--Solution Developed for Dutch Cable Operator, Ziggo
ActiveVideo Networks, Neotion and eventIS announced Tuesday that they will collaborate on a demo intended to show how cloud-based solutions can significantly increase the availability of interactive TV services on CI+-enabled television sets. (Note: the CI+--or Common Interface Plus--standard, which was developed by the CI+ Forum, whose participants include such CE giants as Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony, is billed as enabling the secure delivery of pay-TV services to digital TV receivers, without using a set-top box. However, one drawback of the standard is that CI+ modules lack the interactive capabilities supported by set-top boxes. At the 2008 ANGA Cable Show, Ocean Blue Software and SmarDTV announced that they had developed the world's first CI+ application, paving the way, they claimed, for highly interactive applications to run inside conditional access modules on integrated digital television sets. At this year's show, Dutch interactive TV platform vendor, Avinity Systems, which has since been acquired by ActiveVideo--see the article published on itvt.com, May 26th--and Neotion, a French company best known for its system-on-a-chip MPEG-4 solutions, announced that they had integrated technologies in order to enable advanced applications--such as VOD navigation, rich interactive ads and the ability to access Web video--on TV sets with CI+ capability, without the need for a separate two-way set-top box--see the article published on itvt.com, May 25th. For more on CI+ and ActiveVideo's focus on enabling interactive TV on that technology, see the blog posting from ActiveVideo's SVP of marketing, Edgar Villalpando, published on itvt.com, August 17th.)
The solution--which the companies claim "dramatically unleashes the interactive capabilities of the CI+ ecosystem"--has been developed in conjunction with Dutch cable operator, Ziggo, which they say has been at the forefront of adopting CI+. The companies claim that the solution enables ActiveVideo's network-based content approach to interface with eventIS's VOD backoffice capabilities to manage and deliver interactive programming directly to the TV via Neotion's hybrid IP-capable CI+ conditional access modules. "Our adoption of CI+ was based initially on its ability to securely deliver content from the network to the next generation of integrated digital televisions," Dave Renkema, Ziggo's manager of new product development, said in a prepared statement. "Through the efforts of innovative companies like
ActiveVideo Networks, Neotion and eventIS, we've seen how the two-way capabilities of the standard and those same high levels of content protection can help us to securely deliver VOD, PVR functionality, Web video and other interactive content." Added Ronald Brockmann, ActiveVideo's managing director for Europe (who hails from Avinity): "While CI+ offers real benefits for operators in terms of cost-effectiveness and security, we believe that maximizing the full interactive capability of the standard will truly redefine viewer involvement with television. The cloud-based approach that we will be showing at IBC will exponentially increase subscriber engagement with their televisions, while simultaneously enabling operators to reduce capital outlays on set-top boxes."
According to the companies, their IBC exhibit will show how a full range of content and services, including VOD navigation, Web-based video, interactive advertising and other services, can be driven by server-based technologies. An ultra-thin client in the conditional access module (CAM) passes user keystrokes to network servers, the companies say, which interface with content management devices to create compressed video streams in response to user interaction. The compressed streams are unicast over IP or cable to integrated digital television sets equipped with CAM's. "eventIS, Neotion and ActiveVideo all share a belief that network-based interactivity will drive the future of television in Europe and around the world," eventIS president, Erwin van Dommelen, said in a prepared statement. "By working together to provide a single, integrated solution, we can help cable and IPTV service providers to accelerate deployment of CI+ services and to quickly gain market share." Added Neotion CEO, Loic Bernard: "The ability of operators to bring the power of their brands and their customized user interfaces to the next generation of MPEG-4 digital TV's is only a starting point on the Neotion product roadmap. Our vision always has included using the two-way capabilities of the conditional access module to deliver services that will generate brand loyalty among subscribers and build value for operators."
ActiveVideo (formerly ICTV) bills its platform as intelligently streaming both traditional and Web-based content to digital set-top boxes and Web-connected CE devices and as combining the personalized, dynamic socially connected experience of the Web with the quality, immediacy and remote-control navigation that end-users expect from television. The company says that it enables, among other things, rich interfaces and graphics optimized for TV and remote control navigation; social networking on TV; and targeted, actionable advertising. The platform, which earlier this year ActiveVideo announced had been deployed by Oceanic Time Warner Cable, and which is also believed to be in the process of being deployed by Cablevision--see article published on itvt.com, June 24th--carries out its heavy-duty processing at the headend, allowing it to work with low-resource legacy set-top boxes (or CAM's) that have been equipped with a small-footprint software client. The company claims that the platform will be available in over 5 million homes (a figure that does not include Ziggo homes) by the end of the year.
Neotion, meanwhile, bills its CI+ Hybrid IP modules as seamlessly bringing two-way capabilities to legacy mainstream receivers and TV sets without requiring a set-top box, and as combining two-way functionality and security within a single device. And eventIS (note: the company was recently acquired by US VOD technology provider, SeaChange International--see the article published on itvt.com, September 2nd) bills its network management capabilities as allowing cable operators to ensure the proper allocation of resources for the delivery of on-demand content and metadata--including, in the case of the solution the companies' will be demo'ing at the IBC, ActiveVideo programming and applications. The company claims to offer a flexible, standards-based architecture that enables simultaneous support for cable or IP set-top boxes, as well as CI+ CAM's, via operators' managed network infrastructure.
The companies' joint solution will be demo'd in their respective IBC booths: ActiveVideo's is 5.B46, Neotion's is 4.B53 and eventIS's is 4.B80.
