cablelabs

US cable-industry research, development and standardization body, CableLabs, said Wednesday that it has published a new specification as a guide for producers, programmers and aggregators of stereoscopic 3D programming. The new spec--entitled Content Encoding Profiles (CEP) 3.0 Specification (OC-SP-CEP3.0-I01-100827), and representing CableLabs' first 3D content encoding spec--can be viewed here in the OpenCable Specifications area of the CableLabs Web site.

US cable-industry research, development and standards organization, CableLabs, has provided some information on the technologies that were featured at its Innovation Showcase, Monday. The Innovation Showcase, which was part of CableLabs' Summer Conference, saw 11 companies pitching new technologies to conference attendees, who then voted for the one they deemed most likely to succeed in the marketplace. The winner was BelAir Networks' new BelAir100SP Strand Picocell (see below):

BackChannelMedia--a company that offers a technology called Clickable TV, which allows viewers to forward or "bookmark" information from their TV to a personal Web portal or to their email account (note: the company says that the technology will be deployed by Knology Communications next month, and that it has reached deployment agreements with around 80 local TV stations--for more on Clickable TV, see the article published on itvt.com, December 9th)--said Tuesday that it has partnered with TelVue, the company behind the HyperCaster multichannel IP line of digital broadcast servers, on an end-to-end "Interactive Multichannel Infomercial" system.

Cedar Point Communications, a company best known for its VoIP switching technologies, said Monday that it is holding the first North American public demonstration of its new SafariFusion Visual Communications Suite of applications at the CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone Colorado this week.

Cloud-based interactive TV specialist, ActiveVideo Networks, has announced its exhibit line-up for the CableLabs Summer Conference, which is underway this week (August 15th-18th) in Keystone, CO. According to the company, its demo's at the event will illustrate how the principles of cloud-based processing can enable operators to provide their customers with enhanced content distribution both to and within the home.

VOD and advanced advertising technology provider, SeaChange International, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know about its plans for next week's CableLabs Summer Conference (August 15th-18th). The company says that it plans to launch the SeaChange EngageTV Validator, which is designed to guarantee quality of service for EBIF-based subscriber applications that make use of VOD resources, and that it will also showcase its Watch & Buy tcommerce extension for VOD services.

A number of companies contacted [itvt] Tuesday to let us know about their exhibit plans for next week's CableLabs Summer Conference (takes place in Keystone, Colorado, August 15th-18th):

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a few days for us to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

S3 Group, a company that provides a range of products and professional services to the digital TV industry, said Tuesday that it has licensed its StormTest DTV receiver test and analysis platform to Turkish satellite-TV operator, Digiturk. The company also said that it has licensed StormTest to clients (which it did not identify--though it has, over the past year, announced deals for the platform with BSkyB and Irdeto) in North and South America, the UK, South Africa, the Middle East and Asia, including cable, satellite and IPTV operators, set-top box manufacturers, and DTV component and infrastructure vendors.

Here are some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

US cable-industry research, development and standardization body, CableLabs, is trumpeting the success of an Advanced Advertising Interop event it held, June 14th-18th, to prove interoperability, based on the SCTE-130 standard, across a number of advertising interfaces. The weeklong event was organized in partnership with SCTE DVS/Working Group 5, the SCTE committee charged with working on advanced advertising, and with Canoe Ventures, the company tasked with implementing the US cable industry's plans for interactive and addressable advertising.

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a couple of days for us to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team is currently on the road, so we are covering today's stories in round-up/summary form. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

CableLabs and the NCTA on Tuesday unveiled the line-up of companies that will be participating in CableNET, their annual "hands-on" showcase of new cable technologies and products at the NCTA's Cable Show (takes place May 11th-13th in Los Angeles). This year's showcase will primarily highlight new EBIF- and tru2way-based interactive TV and advanced advertising solutions; however, it will also feature solutions for DOCSIS 3.0, backoffice management and 3D TV.

Since February 3rd, [itvt] Daily News has been on hiatus, while the [itvt] editorial team produced the TV of Tomorrow Show 2010--and then took a few days off to recover. This is the second of eight round-up articles, in which we are covering some of the more significant developments in the multiplatform/interactive TV space that took place during our hiatus: