CED articles from April 2004

CED archives from April 2004

HDD+DVD could equal success.(in perspective)(hard disk drive)(digital video disks)
April 1, 2004... I'm the proud owner of a DVD recorder with an onboard hard disk drive (HDD), but for the life of me, I can't pinpoint the reason why the product first appealed to me. The hard drive I understand-I've used life-changing TiVo technology for...

DigitalDeck seeks cable play.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Shuttling high quality video and audio to different devices around the home can be accomplished with relative case for people who also happen to possess a solid base of IP knowledge. The rest of them will likely spend a good portion of their...

Embattled broadband equipment supplier Cabletel Communications Corp. has agreed to sell the assets of its distribution business.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Embattled broadband equipment supplier Cabletel Communications Corp. has agreed to sell the assets of its distribution business to the Canadian subsidiary of Power & Telephone Supply Company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Qwest first major to launch 'naked' DSL.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... In a move that could put some added pressure on cable modem service providers, Qwest Communications International in late February became the first major telco to unbundle its voice and high-speed data services. Customers who take the...

Ciena to acquire Internet Photonics.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Ciena Corp. has inked a deal to acquire Internet Photonics Inc. (IPI) in a deal valued at roughly $150 million, giving Ciena its first direct foray into the cable sector. New Jersey-based Internet Photonics is a leading supplier of optical...

Corning bows 'triple play' fiber.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Targeting service providers that will pipe voice, video and data over their networks, Corning Inc. has introduced a new standard singlemode fiber designed to handle twice the launch power of other standard singlemode fibers. Corning's...

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) has formed one new meeting group.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) has formed one new meeting group and promoted three others to chapter status. The Society bas formally established the Emerald Coast Meeting Group, based in Panama City, Fla. It...

Dolby puts the squeeze on digital audio.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... When it comes to advanced codecs, much of the discussion tends to center on how efficiently video can be squeezed into smatter and smaller spaces. Just as important, though, is the audio that accompanies it. At the center of those efforts...

Comcast controls its IPG future.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Comcast Cable gained firm control of its interactive program guide (IPG) future after striking a complex agreement with Gemstar-TV Guide International. Under the deal, Comcast and Gemstar agreed to forma joint IPG development group that...

Cablevision Systems Corp.'s Optimum Online cable modem service is offering more than 180 downloadable games.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Cablevision Systems Corp.'s Optimum Online cable modem service is offering more than 180 downloadable games to its high-speed subs after striking a deal with RealNetworks Inc. The games, offered via a customized Optimum Online customer...

Ascent traffics Charter VOD.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Charter Communications said it has inked a deal to deploy Ascent Media Group's video-on-demand (VOD) asset traffic and management system in select markets. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Charter said Ascent's platform will give it...

First 'HD Prime' satellite takes flight.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... SES Americom successfully launched the Americom-10 (AMC-10) from Cape Canaveral in early February. The Lockheed Martin-built A2100 bird, which will operate from 135 degrees West Longitude, is the first of two satellites that will make up SES...

C-COR, Tandberg team on VOD transport.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... C-COR.net Corp. and Tandberg Television have combined forces to enter the extremely competitive video-on-demand (VOD) transport sector. Under the agreement, C-COR will offer Tandberg's high density Edge QAM, the "EdgeMax 5500," alongside...

Synacor scores dollars and partners.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Synacor, a bundler of standalone subscription services for broadband and narrowband ISPs, bas closed a $1.5 million round of funding from Advantage Capital Partners. To date, Synacor has raised about $7.75 million. Though the Buffalo,...

ARRIS, PPC mend fences.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... After a protracted legal battle, PPC and ARRIS have found peace in the form of a licensing deal that gives ARRIS the green light to resume sales of its "Digicon" connector line. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the two...

Correction.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Correction Notice)
April 1, 2004... An article in the March edition of CED (see page 50) incorrectly stated Microsoft Corp.'s licensing policy toward its Windows Media 9 video codec. The company has eliminated some of the traditional license restrictions for the codec, giving...

Rogers draws up 'lifeline' VoIP plans.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Rogers Cable said its board of directors has stamped approval on a plan to deploy IP telephony services. Rogers hopes to offer the service to about 1.8 million homes by mid-2005, and extend it to the majority of its service areas in 2006. The...

Cinergy Broadband LLC and Current Communications Group have launched a broadband over power line (BPL) service in Cincinnati.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Cinergy Broadband LLC and Current Communications Group have launched a broadband over power line (BPL) service in Cincinnati, and soon plan to extend service to areas of Kentucky and Indiana. The companies are moving ahead on the deployment...

