Business

Time Warner flips switch on new Lakers channels

October 1, 2012 6:02 pm | by The Associated Press | News | Comments

The nation's No. 4 TV distributor bought the regional TV rights for the Los Angeles Lakers and pro soccer's LA Galaxy last year for an estimated $3 billion over 20 years. It's launching two new channels based on those rights on Monday. To help pay for them, it is demanding payment from other TV distributors like Dish Network Corp. and DirecTV.

BendBroadband hires Wynschenk as VP of sales and biz dev

October 1, 2012 5:44 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

BendBroadband has brought Michael Wynschenk on board as its new vice president of sales and business development. Wynschenk brings more than 25 years of management experience to his new job at BendBroadband. He started his telecom career with wireline carriers and moved into wireless with AT&T and Verizon.

Edgewater, Metaswitch combo on enterprise VoIP

October 1, 2012 3:34 pm | by Brian Santo | Products | Comments

Edgewater Networks and Metaswitch Networks are working together to provide a system that service providers can use to enable VoIP services in the enterprise market. The solution integrates Edgewater’s Voice-over-IP (VoIP) monitoring and installation solution, EdgeView, with Metaswitch’s SIP-based MetaView system.

Oklahoma utility opts for EPON

October 1, 2012 3:24 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

Lake Region Electric Cooperative (LREC) has hired Pulse Broadband to design and manage the construction of a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband trial, using a distributed tap design and CommScope’s EPON architecture. Lake Region will be one of the first electric coops in the U.S. to take advantage of a combined distributed tap and EPON architecture.

Targeted ad insertion for multi-screen

September 30, 2012 12:50 am | by CED Magazine | Wallcharts | Comments

In the traditional cable world of analog and MPEG-2, ad insertion reaped $4 billion in revenue in 2011, but the next opportunity for cable operators and programmers is inserting ads in a multi-screen environment. On the Internet side, the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported record-breaking Internet ad revenues of $31 billion in 2011.

IPTV: Coming soon to a town near you

September 30, 2012 12:18 am | by Brian Santo | Articles | Comments

With IP-based video technology maturing, there is a growing number of smaller companies able to provide subscribers in their typically exurban-to-rural areas with services and features that include larger packages of top-ranked channels (with more of those channels in HD), multi-room DVR, TV Everywhere-type services and hybrid features like Caller ID on TV.

TV Everywhere or Errors Everywhere

September 29, 2012 11:40 pm | by Steve Liu, vice president of video network monitoring at Tektronix | Articles | Comments

Cable operators, telecom carriers, satellite providers and other service providers are racing to build the infrastructure necessary for delivering any program, on-demand or live, to any device at any time and over any access network. Being first to market with that ability could be a tremendous advantage.

$Billions up for grabs in SIP trunking

September 29, 2012 7:34 pm | by Doug Wadkins, chief technical officer of Edgewater Networks | Articles | Comments

Cable operators may have a golden opportunity in the business services market. Old-style PBXs in the enterprise equipment market are gradually being updated to IP PBXs. On the one hand, some new IP-based services are possible with these new systems. On the other hand, however, TDM trunking of those IP PBXs is still the predominant method of interconnection.

In Perspective - Novelty act

September 29, 2012 6:33 pm | by Brian Santo | Articles | Comments

The ultimate product in the TV business is not content. It is the presumed attention of the viewers of that content, sold in aggregate to advertisers. Advertising has been the cornerstone of the TV business since back when the only screens available were the dials on radios.

Memory Lane - Wake up and smell the webcam

September 29, 2012 6:20 pm | by Stewart Schley, media and technology writer | Articles | Comments

Whether the delivery agent is Coca-Cola, coffee or chocolate, a solid jolt of caffeine has fueled the creation of many a technology breakthrough. So it’s only fitting that the first known demonstration of an Internet-delivered photo stream involved the popular stimulant.

Ciciora's Corner - Patent wars

September 29, 2012 5:59 pm | by Walt S. Ciciora, expert on cable and consumer electronics issues | Articles | Comments

Article I, Section 8 gives Congress the power to establish patent and copyright laws. Because it’s a constitutional issue, patent cases are tried in federal court and can be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. A patent is the right to exclude someone from making, selling or using a patented invention.

Open Mic - The future of TV Everywhere is here

September 29, 2012 5:39 pm | by Ramin Farassat, vice president of product marketing and business development at RGB Networks | Articles | Comments

While not every operator has rolled out a complete multi-screen TV Everywhere service offering, there is certainly sufficient activity worldwide for us to say that TV Everywhere is truly here. In fact, forward-thinking operators are already planning “what’s next” when it comes to TV Everywhere.

Engineering-Wise - Kamen to keynote Expo

September 29, 2012 5:15 pm | by Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of the SCTE | Articles | Comments

Dean Kamen is keynoting SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. There’s no way to say that without it sounding like a promotional announcement, but maybe that’s what it should be. Because no matter how innovative we are – and, trust me, my hat is off to the cable community when it comes to new approaches – no one exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation like Kamen.

Capital Currents - Cell phone standards and antitrust behavior

September 29, 2012 4:59 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, president of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | Articles | Comments

As those of us who participate in industry standards development are continually reminded, since standards have strategic and competitive importance, they must be developed using fair methods by committees that allow wide participation and consider all proposals.

New Products: IBC Edition - October 2012

September 29, 2012 4:10 pm | by CED Magazine | Products | Comments

Nagra and Harmonic are working on the first commercial MPEG-DASH OTT service, Verimatrix unveiled VCAS for DASH, SeaWell introduced an MPEG-DASH-based system that provides ad insertion, Miranda launched the Nvision 920 and an upgraded Nvision 8140, RGB showed off its new TransAct Encoder/Transcoder, and GreenPeak launched the new GP710.