Cable getting closer to IPTV adoption

Multichannel News recently took a look at the prospects for cable TV operators to adopt IPTV architecture, an idea that's been batted around with increasing frequency over the last year or so. One of the refreshing notions that emerges from this update is that it does not seem likely that the cable guys will be stubborn about letting their previous technology beliefs keep them from migrating to a new technology scheme. Too often throughout the telecom industry's history, technology holy wars have gotten in the way of real progress (see ISDN, ATM vs Ethernet and CDMA vs. TDMA).

So, if the cable TV firms are ready for IPTV--or almost ready--how will they do it? New home gateway technology and DOCSIS bypass solutions offer different technology routes, and Multichannel's report suggests the cable guys may take a hybrid approach, with new MPEG-4 content potentially being pushed over new IP architectures, while MPEG-2 stuff stays on the traditional quadrature amplitude modulation-based architecture. Actually, the notion of the hybrid approach is nothing new, but at least it sounds like we are getting closer.

For more:
- Multichannel News has this report

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