Desert Bloom: Comcast, Motorola Team On Turnkey Package
Integrated System Will Enable Small Ops To Go All Digital
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 2/18/2008 8:17:00 AM EST
Phoenix -- Comcast Media Center and Motorola have signed a multiyear deal to develop, and provide support for, an integrated turnkey package that will enable smaller cable systems to go all digital and offer the next generation of services, such as video on demand, cost effectively, officials said Monday.
Essentially, the CMC is trying to give small cable systems a one-stop shop to secure hardware -- such as set-tops, digital-headend and conditional-access gear -- as well as content services, and have all those complex elements integrated into one complete digital system.
“The marketplace is far better served if we provide an integrated solution, which means there is not only a service platform, but there is equipment and supporting services that go around it,” CMC senior vice president and COO Gary Traver said in an interview Monday.
“When you look at the deal we put together with Motorola, it’s really how we marry our service platforms together with Motorola hardware, and together how we will work on providing conditional-access services, so as a result we have a very strong platform for these operators who are serving the smaller markets to use -- and for us to take that platform forward and provide a host of additional services on it,” he said.
Motorola claims that its scalable digital-headend systems and selection of advanced set-top boxes will provide the CMC’s HITS affiliates with modular, affordable equipment packages designed to build upon their current hardware configurations.
These enhancements, combined with the expansion of the HITS Quantum content offerings, are meant to provide HITS affiliates with a turnkey alternative for offering advanced video services to their customers while realizing a substantial savings in cost and bandwidth. As previously announced, the CMC has consolidated over 200 channels of HD and standard-definition digital content and its VOD service onto three satellites that may be viewed using one TVRO satellite antenna.
“By strengthening our relationship with CMC, we are demonstrating our commitment to serve the small-operator community with solutions that will enable a graceful, affordable transition to all-digital networks,” Mark Depietro, vice president of Motorola's Video Access Business, said in a statement. “These systems include state-of-the-art signal processing products for the delivery network, as well as cost-effective, advanced set-tops for consumers’ homes. Through these solutions, Motorola and CMC will facilitate the rollout of services such as VOD and SDV in a highly cost-effective manner."
The CMC, part of Comcast Corp., and Motorola jointly developed the first national platform for offering digital video services via cable systems over a decade ago, and are now looking to support the next iteration of equipment and content-authorization systems for the center’s HITS Quantum affiliates.
The turnkey operation being developed by the CMC and Motorola will allow HITS Quantum affiliates with 330 MHz plant capability or greater to offer a competitive lineup of advanced services by building upon their existing infrastructure, both the center and the vendor claim.
For example, a 330 MHz system could expand its service offering to customers by converting some of its analog channels to digital, using programming on the HITS platform, and then using that reclaimed bandwidth to offer hundreds of additional linear HDTV and standard-definition channels and a library of VOD programming with more than 2,000 titles also available through the HITS platform.
In addition, the affiliate should be well-positioned to cost-effectively add high-speed data, voice services, DVR and a host of interactive TV applications, including advanced advertising and gaming.
“While the economic realities for cable systems serving smaller markets haven’t changed, the complexities for offering a competitive package of digital video services to their customers have continued to increase,” Traver said in the press release announcing the Motorola deal. “By strengthening the CMC’s relationship with Motorola, which partnered with us on the first generation of digital video services, we can offer our affiliates a cost-effective roadmap for rolling out advanced digital services that leverages a lot of their initial investments in digital equipment at the headend and in their customers’ homes.”
The new agreement calls for substantial investment in the National Authorization Service, which the two companies launched in 1996. In addition to enhancements for providing further support of HITS affiliates’ migration to all-digital and their launch of advanced services such as HDTV and VOD, NAS will support the universe of emerging applications that are being developed for the tru2way platform.
The CMC and Motorola plan to talk to small cable operators at the National Cable Television’s Winter Educational Conference, which kicked off today in Phoenix.
