CT's INSIDE Advanced THIS issue Arris to BlackArrow, .....page 4 Cisco to Harmonic, ...... page 5 Advertising itaas to Sigma, ...... page 6 Tech Guide Tandberg to Zodiac, ...... page 7 February 2009 Cable Bets on a Complex Weapon

By Jonathan Tombes, editor The forecast for the cable growing from $5 billion to $10 collaborate and leverage their 'We've talked about this and industry's advanced advertis- billion by 2015 is reasonable.) combined footprint. had committees, we've had ing initiative is mixed. But grow it will, for several There lies a third reason this beakers bubbling with smoke In a Pike & Fischer report reasons. First, the category plays category will grow: It has to. in the labs for years. Get it issued last November, Chief to the industry's core compe- "While Cox can offer its outside of the white cloaked Analyst Tim McElgunn pointed tence in video. Second, cable's products in front of around 6 lab room and get it out into the to reduced spending across all advertising and technology has million households...for national real marketplace, and it has to media, online competition and advanced steadily for decades. advertisers, they need to have happen now,'" Delzio said. privacy protections as impedi- In the early 2000s, when pro- a solution that gets to around Up front have been two ments to rapid growth. gram insertions became digital 20-30 million households," main technologies, said McElgunn noted the "immense and MSOs began exploiting the Porter said. Sigma Systems VP Product complexity" of creating the two-way capabilities of their Management Rick Mallon: cam- new platform embraced by systems, the pace picked up. Urgency paign management systems Canoe Ventures and the "Cox and several other cable As ARRIS Director Product and ad decision managers. challenge of wielding it as a operators (in recent years) have Strategy Paul Delzio sees it, In the former group, disruptive weapon against deployed our own advanced cable has always had an annual Mallon put Tandberg, OpenTV, ingrained advertising tactics. advertising technologies," said list of priorities, with advertising Microsoft, SeaChange, Invidi David Porter, VP of strategy typically making the top 10, but and BlackArrow. The latter, he Work together and business development for not top-five agenda. said, typically included vendors Tripling cable's advertising Cox Media. But over the past three closer to network devices, such revenue over the next several But competition has put years, competitive and bud- as splicers. years—a goal associated with brakes on the going-it-alone getary threats have made it a Another element is the ad Canoe executives—may be approach. Online advertising in must-do item. decision server. "It sits in the ambitious. (Pike & Fischer think particular has forced MSOs to "The mood is now like, continued on page 3 Rationally Exuberant for Advanced Ads Q&A with Paul Woidke

