CED articles from December 2005

CED archives from December 2005

Let's get virtual!(in perspective)
December 1, 2005... Last year at this time, CED embarked on a first for the cable industry--a "virtual" trade show. We offered it in a time slot typically reserved for the old Western Show, because we were of the strong belief that there remained a need for a...

Gearing up for PacketCable Multimedia.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
December 1, 2005... Despite its relative youth, PacketCable Multimedia (PCMM) appears poised to make a big impact on the cable industry, and in rapid fashion. That much could be distilled from a recent CED Webcast entitled, "Gearing up for PacketCable...

Microsoft to offer digital-cable-ready PCs.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
December 1, 2005... Microsoft Corp. and CableLabs have struck a deal that will allow Microsoft and PC manufacturers to field digital-cable-ready computers in time for next year's holiday sales season. The agreement is the result of more than two years of...

Time Warner starts up 'Start Over'.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
December 1, 2005... Time Warner Cable made a big splash this fall with the first commercial launch of "Start Over," a service that enables VOD customers to restart select shows (those with copyright clearance) that are already in progress. The first site to...

Jones snaps up NCTI.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Jones International Academy has sealed a deal to acquire rival cable education services outfit NCTI for an undisclosed amount. Under the acquisition agreement, NCTI will operate as a subsidiary of JIA, with Tom Brooksher remaining as NCTI's...

Tandberg strikes interactive gold.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)
December 1, 2005... Tandberg Television made a bigger push into the world of interactive television (iTV) this fall with a deal to acquire GoldPocket Interactive in a cash and stock transaction valued at $78.5 million. Closely-held GoldPocket develops and...

ESPN, Zodiac in set-top gaming deal.(Entertainment and Sports Programming Network)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... ESPN has teamed with Zodiac Gaming to develop and distribute a range of games for the set-top environment. Under the deal, Zodiac will develop sports-themed games that will integrate the sports network's "personalities, programming and...

Speak into the mic.(upfront: LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHT)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Memorizing the numbers of their favorite channels has become a thing of the past for some of Sunflower Broadband's digital customers. Soon, many of them will be able to simply navigate the wide, wide world of digital programming by simply...

The media generation: device proliferation extends a decades-old strategy: divide and conquer.(memory lane)
December 1, 2005... One of many television industry beliefs influenced by the legendary comedian Milton Berle was an assumption that families would watch television together, and that consequently the medium should be programmed for wide generational appeal. After...

A breed apart: handicapping the thoroughbreds of broadband technology.
December 1, 2005... Welcome to the 5th edition of the CED Broadband 50, a list of the companies, technologies and people that played a big role in 2005, or are positioned to do so in the coming year. Inside, you'll get to look at how we stacked up the field....

Detour to Area 51: beware! You are once again entering Area 51, where we place companies and technologies that were either "thisclose" to making the "50," or were still relegated to the uncooked, "alien technology" category.
December 1, 2005... BroadLogic Everybody loves the idea of channel bonding, which BroadLogic calls "wideband." And everybody wants to get to channel bonding using DOCSIS 3.0. But given the presumably quick pace of telco entrants, most notably Verizon, with...

Barriers to entry: what's next for the CableCARD and downloadable security?
December 1, 2005... The quest for the ultimate in content and revenue protection via downloadable security systems and next-gen CableCARDs is not only gaining momentum, but expanding to include a raft of unlikely participants. Traditional set-top box...

Have the telco TV stars aligned? When it comes to video, the telephone companies think they have something 'better' to offer.(Networking: ADVANCED NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY)
December 1, 2005... Faced with competitive threats to their bread-and-butter voice business, the telcos have taken some major steps in the last couple of years when it comes to adding their service bundles. How to get into the video business was again the...

Let the games begin: cable looks to score big with gaming services, business models.(Broadband: BUSINESS AND NEWS PERSPECTIVE)
December 1, 2005... For cable operators, the game is afoot. With a growing base of both casual and hardcore users hooked on games, MSOs are looking for ways to offer them a better way to play. And as it happens, there is a range of revenue models and delivery...

Television: what does it mean today?(Ciciora's corner)
December 1, 2005... This has been an incredible year for television. It has almost lost its definition, I'm not talking about resolution--I'm talking about the meaning of the word "television." When I started working in television several decades ago, it was...

Tunable laser.(new products)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... KOMAKI, Japan-Santec has announced the first product in its new range of tunable lasers, the TSL-510. The new laser adopts many of the key features of Santec's existing TSL-210V external cavity tunable laser, but with a new front panel...

Digital channel elimination filter.(new products)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... EAST SYRACUSE, N.Y.-Microwave Filter Co. (MFC) has unveiled full digital channel elimination filters for the reinsertion of new digital (or analog) programming. The model 15690-(Ch) is available for any single cable TV channel from 2 to 158 and...

Small op provisioning.(new products)
December 1, 2005... VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Incognito Software has introduced the Broadband Command Center (BCC) Appliance, a soft ware-and-hardware provisioning package designed for small- to medium-sized broadband operators with hundreds to thousands of subscribers....

1 GHz line amplifier ICs.(INTEGRATED CIRCUITS)
December 1, 2005... WARREN, N.J. -- Anadigics Inc. has introduced five line amplifier ICs for cable TV infrastructure applications. These amplifiers help service providers increase system bandwidth, allowing them to offer additional, digital services, including...

Here comes 1080p--maybe.(capital currents)
December 1, 2005... Suppose you do a Google search on 1080p. You come up with a bunch of hits. There are real hardware products on the market, both displays and DVD players-but not, evidently, any 1080p DVDs to play. And maybe Hollywood wants to keep it that way....

North American VOD deployments.(Illustration)
December 1, 2005... Launch Service operator Market date Adelphia Amelia & Newark, Ohio Jan. 2005 Communications Augusta, Maine ...