Cisco

Synergy: Q2 IPTV gear market up 30% year-over-year

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:56:50 -0400

Synergy Research Group reports that the global market for IPTV equipment increased 30.3 percent in the second quarter of 2008 versus the second quarter of 2007. Network edge gear intended to support growing traffic needs and improve network efficiency experienced particularly strong growth, Synergy said. The core router segment also was up by almost 38 percent, and Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks and Ericsson experienced some of the largest IPTV revenue growth among vendors.

The equipment numbers provide signs not only that the IPTV market continues to expand worldwide, but that initial services are succeeding, which means carrier strategies will mature and carriers will look for ways to bolster the network infrastructure for the next wave of subscriber and traffic growth.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
Synergy also saw strong IPTV gear spending through 2007. Synergy report
TMNG predicted 60 million IPTV subscribers by 2010. TMNG report

Shuttered Akimbo looking for buyer

Dan O'Shea — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:15:02 -0400

Akimbo, a video set-top box vendor turned white-label video content firm that was involved in AT&T's Homezone service, is shutting down and looking for a buyer, according to GigaOM's NewTeeVee. AT&T also had invested in Akimbo. So did Cisco Systems, along with some prominent venture capital firms.

Akimbo's fortunes were looking pretty bright back in 2006 when AT&T seemed to be betting strong on DSL-based HomeZone and taking it slow with fiber-based Project Lightspeed. However, it could not make the set-top business work and has been adjusting its business model ever since. Those adjustments toward white-label video publishing apparently netted Akimbo a modest amount of new financing earlier this year (a round which again reportedly included AT&T), but the company announced at the beginning of May that it was laying off several people.

For more:
- check out this post at NewTeeVee

Related articles:
- Akimbo announced the white-label business model back in March. Akimbo report
- Cisco and AT&T invest in Akimbo. Akimbo report

Cisco to unveil SDV tuning adapter

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:59:30 -0400

Light Reading's Cable Digital News reports that Cisco Systems has developed a switched digital video tuning adapter for one-way digital TVs and TiVo systems with CableCard slots to receive SDV programming. The vendor reportedly will show off the SDV tuning adapter at the upcoming National Cable TV Show in New Orleans.

For more:
- check out this coverage at Light Reading's Cable Digital News

Related article:
Cisco recently added video on demand with nPVR and ad insertion Cisco report

Synergy sees IPTV gear spending up 47%

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:59:20 -0400

Synergy Research Group reported that sales of IPTV equipment worldwide rose about 47% during 2007. SRG said that Cisco Systems was the chief beneficiary of that spending, receiving about 59% of all IPTV-related carrier capital spending globally. Alcatel-Lucent received about 13% and Motorola about 11%. With carriers like Verizon Communications, AT&T, TeliaSonera and others still adding hundreds of thousands of new IPTV subscribers every quarter, market confidence is increasing and carriers continue to buy more gear to continue rapid expansion.

For more:
- read this report at IPTV News

Related articles:
IPTV households worldwide number 14 million IPTV report
U.S. IPTV market to grow to $14 billion by 2012 Report
Euro IPTV growth driven by local loop access Report
Top European IPTV drivers Report

New video delivery partnership

Tom Burton — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:10 -0400

Fresh from a $55 million VC injection, Highwinds is teaming up with Digital Rapids and Knack Networks to promote a turnkey video delivery system for media companies looking for a complete solution. The turnkey offering follows an announcement last week from Akimbo it would be offering a white label solution also to media companies looking to outsource their webcasting technology. Both deals are assuming media companies are now ready to put their video content online.

The partnership will use Highwinds' content delivery network infrastructure; Digital Rapids' media capture, encoding, transcoding, protection, streaming and delivery hardware and software; and Knack Networks' universal interface platform which enables companies to source, store, protect, monetize, manage and distribute IPTV programming across an array of channels.

Highwind recently closed a $55 million round of equity financing led by General Catalyst Partners and Alta Communications. The financing will fund the infrastructure build-out of Highwinds' RollingThunder network, including a content delivery network offering which the company said it would unveiling at this weeks IPTV World Forum.

For more:
- Highwind partners with Digital Rapids and Knack Release

Related articles:
Akimbo offers white label solution Article
Cisco and AT&T invest in Akimbo Article

NBC Universal goes for IPTV solution

Tom Burton — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:59:40 -0500

Israel has emerged as a development hot house for the IPTV industry with much of the encoding smarts coming from the region. NASDAQ listed Optibase is based in Israel and recently won a big vote of confidence when NBC Universal chose it IPTV solution to support a 200-channel internal video delivery system.

NBC had a traditional analog platform pushing 100 channels to its production facilities, but it was found wanting when MSNBC moved to NBC's 30 Rock New York headquarters. Because the system has been configured for 200 SD and HD channels, an MPEG4 solution was chosen to deliver the multi-cast feeds, which can now be distributed to any PC in the building. Optibase won the contract for the encoding and decoding, along with Amino for the set top boxes and Cisco for the switches. NBC Universal says it can distribute monitoring video services with far greater reach and flexibility than could have been provided by a conventional cable TV system.

