CableLabs is promoting 20 demonstrations or announcements of tru2way and interactive TV applications at the Cable Show in New Orleans, in an effort to show that there’s growing support behind the technologies.
CableLabs, along with NCTA and Vidiom Systems, is sponsoring a separate day-and-a-half Tru2way Developers' Conference starting Saturday, May 17.
“We’re seeing great response from the application developer community for tru2way technology and for the overall enhanced TV effort,” Comcast senior vice president of digital television Mark Hess said, in a CableLabs-issued statement.
Major cable operators have committed to support the tru2way platform on systems covering more than 90 million U.S. homes by the end of 2008. CableLabs last week said it has eased the approval process for tru2way retail consumer-electronics devices, with Samsung Electronics the first manufacturer to sign the revised tru2way licensing agreement.
ITV demonstrations at CableLabs’ CableNET showcase at the show are to include:
- Softel-USA's MediaSphere TX carousel playing both Tru2way and Enhanced TV interactive applications;
- UniSoft/Strategy & Technology's Tru2way and ETV application creation, testing and delivery tools; and
- Zodiac Interactive's Tru2way Zidget framework, which uses a plug-in architecture to support applications such as local search, weather, traffic, sports scores and local news on a set-top box.
Other demos and developments being featured the Cable Show include:
- BIAP’s EBIF and tru2way applications, including Yellow Pages on TV, Election Central 2008 and Fantasy Sports Trackers for football and baseball;
- Cisco Systems’ demo of Time Warner Cable’s digital navigator program guide, Comcast’s new iGuide, and demos of Navic Networks’ enhanced programming and advanced advertising;
- CNN News and program guide, developed by Ensequence;
- Comcast’s Chill Games application, which is being developed by PixelPlay;
- Comcast Media Center’s HITS Advanced Interactive Services;
- Cox Communications’ guide that is being developed by NDS Group;
- Ensequence’s interactive TV applications for WWE and Ford;
- Harmonic’s interactive video-rich navigation technologies for on-demand and user-generated content that are integrated with tru2way;
- HSN’s “Shop by Remote” service, currently deployed in more than 15 million homes, developed with Tandberg Television and Ensequence;
- ICTV’s Social Networking, Web 2.0, personalized mosaics and other applications that combine ETV and Web functionality;
- Itaas will showcase tru2way and EBIF applications built to be deployed on both Cisco and Motorola set-top boxes, including the TAG games-on-demand network;
- Motorola’s tru2way applications, including whole-home DVR, caller ID, external hard drive support and Time Warner’s music and photo sharing application; a demo of Comcast’s next-generation guide; and a PC-based tru2way application development environment;
- Navic’s tru2way applications for advanced advertising, audience measurement and interactive customer care, as well as its HyperCast Network for cross-operator management and delivery of EBIF-based interactivity;
- Oberon Media’s games service that features titles licensed from Hasbro, Atari, WPT Enterprises and the Learning Company;
- QVC’s Buy Button, which enables viewers to buy on-air products through a remote control;
- TVWorks, which is ITV applications including advanced advertising and enhanced navigation; and
- The Weather Channel’s application for local weather and airport conditions on demand, being developed with Vidiom Systems.
