September 2010

General

Perceptual Video Processing Cuts Bitrate in Half

September 30, 2010 : BY Motorola

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7knNDp__4BM]

Back in the spring I posted a video of Motorola Technical Fellow Dr. Sean McCarthy discussing the concept of perceptual video processing (PVP). A PVP plug-in is used in Motorola’s next-gen encoding platform to improve compression and decrease the bandwidth needed to transmit high-definition television. In the footage here, Motorola’s Andy Hooper shows two video streams side by side; one with variable-bitrate content coming direct from a satellite, and one with content passed through a Motorola encoder. The quality between the two streams is comparable, but the bitrate in the second one is about half that of the first – 6 Mbps versus an average of roughly 12 Mbps.

The YouTube clip here actually runs through the entire video headend stack, from satellite receiver, to video multiplexer, to edge QAM gear, to encoding equipment. It’s a great primer if you’re interested. Or you can skip to the end for the side-by-side encoding demo.

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General

Canoe Goes National

September 29, 2010 : BY Motorola

Canoe Ventures has been laying low since a bout of frenetic activity in 2009, but the organization, charged with creating an advanced advertising platform for the cable industry, finally has some news to celebrate. Canoe CEO David Verklin has announced that five cable networks are now taking orders for national interactive ad placements. The two key words here? National and interactive.

On the national front, this is a big deal for cable because of the industry’s inherently regional nature. Typically, advertisers have had to buy cable TV time from different operators in different geographic areas. Canoe is consolidating ad buys across networks so that advertisers who want to reach a national audience only have to place one order.

On the interactive front, Canoe has finally made headway with the EBIF standard, creating a platform for interactive ads to work on existing set-tops in consumer homes. Early interactive ads will show up as request-for-information overlays. These ad overlays will allow TV viewers to get more info and order samples of whatever product is being advertised.

From a practical perspective, the new interactive ads will show up mainly in Comcast and Time Warner Cable systems to start, with the majority in Comcast regions. Motorola set-tops alone account for roughly 20 million EBIF-enabled boxes ready to receive the new ads. The first five cable networks to sell national interactive ads include Rainbow Media’s AMC, Comcast Networks’ E! and Style, Discovery Channel, and two NBC Universal networks. Canoe ran limited trials of the new ad platform this summer, but there’s no word yet on the results of those trials.

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General

Comcast’s TV Everywhere Service, 9 Months In

September 28, 2010 : BY Motorola

Comcast launched its TV Everywhere service last December amid heated debates over how cable providers could compete with existing over-the-top TV applications. Now called Xfinity Online TV, the service is set to emerge from beta next month.

We’ve heard very little from Comcast directly about how its online TV offering has fared since its introduction nine months ago. Unofficial reports suggest the service has been reasonably popular, and rumors are circulating that Comcast has a lot more up its sleeve on the online front: more content for one, and mobile device support for another. Comcast has also hinted that it will streamline the authentication process when the Xfinity online service comes out of beta.

On the authentication front, Marty Roberts, VP for thePlatform, the Comcast subsidiary handling sign-on issues for a number of TV Everywhere initiatives, recently detailed what the company has learned about authentication from its early deployments. Roberts suggests that, even as it stands today, authentication is not overly burdensome. He cites the large number of subscribers who signed on to ESPN3 during the World Cup as evidence. He also states that authentication should be done by a service provider rather than a content programmer to avoid sharing personal user names and passwords. This can be handled in two ways – either by redirecting a user to the service provider’s site, or by embedding that provider’s login application on the programmer site.

The Xfinity Online TV service has been chugging along in a very understated way for the last nine months, but that may be about to change as the beta label comes off. There’s still a lot we don’t know too about what will happen if and when Comcast acquires NBC Universal. How will Hulu fit in to the Xfinity picture? Only time will tell.

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General

Considerations for Your DOCSIS Return Path

September 27, 2010 : BY Motorola

Managing upstream bandwidth is a critical issue for cable operators today, yet it still carries quite a bit of confusion. Now that DOCSIS 3.0 is widely deployed, there are questions about whether analog return paths are sufficient for upstream traffic, or whether operators should be migrating to digital returns. Not surprisingly, the situation is a nuanced one. Certainly digital returns can create greater operational simplicity, and they have the potential to provide higher performance. However, performance rarely measures higher in actual deployments, and quite often, going digital doesn’t make economic sense. Worse, it’s quite possible that digital returns will have to be replaced at some point in the future when upstream spectrum is extended up to 85 MHz.

There are several considerations for operators looking at their DOCSIS return paths:

  1. Quality – Run an NPR (noise-to-power ratio) test to determine actual performance levels. (Instead of relying exclusively on BER tests)
  2. Ongoing OpEx – At what point will you recoup capital costs from increases in operational efficiency?
  3. Interoperability – If you’re adding new return path equipment, how flexible and open is it for interoperating with equipment from other vendors?
  4. Future-Proof – Will your return path equipment support frequencies up to 85 MHz?
  5. Other Upstream Solutions – Have you implemented other solutions for improving upstream bandwidth such as S-CDMA?

