Post by dkennedy on May 31, 2005 6:26:32 GMT -5
Thinking outside the cable box
On-demand video innovations put more control in the remote.
Tue, May. 31, 2005
BY TONY GNOFFO
Knight Ridder News Service
With the set-top box of the not-too-distant future, you'll be able to automatically record an old "Columbo" at 2 a.m. in the living room and watch it during dinner the next night in the kitchen, while the kids are punching up "The Matrix" via video-on-demand in the basement.
Once a simple set of circuits for decoding premium cable channels such as HBO, the set-top box is already the key technology for delivering billions of dollars worth of new services.
The recent additions of digital video recorders — which permit that automated taping of "Columbo," not to mention the ability to pause and rewind live programs — and HDTV tuners to the set-top box's bag of tricks have been wildly popular with consumers.
And unless personal computers with similar abilities beat them to the punch, boxes being developed today could soon become the primary hubs of video, voice and data networks in American homes that can afford them.
The two biggest manufacturers — Motorola Inc. and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. — demonstrated networked set-top boxes at last month's National Cable & Telecommunications Association Show in San Francisco.
"There are studies that show that 20 percent of the people who have DVRs go out and get a second one" so they can have those capabilities in more than one room, said Patrick Donovan, product manager for Motorola's whole-home media solutions business. "There is clear customer demand" for DVRs that can serve multiple TV sets in multiple rooms.
At Motorola, Donovan is helping to devise networks of set-top boxes that will link TV sets, computers and audio systems.
Their expanding capabilities are in part a response to consumer demand, but they also anticipate new technologies from PC makers and others that aim to knock the boxes off of their long-held pedestal atop America's TV sets.
The consumer demand for useful new set-top box technologies was made plain in the last year.
In the first three months of 2005, Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable-television provider, and the one that serves St. Paul, installed 428,000 set-top boxes with either or both DVR and HDTV capabilities. The company said it deployed 1.6 million of those in boxes in 2004.
While Comcast's overall cable subscribership declined slightly in the first quarter, the number of customers signed up for more expensive digital services — which require more advanced set-top boxes — grew from 8.7 million to 8.9 million, helping to drive a 9 percent increase in revenue and a 17 percent gain in cash flow.
Cable executives like the new features the boxes make possible not only because they attract new customers but also because they help hold onto existing customers.
But today's gee-whiz technology is tomorrow's yawn, and product planners are betting that people will want more than HDTV tuners and digital recorders in a set-top box; they will want networks that will let them deliver shows they recorded on a DVR in the living room to the TV in the bedroom.
The new boxes will let them do just that.
Motorola's system uses the same networking technology as the Internet to link the devices. A user can use the remote control for a small set-top box in one room to send commands to the DVR-equipped set-top box in another, and view a program recorded on that remote box, Donovan said.
That same remote control can be used to fetch photos or home movies from a PC, he said. Users would even be able to stop a program in one room and resume it in another.
The networks can also include audio systems, allowing users to play music downloaded from the Internet.
All that multimedia networking could put the once modest set-top box at the center of the intensifying battle for dominance in the delivery of entertainment and communications services to American homes.
Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., calls this competition "the battle for the digital home." It involves makers of consumer electronics, personal computers and set-top boxes.
Cable firms are in an enviable position in this battle, he says, because of the big electronic pipe they have flowing into the majority of U.S. households.
Scientific-Atlanta's networked system is being tested by Time Warner Cable in Minneapolis. A Comcast spokeswoman said the networked systems are not currently being tested in any of its systems.
But satellite firms are trying the systems, too.
Later this year, Donovan said, a satellite company he would not identify will begin a sizeable test of a networked DVR system with an eye toward introducing it as a product in early 2006.
After that, he said, "you'll see market forces at work, and cable will respond" with more networked systems of its own.
Developing the networked system is a fairly risky venture for Motorola, whose customers are not consumers but a small and shrinking number of cable-system operators.
"Basically, Motorola has to figure out what Comcast will want" a year or more in the future," said another Forrester analyst, Josh Bernoff. "And Comcast will say what they want, but six months later they'll change their mind."
A good example of that is in DVRs, he said.
"Comcast told Motorola 2½ years ago, 'We don't want DVRs.' Then, four months later, they said, "Where is it?' "
The about-face, which occurred after satellite firms began offering TiVo DVRs in their service packages, forced Motorola to rush a DVR to Comcast. In some locations, including major markets such as Philadelphia and San Jose, software problems immediately followed, which made for some unhappy customers.
"Eventually this is going to be an important technology, but it may take years," said Mike Paxton, an analyst at another technology market-research firm, In-Stat. DVRs are becoming more and more popular, he said, "and this takes that a step further."