Electroline does durable DOCSIS.(Up front: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Electroline Equipment Inc. has launched a new industrial-grade cable modem designed for outdoor use. The company's DOCSIS Rugged Cable Modem, designed to pass stringent surge tests specified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics...

Extending HFC's borders: MSOs are employing traditional and wireless technologies to reach small- and mid-sized businesses.(hybrid fiber/coax)(manager of search operations)(Cover Story)
April 1, 2004... Cable operators interested in pursuing business-class customers have one major criteria these days: re-using the HFC (hybrid fiber/coax) network they've spent billions over the past several years building and upgrading. These days, MSOs...

Lighten up! Cable ops experiment with less expensive, slower speed tiers to entice more stubborn dialup users.
April 1, 2004... In the fiercely competitive high-speed data service derby, there may be advantages to letting some customers take it a little slower. While most MSOs these days are using big bandwidth to cream their telco broadband data rivals, some are...

Managing multiservice bandwidth requirements: is 10 gigabits per second per wavelength enough?(Fiber line: fiber optic technology)
April 1, 2004... Accommodating the exploding network capacity requirements of high-bandwidth video and high-reliability voice and data services looms as one of the biggest challenges for service providers over the next few years. As network engineers are faced...

A tale of two set-top strategies: low-end set-tops for all-digital, or powerful set-tops for OCAP?(Networking: advanced networking technology)(OpenCable Applications Platform)
April 1, 2004... Cable operators are facing a dilemma in plotting their set-top box strategy, as conflicting market forces appear to be pulling customer premise equipment (CPE) architectures in different directions. On one hand, operators looking to expand...

MVDDS: satellite's competition driver? Technology could beef up DBS bandwidth for local programming, data.(Networking: advanced networking technology)(multichannel video distribution and data service)
April 1, 2004... For a technology that promises to strengthen the competitive picture for television and high-speed data service, multichannel video distribution and data service (MVDDS) is producing a fuzzy image in its early stages. With licenses recently...

MSO marketers master multi-tasking: CTAM Digital scopes out VOD, DVRs and VoIP.(Broadband: business and news perspective)(Multimedia Service Operator)(video on demand)(Digital video recorders)(Voice over Internet Protocol)(Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing)
April 1, 2004... Discussions at this year's CTAM Digital & Broadband conference in Los Angeles in many ways mirrored the challenges cable operators face today. MSOs are being pushed and pulled by threats in the sky from DBS, and on the ground, by major...

Images, from 8 mm to HDTV.(Ciciora's corner)(high-definition television)
April 1, 2004... My entire professional life concerns still images, movies and television. In my earlier years. I did photography in a dark room with an enlarger in a corner of the attic. I remember my parents' first black-and-white television receiver. The...

Executing the vision: VOD pioneer Jim Ludington returns to Time Warner Cable to head up service development and integration.(Broadband: business and news perspective)
April 1, 2004... Jim Ludington knows a thing or two about innovation. He was a key player in Time Warner Cable's groundbreaking 1-GHz "Quantum project in Brooklyn/ Queens, N. Y. in 1990, and, in the middle of the decade, became "Employee No. 1" at The Full...

Free space optics.(New products: product reviews; wireless)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... REDMOND, Wash. -- Terabeam Corp. has announced a new addition to its free space optics (FSO) product line, Avara, which is a high bandwidth, carrier-grade system. Avara is designed for outdoor installations and provides bandwidths of 125/155...

Cable casting compound.(New products: product reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- Fiber Optic Center has unveiled its AngstromBond AB9271 urethane-casting compound, a room temperature curing polymer. The material has a one to one mix ratio with a 20- to 30-minute gel time and provides quick handling for...

DWDM SFP transceiver.(New products: product reviews; dense wavelength division multiplexing)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... BREINIGSVILLE, Pa. -- TriQuint Semiconductor's Optoelectronics Division has added DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) SFP transceivers to its NetLight SFP transceiver family. The new module allows users to consolidate wavelength...

Channel elimination filter.(Headend)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Communications and Energy Corporation a channel elimination filter for use in the 594-738 MHz hyperband spectrum. The Model 2500-(Ch.) is commonly used for channel reinsertion of a specific channel-typical uses are for new...

Policy implications of "free-on-demand".(capital currents)(broadcasting policy)
April 1, 2004... I don't usually write about marketing-I write about technology, policy and the policy implications of new technology. But occasionally, there are marketing innovations that have important policy implications. Free video-on-demand is one of...

CED orbital arc chart.
April 1, 2004... C-BAND VIDEO SATELLITES SES Americom Satcom C4 (to be replaced by AMC 10 in mid-04) 135[degrees] West Longitude Proj. EOL: Nov. 2004 C-band TWTA power: 17.5 watts Polarization: Odd:Vert./Even: Horiz. 1 = (Dig.) American Movie...