center. You can read about the details elsewhere, but the important feature was that Comcast was preparing to offer more video that could be consumed in a more flexible fashion, more bandwidth and more features on its communications services. In a word: more.

source: cabletechtalk.com