Often the primary obstacle to adding more channels and upgrading to higher modulations is an operator’s existing return path quality and alignment. Before DOCSIS 3.0 was widely deployed, these variables were less significant and could often go unnoticed. Now that the problems are more obvious, MSOs are looking for solutions. Migrating to a digital return path is a great move in some cases, but laser technology improvements have made analog returns an equally viable solution. Whether an operator chooses to go digital or not should depend on a careful examination of several factors.

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General

Getty Images Gets Passive Optical LAN

September 23, 2010 : BY Motorola

Rarely do I get to talk about enterprise broadband on this blog, but today is an exception. Motorola announced a deployment with Getty Images in London of its Passive Optical LAN (POL) solution. The company launched POL last year, and has made steady progress in the enterprise environment with the all-fiber technology. In Getty’s case, Motorola worked with Corning, which provided the fiber-structured cabling components, and TCS Cabling, which provided integration and structured cabling supports. The motivating factors for Getty were the overall cost savings of POL over traditional LAN, and the high reliability and simplicity of the POL architecture.

To recap how POL works,  it uses OLTs and ONTs just as any residential GPON network deployment would. In an enterprise configuration, however, the technology solution reduces both hardware and maintenance costs compared to a standard LAN set-up. A single fiber optic cable run from an ONT can support four end-users – no CAT5/CAT6 cable required. POL also reduces the need for many workgroup switches, and the Motorola ONT equipment can even be powered over Ethernet. The very nature of the Passive Optical Network (PON) means there are fewer active components, and therefore fewer potential maintenance issues.

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General

Faster Channel Change for IPTV

September 22, 2010 : BY Motorola

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWZsrbWunuI]

The September trade shows have produced a slew of Motorola videos demonstrating different technologies, explaining use cases, and generally showing off cool stuff. Here’s another one from IBC with a demo of Motorola’s QualiCTV technology for creating faster channel changes in an IPTV multicast environment. Exec Andy Hooper does a side-by-side comparison with and without the technology. Short, sweet, and to the point.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in learning more about how QualiCTV works, take a look at this information from BitBand. Motorola acquired BitBand late last year.

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General

Long Live HFC

September 21, 2010 : BY Motorola

Despite the bandwidth benefits of running fiber to the home, the reality is that the HFC networks deployed by cable operators today still have life left in them. Looking for more IP video? How about a 1Gbps throughput rate? It’s all feasible over HFC with careful, well-thought-out network planning.

Years ago Motorola introduced a bandwidth calculator tool for determining network needs based on an operator’s subscriber and service environment. It’s still in use today, but with more variables thrown into the mix. The model now includes considerations for multiple concurrency levels for different services (IP video versus traditional VOD, for example), whether a service is early in its lifespan or has matured, and the impact of node splits on total costs. All of these factors play a role in determining how deep operators should be driving fiber into their networks. Some situations call for an FTTH network, but many don’t demand it right away.

The bottom line is that there are still a number of ways to optimize fiber-to-the-node networks. Decreasing service group sizes is a big one, as is balancing out the service mix. With existing technologies, we’re still looking out five to seven years into the future. That’s a lifetime in the tech world, and a good reason not to replace HFC networks today.

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General

TV Bookmarks, QWERTY Keyboards, and More

September 20, 2010 : BY Motorola

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICMD9Med-cA]

The concept of how Motorola’s Medios software can be implemented continues to evolve. In this video from last week’s IBC event, watch exec Malcolm Latham demo different features of Motorola’s TV guide platform including: program restart, show bookmarks, recommendation settings, and social networking integration. Latham even shows off the new Motorola QWERTY keyboard remote for easier data input. The remote sparked a lot of speculation when it debuted a week and a half ago. You’ll get an inkling for one way it could be used in this on-site demo.

Jump to about the 1:15 mark of the video above to skip some of the intro stuff. And if you need a primer on Medios, check out this Q&A.

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General

FTTH 2010 in Stats and Photos

September 16, 2010 : BY Motorola

According to the Fiber-to-the-Home Council, the number of FTTH homes passed has increased by more than 100% in North America in the last nine years. This stat comes out of a report the Council released in conjunction with this week’s FTTH show in Las Vegas. Other nuggets from the report: There are more than 6.4 million North American FTTH homes connected today, and, according to the Council’s color-coded map, it appears that the states with the highest percentage FTTH penetration include Maryland, Rhode Island, and North Dakota.

Meanwhile, the FTTH show itself is now wrapping up. Here’s a look around the Motorola booth, including shots of the XG PON demo, Motorola ONTs, and Motorola’s service-assured IP home solutions.

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General

Fiber to the Smart-Energy Home

September 15, 2010 : BY Motorola

Overlapping with IBC in Amsterdam, the Fiber-to-the-Home show kicked into gear this week out in Las Vegas. And, timed to coincide with the event, Motorola announced that RST Communications has selected Motorola’s GPON technology for its fiber rollout in North and South Carolina. Although Motorola’s GPON deployments are stacking up, there’s a twist to this one that’s worth mentioning. In addition to standard voice, video, and data services, RST will be using its new fiber-to-the-home network to enable smart energy services. The green energy move will likely start with remote meter-reading to help consumers better monitor and control their home energy usage. It’s something we’ve seen WiMAX used for as well.

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