Paul Woidke chairs the SCTE's CT his grounds for optimism off. What do you say? things that can go wrong in DVS Working Group 5 on on the business and technol- Well, it's the cable indus- the whole Canoe area. But as digital program insertion (DPI). ogy of advanced advertising. try. We've seen things as far as revenue streams go, He currently serves as SVP and successful as CableLabs, as I think that the industry recog- general manager, advanced Skeptics are wondering if lackadaisical in implementa- nizes the importance of adver- advertising, for OpenTV. cable—specifically, the Canoe tion as OCAP, as imploding tising. There's a real serious Woidke recently shared with joint venture—can really pull this as @Home. Sure, there are continued on page 8 New Ad Weapons continued from page 1 CableLabs Interop middle of this intelligent brain based on household income." ... (and) is busy all the time," That's just the first step. In November, CableLabs (3) ad insertion technologies Mallon said. Doubling up on targeting crite- hosted an addressable adver- such as insertion of ads into Sigma itself is new to this ria would be next, and so on. tising event at its laborato- VOD inventory. business, having leveraged its Beyond targeting, Canoe ries in Louisville, CO. Fifteen In addition to testing in the back-office expertise to fill one and MSO partners have put companies involved in the devel- context of SCTE 130, partici- of the three roles for infor- enhanced TV applications on opment of advanced adver- pants also tested products with mation services specified by deck, although expect to wait. tising technologies attended CableLabs' enhanced television SCTE 130: that regarding sub- "EBIF and still have the event. (ETV) enhanced binary inter- scriber information. some work on it," said Delzio. CableLabs and the participat- face format (EBIF) standard. The other two services "It's still 12 months away." ing vendors used SCTE 130 CableLabs created EBIF to involve placement opportunity Of course, each of Canoe's standards as the framework promote uniform TV interactiv- and content. six founding partners will for this interoperability event. ity across multiple platforms. These sources of informa- adopt technologies at its own SCTE 130 is the cable indus- Products included adver- tion are key. "There is a real pace and according to some- try's emerging technical stan- tisement campaign managers, focus on data," said Craig what divergent agendas and dard for advanced advertising. advertising decision servers Schwabl, Concurrent chief infrastructures (e.g. Comcast Don Dulchinos, SVP architect, strategic technol- NGOD vs. Time Warner ISA.) of advanced platforms at ogy. "Canoe continues to say Then there's on-demand. Cable-Labs, said 15 vendors that data is important." "In 2009, you'll find a decent was a larger-than-expect- number of operators going ed number of companies Agenda to trial with VOD ad insertion developing addressable To help prove out the inter- capabilities," said Schwabl. advertising products that faces linking these elements, Cablevision has itself moved implement SCTE 130. CableLabs in Louisville, CO CableLabs hosted an interop- ahead aggressively with "More work had been erability event last November. branded VOD channels, a sep- done than expected," he said. and information systems that "The SCTE spec is so com- arate initiative. The companies that par- support subscribers, organize plex, there are so many pieces to Like branded VOD, other ticipated in the addressable content and define advertising it, that there was a need to exer- tasks are outside purview of advertising event were Arris, placement opportunities. cise these in a vendor interop SCTE 130, such as HD. "The BIAP, BlackArrow, Concurrent The event closed with ven- forum," said Schwabl. (For more challenges in HD splicing are Computer, Ensequence, Front dors demonstrating an end- on CableLabs, see sidebar.) specific and unique," said Gal Porch, INVIDI, Microsoft to-end process whereby an With CableLabs engaged, Garniek, AVP of marketing for Advertising, , OpenTV, advertisement can be select- and SCTE 130 near comple- Scopus Video Networks. Sigma Systems, Tandberg ed, inserted into a program- tion, it remains for MSOs—and But for Canoe to approach Television, This Technology, ming stream and delivered to their Canoe counterparts—to its lofty goals, MSOs and their UniSoft Corp. and Visible World. a digital TV customer. begin pulling triggers. vendor partners clearly need There are three categories of CableLabs plans to host First up for Canoe is what's to move beyond the lab on addressable advertising being more confabs in 2009, pos- called creative versioning. "Right some of these technologies. developed, explained Dulchinos: sibly one that again tests SCTE there for the most part there's "They have got to get those (1) more addressable ads with 130 interfaces, and at least one one version of a spot," said Cox's systems in place in order to finer grain, geographical target- gathering focusing on end-to- Porter. "What Canoe is going to offer up those subscribers for ing, etc.; (2) interactive ads that end system testing of ads, offer is to then subdivide that targeting," said Mallon. customers can click on; and Dulchinos said.

editorial design/production editor Jonathan Tombes graphic designer Tzaddi Andoque [email protected] senior production manager John Blaylock-Cooke managing editor Ron Hendrickson [email protected] Access Intelligence associate editor Linda Hardesty, 4 Choke Cherry Road, 2nd Floor, [email protected] Rockville, Maryland 20850 2

Arris (www.arrisi.com) Product Application Key Features SkyVision HQ Central element of the Communicates with the management console (SkyVision), the traffic and billing systems, the content ad insertion system sources (encoder and archive), transcoder components, and the ad control manager Insertion server.

HQ SNAPSHOT Backup server Collection of software modules that run on two matching Headquarters (HQ) computers: a software master HQ and clone HQ; HQ Snapshot provides a 'warm spare' backup of the master HQ that can be brought online in minutes in case of a catastrophic failure; current ad spots, HQ configuration, and system information are backed up from the master HQ to the clone HQ; if the master HQ goes down, the clone HQ takes over ad insertion operations.

Ad Control Manager DPI software GigE digital program insertion connects the company's video server and linear advertising (ACM) management software; provides high system availability, enhanced error detection capabilities, high scalability (enabling 120 to over 2,000 channels per server) and automatic dynamic recovery for single points of failure; promotes reduced maintenance costs and high reliability.

