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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
TWC to pay $2.2 million to overcharged NY subs
March 8, 2013 12:36 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsNew York attorney general Eric Schneiderman announced yesterday that Time Warner Cable has agreed to refund some of its New York subscribers $2.2 million for allegedly overcharging them. The settlement requires Time Warner Cable to refund overcharges collected since March 2007.
Google sheds 1,200 jobs, but cuts miss Home unit
March 8, 2013 12:31 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsGoogle said today it was trimming 1,200 jobs, or 10 percent, from Motorola Mobility’s workforce, but the cuts didn’t impact the cable-based Motorola Home unit that Arris is buying. Google cut 4,000 jobs in August, which included employees from the Home and mobile divisions.
Bang the DRM slowly
March 7, 2013 6:10 pm | by Brian Santo | Articles | CommentsThere isn’t a single legal concept that has inspired more heartburn in more facets of content distribution than digital rights management (DRM). Consumers have a pretty good idea what DRM is, and plenty vociferously despise it with the same loathing they have for banks, airlines and their communications service providers.
Open Mic: Navigating television’s perfect storm
March 7, 2013 5:37 pm | by Jim Tanner, Chief architect at Clearleap | Articles | CommentsFor today’s well-equipped TV watcher, pausing a program on the living room TV set and resuming it on the portable tablet is merely a matter of pressing buttons or swiping screens. A click here, a tap there, and in seconds the program hops from one screen to the next, uninterrupted and ready to resume. Or so it appears.
Cache as cache can: cable cozies up to nDVR
March 7, 2013 2:46 pm | by Mike Robuck | Articles | CommentsNetwork-based DVR services have been waiting in the wings for years now, but their big debut seems to be only a matter of time now that content rights issues are thawing out and the network architectures are taking shape. nDVR will be, when paired with a content delivery network or cloud, one of the legs that TV Everywhere services stand on once it’s enabled.
ActiveVideo hires Nemani away from Cisco
March 7, 2013 1:17 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsActiveVideo Networks has hired Murali Nemani as senior vice president and chief marketing officer. He joins ActiveVideo after five years with Cisco, where he directed the launch of the company’s Videoscape solutions for service providers, as well as the expansion of the company’s mobility portfolio for wireless and wireline operators.
TWCBC checks in with new HD service for hotels
March 7, 2013 12:36 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsTime Warner Cable Business Class is provisioning a new HD platform for hotels that was designed to mimic in-home HD services without the expense of on-site headend equipment and bulky set-top boxes. Time Warner Cable Business Class (TWCBC) is offering a new version of its HD Video for Hospitality service across the greater New York City area, New York State, New England and the Carolinas.
TWC scores $5 million through NY broadband grant program
March 7, 2013 12:30 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsTime Warner Cable has been awarded more than $5 million in state funding through Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Connect NY Broadband Grant Program. With the grant funds, Time Warner Cable will take part in the Statewide Broadband Expansion Project to deploy high-speed Internet service to more than 4,000 households in communities throughout New York.
Aurora closes $46 million deal with Harmonic
March 7, 2013 12:27 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsAurora Networks has closed its $46 million deal to buy Harmonic’s Cable Access unit that was first announced on Feb. 19. Aurora said the acquisition would increase its market share lead in the optical transport market by significantly increasing its installed base for next-generation service-providing products and create long-term strategic growth opportunities.
New Products: Pasternack, Multicom, Fujitsu
March 6, 2013 6:21 pm | by CED staff | Articles | CommentsPasternack Enterprises has a new line of 50-watt medium- power attenuators; Multicom has introduced a clear QAM SD/HD video distribution solution that eliminates the need for a set-top box; Fujitsu has announced the a Packet Optical Networking Platform (Packet ONP) for optical transport network (OTN) switching.
In perspective: Wait... what?
March 6, 2013 5:54 pm | by Brian Santo | Articles | CommentsOnce upon a time, Time Warner was a giant media company with both a programming arm and a distribution arm. Investors demanded Time Warner Cable be spun off. After buying the rest of NBC Universal, Comcast now looks pretty similar to 2008 Time Warner.
Capital Currents: FCC broadcast spectrum incentive auctions
March 6, 2013 5:42 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, President of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | Articles | CommentsThe big picture on FCC incentive auctions of broadcast spectrum, includes two key elements: 1) The transfer of at least 120 MHz of spectrum for mobile broadband use; and 2) The generation of enough revenues to pay broadcaster relocation costs, the funding of a national broadband public safety network, as well as support for deficit reduction.
Ciciora's Corner: Technology needs rich people
March 6, 2013 5:31 pm | by Walt S. Ciciora, Expert on cable and consumer electronics issues | Articles | CommentsIn some quarters, wealth has received a bad name. A little thought reveals that our industry and our careers strongly depend on there being “rich people.” Start-up endeavors need investors, people with at least a little excess money they can put at risk in hopes of making a return.
Engineering-Wise: The intelligent cable network
March 6, 2013 5:18 pm | by Daniel Howard Senior vice president of engineering and CTO of the SCTE | Articles | CommentsBesides the capacity and robustness improvement, there’s something else about DOCSIS 3.1 and its use of OFDM) that excites me: the network intelligence it enables. We already use DOCSIS devices as network health probes, but OFDM will essentially turn our equipment into multifunction test generators that can be used to measure most of the key RF performance parameters.
Ad platform startup gains $11M in vencap
March 6, 2013 3:08 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsInnovid, a startup that specializes in equipment used to create and distribute interactive advertising, has just nailed down another $11 million in venture funding. The company develops tools to create, deliver and measure video campaigns, in any format, on any screen, publisher or ad network. The suite of products includes the Innovid's own Ad Server.
