TMCnet News

Interactive Video and TV Everywhere Highlight CableNET® 2011 Exhibit at Upcoming Cable Show
[May 17, 2011]

Interactive Video and TV Everywhere Highlight CableNET® 2011 Exhibit at Upcoming Cable Show


LOUISVILLE, Colo. --(Business Wire)--

The CableNET® 2011 exhibit will include a large number of interactive technologies enabled by EBIF™ and tru2way® technologies among its array of more than 50 displays of the latest broadband applications and emerging services.

CableNET also will contain a dedicated area for technologies that enable the managed delivery of cable digital video services to a growing variety of consumer electronics devices within the cable subscriber's home, including PCs, tablets, and connected televisions.

The technology showcase will be part of The Cable Show 2011, the 60th Annual Convention and International Exposition of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), June 14-16 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

"CableNET 2011 continues the trend of hosting services and applications being developed today to enrich the consumer experience," said Dr. Paul Liao, President and CEO of CableLabs. "The CableNET exhibit features a wide array of exciting, next generation broadband technologies that will provide convention attendees with a hands-on view of how the cable industry is innovating and leading America into a new Information Age," said Michael Powell, former FCC Chairman and new President & CEO of NCTA.

The CableNET industry exhibit is co-sponsored by CableLabs® and NCTA, and offers a hands-on experience with many of the most innovative content, services, and applications. Tru2way and EBIF are CableLabs specifications applicable to digital video and interactive services, defined for the cable industry on behalf of cable operators who are members of CableLabs.

Over its 18 years as an industry technology exhibit, the CableNET show has provided attendees a first glimpse of many emerging, leading-edge technologies and applications. Those included early views of the cable industry's Data over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS®) platform; high-definition television; enhanced and interactive video services and PacketCable™-based digital voice technologies.

Participating companies include:

