Motorola to Demo Set-Tops with Antennas
New Boxes Aimed at Giving Cable Operators Leverage During Retransmission-Consent Talks
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 4/26/2007 1:10:00 PM
Motorola plans to demonstrate prototypes of two set-top boxes that provide antennas for receiving local-TV-station channels at The Cable Show in two weeks -- the first look at a technology that may give cable leverage in contentious carriage negotiations with broadcasters.
The Motorola devices represent pre-standard implementations of a Cable Television Laboratories specification, currently in development, that would allow set-tops to switch between digital over-the-air signals and digital-cable channels.
In a description of the demo Motorola sent to Multichannel News, the company said the devices will combine “digital-cable set-top signal reception with off-air tuning capabilities, such that cable-network carriage of local broadcast channels is unnecessary.”
Some in the cable industry have said such integrated off-air tuners would give operators a major bargaining chip in retransmission-consent agreements with broadcasters.
“I think that is a vitally important piece of technology development, particularly when you read what’s happening in retrans these days,” with local station owners demanding fees from cable for carriage rights, American Cable Association CEO Matt Polka said last month.
At the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s annual show the week of May 7, Motorola will demonstrate two single-tuner configurations: one with an integrated Advanced Television Systems Committee off-air tuner and demodulator, and the other with the antenna instantiated in a universal-serial-bus stick that plugs into the set-top box.
The boxes work by reading channel-identification information contained in ATSC Program and System Information Protocol data, which are sent along with digital-TV broadcasts. The Motorola set-tops pre-empt “normal” cable tuning and invoke off-air channel reception for local channels identified, according to Motorola. The set-tops discover local channels available to a viewer via an off-air-channel scan during installation.
Switching between cable and off-air channels “is expected to be seamless and to maintain channel-guide integrity,” Motorola said in its description of the demo.
Future developments, the vendor added, will include dual-channel off-air tuning, which would provide picture-in-picture and the ability to watch one channel while recording another, and “smart” antenna control to enhance reception quality.
Aside from the blurb describing the demo, Motorola declined to comment.
The prototypes will be demonstrated as part of CableNET ’07, the showcase for upcoming technologies and services organized by CableLabs at The Cable Show.
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