For more:
- NBC Universal overhauls its IPTV distribution system Article
- Optibase Release

Related articles:
Optibase's MPEG4 solution used for fire training Report
NBC Universal ankles Apple for Amazon Report

Cisco says yes to Video

Tom Burton — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:59:40 -0500

Am I the only one to feel sad at the loss of the Scientific Atlanta brand to the trash can of mergers and acquisitions. Started by engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1951, the SA produces industry leading broadcasting cable and Internet distribution and set top boxes. In Europe in particular the SA brand was considered the industry standard to which others sought to reach. In 2006 SA was bought by Cisco (another firm started by academic engineers) and at last weeks CES the first box without a SA sticker appeared, bearing the Cisco brand.

The box was a media gateway designed to bring network-based and home-based applications together in one device, all part of what Cisco calls visual networking. CEO John Chambers is energetically rebuilding Cisco around IP systems and video is in front and center of the Cisco strategy. Chambers calls Internet video the "next disruptive technology" and Cisco last week released an operating system called EOS designed for rich media management. The contrast with Qwest could not be starker.

For more:
- Goodbye Scientific Atlanta Article
- Cisco drops Scientific Atlanta Article

Related Article:
-Cisco prepares for video Article

Netflix and LG go for video on demand

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:59:30 -0500

The fight for the TV consumer is being played out at several levels with video in the post provider Netflix abandoning its own set-top box ambitions and announcing it would go with a box to be built by Korean CE giant, LG Electronics.

The box will enable Netflix to migrate its 7 million DVD subscribers to a networked HD streaming service beginning mid this year. No pricing was released ad the move follows Netflix tentative step into the internet download game with its Watch now service that streams a limited number of movies to customer PCs.

The move suggests the DVD business has definitely seen its best days as video on demand services inevitably take over from physical media, although the history of pure play video on demand businesses has not been brilliant to date. Retail giant Wal-mart lasted less than a year with its download service, closing it in the run up to the holiday season. Another start up, Akimbo also decided the market was not ready when it abandoned its proprietary box last year and the Cisco/Intel backed MovieBeam also quietly withdrew from the market last month with less than 1,800 subscribers.

For More:
- LG Electronics and Netflix to stream movies to the TV Release
- Netflix and LG partner for streaming HDTV content Article

Related articles:
- Datacasting experiment ends in tears Report
- Jackass 2.5 movie debuts online first Report

Cisco the king of vendors

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:59:50 -0500

Cisco has pipped arch rivals Juniper Networks and Alcatel-Lucent for the prized AT&T super router contract to deal with the surging demand for video and other rich media applications. The deal is estimated by analysts to be worth in excess of $500 million over several years.

Cisco announced AT&T had selected its CRS-1 router to upgrade the telco's global IP backbone. The super routers are more than seven feet high and manage huge volumes of traffic at network junction points and are part of AT&T's announced upgrade to 40gbs for its core network.

The win cements Cisco's position as the leading IP vendor in the U.S. market and also confirms the troubles Alcatel-Lucent is having post merger to build market growth following the consolidation of the U.S. telco majors.

Cisco has also ridden the boom in internet telephony, with Comcast and Time Warner both using Cisco gateway boxes to support the sharp increase in digital voice products. Despite its IP strength Cisco stock has struggled as the market has downgraded companies with exposure to the troubled telco sector

For more:
- Cisco's AT&T announcement
- AT&T Enlists Cisco To Bolster Network Amid Traffic Boom Report

Related articles:
- AT&T goes the 40gbs route Report
- Microsoft and Cisco make nice Report

Datacasting experiment ends in tears

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:59:40 -0500

Datacasting has long been promoted by engineers as a solution to a bandwidth deprived world. Using the digital terrestrial spectrum various countries have sought to use datacasting as a policy driver to create alternative media distribution channels. So far it has been a monumental flop, with another datacaster last week calling it quits, when former Disney spin off, MovieBeam told customers the service would be turned off Dec. 15.

Launched in 2003 MovieBeam offered high quality video on demand via a hard drive recorder, hooked up to a special slice of the digital broadcast spectrum, otherwise known as the datacasting spectrum. Disney sold out and Cisco and Intel bought in, but while the theory looked good the execution failed to deliver a reliably good picture in a world where consumers are now demanding crystal clear high definition.

What happens to that beautiful spectrum no longer being used is something some of the players expected to bid billions for the 700 MHz mobile spectrum may wish to contemplate.

For more:
- Datacasting Death Blog
- MovieBeam shutting down operations on Dec. 15 Report

Related articles:
- Cisco invests in MovieBeam Report
- Disney to roll out IPTV Report