San Antonio— The several hundred vendors on the SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo show floor were busy doing business last week, showcasing new products and services and announcing new deals with cable MSOs.
On the set-top front, Motorola Inc. used the Society of Cable & Telecommunications Engineers convention to debut its new all-digital set-top, the DCT 3412, the companion box to its DCT 6412 series.
The DCT 3412 is an all-digital, dual-tuner HD DVR with a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) signaling gateway, which Motorola was positioning as the center device in its whole-house platform.
VARIABLE HARD DRIVE
Motorola said MSOs could configure the set-top with hard drives ranging in storage capacity from 120 Gb to 320 Gb.
The set-top was shown as the centerpiece to Motorola's Ucentric Digital Home Platform. The platform supports the OpenCable Applications Platform (OCAP), Motorola said.
Motorola also said Digeo Inc. had joined the company's Horizon development program.
Motorola also announced the availability of a centralized content-authorization service with the Comcast Media Center. It will allow smaller operators to offer video on demand, digital video recording, interactive programming guides and other advanced services without owning a digital access controller.
The new platform will be offered as an upgrade to Motorola's National Authorization Service.
Pace Micro Technologies plc debuted its DC551 all-digital HDTV setup at the show. It includes a high-definition multimedia interface and supports 1394 5C protected interface.
Pace also entered the embedded multimedia terminal adapter (E-MTA) market with the DV315. The VoIP terminal will be available by year-end.
Pace also said Canadian MSO Videotron placed orders for two of Pace's set-top boxes — the Indiana DC511 and the Laguna DC551HD — for Videotron's illico Digital TV service and that it's teaming with middleware supplier Alticast on OpenCable Application Platform set-tops.
On the deal front, Tandberg Television said Sunflower Broadband in Lawrence, Kan., will use its E5710 MPEG-2 (Moving Picture Experts Group) encoder to roll out digital simulcast to its cable customers.
Integra5 Communications Inc. said Everest Connections Corp. is deploying its UniTV converged services platform and UniTV Visual Telephony product suite, which provides for caller ID on the TV set. Integra also said it joined CedarPoint's ServiceClass Partner program.
Auspice Corp. signed a licensing agreement with Bresnan Communications Inc. covering its TLX-based voice service manager for voice-over-Internet protocol telephony rollouts. The VSM will help Bresnan monitor network health and service status for VoIP.
SIGMA ON ADELPHIA
Sigma Systems Inc. said Adelphia Communications Corp. will use its products in its VoIP rollouts. Adelphia will use Sigma's Service Management Platform (SMP), along with its VoIP Service Package, CLEC (competitive local-exchange carrier) Intercarrier Gateway solution, and Sigma's newly released Advanced Diagnostics Manager tool for VoIP.
Terayon Communication Systems Inc. said Canadian MSO Cogeco Cable Inc. has deployed its DM 6400 Network CherryPicker platform for its all-digital deployment.
C-COR Inc. introduced the XGSIM, a 10-port gigabit Ethernet interface module for its multiservice packet-switch system. In addition to 10 discrete 1-Gb ports, the device performs switching, virtual local-area network tagging, rate shaping, quality-of-service guarantees and network control.
C-COR also was showcasing its new value max transponder, which can monitor and control a variety of node and amplifier components.
RGB Networks Inc. announced all-digital support for the Emergency Alert System through its Simulcast Edge Processor. The SEP provides EAS program switching support based on SCTE 18 standard messages for analog program lineups.
Arcwave Inc. released ARCNet, an element management system for small, medium and large deployments of Arcwave's ARCXtend Wireless Plant Extension network hubs. The wireless bridge technology allows MSOs to deliver phone and high-speed data services to small and medium-sized business beyond their wireline plant. ARRIS TeleWire resells ARCNet EMS and support services. Arcwave also said Cox Business Services has approved the ARCXtendTM wireless plant extension for deployment in its service areas.
AURORA EXPANSION
Aurora Networks debuted an expanded digital-return transport platform, which includes its DT35135C digital transmitter and DT4030E digital transceiver. The platform provides for transmission of 40 wavelengths and 80 return segments on a single fiber, and for transport of two unique radio-frequency (RF) segments in a single data stream.
Aurora also debuted its outdoor Wi-Fi access delivery system, which acts as a wireless drop between the hybrid fiber-coaxial network and business customers to support public hot spots, virtual Ethernet links, VoIP, high-speed Internet and video conferencing.
PPC showcased its 48-foot mobile training lab, which provides training for drop-related technology and installation practices. PPC also debuted an integrated weather-seal connector, the PPC AquaTight EX Series Connector.
Electroline Equipment Inc. released the VoIP “e” version of its headend signal-management product line, and displayed a status monitoring transponder for optical nodes based on DOCSIS technology.
Proxilliant Systems Corp. was showcasing its new Dynamic Ingress Blocking technology, which eliminates node splitting on cable networks, it said.
“DIB effectively confines the ingress very close to the origin so that it does not jeopardize VoIP services,” said Proxilliant CEO Arne Ljungdahl.
AUTOMATION TOOLS
Mintek Mobile Data Solutions introduced WinTrack SFA, a mobile sales-force automation solution, and WinTrack Tap Audit, a mobile tap-audit automation solution.
Xtend Networks was showcasing new versions of its XMTS T1 Access Concentrator and its XHUB bandwidth expansion node product.
S-A Content Manager
Scientific-Atlanta Inc. debuted a new digital content manager system for high-density and complex MPEG video processing to cover digital simulcast, switched digital broadcast, HD and VOD.
The new platform has 20 times the firepower of existing gear, S-A said. It's able to simultaneously process up to 2,000 standard definition or up to 500 HDTV channels. Arroyo Video Solutions Inc. was demonstrating support for native 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces on standard IBM eServer hardware.
