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Pulsent claims new compression scheme puts MPEG to shame
April 30, 2002 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsAfter toiling away in stealth mode for more than four years, Pulsent Corp. emerged with claims that its streaming media codec is superior to block-based MPEG as well as proprietary derivatives offered by companies like RealNetworks Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Pulsent believes its technology, which aims to boost bandwidth efficiency by 400 percent over MPEG-2, is best suited for bandwidth-sapping ...
Competition consolidates in Texas
April 29, 2002 8:00 pm | by Duffy Hayes | CommentsThe market for competitive cable and broadband services is heating up in Texas, with the recent news that competitive providers Grande Communications and ClearSource will combine under the Grande name. Grande, which is building a high-speed broadband network in the Central Texas corridor including the markets of Austin, San Antonio and San Marcos, will add a total of 12 ClearSource franchises, ...
Pace, Ucentric team for entertainment
April 29, 2002 8:00 pm | by staff | CommentsPace Micro Technology and Ucentric Systems are combining their muscle in the digital entertainment market. The companies are teaming to deliver digital entertainment via a wireline or wireless home network. Pace will integrate its digital home gateway technology with Ucentric's media distribution software platform and applications.
BroadJump in on nearly 70 percent of broadband activations
April 29, 2002 8:00 pm | by Duffy Hayes | CommentsWith ever-tighter bottom lines, cable operators are looking to squeeze as much out of their operations as possible in an effort to control costs. A big part of that movement has been the adoption of customer self-installation technology and the reduction in truck rolls to provision new broadband services, and provisioning software leader BroadJump has been at the center of the transition.
Analysts don't see quick fix for AOL
April 29, 2002 8:00 pm | by Shelley Emling | CommentsCopyright 2002 The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Journal and Constitution…04/30/2002 From LexisNexis New York — As AOL Time Warner's stock price continues to slump, falling 3.6 percent Monday, analysts are abuzz over what might light a fire under the share price in the near future. Their conclusion? There isn't anything.
VoIP access gateway marks AudioCodes' entrance to cable
April 29, 2002 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsAs cable providers continue on their path toward offering more and more telco-related services-i.e. adding telephony to their service bundle-new players from traditional telecommunications vendors will be looking to cross-pollinate into the cable market. Voice-over-packet technology provider AudioCodes can be counted among them, and the company is announcing a family of media gateways dedicated...
Blue Ridge deploys N2 Broadband's asssset management system
April 28, 2002 8:00 pm | by Jeff Baumgartner | CommentsBlue Ridge Communications, an MSO that serves 175,000 subs in Pennsylvania, said it is the first cable operator to deploy N2 Broadband's MediaPoint asset management system for video-on-demand. The MediaPoint AMS, which handles back-office and usage reporting for a variety of independent content sources, is a component of N2's On-Demand Services Network.
ICTV's last stand: HeadendWare
April 28, 2002 8:00 pm | by Jeff Baumgartner | CommentsICTV Inc. awakened from its public slumber Monday with the commercial availability of HeadendWare, a software platform designed to deliver iTV services and applications originally tagged for advanced digital set-tops — such as the DCT-5000 — to millions of already-deployed "thin-client" digital boxes.
S-A's Explorer 8000 adds PVR functionality
April 28, 2002 8:00 pm | by Duffy Hayes | CommentsThe Explorer 8000 Home Entertainment Server from Scientific-Atlanta is getting smarter by the day, with new functionalities being added to the advanced digital receiver in a variety of applications. Following that evolutionary line, S-A announced the integration of some Personal Video Recorder (PVR) technologies from a couple of software and service vendors.
Charter gains on better-than-expected results
April 28, 2002 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsThe Street has something to smile about. Charter Communications Inc. beat analysts' consensus first-quarter loss estimates by several cents. The news gave Charter's stock a lift in early trading today. The cabler lost $174.2 million, or 59 cents a share, which was ahead of analysts' on average loss estimate of 74 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial/First Call.
Fox gives Mickey the slip
April 28, 2002 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsWith the Department of Justice scrutinizing some Hollywood studios' plan to get into the video-on-demand game, News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group is pulling out of a joint venture VOD deal with Walt Disney Co. "After considering the potential regulatory process and logistical issues and carefully examining technological and marketplace developments, (Fox) determined that the joint venture was...
Netergy lends VoIP technology to Zipp Network
April 28, 2002 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsWashington State is building a high-speed network that will reach 6,000 homes this year, and Netergy Microelectronics Inc.'s voice-over-IP technology will be used to deliver VoIP services in this first public utility district fiber-to-the-home network. The Zipp (Zealous Innovators of Public Power) Network is being designed to deliver high-speed Internet, IP telephony and digital video services ...
Jedai rolls out new GigE access
April 28, 2002 8:00 pm | by Duffy Hayes | CommentsGetting enterprise customers on net with optical Ethernet access solutions is a goal network operators may be closer to meeting with the release of a new access switch router from start-up Jedai Broadband Networks. Jedai announced that its FrontRunner 3200 intelligent edge access switch router, which also includes integrated TDM telephony capability, is available to the market after extensive l...
Study: P2P growth draining corporate bandwidth and wallets
April 25, 2002 8:00 pm | by Jeff Baumgartner | CommentsPeer-to-peer Web sites grew 535 percent over the last 12 months, potentially creating myriad legal and bandwidth problems, Websense Inc. warned in a recent analysis. P2P file sharing and file transfer Web sites spiked to nearly 38,000 pages, according to Websense. Moreover, 30 percent of CNET's "most popular" software download list is comprised of P2P applications.
Tut Systems announces VDSL rebranding deals
April 25, 2002 8:00 pm | by Duffy Hayes | CommentsNew Very High Speed DSL technologies are advancing the market for edge aggregation equipment, potentially enabling the connection of thousands of unserved multi-tenant (MTU) and multi-dwelling (MDU) buildings. One of the leaders in providing the new edge switching gear based on VDSL is Tut Systems, and the company has announced a couple of rebranding agreements which should enable the distribut...