  • Affinegy will unveil a new version of its Home Portal software that provides subscribers with anytime, anywhere access to home, device and cloud-based content on a large variety of connected devices. The Home Portal is part of Affinegy's suite of software applications that are used in the service provider's customer care center, their business office and by their subscribers to enable and manage their connected lives.
  • Aurora Networks Aurora Networks will show the key components of a Fiber Deep network while showcasing the next-generation access tools that will enable cable operators to drive more from their installed plant. Aurora Networks will showcase for the first time, a new technology platform, which will enable increasing the upstream bandwidth in a simple manner, smoothly and efficiently. It also will demonstrate the key Aurora Networks' RFoG components with its unique Node PONTM module to show the simplicity and seamless transition from an RFoG to a GEPON deployment for commercial subscribers, detailing how this can be evolved to a 10G-EPON system.
  • CableLabs will show an ETV Twitter application demonstrating how ETV can be used in conjunction with standard web servers in order to accomplish complex tasks. EBIF can be used as a front-end to display web-based content, with the complex logic being performed in the network. This enables a rich user experience, linking content typically accessible to web applications with television programming. CableLabs also will demonstrate a synchronized advertising demo showing how ETV can be used to tie the television video content with second screen ads. This could be used to reduce visual clutter on the television while targeting advertisements to individual household members. CableLabs also will display an exhibit of Carrier-Grade NAT, a transition technology that helps operators maintain Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) service while migrating to IPv6.
  • Cisco will demonstrate innovative networking communication and collaboration technologies for health care professionals and small businesses, including Cisco TelePresence, which delivers an intimate, person-to-person communication experience unbounded by distance or physical location.
  • Civolution will demonstrate its video watermarking technology called NexGuard. The demo consists of showing a camcord of a high quality (HD) contend playing on a TV set or an iPad and retrieving the watermark information, identifying the details of the set-top box from which the content was played. Even a copy stored on a social video website can still be identified.
  • ClearAccess will demonstrate how cable operators may leverage their deployments of integrated DOCSIS® modem/routers, by remotely troubleshooting home network problems and adding revenue generating applications through its ClearVision management system.
  • Dolby Laboratories (News - Alert) will show a broadcasting solution for full-resolution 3D to the home. The solution is focused around needs of cable operators to offer the highest quality 3D content for linear broadcast and VoD, and includes the demonstration of a real-time encoder proof-of-concept as well as the transmission over QAM for distribution to the home.
  • Elemental Technologies will demonstrate Elemental Live, an all-in-one live encoding solution for traditional television broadcast as well as adaptive online streaming. The system will output simultaneous broadcast and adaptive streams in real time to multiple devices such as set-top boxes, TVs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
  • enableTV will show its DV-TIDE PC-based platform that simulates a cable headend. DV-TIDE can deliver MPEG-2 transport streams, interactive applications, and service information (SI) to cable devices via RF. It also supports the real-time injection of carousels for ETV bound applications. DV-TIDE also has the ability to signal an ETV User Agent to a cable device to aid in the testing of ETV applications.
  • Flashlight Engineering will show a series of applications, running on tru2way set tops and iPad mobile devices, which demonstrate the possibilities of advanced cable services using common and unified Cable Application Frameworks and Web Services. In addition, it demonstrates the Flashlight Application Developer Toolkit for tru2way application developers.
  • FourthWall Media will demonstrate a range of EBIF products including the broadly deployed FourthWall EBIF Platform running on Motorola and Cisco systems including user agents for both set-top box types and a common EBIF Platform Server providing critical application support services. Also on display: Ad Widgets® interactive advertising system, Addressable Versioning, AdAim® audience measurement suite & AirCommand™ allowing any external mobile device to communicate with any EBIF set-top box.
  • Harris will exhibit its web-based system that enables the management and real-time execution of addressable advertising delivery across linear and non-linear opportunities. The targeted advertising system is an SCTE 130-compliant advertising campaign management system that allows advertising offers to be directed and executed in real time to an advertiser's unique customer demographic profile.
  • Incognito Software will feature its Auto-Configuration Server support for the Broadband Forum CPE WAN Management Protocol thus enabling provisioning and management of advanced IP services on DOCSIS TR-069 gateways and devices such as VoIP phones and IPTV set-top boxes. Incognito will demonstrate how its fully integrated solution manages the service activation and simultaneously provisions DOCSIS and TR-069 converged devices.
  • IPgallery's social communications platform is an innovative cloud-based, web-activated converged voice, video, and data communications suite of applications, combining social networking for an enhanced "Click to Anything" social community experience for talking, chatting, watching, sharing and transferring multi-media content. Leveraging both cloud computing and the MSO's digital network, and core assets for delivering, voice, messaging and content, IPgallery will show how cable operators may create a personalized social communications environment, across any device and over any network (legacy, next generation, or IMS).
  • Irdeto Solutions will exhibit how cable operators can dynamically protect their premium digital assets with Irdeto ActiveCloak™ for media, distribute them to subscribers via Irdeto Broadband and leverage early release theater content with the only interoperable, backward-compatible watermarking solution available in the U.S. market. Irdeto's solutions allow operators to implement their TV Everywhere strategies and meet subscriber demand for content anytime, anywhere and on any device.
  • Ligos Corporation will be demoing its newly released ETV Suite software solution for EBIF. ETV Suite is a set of tools that integrates application authoring, HD video stream input/output, external data and playout. The Suite reduces the complexity of ETV development by providing a visual design environment to create enhanced channel layouts and highly optimized applications compatible with the leading user agents and STBs.
  • Maxxian will demonstrate its CounterStryx suite of products which collects and analyzes data from billing, security, network and VOD components to identify network problems, service call issues and unauthorized usage in set-tops and cable modems. A common interface is provided for different conditional access systems, with enterprise-level access to multiple systems from different vendors.
  • Nagra-Kudelski / OpenTV (News - Alert) will showcase multiscreen advertising opportunities through Next Generation VOD and linear interfaces within the SCTE-130 standard. The company will show its Participate product integrated with This Technology's SpotBuilder Placement Opportunity Information Service (POIS). The demonstration will show how a non-linear video stream containing one 30-second spot can provide a synchronized advertising experience on a secondary device (tablet) if the inventory permits.
