CED articles from August 2005

CED archives from August 2005

Same as it ever was?(in perspective)(Editorial)
August 1, 2005... Filling this space on a regular basis isn't as easy as you might imagine. Oh sure, there's only room here for about 500 words, but it often becomes a fairly daunting task to be pithy when the goal is to provide the readers with valuable, useful...

Court knocks out 'Brand X' case.
August 1, 2005... Cable operators scored a major victory in a longstanding open access legal tussle this summer with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that they do not have to open their broadband networks to competing providers. In a 6-3 decision, the nation's...

Amdocs strengthens billing play.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
August 1, 2005... The customer management sector underwent a spell of consolidation last month as Amdocs inked a deal to acquire billing and customer care specialist DST Innovis for $258 million. With DST Innovis in the fold, Amdocs will add several cable...

Cablevision goes out-of-band for 50-meg service.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
August 1, 2005... Cablevision Systems Corp. is using out-of-band overlay technology from Narad Networks to deliver a dedicated 50 Mbps data service to commercial customers. Initially, Cablevision has Narad-enabled two nodes serving customers in Oyster Bay,...

Avis takes DirecTV for a ride.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
August 1, 2005... Avis is giving the gift of satellite-delivered video to a select number of customers in the Phoenix area. Beginning last month at Sky Harbor International. Airport, Avis started renting Hummer H3 vehicles specially outfitted with the...

Arroyo enters game with Zodiac.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
August 1, 2005... Arroyo Video Systems and Zodiac Gaming are teaming up to deliver interactive games to set-top boxes over existing VOD platforms, allowing interactive gamers and VOD customers to sham the same platform. The open architecture will allow cable...

Acterna makes monitoring moves.(PathTrak Return Path Monitoring System)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Acterna (soon to become part of JDS Uniphase) has made three enhancements to its PathTrak Return Path Monitoring System, including the RPM-2000 card, WebView software, and On-Site Optimization Service. Aimed at helping cable operators...

Motorola secures 'Ojo retail partners.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
August 1, 2005... Motorola Inc. said more than 200 retail locations in the U.S. are selling "Ojo," a broadband videophone marketed in partnership with WorldGate Communications, after securing retail beachheads with Tweeter Home Entertainment, Magnolia Audio...

Charter turns up PowerKEY media centers.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
August 1, 2005... Charter Communications has kicked off deployments of Digeo Inc. Moxi media centers based on the Scientific-Atlanta PowerKEY conditional access (CA) system, starting with the operator's Turlock, Calif. system. It marks the first deployment...

iTV: a lure to digital cable?(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
August 1, 2005... Without the benefit of gambling in some parts of the world, interactive television (iTV) has yet to prove itself out as a big moneymaker, but new research from CTAM indicates that iTV can sway analog cable subs to the world of digital. ...

Adelphia broadens broadband fare.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
August 1, 2005... Adelphia Communications has expanded its broadband content menu with the addition of ESPNS60 and Disney Connection. ESPN360, offered at no additional cost to Adelphia's Preferred and Premier high-speed Internet subs, uses a special...

Saluting the broadcast flag?(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2005... Jeffrey Krauss' column last month on the fallout from the Broadcast Flag decision drew a firestorm of reader responses. Sir: I find your column concerning the Broadcast Flag decisions to be very poorly informed. Had you actually...

VOD vectros: trends focus on building better, faster, stronger services.(Cover Story)
August 1, 2005... In many ways, the central philosophy driving trends in video-on-demand technology these days can be summed up using the old line from the '70s cult classic, "The Six Million Dollar Man": We can build it better, stronger, faster. While the...

Operation: VoIP: testing and monitoring are complex. But key for solid results.(Voice-over-internet Protocol )
August 1, 2005... The litmus test for ensuring the peak Quality of Service (QoS), reliability and performance expected from Voice-over-internet Protocol (VoIP) networks is proving to be a tough exam. As an entirely new exercise for the cable industry, VoIP...

Network this! Integrating digital video with the latest in IP network technology.(Networking: ADVANCED NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY)
August 1, 2005... In this first of a two-article series on digital video and IP network technology, we address the challenges IP architecture creates for video, and present a cost-effective solution. As you'll see, the inherent assumptions and requirements...

VOD servers--equations and solutions: next-gen gear needed to handle ingest rates, stream counts.(Networking: ADVANCE NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY)
August 1, 2005... MSOs' video-on-demand services are expanding rapidly, and changing significantly. These developments are transforming the equation for VOD servers. Let's look at how next-generation video server architectures need to and are changing to meet...

A global view of the IP universe: first annual Global IP Summit tackles the services gamut.(Broadband: BUSINESS AND NEWS PERSPECTIVE)
August 1, 2005... BARCELONA, Spain -- At the first annual C-COR Global IP Summit here, company Chairman & CEO David Woodle opened things up by extolling the virtues of IP technology-not a big surprise, considering the title of the confab and the fact that C-COR...

Consumer electronics values for cable.(Ciciora's corner)
August 1, 2005... I use a DVD player and a VCR with my treadmill to make exercise tolerable. I buy courses from The Teaching Company (www.teach12.com) to watch on my DVD player and VCR. These courses are so interesting. I actually took forward to using the...

Splicing together cable's advertising future: Paul Woidke explores the ad impact of on-demand and simulcasting.(Interview)
August 1, 2005... As vice president of technology for Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales operation of the nation's largest MSO, Paul Woidke knows a thing (or 10) about the engine rooms of the advertising business. And it's a technology that matters to the...

FTTH line.(fiber-to-the-home )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... OLD BRIDGE, N.J. -- Blonder Tongue Laboratories Inc. has released its new LightHouse Series of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) products, a standards-based broadband delivery system optimized for multiple dwelling units, gated communities and small...

Fiber optic video link.(new products: PRODUCT REVIEWS)
August 1, 2005... BOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Artel Video Systems, a division of Newfound Technology, has introduced a laser transmitter with an unrepeated optical link of 150 km or 97 miles. The addition of this product, combined with Artel's 1310 nm, 1550 nm and 40...

Sonet/SDH analyzer.(new products: PRODUCT REVIEWS)
August 1, 2005... QUEBEC CITY, Canada -- EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. has announced additional functionality for its FTB-8100 Next-Generation Sonet/SDH Analyzer series. The new test functions, available with EXFO's latest software release, increase the...

Optical demarcation closure.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- AFL Telecommunications has introduced the LightLink OptiNID OPN-1224, an optical demarcation enclosure designed for use in either indoor or outdoor environments. The enclosure can serve as an optical demarcation point in an...

DBS: the questions are many.(capital currents)
August 1, 2005... Back in July 2002 (p. 74), I wrote about new DBS satellites that were proposed to operate with 4.5 degree spacing, located in between existing DBS satellites. And I mentioned the new DBS frequency allocation goes into effect in 2007. While the...