Microsoft Joins OpenCable
By Karen Brown -- Multichannel News, 6/6/2003 4:00:00 AM
Microsoft Corp. is the latest outfit to sign on to Cable Television Laboratories Inc.'s OpenCable project.
Under the agreement Microsoft will contribute some of its technology to the specification work, including the OpenCable Applications Platform middleware specification.
The software giant also has agreed to potentially add its .NET common language infrastructure to a version of OCAP, which provides the necessary link between the box operating systems and the applications riding aboard it.
Adding .NET pins to OCAP could create a common runtime between devices such as set-top boxes and PCs, therefore making home networking systems easier to knit together.
Microsoft also will kick in its Visual Studio.Net software governing presentation layer applications to the OCAP 2.0 specification. So far, CableLabs has issued versions 1.0 and 2.0 of that standard, and any addition of .NET technology will likely be backward compatible with these two versions.
In related news, Time Warner Cable has announced is putting the finishing touches on its version of OCAP and will have it ready for system integration by early next year.
The MSO has been working with Pioneer Electronics and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. to make their digital boxes and respective interactive programming guides compatible with the OCAP software. Time Warner also has been working on making its headends ready for the software.
'We hope that the deployment of our OCAP implementation will stimulate the adoption of OCAP as the industry's digital television software platform,' said Kevin Leddy, senior vice president of strategy and development for Time Warner Cable, in a release.
'With a common platform for advanced services we expect a more vibrant and competitive market place which will provide our customers with the next-generation of digital cable devices and products.'
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