Networking

Capital Currents - Emergency information for sight-impaired viewers

January 2, 2013 11:39 am | by Jeffrey Krauss, president of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | Articles | Comments

The Federal Communications Commission has begun a new proceeding on delivery of emergency information to blind and sight-impaired viewers. The FCC seems to be aware of the practical problem noted above, but it’s not making much progress in dealing with it.

An industry insider’s thoughts on Arris’ pickup of Motorola

December 21, 2012 1:30 pm | by Mike Robuck | Blogs | Comments

According to Needham and Co. analyst Richard Valera, Arris stands to triple its sales and double its EPS while adding $2 billion in debt. All well and good, but how Arris goes about executing its merger strategy with the much larger Motorola Home assets remains a work in progress.

Cisco still top dog in STB marketplace

December 21, 2012 1:10 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

For the second straight quarter, Cisco edged out Motorola as the top cable set-top box market share leader. Infonetics Research said in a recent report that worldwide set-top box revenue was essentially flat in the third quarter of this year, totaling $3.7 billion.

Arris to buy Motorola Home for $2B

December 19, 2012 6:36 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

Arris announced it will acquire the Motorola Home business from Google for $2.35 billion. Arris will get outright possession of approximately 1,000 patents, and also an open license to about 1,000 more held by Motorola Mobility (which remains with Google).

Netgear’s new gateway garners CableLabs DOCSIS 3.0 certification

December 19, 2012 3:10 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Netgear announced that its new CG4500TM voice/data gateway, which has the capability for 24 x 4 channel bonding, has received CableLabs DOCSIS 3.0 certification. On the channel-bonding front, Netgear is using MaxLinear’s MxL267 Full-Spectrum Capture (FSC) digital cable front-end receiver.

Nintendo to launch TVii tomorrow

December 19, 2012 3:08 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Nintendo is entering the TV realm with the launch of its Nintendo TVii, which is a free, integrated service that works on the recently launched Wii U console. TVii works by aggregating a Wii U user’s current video content provider onto a Wii U GamePad controller.

Comcast deploys HD DTAs, ponders TR-069

December 19, 2012 1:09 pm | by Mike Robuck | Blogs | Comments

Comcast has started a phased deployment of HD digital transport adapters (HD DTAs) in subscribers’ homes ahead of ultimately having the devices across its entire footprint. HD DTAs allow customers to access HD signals without the frills of VOD, PPV, etc.

Suddenlink’s TiVo Stream service drops into southern states

December 18, 2012 3:13 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Since Suddenlink Communications became the first cable operator to offer the TiVo Stream service in Lubbock, Texas, in October, the nation’s seventh-largest cable operator has deployed it in more than 60 communities across its footprint.

ThePlatform integrates smart workflow with transcoding vendors

December 18, 2012 3:08 pm | by Mike Robuck | Products | Comments

The sheer volume of multi-screen videos, along with the proliferation of the devices used to watch the content on, can be overwhelming at times, but Comcast-owned thePlatform has added “smart workflow” features to its mpx offering to help solve those issues.

Time Warner Cable ups Leddy to EVP of corporate strategy

December 18, 2012 3:05 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Time Warner Cable has named Kevin Leddy as its new executive vice president of corporate strategy. In his new role, Leddy reports to Peter Stern, Time Warner Cable's executive vice president and chief strategy, people and corporate development officer.

Time Warner Cable certifies 2 modems for purchase program

December 17, 2012 2:16 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Time Warner Cable has given its stamp of approval on two Zoom Telephonics cable modems for use in its cable modem purchase program. The two DOCSIS 3.0-based Zoom modems, 5350 and 5341J, were tested and certified to be used across all five of its data tiers.

Avail-TVN launches white-label SVOD

December 17, 2012 2:05 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

Avail-TVN’s ViewNow, which is being used by Verizon FiOS for Redbox Instant, is now available to other service providers that want to offer a branded subscription VOD service of their own. Using ViewNow, service providers will be able to offer titles from Avail-TVN’s library.

Disney strikes long-term carriage deal with Cox

December 14, 2012 3:00 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

The Walt Disney Co. began the year with a long-term carriage deal with Comcast, and it’s ending it with a similar agreement with Cox Communications. Cox is now able to carry Disney programming across televisions, computers, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and Internet-enabled televisions.

Cisco’s CMTS modules step toward CCAP

December 12, 2012 1:51 pm | by Brian Santo | Products | Comments

Cisco today introduced a new line card, the 3 Gigabit Shared Port Adapter (3GSPA), that increases not only the downstream capacity of its flagship CMTS, the uBR10012 Universal Broadband Router (uBR10K), but also capacity back to the core. The company also introduced a new processing engine for the uBR10K called the Performance Routing Engine (PRE5).

Microsoft cranking out TV apps for Xbox

December 11, 2012 2:27 pm | by The Associated Press | News | Comments

Microsoft is rolling out dozens of new apps for the Xbox 360, building on statistics that show members of its paid online subscription service spend more time on it watching video than they do playing multi-player games over the Internet.