BigBand Networks Inc. will stake a claim to accelerating a next step in cable operator digital media delivery at this week’s National Cable Television Association (NCTA) convention in New Orleans, providing live demonstrations of two new products. One product is designed to squeeze more high-definition television (HDTV) video signals into local cable networks. A second is designed to transport ancillary data streams end to end over both standard-definition TV (SDTV) and HDTV signals.
On the HDTV front, BigBand Networks says its Broadband Multimedia-Service Router (BMR) RateShaping system can now squeeze three simultaneous high-definition feeds into one standard 256 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) digital cable channel, a 50-percent improvement over current practices. The BMR also supports combinations of HDTV and SDTV on the same QAM, with both types of feeds adapted by RateShaping.
Further, BigBand is collaborating with Triveni Digital Inc. to integrate the BMR with Triveni’s Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC)-compliant StreamBridge metadata groomer. ATSC and Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standards specify methods for transporting embedded text, messages, voice, graphics, interactive transactions and other ancillary data within digital TV transmissions. The two companies are co-marketing and developing an integrated, standards-compliant solution enabling cable operators to deliver off-air digital television (DTV) broadcasts, either via local terrestrial or satellite origination.
“Our two companies are pooling our respective strengths in supporting SDTV and HDTV video, along with associated PSIP data,” Amir Bassan-Eskenazi, president and CEO of BigBand Networks, said in a prepared statement. “This enables content to be carried openly over the local digital cable infrastructure.”
According to Nandhu Nandhakumar, vice president of engineering and CTO of Triveni Digital, “The combined capabilities provide powerful and flexible solutions for bridging terrestrial DTV streams into cable networks and to cable-ready DTV receivers.”
