BIT RATE
Covering cable TV, broadband and Internet video technologies
Cable Show 2012: Cisco Flash Mob Features Big Green Men
Boston — It looked like Cisco Systems fellow John Chapman was opening up the 2012 Cable Show’s Imagine Park exhibit on Monday to talk about the vendor’s Videoscape platform (see Cisco Pushes Videoscape Into ‘Cloud’ Formation). But (thankfully?) he was quickly interrupted by a blaring techno mix and a dude dancing on stage behind him — who was joined eventu ...... Read More
Comments (0)Cable Show 2012: Is VOD Advertising 'Not a Dream Anymore'?
Boston — Cable’s years of offering free VOD without generating any serious ad dollars may be coming to an end. Comcast has deployed BlackArrow’s system for dynamic ad-insertion on VOD — including midroll ads — across more than 90% of its footprint, and now Time Warner Cable is about to get into the mix (see Time Warner Cable To Light Up Dynamic VOD Ads Nationwide ...... Read More
Comments (0)Cable Show 2012: The Next Big Things? Four Startups Take the Podium
Boston — The “Next Big Thing: Ideas, Inventions and Emerging Tech Innovations” session here today provided lightning-round presentations by four tech companies, pitching their ideas to the cable world. The session was moderated by Comcast Ventures managing director Louis Toth. I don’t know if these are the next billion-dollar ideas, but each was pretty interesting. * Bl ...... Read More
Comments (0)Cable Show 2012: TiVo Omits Full Slingbox-ing from 'TiVo Stream'
Boston — It’s not a Slingbox, but TiVo is promising to let its MSO partners deliver live TV and DVR recordings to tablets, smartphones and PCs throughout the home — and “sideload” certain content to take it to go — with the new TiVo Stream device (see TiVo Streams TV To Tablets, Debuts IP Set-Top). The TiVo Stream box uses transcoding silicon from Zenverge ...... Read More
Comments (0)Once Again, Here's What Data-Usage Caps Are For
Some reporters on Comcast’s call yesterday about its new bandwidth-cap approach were confused: If only a very small number of subscribers even approach the 250-Gigabyte limit today, what is even the point of having a cap? (See Comcast To Shift From Broadband Caps To Usage-Based Pricing.) Comcast EVP David Cohen responded, “It’s a matter of messaging, rather than capacity. We j ...... Read More
Comments (1)Google TV's Second Act
Google still believes it can wrap its massive Internet arms around TV — even after consumers spurned its freshman effort as clunky and not very useful. Two years after the company launched an ambitious strategy to meld Web search, online video and apps with traditional television, Google TV has failed to take off. Indeed, one of Google’s initial marquee hardware partners, Logitech, a ...... Read More
Comments (0)Cable Show 2012: NDS to Demo 'Video Wallpaper'
Like many a chubby American, big-screen HDTVs continue to get bigger — ballooning to an average TV screen size of 38 inches in the U.S. last year, up from 27 inches in 2004, according to DisplaySearch. So why not go whole-hog and splash TV across the entire living-room wall? That’s the concept behind NDS’s Surfaces demo, set for next week’s Cable Show in Boston. The ful ...... Read More
Comments (0)Coax Lives! SCTE's Howard on How HFC Is Adapting for Next-Gen Services
What’s hot on the technology agenda at the 2012 Cable Show? You can expect to see a continuation of the big trends that have been percolating the last few years: multiscreen video, ultra-fast broadband, new user interfaces and dynamic advertising. But underlying those applications, a key area the cable-tech world will be focused on is extending the life of the venerable hybrid fiber-coax (H ...... Read More
Comments (0)To Level the Internet Video Playing Field, Must You Dismantle Traditional Pay-TV?
If Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has his way, AT&T’s U-verse TV subscribers could suddenly find themselves having to pay usage surcharges if their monthly TV viewing exceeds a certain amount. That’s because, according to Hastings’ argument, if a broadband provider applies bandwidth-usage caps to Internet-delivered video — like his company’s service — it sh ...... Read More
Comments (1)Is 'TV Everywhere' Liberating or Coercive?
The mainstream media has been abuzz this week with word that Hulu is exploring authenticated “TV Everywhere” deals with pay-TV operators — apparently unaware that Fox, one of Hulu’s owners, started doing this with its first-run primetime shows last summer. In July 2011, Fox announced it would begin withholding new episodes of popular shows like House, Glee and The Simps ...... Read More
Comments (7)Cox Spins Mall Trompe L'oeil
Cox Communications is faking out Virginians with a specially commissioned piece of artwork that makes it look like they’re chillaxing with the MSO’s pint-sized Digeez mascots. The MSO has installed the artwork as the centerpiece of promotional campaigns at three malls in Fairfax, Roanoke and Hampton Roads, where it will be on display through early May. The 16-by-16-foot vinyl mat li ...... Read More
Comments (1)Here Comes More Tablet TV: TWC Bites Into 'Ice Cream Sandwich'
Time Warner Cable on Thursday released a version of its live TV app for smartphones and tablets running Android 4.0, a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich. Unfortunately, not many Android devices on the market currently support 4.0. The MSO says live TV is currently supported on the Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi and Samsung Galaxy Nexus tablets, adding that other Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones and tablets “shou ...... Read More
Comments (0)