Adelphia Communications Corp. chose BigBand Networks Inc., a provider of network platforms for video, voice and data services, for digital simulcasting and VoIP for its Los Angeles system.

BY JOHANNE TORRES
TMCnet VoIP Minute Watch Columnist

Judging by the amount of news coverage on digital simulcasting from a recent cable conference event in Texas, we could say that the technology is causing quite a stir in the industry. Cable operators have already started integrating this technology into their services and switching gears from analog to provide an all-digital offering. Digital simulcasting would be used by cable operators to gradually phase out analog services and subscriber devices by eventually offering all programming digitally. Changes like this open the doors to the availability of new and exciting offerings such as HDTV, VOD and Internet telephony.

Among the cable operators implementing the technology is Adelphia Communications Corp. The cable giant made news today as it chose BigBand Networks, Inc., a provider of network platforms for video, voice and data services for digital simulcasting and VoIP for its Los Angeles system. Adelphia chose BigBand platforms to convert all programming to digital formats at sourcing; integrate digital ad insertion and Gigabit Ethernet transport; and provide subscribers with a completely digital line-up from the network edge, while also maintaining existing analog video offerings. According to an official news announcement released this morning, Adelphia is practicing digital simulcasting for a manageable and economical migration towards all-digital cable services, further augmenting the Los Angeles site, which utilizes BigBand Networks solutions for high-speed data, digital television, HDTV and VOD.

According to the companies’ news release, digital video achieves better than 10x bandwidth efficiency opposed to analog. This would free up capacity for more broadcast programming, HDTV, VOD, VoIP and other emerging services. All-digital content would also improve video quality, enhance the level of content security, and possibly enable deployment of more economical subscriber equipment. Adelphia explained that because all programming is digital between headend and edge facilities, digital simulcasting also provides immediate benefits in consolidation to singular and efficient infrastructures for network transport and local advertising insertion.

This is what Marwan Fawaz, CTO at Adelphia, had to say about today’s announcement: "Adelphia and BigBand Networks have a long-standing partnership, highlighted by extensive collaboration in our Los Angeles system, which is expanding to implementation of digital simulcasting," said Adelphia CTO. "Digital technologies maximize service functionality, reliability and efficiency, and these goals are being pursued in the Adelphia Los Angeles system with use of the BigBand platforms for digital simulcasting."

"By utilizing BigBand Digital Simulcast, the Adelphia Los Angeles system is realizing immediate benefits, extending high-quality services to its subscribers and advertising customers, while maximizing operating efficiencies," said Amir Bassan-Eskenazi, president and CEO of BigBand Networks. "Adelphia has long been a vital customer for BigBand Networks, spanning all of our offerings, and this deployment further positions our collaboration at the forefront of cable industry activities."

BigBand explained in detail how digital simulcasting works. According to the company’s news release, "in digital simulcasting, analog source programming is converted to digital by real-time encoding at cable headends, which can be performed by the company’s BigBand BRE (Broadband Real-Time Encoder). This content, combined with programming from digital sources, is groomed into operator-defined channel lineups which can be performed by the BigBand BMR (Broadband Multimedia-Service Router). Gigabit Ethernet transport then delivers to edge locations, with service-level redundancy available for reliability. At hub or headend locations, advertisements can be digitally spliced into the various video programs, including directed delivery towards specific ad zones. At hub locations, basic and enhanced basic programming is decoded for the analog tier, and simultaneously QAM modulated for the digital subscriber base. The company also provides platforms for the edge processing in digital simulcasting."

BigBand also announced today that its hardware and software infrastructure is being tested by Adelphia for VoIP service launches. According to the agreement between both companies, the operator is currently using the BigBand Cuda CMTS (cable modem termination system) to route and process signals, and BigBand FastFlow broadband provisioning manager to establish and manage subscriber voice accounts.

"BigBand Cuda and BigBand FastFlow have been proven solutions for Adelphia Communications' high speed data services, and we have confidence in their providing the reliability, scalability and functionality required to deliver VoIP to our subscribers," added Fawaz.

BigBand’s Cuda CMTS system is supposed to maximize reliability of delivering VoIP and other real-time content through features such as a passive backplane that would automatically switch to redundant resources when required; and RF signaling for delivery in multiple plant conditions. BigBand says FastFlow detects the presence and configuration of subscriber devices, including media terminal adapters used to access VoIP, and automatically provide required configuration data within operator information systems, limiting the potential for errors through manual data entry.

The cable operator industry is indeed shifting gears, and industry insiders have started to notice. You might remember my previous article on an analysis about the Alelphia/Comcast/Time Warner deal. Kagan Research analysts call the acquisition of Adelphia by Comcast and Time Warner the fifth largest deal in cable history. Analysts believe that the deal dramatically improves both MSOs' clusters, enhances their size and synergies and provides significant tax savings for each. According to Kagan Research senior analyst Robin Flyn, "This deal is also expected to trigger a series of secondary swaps and sales involving other MSOs, resulting in a more efficiently structured cable landscape and stronger competitive positioning vs. DBS."

According to a research study conducted by the firm, the recent Adelphia deal will allow major MSOs to achieve new efficiencies in critical areas such as new service rollouts, ad sales and marketing. The firm revealed that it thinks consolidation will also help cable operators assemble more attractive bundles as the industry's next (even if we all involved in the industry think is the current) killer app, VoIP telephony, rolls out.

BigBand Networks, Inc.
www.bigbandnet.com.

Adelphia Communications Corporation
www.adelphia.com

-----

Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit:

http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100006&nm=Johanne%20Torres

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]

Discussions: