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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Zenverge to bring MoCA on board
March 13, 2013 1:18 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsThe transcoding specialist, fresh off getting its chip adopted by Arris for a new gateway based on the Comcast RDK, is in the process of integrating Entropic’s MoCA circuitry into its products. Entropic is one of Zenverge's investors, along with Motorola and Verizon, among others.
ThinkAnalytics strengthens U.S. team with Pohl, Pingitore
March 13, 2013 12:23 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsMultiplatform video search and recommendation vendor ThinkAnalytics, which is headquartered in London, continued to broaden its reach into the Untied States with the hiring of cable veteran Michael Pohl as its strategic director for marketing and business development. Pohl was also named as a member of ThinkAnalytic’s board.
Wireless spectrum crunch? Not so fast
March 13, 2013 12:12 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsWhile devices such as iPhones and tablets have no doubt put a heavy burden on wireless networks the wireless spectrum seems to be holding up well, according to a report. Wi-Fi offload, which is a growing opportunity for cable operators, has helped ease the spectrum crunch.
Synacor forms joint venture in China
March 12, 2013 2:03 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsThe web-based portal specialist has formed a joint venture with Beijing-based Maxit Technology, as a means of expanding into China. It will be known as Synacor China Limited (and as Beijing Xing Mai Technology Limited in China). Synacor expects to invest about $2 million over two years.
Startup debuts radical new router
March 12, 2013 1:55 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsCompass-EOS, which counts Comcast and Cisco among its investors, has announced a new router based on a new, long-hoped for class of ICs that fully integrate electronic and photonic elements on the same die. The company said the system is now shipping, and noted that several of the new routers are already up and running at customer installations.
Cablevision, CableLabs team up on Wi-Fi app
March 12, 2013 12:24 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsCableLabs announced this morning that its Wi-Fi app, which it developed in conjunction with Cablevision and other member companies, has been licensed to mPortal in order to make the app more readily available to the cable industry. The CableLabs Wi-Fi app software includes Wi-Fi detection in order to help subscribers find the best Wi-Fi hotspot from their current locations.
Comcast co-hosts IETF meeting
March 12, 2013 12:14 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsFor the second straight year, Comcast is a co-sponsor of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 86 meeting, which is taking place this week in Orlando, Fla. Comcast also announced that it had renewed its membership to the Internet Society as a platinum organization supporter for the sixth consecutive year.
Research: Fiber gap for businesses shrinks
March 12, 2013 12:07 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsAccording to a recent study, the “fiber gap” to businesses across the nation is steadily closing, but 64 percent of commercial buildings in the United States don’t have access to fiber-based network services. Vertical Systems Group’s latest report said that despite the current gap, business fiber availability has more than tripled since 2004 when the penetration rate was 11 percent.
TiVo Mini hits the market
March 11, 2013 2:26 pm | by Brian Santo | Products | CommentsThe unit is not itself a DVR, but used in conjunction with TiVo’s four-tuner DVRs. The TiVo Mini makes use of one of the DVR's tuners to provide viewers with the control and access of content on a TV in another room of the house. Users will even be able to start a show in the living room and finish it on a TiVo Mini in another room.
Elemental, deltatre enter marketing deal
March 11, 2013 2:16 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsThe combined solution features Elemental video processing systems paired with the deltatre Diva video player, which that company has developed specifically for sporting events, and has designed to be customizable for each individual sport.
Broadcom debuts new chipset for E-DTAs
March 11, 2013 12:14 pm | by Mike Robuck | Products | CommentsBroadcom announced this morning a new chipset for digital terminal adapters (DTAs) that will enable cable operators to deliver encrypted basic video content to retail devices from vendors such as Boxee. Adding an Ethernet port to a DTA allows live signals to be viewed on IP-connected video devices that are sold in retail stores.
Chasing big business
March 8, 2013 6:17 pm | by Craig Kuhl, Contributing Editor | Articles | CommentsThe lucrative small- to mid-size business (SMB) services market is growing organically to include larger enterprises and is now in phase two as cable operators and related service providers accelerate the expansion of their business services model to include the enterprise market.
QuickPlay joining white-label multiscreen market
March 8, 2013 1:37 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsQuickPlay Media is the latest company planning to offer multiscreen delivery as a cloud-based service. The company’s name for its cloud-based managed service solutions for the distribution of media to IP-connected devices is TVX. The service includes ingest, content management, play-out, and reporting.
Comcast ups Xfinity speeds in 3 more states
March 8, 2013 1:26 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsComcast continued its gradual rollout of internet speed upgrades, doubling the downstream speeds of two of the more popular tiers of Xfinity service in Arkansas, Indiana, and Michigan, at no cost. The speed upgrades initially apply to the Blast! and Extreme 50 plans.
Comcast subscribers tap into 80 million hours of TV VOD a month
March 8, 2013 12:41 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsTV shows rule the roost when it comes to the most-watched content on Comcast’s VOD platform. In a blog post, Comcast’s Matt Strauss, senior vice president of digital and emerging platforms, wrote that the company’s subscribers watched more than 80 million hours of TV on VOD per month.