Virtual Interconnect Scheduling Allows cable operators to merge schedules from up to 10 different owners, working in partner- (VIC) software ship as a Virtual Interconnect Company; vendor neutral; incorporates intelligent rules-based merging that identifies conflicts and generates (partner-specific) detailed reports, allowing operators to resolve schedule conflicts before airtime.

SkyVision Console Management Provides a graphical interface for operators, which is used as a monitoring tool to view system and Management software health and status; provides automated processes, effective status information, and reliable Software distribution for linear ad insertion; manages scheduled file imports and exports, automates file retrieval and content distribution, and also produces high level schedule views for content and connectivity; implements paging/alerts for actions such as a missing spot, to ensure discrepan- cies are corrected prior to revenue being impacted. nABLE ADM Advanced VOD adver- Generates new ad sales revenue through new inventory and dynamic ad insertion capabilities tising solution into VOD programming; includes the company's nABLE Back Office Management Suite for an optimal End-to-End solution for VOD management as well as targeted, addressable, and interactive advertising.

BIAP (www.biap.com) Product Application Key Features ETV (EBIF) Platform Complete EBIF Platform-level ETV products, set-top box software, generic ETV server and GUI-based development solution tools; the company's EBIF User Agent offers compact footprint, high performance and extensibility; ETV Platform products now function in many markets on a broad range of set-top boxes.

"Canoe in a Box" Suite of advanced End-to-end SCTE 130 compliant addressable advertising system for serving advertising targeted ads within ITV/ETV applications and IPG programming; designed to enable programmers products and operators to maximize advertising revenue through interactivity, addressability, target-ability.

BigBand Networks (www.bigbandnet.com) Product Application Key Features BigBand Media Network-based • Provides greater near term ad opportunities Services Platform, media services plat- • Delivers advanced advertising on linear (live) television unlike many products geared toward MSP2000 form that delivers VOD advertising personalized appli- • Supports traditional ad server and SCTE 130 architectures cations and linear • Ability to capture linear, zoned, addressable and future ad revenue advanced advertising • Will incorporate SCTE 130 interfaces: Ad Management Service (ADM) to Ad Decision Service (ADS), subscriber information service (SIS) and Content Information Service (CIS)

BlackArrow (www.blackarrow.tv) Product Application Key Features BlackArrow Video SCTE 130-compliant • Enables content providers and operators to easily manage and optimize advanced Advertising System Campaign Manager, advertising campaigns Ad Decision Server • Deploys rapidly using SCTE 130 standard technology and Placement • Generates additional revenues by creating new, dynamic advertising Opportunity • Enhances advertising reach, relevancy and timeliness Information Service • Provides support for any ad type, any sales model, including models with multiple sellers (POIS)

4 Cisco Systems (www.cisco.com) Product Application Key Features Digital Content Groomer/transrater/ad The Digital Content Manager (DCM) is a compact platform that performs grooming, transrating, Manager (DCM) splicer and ad splicing. It listens for SCTE 35 digital cue tones and inserts advertisements sent by an ad server as directed using SCTE 30 APIs. Content Delivery VOD The Content Delivery System (CDS) inserts advertisements into VOD assets. As this architecture System (CDS) server/ad server evolves, CDS will use SCTE 130 to communicate with the Ad Management Service (ADM) to provide precision ad insertion services. Set-top box Provides client-based Cisco's advanced set-tops support tru2way and EBIF for the support of advanced client-based inter- (various models) ad insertion active advertising and can also work in conjunction with network technologies supporting SCTE 130.

Concurrent (www.ccur.com) Product Application Key Features Concurrent End-to-end Based on SCTE 130; Web-based console managing campaign metadata, delivery instructions, Myriad Advanced advanced geographic and demographic targeting rules, content ingest and reporting; manages ad placement Advertising advertising opportunities, asset metadata and asset delivery; patented targeting engine performs real-time Solution solution decisions on precise ad delivered to each viewer; features dynamic VOD ad insertion with target- ing, ad replacement for time-shifted content and telescoping to long-form advertising content from local or network spots; includes the company's Campaign Director and MHBOSS back office suite.

