Cable Progresses on Tru2way Upgrades for Set-Tops, TVs
Large cable operators have made much progress installing and upgrading software and hardware so their systems will work with set-top boxes, TV sets and other interactive devices operating under the tru2way standard in subscribers’ homes, said executives and analysts. Implementing a deal with Sony made May 27, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable agreed to upgrade headends (CD June 2 p6) so they can have two-way devices adhering to open standards in use by July 2009. Even before the deal, many were upgrading, said several of the companies, a vendor and analysts.
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Time Warner Cable officials “consider ourselves almost done with this,” said a spokeswoman. Using gear by Cisco’s Scientific-Atlanta, the company has upgraded all headends using equipment from that supplier. These represent 70 percent of Time Warner cable gear offices. As of March 31, the company had 13.3 million subscribers total. Time Warner Cable, upgrading its remaining systems, “fully expects” all them to be ready by next July, she said. “We continue to get things done as quickly and efficiently as we can.”
Bright House also is covering ground. It has installed “infrastructure” for tru2way in over half the company, with 2.4 million total subscribers, a company spokeswoman said. The company deployed its first tru2way product, allowing the use of plug and play devices, in three regional divisions, she added. Officials at Cablevision and Charter, which must finish by July 2010, declined to comment.
Comcast and Cox are upgrading headends, spokespeople said, declining to say how many have been revamped. Comcast is “working aggressively to have tru2way technical readiness in most of our network by year end 2008,” a spokeswoman said. “We expect to use early 2009 for preparing support processes and employee training.” Cox is “deeply involved” in efforts to prepare for plug and play devices, deploying headend controllers, application servers and other gear, said a spokesman. “All of this work is well underway and we are communicating directly with CE companies to insure that we are ready based on their timing in our markets.”
Many of the operators appear to have made significant progress, said analysts. “Most of the work’s been done,” said ABI Research analyst Steve Wilson. “They've really been able to tuck the expenses for this into the whole separable security issue,” he said, referring to a July 2007 FCC mandate to provide CableCARD-equipped set-top boxes. Operators face “different chores that must be done,” said SNL Kagan analyst Ian Olgeirson. “A lot of the heavy lifting has been done by the vendors, so it’s mostly a software upgrade” for cable, he noted.
Many operators delivering programming using Motorola systems have finished work, said Christopher Poli, director of product line management for conditional access products. “The upgrade is available to the industry, and I would say a significant piece of it has upgraded,” he said. Ensuring Motorola digital access controllers work with tru2way is “fairly simple,” he said. Installing a related piece of hardware takes days, he noted. In total, work on a headend takes about a week, but varies by operator, said Poli. “It would take some careful planning and execution.”
Headend revamps involve replacing application servers, electronic program guide software and encryption and content protection gear, said CableLabs and NCTA officials. Servers send cable company program guide data to set-top boxes and tru2way TV sets, said So Vang, CableLabs advanced media platforms vice president. Tru2way devices use CableCARDs to protect content, he added. “If you want to get premium content, then you're going to need a way to decrypt [that], and the mechanism to do that is to use a CableCARD.” Cisco and Scientific-Atlanta sell anti-piracy software, said Vang and others. A Scientific-Atlanta official didn’t respond to a request to comment.
But revamps could take considerably longer due to their complexity, said analysts and consultants. “There’s a lot of moving parts within individual headends and there’s a lot of different configurations,” Olgeirson said. “You probably have a lot of attention from the engineers trying to figure out how everything works smoothly.” The job may take longer than engineers anticipate, said cable consultant Steve Effros. “It’s sort of like building an addition on your house -- no matter what the contractor says, double it, both in price and time.”
Once the products are installed, updates are easier, with tru2way’s open standard substituting for proprietary standards that vary by vendors, said Olgeirson, Wilson and others. The Sony deal, fruit of 10 years of cable-CE discussion, may not prompt many consumers to buy tru2way TVs, which will cost more than regular sets unless operators subsidize them, said Heavy Reading’s Adi Kishore and other analysts. Cable operators prefer to lease set-tops, which makes them more money than when subscribers buy tru2way TVs, they said. And viewers who are happy with set-tops may not even want the tru2way units, said Yankee Group analyst Josh Martin. “There’s no demand in the consumer space to forego these devices.”