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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
New Products: Sonus, Digital Rapids, Averna/Pace
June 5, 2013 9:11 pm | by CED | Articles | CommentsSonus Networks has upgraded its session border control (SBC) portfolio with software and hardware enhancements; Digital Rapids recently started shipping version 3.8 of its the Digital Rapids Stream software; Averna has forged a design-validation partnership with Pace that it said would accelerate customer premise equipment certification (CPE) for cable operators.
Usage-based service management
June 5, 2013 8:38 pm | by Stephan Collins and Bob Hunt | Articles | CommentsThe profitability of fixed broadband service providers is being threatened by the tremendous growth in residential broadband Internet usage. MSOs could restore diminishing residential broadband profitability by moving to a model that matches usage to service tiers.
Conax offering SDK for PlayReady DRM client
June 5, 2013 2:25 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsDevelopers can use the SDK to create a client capable of secure delivery of video content from the streaming server to the native player of the client device. The Conax security-hardened implementation for MS PlayReady fully conforms to Microsoft’s rules for Compliance and Robustness and is developed according to Conax’ security requirements including security requirements from major Hollywood studios and content providers.
Grand unification for home networking standards
June 5, 2013 2:19 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsManufacturers of gear that operate on a grab-bag of networking technologies – HomePlug, MoCA, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet – are setting up a certification system for a new category of home networking equipment that will make all four networking approaches interoperable. The result should be a boon for service providers setting up whole-home services.
Casa Systems tallies another CMTS win
June 5, 2013 2:09 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsFinland’s largest cable operator, DNA Ltd, has placed an order for Casa Systems’ C10G chassis. The C10G is the predecessor to the vendor’s purpose-built CCAP system, the C100G, but the use of C10G allows DNA to offer scalable broadband services to its more than 600,000 subscribers, while giving the operator a clear upgrade path to CCAP.
Comcast combines CMC, IP Services, into Wholesale unit
June 5, 2013 2:05 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsComcast announced the reorganization of several operations dedicated to managing services on behalf of customers, essentially by folding the previously separate IP services operation with the Comcast Media Center under an umbrella unit called Comcast Wholesale. Comcast Wholesale now incorporates CMC units including Content Solutions, HITS and AdDelivery, with the IP Services unit, which provides data and voice services.
The Cable Show hosts job fair for military personnel
June 5, 2013 12:35 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsThrough a partnership with Hiring our Heroes, the cable industry will host a job fair at next week’s Cable Show in Washington D.C. for military veterans, reservists and military spouses. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, in partnership with NCTA, the Cable & Telecommunications Human Resources Association (CTHRA) and other local and industry partners, is conducting the hiring event.
Sigma Systems gives voice to Cable Bahamas’ residential subscribers
June 5, 2013 12:27 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsCable Bahamas has tapped Sigma Systems to help provision its residential voice services throughout Nassau, Grand Bahamas, Abaco and Eleuthera. Cable Bahamas is using Sigma Systems’ service fulfillment solutions to automate the provisioning of its SIP-based residential VoIP service
Visible World, FourthWall Media draw a bead on targeted ads
June 5, 2013 12:23 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsTargeted TV ad developer Visible World and interactive TV vendor FourthWall Media announced this morning that they have joined forces to create an addressable advertising platform for one-to-one set-top box targeting. FourthWall is extending the capabilities of its EBIF platform to support Visible World's addressable advertising offerings.
Edgeware feature replaces load balancers
June 4, 2013 1:56 pm | by Brian Santo | Product Releases | CommentsThe company's Origin Selector option for its Distributed Video Delivery Network (D-VDN) Solution provides scalable load balancing and redundancy across multiple video origin servers, located in either the service provider’s own headend or in an external content provider’s network. The Origin Selector option in the Edgeware D-VDN Solution enables intelligent distribution of content collection requests over multiple origin servers, obviating the need for load balancers.
Rovi releases SDK for adding HEVC codecs
June 4, 2013 1:50 pm | by Brian Santo | Product Releases | CommentsThe SDK includes the company’s patent-pending Smart Adaptive Bitrate Encoding Technology (SABET), which enables the generation of as many as ten simultaneous output streams from a single source, reducing CPU cycles by utilizing common encoding processes across all levels, Rovi explained. This facility should help lower the costs and reduce the time required for the mass transcoding of large video content libraries to HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding).
Cox rolls out SMB payment service
June 4, 2013 1:29 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsAfter a succesfull pilot, Cox Business is launching a payment service for small and medium-sized businesses across its footprint. Cox Business, which partnered with Acculynk to provision the PayLeap service, said it was the first MSO to offer a managed payment service
TWC: IntelligentHome rollouts nearly complete
June 4, 2013 1:18 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsTime Warner Cable’s home automation and security system, IntelligentHome, will make its way into the cable operator’s Ohio and Wisconsin service areas this month and then New York City in the fall. Once those launches are complete, Time Warner Cable said IntelligentHome would be deployed across all of the major markets in its footprint.
BHN updates app to include free text messaging
June 4, 2013 1:12 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsBright House Networks has updated its “easy gadget” utilities app to include unlimited two-way SMS text messaging for free. With the update, Bright House Networks subscribers can send text messages to and receive text messages from any mobile phone in the United States and other easy gadget users using their Bright House Networks home or business phone numbers.
T-Broad tunes in Alticast’s Windmill
June 4, 2013 1:00 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsT-Broad, which is Korea’s largest cable operator, has selected Alticast’s Windmill Ecosystem to provision its new user interface and next generation services. Alticast’s HTML5-based Windmill platform features a modular approach that allow cable operators to cost effectively build and deploy services.


