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Comcast sketched out more details of its "Xcalibur" set-top and TV service ahead of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts' demo here scheduled for Thursday, announcing that the Pace-built box is powered by an Intel chip and will be integrated with Facebook.
Roberts will also provide "a glimpse into the future of broadband speed" in a demo here on Thursday, June 16, during the Cable Show general session that begins at 9 a.m. CT.
Comcast is testing a service, dubbed Xfinity Spectrum, using Pace RNG 210N boxes with Intel's CE 3100 media processor in a few dozen homes in Augusta, Ga. The service, powered by Comcast's network-based Xcalibur platform, features a redesigned interactive program guide to let users search for program titles, actors, sports teams and genres as well as providing personalization and social media features.
In addition, the service will use the mpx video publishing system from Comcast's ThePlatform subsidiary as the content management infrastructure for the service.
ThePlatform's mpx is managing the actual TV service for the Xfinity Spectrum service, which the company said "raises the bar significantly for the so-called OVP (online video platform) category." On Monday, ThePlatform announced a strategic alliance with Alcatel-Lucent to sell IP-based TV systems to global TV service providers.
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