March 21, 2014

DSA Asks FCC To Move Quickly on Wireless Spectrum

According to CED Magazine, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) is urging the FCC to move quickly on opening up more unlicensed spectrum for wireless use. The DSA's members include tech giants like Facebook and Google, which presumably carry some weight. One argument is to open up the so-called "white-space spectrum," the unused frequencies that have been licensed mostly to TV broadcasters but left unused to avoid interference. To find out more about the DSA's filings with the FCC and the possible solutions for opening up more unlicensed wireless spectrum, check out Brian Santo's story.

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March 20, 2014

DLNA CVP-2 Guidelines Enable Multi-screen Delivery Through Set-tops

MSOs will soon be able to deliver multi-screen content through customers' home set-top boxes, thanks to the new DLNA CVP-2 guidelines published this week. "DLNA’s new CVP-2 guidelines provide the industry with a foundation to significantly enhance consumer enjoyment of premium content offerings from their service provider," says Tom Lookabaugh, Chief R&D Officer at CableLabs. CableLabs contributed to the technology as a member of the DLNA group. Read more about the exciting new guidelines at CED Magazine.

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March 19, 2014

Startup Boxfish Raises $7M; Offers Video Discovery Tools for Cable Providers

Video discovery apps are nothing new and have risen and fallen seemingly as often as the ocean tides. But Boxfish, a video discovery startup that utilizes information provided in captions from TV broadcasts, has created technology that at the very least is drawing investments. They recently announced an additional $7 million in funding, according to TechCrunch. According to TC, a number of big cable companies are already incorporating Boxfish's API and licensing data into their own video discovery tools. More details from Ryan Lawler at TechCrunch here.

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March 18, 2014

Google and Viacom Settle YouTube Lawsuit

About seven years ago Viacom brought a copyright lawsuit against Google that looked like it could have major implications on broadcasters' content being posted to YouTube without their consent. Today, it feels like a footnote for an issue that has seemingly settled itself as the two sides announced an out-of-court settlement. Crowd-sourced content websites like YouTube are essentially protected from litigation because the courts don't see them as liable for what their users do.  In essence, they provide a platform, but they can't be expected to police every single use of that platform. This also protects sites like Facebook from

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March 17, 2014

Internet of Things Will Be Bigger Than You Think

Interesting report from Emily Adler at Silicon Alley Insider on just how big the "Internet of Things" (IoT) could become. BI Intelligence estimates there will be over 9 billion (yes, billion) devices connected to the Internet by 2018. Cable operators and vendors stand to provide the infrastructure needed to support such a system. Read more about what the future of the IoT might look like in Adler's post.

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March 17, 2014

Mobile Madness: NCAA Adds Windows 8, Kindle Fire to Streaming Roster

The NCAA is continuing its push to provide more mobile options for TV subscribers to watch as much college basketball as possible during the 2014 men's basketball championship tournament. Streaming apps were already available to subscribers from Google Play and Apple's App Store. Now anyone with a Kindle Fire, Android-powered, or Windows 8 tablet can add their devices as options to watch all the dunks, buzzer-beaters, and upsets in this year's tournament. Cable-provided broadband remains the best option for viewers to avoid latency and ensure high-quality video. Read more about the NCAA's streaming offerings at Investor's Business Daily and Multichannel

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March 17, 2014

2.6M Broadband Subs Added in 2013

Leichtman Research group released findings that the top 17 U.S. and telco providers added 2.6 million net broadband subscribers in 2013, about 95% of subscribers added in 2012. Cable continues to dominate the overall broadband subscriber market, with 49.3 million subscribers vs. 35 million from telcos. Read more about the report and analysis from Jeff Baumgartner at Multichannel News.

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March 14, 2014

DOCSIS 3.1 ‘Ahead of Schedule’

Speaking at Cable Congress in Amsterdam, CableLabs CEO Phil McKinney said the first hardware compatible with DOCSIS 3.1 is expected this year, with field deployments slated for 2015 – well ahead of the original expected date of 2016. Read more about McKinney's comments on DOCSIS 3.1 at Cable Congress from Digital TV Europe.

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March 13, 2014

CableLabs Investigates ‘Virtual’ CCAP

More and more broadband vendors are looking for ways to turn traditionally hardware-based functions into software. Doing so could enable cable operators and vendors to develop new offerings at Web scale. Leading the charge in enabling the cable industry to explore this trend is CableLabs, whose director of SDN, Chris Donley, talked to Multichannel News about a new investigation into a virtual form of Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP). Read the full story on CableLab's virtual CCAP investigation on the Multichannel News website.

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