Harmonic (www.harmonicinc.com) Product Application Key Features MediaPrism Suite of content Includes the CLEARcut offline content preparation solution and Rhozet Carbon Coder transcoding/ preparation tools overlay software; used to prepare ads in the right format and bit-rate, while also providing overlay capabilities and scalability; ProStream 2000 splicer is a dense solution for splicing SD and HD chan- nels; StreamLiner 2000 ad server can also be used as a combination ad and VOD server; ads are inserted into the VOD stream using playlists at the server level; ad insertion platform is managed as part of the overall video infrastructure.

Meeting all your advertising Figure 2: xxx demands for your cable and IP platforms.

As the market leader in cable TV advertising and with almost a decade of advertising experience, ARRIS delivers reliable and trusted advertising solutions that enable video suppliers to provide new advertising revenue services and capabilities. ARRIS offers advertising solutions to meet the growing demands of the advertising ecosystem community, including programmers, distributors, buyers and sellers.

Complementing the broadcast advertising solution, ARRIS now offers a new solution for the On Demand platform: nABLE™ Ad VOD. Leverage the 50% annual growth in Video On Demand (VOD) to drive new advertising revenues that are personalized for targeted audiences.

Visit www.arrisi.com/advod for more information.

5 CT_AA_wallchart_draft4.indd 1 1/9/09 2:59 PM itaas (www.itaas.com) Product Application Key Features itaas ECS VOD monitoring and Designed to help operators ensure the overall health of VOD systems and enable targeted VOD adver- reporting tising by providing comprehensive operational and analytical VOD session data and reports; provides platform real-time granular VOD viewership data spanning the hub, set-top box and individual session.

Motorola (www.motorola.com) Product Application Key Features CherryPicker Video processing Advanced, IP-centric architecture for high-density digital video processing and splicing; provides Application architecture software for rate shaping broadcast-quality MPEG-4/AVC and MPEG-2 SD and HD streams; Platform designed to enable applications including grooming, dejittering, and seamless localized ad insertion; supports SDV and VOD playlist advertising. Motorola SDV plat- End-to-end switched Designed to allow operators to provide subscribers with access to highly focused digital content form digital video solution channels; consists of Switched Video Manager (SVM1000, SVM2000), responsible for managing which SDV streams are active at any given time, Edge Resource Manager (ERM1000), and Switched Video Operations Manager (SVOM). APEX1000 Universal edge QAM Designed to enable MSOs to economically and efficiently deploy additional QAM capacity to meet growing consumer demand for personalized, high-bandwidth services; provides a flexible edge resource that can operate in all open standard SDV architectures. B-1T Video Server Video server Designed to maximize the profitability of VOD services while enabling new services such as nDVR, time-shifted TV, and on-demand ad insertion; can integrate with an ADS and POIS and supports ranged playlists that enable it to dynamically insert targeted ads at any point in on-demand content, potentially targeted all the way to an individual set-top.

OpenTV (www.opentv.com) Product Application Key Features EclipsePlus Ad campaign Support for Oracle 10g with RAC/64 bit technology; 5000+ head-nets database capacity; performance management system time improvements for traffic and billing; Web Services 2.0 provides support for electronic, real-time data exchange between the sales system and EclipsePlus for avails clearance; Dynamic Scheduler; Multiple Report Server functionality; CRM-ID Field for customer records; currently being enhanced to work within the SCTE 130 framework.

RGB Networks (www.rgbnetworks.com) Product Application Key Features Broadcast Network Digital video pro- Combines the ability to simultaneously process 500 video streams with statistical multiplexing, Processor (BNP) cessing transrating, DPI and digital overlay capabilities; designed as an advanced digital processing solution for digital ad insertion and the customization and localization of ads; when used as a splicer, can be integrated with any of the leading ad servers to form a complete ad insertion system; can overlay text, graphics and video onto ads in real-time.

Scopus Video Networks (www.scopus.net) Product Application Key Features IVG-8000 series Routing and Digital ad insertion, in connectivity with ad decision managers, ad servers and encoding systems. processing Other benefits include: ASI, GigE aggregation, multiplexing; SD, HD rate shaping, scrambling; QAM, platforms ASI and GigE transmission.

