Chicago — At the CableNET pavilion, Zodiac Interactive is showing off the tru2way-based guide it wrote from the ground up for Cablevision Systems, which has deployed the guide on set-tops from Samsung Electronics.
But everything new is old again: The tru2way IPG looks identical to the old SARA guide that Cablevision has used for years on Cisco/SA set-tops. (SARA stands for “Scientific Atlanta Resident Application.”)
Cablevision has layered several new features on top of the guide, including iO Search based on the Zodiac platform, and several interactive video applications from ActiveVideo Networks (see Cablevision Goes Wide With Interactive TV, EBIF and Cablevision Tiles Up to Nine Favorite Channels on One Screen). But the TV listings and the core IPG are still the SARA grid.
Separately, Cisco last year outsourced ongoing support for SARA to Atlanta-based Itaas (see Cisco Hands SARA Guide Development To Itaas).
Here’s a pic of the tru2way-based SARA clone:
And here’s a picture of the Samsung set-tops that Cablevision is using:
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