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As a subscriber to CED magazine or e-newsletter, we would like
to provide you with a free subscription to xOD Capsule, a new
weekly e-newsletter featuring useful, relevant and timely information
on industry news and analysis of video-on-demand and interactive
television. Below is the first issue. If you do not wish to
receive future issues of xOD Capsule, simply use the unsubscribe
link at the bottom of the page.
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 Premier
edition of xOD Capsule
Welcome to the first edition of
xOD Capsule, a weekly electronic newsletter that brings you
the latest news and analysis of video-on-demand and interactive
television from the editors of CED magazine. Here’s what
you can look forward to each week:
• Press Play: This is my space (and the space for
pinch hitters on the CED staff) to analyze, opine or even vent
about the latest goings on in VOD and iTV. On occasion, I’ll
even share your thoughts and reactions to past issues and trends
affecting the industry. The pithier the better, of course.
• Fast Forward: Here’s where you’ll find
straighter takes on iTV and VOD news, as well as more story
“color” and breakdowns than the first reaction to
breaking news that we provide in CED Broadband Direct (subscribe),
our daily electronic newsletter.
• VOD Scorecard: Each week, we will list the latest
VOD deployments happening around the world, and provide you
with a link to a comprehensive “living” VOD deployment
chart published on the CED Web site.
• VOD/iTV Spotlight: Each week, this section will
highlight veteran companies and up-and-comers in the sector.
— Jeff Baumgartner, Editor
Broadbus expands into content
Broadbus
Technologies is spreading its wings a bit. Previously, discussions
with the company inevitably led to DRAM, the core technology
element of the Broadbus VOD platform, but the company has recently
broadened its portfolio with “Content Commander,”
a platform that enables operators to manually or automatically
ingest programming and quickly bring it online with the VOD
system. It’s an application local cable operators can tap
to do quick turnarounds on local events like high school football
games and concerts.
 “It
can have the 6 o’clock news [ready for on-demand distribution]
by 7 p.m.,” Broadbus Chairman & CEO Vin Bisceglia told
us earlier this month at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in San Antonio.
The company has already sold three of these systems to large
but yet-to-be-named MSOs (note: Broadbus has already disclosed
VOD deployments with operators such as Comcast, Time Warner
Cable, Charter Communications, Adelphia Communications, and
Rogers Cable).
Of course, Broadbus will have plenty of competition in this
area, just as it does on the video server end of the biz. Other
quick-turn VOD platforms include TVN
Entertainment’s TVNow and Tandberg
Television’s Xport.
SeaChange International, meanwhile, just released a new
recording system that gives operators the ability to add on-demand
control to broadcast programs as they’re being aired.
Broadbus is also looking to expand into other product sectors.
Ad insertion “is another exciting area for us,” Bisceglia
said.
Dangling the interactive carrot
Without the benefit of gambling
in some parts of the world, interactive television (iTV) has
yet to prove itself out as a big money-maker, but new research
from CTAM
indicates that it can sway analog cable subs to the world of
digital.
According to CTAM’s latest Pulse research, using the TV
to view traffic reports and movie listings, and order some home-delivered
grub, are collectively making digital cable more attractive
in the eyes of analog subscribers.
The report, conducted by Centris, found that one-third (34 percent)
of basic cable subs would be interested in making the digital
leap if some or all interactive television features were available
to them.
Among the features and services covered in the study, local
services were tops among reasons analog subs would switch to
digital. Also getting high marks in descending order were media
centers, TV-based caller ID applications, games, the ability
to change the camera point-of-view, voting, and obtaining background
information on TV characters.
Cablevision’s Mitchko wins VOD ‘Pacesetter’
 Stephanie
Mitchko, the VP of interactive platform development and technology
at Cablevision
Systems Corp., was recognized as the CED “Pacesetter
Award” winner in the VOD category (sponsored by
Arroyo Video Solutions) at a special reception during SCTE
Cable-Tec Expo in San Antonio, Texas.
