BigBand Networks announced the fifth-generation of its switched digital video (SDV) platform, which includes performance and reliability enhancements to deliver more programming at a lower cost.

BigBand was the early pioneer on SDV. It took part in the first SDV trial in 2004, by Time Warner Cable in Austin, Texas, and it’s currently deployed by six cable operators across more than 20 cable systems. BigBand was deployed by Cox Communications late last year and also counts TWC and Cablevision among its customers.

SDV sends just the programming that is being watched in a service group, instead of the entire slate of a cable operators’ lineup, which allows MSOs to reclaim bandwidth for other services, such as adding more high-definition (HD) channels.

The newest version of BigBand’s SDV platform – which will be available at the end of the month – puts 24,000 tuners on a server. BigBand’s new SDV server, which is called the Switched Broadcast Session Server (SBSS), incorporates improvements based on years of field deployment. The new SBSS doubles the capacity of previous generations while maintaining what BigBand believes is the fastest-switching time in the industry.

BigBand also further enhanced its bandwidth allocation mechanism in SVS 5.0 to more efficiently deliver multiple-bit-rate HDTV and standard-definition (SD) programming.

BigBand’s software also allows third-party edgeQAM devices to share bandwidth across SDV and video-on-demand (VOD) services, which is also supported by BigBand’s BEQ6000 Universal edgeQAM.

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