On-demand video innovations put more control in the remote.
Tue, May. 31, 2005
BY TONY GNOFFO
Knight Ridder News Service
With the set-top box of the not-too-distant future, you'll be able to automatically record an old "Columbo" at 2 a.m. in the living room and watch it during dinner the next night in the kitchen, while the kids are punching up "The Matrix" via video-on-demand in the basement.
Once a simple set of circuits for decoding premium cable channels such as HBO, the set-top box is already the key technology for delivering billions of dollars worth of new services.
The recent additions of digital video recorders — which permit that automated taping of "Columbo," not to mention the ability to pause and rewind live programs — and HDTV tuners to the set-top box's bag of tricks have been wildly popular with consumers.
And unless personal computers with similar abilities beat them to the punch, boxes being developed today could soon become the primary hubs of video, voice and data networks in American homes that can afford them.
The two biggest manufacturers — Motorola Inc. and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. — demonstrated networked set-top boxes at last month's National Cable & Telecommunications Association Show in San Francisco.
"There are studies that show that 20 percent of the people who have DVRs go out and get a second one" so they can have those capabilities in more than one room, said Patrick Donovan, product manager for Motorola's whole-home media solutions business. "There is clear customer demand" for DVRs that can serve multiple TV sets in multiple rooms.
At Motorola, Donovan is helping to devise networks of set-top boxes that will link TV sets, computers and audio systems.
Their expanding capabilities are in part a response to consumer demand, but they also anticipate new technologies from PC makers and others that aim to knock the boxes off of their long-held pedestal atop America's TV sets.
The consumer demand for useful new set-top box technologies was made plain in the last year.
In the first three months of 2005, Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable-television provider, and the one that serves St. Paul, installed 428,000 set-top boxes with either or both DVR and HDTV capabilities. The company said it deployed 1.6 million of those in boxes in 2004.
While Comcast's overall cable subscribership declined slightly in the first quarter, the number of customers signed up for more expensive digital services — which require more advanced set-top boxes — grew from 8.7 million to 8.9 million, helping to drive a 9 percent increase in revenue and a 17 percent gain in cash flow.
Cable executives like the new features the boxes make possible not only because they attract new customers but also because they help hold onto existing customers.
But today's gee-whiz technology is tomorrow's yawn, and product planners are betting that people will want more than HDTV tuners and digital recorders in a set-top box; they will want networks that will let them deliver shows they recorded on a DVR in the living room to the TV in the bedroom.
The new boxes will let them do just that.
Motorola's system uses the same networking technology as the Internet to link the devices. A user can use the remote control for a small set-top box in one room to send commands to the DVR-equipped set-top box in another, and view a program recorded on that remote box, Donovan said.
That same remote control can be used to fetch photos or home movies from a PC, he said. Users would even be able to stop a program in one room and resume it in another.
The networks can also include audio systems, allowing users to play music downloaded from the Internet.
All that multimedia networking could put the once modest set-top box at the center of the intensifying battle for dominance in the delivery of entertainment and communications services to American homes.
Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., calls this competition "the battle for the digital home." It involves makers of consumer electronics, personal computers and set-top boxes.
Cable firms are in an enviable position in this battle, he says, because of the big electronic pipe they have flowing into the majority of U.S. households.
Scientific-Atlanta's networked system is being tested by Time Warner Cable in Minneapolis. A Comcast spokeswoman said the networked systems are not currently being tested in any of its systems.
But satellite firms are trying the systems, too.
Later this year, Donovan said, a satellite company he would not identify will begin a sizeable test of a networked DVR system with an eye toward introducing it as a product in early 2006.
After that, he said, "you'll see market forces at work, and cable will respond" with more networked systems of its own.
Developing the networked system is a fairly risky venture for Motorola, whose customers are not consumers but a small and shrinking number of cable-system operators.
"Basically, Motorola has to figure out what Comcast will want" a year or more in the future," said another Forrester analyst, Josh Bernoff. "And Comcast will say what they want, but six months later they'll change their mind."
A good example of that is in DVRs, he said.
"Comcast told Motorola 2½ years ago, 'We don't want DVRs.' Then, four months later, they said, "Where is it?' "
The about-face, which occurred after satellite firms began offering TiVo DVRs in their service packages, forced Motorola to rush a DVR to Comcast. In some locations, including major markets such as Philadelphia and San Jose, software problems immediately followed, which made for some unhappy customers.
"Eventually this is going to be an important technology, but it may take years," said Mike Paxton, an analyst at another technology market-research firm, In-Stat. DVRs are becoming more and more popular, he said, "and this takes that a step further."