Monthly Archives: March 2007

Countdown: 100 Days to July 1, 2007

by Leslie Ellis // March 26 2007

If my math is correct, last Friday (March 23) marked the 100 day countdown to July 1, 2007. Just in case you’ve been trapped in a vacuum, that’s the date by which U.S. cable operators need to stop deploying digital set-tops with their security embedded inside. Instead, they must only deploy boxes that contain a slot for a removable security card.

By all accounts, this conversion is not trivial. In cable systems across the nation, small armies of people are working on it. On the scale of winces, the July ’07 deadline is the flu, on top of a low-grade infection, with a couple of swift kicks (with steel-tipped boots) to both knees, for good measure.

But wait, there’s more! An accelerant, emerging in anecdotal reports from a wide assortment of operators (and satellite TV providers, for that matter, although they’re not impacted by the deadline): HD box inventories are starting to get pretty slim.

Why: Because of a holiday buying season for HDTV sets and flat-screen displays that far surpassed expectations.

Recent email from a system executive in the north central part of the nation put the problem this way: “I’m out of HD boxes. I’m dealing with that stupid deadline. Shoot me now.”

What’s the connection between tight box inventories, and the July deadline? It goes like this: Most operators placed orders for HD boxes with integrated security last fall. They ordered enough to get them through June, based on anticipated deployment patterns.

In short, everyone anticipated the need to deplete inventory. They just didn’t think they’d run out three months early. Who knew?

Two (Three?) Options

If you’re an operator, prepping for a deadline that hits in the heat of summer, yet you realize you’re getting low on transition inventory in the spring, what options do you have?

It comes down to two, maybe three. One: See how your suppliers are set for extras. Realism matters here. Say you’re a set-top manufacturer, with orders to re-tool your factories for a massive switch to boxes with removable security. How many extra would you build, of something that’s within six months of becoming extinct?

Option number two: Bite the bullet and start taking (early) delivery on the units that have the card slot, for removable security.

Lastly, the Hail Mary. Drop to your knees, close your eyes real tight, clasp your hands, and pray for an FCC waiver. (Holding your breath is not recommended.)

The Waivers

So far, the FCC is in receipt of close to 25 waiver requests. Here’s a quickie on how waivers work. If deadline relief will spawn advanced services, and especially a date-certain for all-digital, you can get a waiver. If the boxes in question are low-end, you can get a waiver. If you can prove you’re serving the public interest, you can get a waiver.

Surprise: Most of that is apparently theoretical. Take “public interest,” for instance. As this column has pointed out previously, the “removable security” discussion doesn’t go very far in conversations with actual consumers.

Try it for yourself. Tell a non-industry person about the rule, and the deadline. Tell them that later this summer, if they sign up for digital cable service, they’ll get a box that has a card slot in it — instead of a box that doesn’t have a card slot in it.

The facial reaction is hard to spell. It’s somewhere near that blank, waiting-for-the-punchline look, even though you finished telling the joke. Let’s just say it’s nowhere near “woo-hoo!”

Waivers or no waivers (and heavy on the no waivers), the 100-day countdown is officially counting down. Transition inventories are thinner than expected. The worst case scenario, in terms of fines for non-compliance, is a deep shade of gray.

What’s next, locusts?

This column originally appeared in the Technology section of Multichannel News.

The Technologies of Cross-Platform

by Leslie Ellis // March 12 2007

If you spend much time around the people thinking about how to do cross-platform services, you’re probably starting to hear the beginnings of a technological ingredient list.

This week’s translation — likely the first of many on this topic — shines the light on two biggies on that list of things, needed to move services between the existing “silos” of voice, video, data, and mobile.

One does its work “higher up” in the network. The other tends to gadgets wanting to hook up inside our homes.

A quick refresher: “Cross-platform services,” which also goes by “multi-platform” and “bundle 2.0,” are things like caller ID on TV (a voice element on video) or remote parental control (mobile plus video). Or maybe it’s remote scheduling of your home DVR, or push-to-talk dialing from the PC.

Most of these early examples feel like … early examples. Be honest: For how many minutes would you tolerate your spouse reading his or her email, when it’s displayed on top of the TV show you’re trying to watch?

But then you hear that an increasing number of consumers, equipped with wireline phones in their homes, still make most of their calls from their cell phone, because it’s easier — the numbers are stored there. And you wonder: How hard it would be to get that same list into your home phone, for one-touch dialing? Seems useful; seems cross-platform.

Caller ID on TV is already out there, in some cable and telco markets. Word from the field: People like it.

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)

“Up in the network,” as tech people tend to say, is a technology suite that started with mobile carriers, and is branching out to cable and telcos. Its called “MS,” for “IP Multimedia Subsystem.” Its intent is to ease the way for those “anytime/anywhere/any device” services riding on the IP side of the network.

When you search for IMS on the website of Multichannel News, the following headlines come back: “Cingular to Demo Live Video Calls,” and “Might Be Time for IPTV Labs.”

IMS created a furor in the telecom scene two years ago, and fueled by the big telecom suppliers — Ericsson and Alcatel/Lucent, among many others.

People who own networks like IMS because it blunts the “dumb” part of “dumb pipes.” That means it keeps the network relevant in the delivery of converged services. By contrast, other techniques aim to put all intelligence in the end devices (the gadgets).

Watch for cable providers to engage in technology “bake-offs” of IMS components this year, in parallel with their developing cross-platform plans. In the lexicon of cable-specific efforts, IMS falls under the CableLabs PacketCable 2.0 effort.

Closer to Home

At the other end of the network (as in your house), equipment blending is needed, before things can jump cleanly between, say, your TV and your PC. Maybe it’s moving your personal media from your computer to your big-screen TV, or finding a way to take your video and audio playlists with you.

Blending means home networking, and the second of the technology pieces emerging on the cross-platform ingredient list. At the linking-up level, most of the tech talk centers on “MoCA” — the Multimedia Over Cable Alliance — which uses the existing coaxial cable in your walls to physically interconnect your stuff. It’s looking to be big in cable, and for some telcos, like Verizon.

Then there’s an emerging software layer, focused on various “service domains.” It’s needed to apply specific treatments to those services needing special handling — Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms for voice and video; content protection methods for video that wants to be portable. From a cable perspective, that work will happen within the CableLabs OpenCable effort.

That’s the short list of starter technologies for cross-platform services: One at each end of the network. Then there’s the tiny matter (ahem) of everything in the middle & more on that as it starts to take form.

This column originally appeared in the Technology section of Multichannel News.