  • NDS will demonstrate the next iteration of its advanced Snowflake user interface (UI), specifically designed to provide today's current generation of cable set-top boxes (STBs) with a rich, uniquely branded look and feel with enhanced functionality. The UI is based on the award-winning Snowflake framework that accommodates all the features, functions, content and services already available, but refreshed with greater graphical capability and with significant feature and functional enhancements.
  • Neustar will show its Text Everywhere SMS solution that allows cable operators to participate in the explosive SMS revenue growth by enabling a subscriber's phone number to send texts to and from TV's, iPads, cell phones, emails, Facebook, and more. The Text Everywhere service provides a new revenue stream by adding a competitive position for operators to take a significant share of the SMS opportunity.
  • PacketVideo will exhibit Twonky, its line of standards-based software and mobile applications for discovering, accessing, streaming and viewing protected digital media across PCs, TVs, tablets, mobile phones and other devices connected to a subscriber's home network.
  • Related Content Database, Inc. (RCDb) will demonstrate an application that uses EBIF to synch programming on the set-top box with a companion tablet. The use of EBIF for synchronization of the companion TV experience keeps the MSO in direct engagement with the consumer, as opposed to other companion TV technologies that operate independent of the MSO.
  • S3 Group will demonstrate how its StormTest automated STB test platform can be used to automate the testing of STBs, and other receiver devices, software and applications. Through tight integration with the signaling systems used to announce the availability of interactive content, S3 also will show how this automated testing can run 24x7 with appropriate tests being executed at scheduled times to ensure that the right content is being delivered at the right time and presented on the subscriber's screen in the expected way.
  • S&T (News - Alert) will show its TSProcessor which provides real-time management and monitoring of incoming ETV content as it passes through the headend. TSMonitor provides a streamlined view of ETV services, verifying the appearance and operation of applications and their communications with application servers. TSBroadcaster is an advanced delivery system for interactive applications, providing continuous control of application insertion and play-out, data updates and stream event generation.
  • Samsung will demonstrate a set-top box that blends the best of TV and the best the web. While watching TV users can browse the web and search via a "qwerty" keyboard, voice and motion detection.
  • Sandvine will demonstrate its Network Analytics dashboards, which enable cable operators to make informed decisions to optimize network utilization and enhance the subscriber Internet experience. With Network Analytics, operators may better serve their customers by proactively examining peak resource usage and monitoring the effectiveness of fair share policies while deferring CapEx. Operators also may investigate how subscribers' usage aligns with service plans, and decide on optimal future strategies for cost-effective network management.
  • Sony Electronics will feature live and on-demand content from Time Warner Cable delivered over Internet Protocol using a custom electronic program guide jointly developed by Sony and Time Warner Cable.
  • Support.com will demonstrate its EasySupport client that allows one-click access to premium support via chat or phone. EasySupport is a fully brandable desktop client that underscores commitment to customer service/customer satisfaction and adds value to their subscription, while differentiating and building-out partner brand awareness.
  • Synacor will demonstrate its "next" generation of TV Everywhere products/services, including showcasing the expansion of its fully functional PC-based TV Everywhere products to other devices such as mobile devices and tablets.
  • Tektronix will highlight Sentry and its recently released capabilities of measuring and detecting video artifacts. This helps service providers tackle content errors where the QoE score is good but the program suffers artifacts due to over-compression, which is common in motion intensive programs like sports.
  • thePlatform (News - Alert) will demonstrate a modular and open network solution to carrier-class IPTV for service providers and programmers, leveraging a centrally managed video publishing system to support a multi-vendor architecture for delivery across IP-connected devices and set-top boxes.
  • ThinkAnalytics will exhibit its comprehensive Content Recommendations and Search platform providing true personalization through predictive intelligence and integrated business rules. The platform broadens subscribers' tastes with a personalized experience on any device (STB, web, mobile/tablet, etc.) across VOD, electronic program guide, and other media types.
  • TradeHarbor will feature its Voice Signature ServiceSM (VSS) which enables trusted interactions over the telephone, the Web and on mobile devices. The VSS is a highly-scalable web service (SaaS (News - Alert)) providing biometric voice authentication as a real-time decision support tool.
  • Trident Microsystems Inc. will demonstrate two types of SoC reference designs for STB devices: 1) A complete hardware and software system implementation of a very low cost, low power, small form factor HD-DTA device running an EBIF user agent and guide application 2) A low cost IPTB adapter device based on the Android OS for streaming of on-line video services.
  • UniSoft will show a variety of EBIF-centric demonstrations including:
  • EBIF edge insertion using S&T's TSProcessor.
  • S&T's TSMonitor, an EBIF virtual set-top-box environment.
  • XAV, EBIF application validator.
  • S&T's TSBroadcaster, EBIF carousel with automation interface allowing synchronisation of EBIF applications with primary video events.
  • enableTV's DV-TIDE
  • Verimatrix will demonstrate watermarking technology that is required to mark content that is compressed and potentially encrypted and to do so with a performance that is scalable when executed on the server while delivering hundreds of simultaneous video streams.
  • Visible World will showcase its household addressability solution, Connect, which enables marketers to segment their television audiences and target relevant ads to specific households. It also will demonstrate Conductor, a web-based campaign management tool for zone-based targeting.
  • ZiXi™ is a leading enabler of broadcast-quality HDTV globally over the cloud. Broadcasters, enterprises and video-on-demand services use ZiXi to enrich user experience, create new services and significantly reduce costs by enabling the delivery of live and on-demand HD video content over the Internet in real-time, with unprecedented quality.
  • Zodiac Interactive will showcase the latest developments in its PowerUp AMS technology server platform, which features two-way communication for both legacy and tru2way set tops. Also on also display will be Zodiac's unique HTML5 and social media applications, products and solutions.



Cable Television Laboratories was founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry. The Emmy Award winning laboratory is a non-profit research and development consortium that is dedicated to pursuing new cable telecommunications technologies and to helping its cable operator members integrate those advancements into their business objectives. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains additional web sites at www.cablenet.org, www.ebif.tv and www.tru2way.com.

Advanced Digital Cable™, CableCARD™, CableHome®, CableLabs®, CableNET®, CablePC™, DCAS™, DOCSIS®, DPoE™, EBIF™, Go2BroadbandSM, M-Card™, OpenCable™, PacketCable™, and tru2way® are marks of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]