BigBand Networks Announces Successful Completion of the Largest Switched Broadcast Deployment in a Single Cable System with Cablevision
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REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jan. 24 -- BigBand Networks, Inc., a leading provider of network platforms for video, voice and data services, today announced the successful completion of the largest-ever switched broadcast deployment in a single cable system with Cablevision. Cablevision is using BigBand's Switched Broadcast technology to deliver nine new, in-language programming services, featuring dozens of international channels from around the world, to customers across its entire service area. Through its work with Cablevision, the fifth largest U.S. cable operator, BigBand Networks counts nine of the top ten U.S. cable operators as customers.
"With BigBand's Switched Broadcast, we can significantly increase the number of channels we can provide to customers over our existing hybrid fiber coaxial cable network," said Patricia Gottesman, Cablevision's executive vice president of product management and marketing. "We are using BigBand Networks' groundbreaking technology today to deliver nine distinct, in-language international programming options across our entire service area, and we see this as an important tool in our efforts to deliver new choices for our diverse and growing customer base."
BigBand's Switched Broadcast is designed to enhance the efficiency of bandwidth and network resources that cable operators use to provide digital programming, thereby reserving capacity for more program choices and bandwidth-intensive services such as HDTV. With switched broadcast, digital television programs are dynamically directed to those areas in which subscribers are actively requesting them, so that only those programs being watched consume bandwidth in any given area. Resulting plant efficiencies can be leveraged to grow offerings to subscribers, including expansion of the types of ethnic and foreign language programming Cablevision has deployed using the technology.
"Cablevision shares BigBand's emphasis on innovation; the operator is a leader in delivering advanced digital services and programming to its customers," said Amir Bassan-Eskenazi, president and chief executive officer of BigBand Networks. "Cablevision also emphasizes operational excellence, and we were particularly pleased that we were able to roll this out quickly and exceed the operator's expectations. BigBand's customers are now benefiting from the company's two years of field deployment experience with switched broadcast, a technology that remains one of the most economical methods to service and programming expansion."
In cable networks, the current practice of filling the entire spectrum with live broadcast programming at all times has recently been supplemented by more video switching, including on-demand applications in which stored content is directed from centralized servers to specific geographic areas where subscribers request viewing sessions. Switched broadcast extends this model through a centralized management server that monitors subscriber selections of live programs, and directs the initiation and completion of switching them to areas in which viewing sessions occur. BigBand Networks provides the management server, its Broadband Multimedia-Service Router (BMR®), for the processing of live video streams to be switched and its Broadband Multimedia- Service Edge (BME(TM)), which can perform switching and digital modulation. The solution also incorporates standards-based interfaces to work with other devices and components.
BigBand's Switched Broadcast solution is designed to enable a range of benefits, including:
o Expansion of available programming for cable subscribers, including
content designed for specific demographic audiences that might not be
economical to deliver without switched broadcast
o Efficiency gains without capital-intensive upgrades achieved by
delivering only the live programs requested in each service area
o Integration with many popular set-top boxes, including PVRs, without
requiring any change to subscribers' viewing habits, and while
maintaining EPG lineups
o A path towards even greater efficiency by dynamically sharing bandwidth
with other interactive video, voice and data services
o Additional service enhancements that may, in the future, be achievable
with switched content, such as targeted advertising and faster channel
changing.
For additional information about BigBand Networks' Switched Broadcast, please visit www.bigbandnet.com/products/sol_switch_broadcast.php.
About BigBand Networks
BigBand Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of broadband multimedia infrastructure for video, voice and data. The company's solutions are designed to process, optimize, and deliver services such as broadband Internet, VoIP, digital broadcast television, HDTV, transport of high quality video, local advertising, VOD, interactive TV and IPTV across coaxial cable, fiber or copper. Service providers use BigBand Networks' platforms in efforts to cost- effectively expand revenue-generating offerings of rich content and advanced interactive services. Customers include six of the ten largest service providers in the U.S., and leading service providers in North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Founded in 1998, BigBand Networks is based in Redwood City, Calif., with offices worldwide. For more information, please call 650-995-5000, email info@bigbandnet.com or visit www.bigbandnet.com.
Press Contacts:
Jonathan Bass
BigBand Networks
(415) 695-4140
jonathan.bass@bigbandnet.com
Brian Baumley
Cohn & Wolfe
(212) 798-9813
brian_baumley@cohnwolfe.com
Source: BigBand Networks, Inc.
Web site: www.bigbandnet.com/
http://www.bigbandnet.com/products/sol_switch_broadcast.php