Well before she entered the cable fold "completely by accident,"
Mitchko ran an electronic warfare division, developing kill
assessment technology. Though these jobs were in two different
sectors, they do share at least one similarity: each has to
take on new challenges and figure out how to implement the best
system and technology toward the final goal.
Some of that does apply to Mitchko's role at Cablevision with
video-on-demand, still a nascent service in many respects. At
Cablevision, Mitchko, who helped the MSO get its cable modem
service off the ground, has been a pioneer of sorts in the development
of several significant VOD-related initiatives, including HD-VOD
(Cablevision was the first to deploy such a service), a popular
gaming package, and an innovative, in-house asset management
system.
Although the VOD backoffice has since grown to near-maturity,
Mitchko and her team initially had to create one from scratch,
evolving it out of early digital deployment work completed with
Sony Corp. That groundwork has enabled Cablevision to manage
the VOD backend and tie it into the operational systems, which
allow the MSO's product group to easily manage content offerings
and how they are displayed and marketed to the consumer.
These days, Mitchko and Cablevision are noodling a network-based
digital video recording system that places a sharper focus on
content produced specifically for television. "In the future,
it's about how we put lots of different content onto the system...and
figure out how to make [that content] available to our subscribers,"
Mitchko said.
CED also awarded Pacesetters
in the categories of Digital Video, Cable Telephony, High-Speed
Data, and Commercial Services.
On Command checks in with HD offer
With HDTV starting to make some
real waves in the home, it’s only a matter of time before
the technology hangs ten in high-end hotels.
One of the first to jump on this inevitability is On
Command Video Corp. with the launch of its HD+ platform.
The HD system, which features a welcome channel, menu system
and content security (supplied by
NDS Group), is compatible with televisions from LG, Panasonic,
Philips, Samsung and Sharp, the company said.
 For a more extensive listing of VOD
deployments, please check out CED's "living" VOD chart on the
Web at: http://www.cedmagazine.com/VODeploy/index.htm
Service
Operator
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 Market
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Video
server
vendor
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VOD
backoffice
supplier
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Movie-on-
demand
aggregator
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Asset
delivery/
management
providers
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NTT-East,
NTT-West
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Japan
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SeaChange
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SeaChange
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—
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Pioneer
Long
Distance
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Parts
of
Oklahoma
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Entone
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Myrio
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—
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Entone
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July 2005
Available July 1
Issue
Contents >>
Company:
Broadbus Technologies
Headquarters:
Boxborough, Mass.
URL: www.broadbus.com
CEO: Vin Bisceglia
Company claim to fame:
Rather than spinning disks, Broadbus' video server platform is completely
based on dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and is capable of
pumping out 40,000 streams per rack.
Recent news of note:
Broadbus appears to be coming into its own after winning deployments
with big operators such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications,
Adelphia Communications, and Rogers Cable.
Company:
Hillcrest Labs
Headquarters: Rockville,
Md.
URL: www.hcrest.com
CEO:Daniel Simpkins
Company claim to fame:
This startup, which raised $10 million in early 2004, is building
a new interactive navigation platform designed to help TV viewers
sift through and find what they want as content choices — and
the devices that access them — continue to grow. Rather than
traditional up/down/left/right arrow navigation, its “HoME”
application suite uses “free space” navigation, which
looks and feels a lot like an air-mouse.
Recent news of note:
Former Comcast Cable marketing exec Andy Addis joined Hillcrest
as executive vice president earlier this year.
CED
Webcast:
The need for (more) speed — scaling bandwidth and services
using DOCSIS 3.0 channel bonding (sponsored by
Motorola Inc.)
July 14 at 11 a.m. ET
Register
online
CTAM
Summit:
Philadelphia, Pa.
July 24-26, 2005
http://www.ctam.com
NCTC
Members’ Meeting:
San Diego, Calif.
July 31-August 3, 2005
http://www.cabletvcoop.org
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