SeaChange International (www.schange.com) Product Application Key Features AdPulse VOD advertising Designed to give cable operators the ability to monetize VOD content through dynamic and targeted software advertising, enabling on-the-fly insertion of interior, pre- and post-roll ads into on-demand program streams in real time; ads can be precisely targeted, effectively measured to demonstrate ROI, and refreshed within a matter of minutes.

Sigma Systems (www.sigma-systems.com) Product Application Key Features Sigma Subscriber Subscriber Based upon SCTE 130 standards; designed to define audience qualifiers for advanced advertising campaigns Information Service qualification service and analyze subscriber information collected from multiple sources via Sigma AMP so that service providers (SIS) can present personalized advertisements aligned with subscriber's service usage and purchasing preferences.

6 Sigma Systems (www.sigma-systems.com) Continued Product Application Key Features Sigma Active Usage mediation Provides advanced, active transfer of valuable usage data from the network and CPE devices to OSS/ Mediation Platform system BSS systems that rely on the information for accurate billing, VoIP mediation, bandwidth fair-usage (AMP) management, targeted advertising and other operational and business processes.

Tandberg Television (www.tandbergtv.com) Product Application Key Features AdPoint Advanced Unified management Designed to enable enhanced monetization of video experiences via addressability, measurability and Advertising and performance interactivity; designed to allow operators, content providers and advertisers to all benefit financially Platform system while offering viewers convenience and control without additional subscription fees; intended for next-generation video advertising, including VOD ad placements, long-form VOD ads, interactive and telescoping ads, and targeted ad systems.

Visible World (www.visibleworld.com) Product Application Key Features intelliSpot Advanced advertising Provides targeted advertising solutions and brings Internet-like capabilities to television; designed to be scal- suite able and based on open standards such as EBIF, tru2way, SCTE 130, SCTE 35, DVS 766 and others; includes: • intelliSpot Connect (V 4.3), an open standard delivery platform • intelliSpot Insight (V1.0), a measurement and optimization service • intelliSpot Dashboard (V2.1), an online campaign management tool • intelliSpot Video (V9.0.2), a rules-driven customization and versioning engine for video, audio, voice-over, graphics, and animation

Zodiac Interactive (www.zodiac.tv) Product Application Key Features PowerUp EBIF Set-top software Designed to help advance the deployment of standards-based interactive TV experiences; designed Player for PowerTV and to be fully compliant with the CableLabs ETV/EBIF IO4 specification. Zodiac's EBIF player for Cisco's PowerTV set-top box is widely available and has been successfully tested with multiple interactive TV experiences developed for EBIF.

7 Woidke Q&A continued from page 1

focus on it now. And Canoe has ment efforts—and I think that's that MSOs then have the oppor- second wave of the intercon- assembled a great team. I'm what Canoe and the MSOs are tunity to create a plug-and-play nects, and now ... extraordinarily optimistic. doing—in 2010, as the econo- scenario that lets them select This is the third wave. This my comes back, as advertising the best-of-breed vendor. is the big one. This is the wave Advertising is down. Even new comes back, as dollars start to SCTE standards and speci- where it's not just doing what media advertising. But work on build, that's when you want fications from CableLabs build other people have done bet- this advanced advertising plat- to have something good and the confidence, from both the ter than they've done it. It's a form continues. Is it competition solid in place. community that builds the wid- matter of building a whole new that's driving it? get and from the community paradigm of technology. That's Exactly. It's going to become What's the key to bringing all that buys the widget, that it's what the standards that SCTE advertising in over-the-top, video- the disparate parties together not a one-time-only, do-or-die builds lead the way to. That's clip type programming, or the and getting these multiple type decision. what the CableLabs specifica- value-add the cable networks stakeholders and technologies tion will lead the way to. and the cable MSO delivery to line up? Does the committee's collab- And I think that's what Canoe mechanisms offer—cable and One of the main ways that orative nature help as well? executes on. That's the main satellite, for that matter. It's that happens and that those Everything that we do in thing. Standards are lovely, and either value-add, or it's the over- parties come together—and developing those standards is you know I'm a proponent of the-top Internet. you know you were going to very much a team effort. What them. But they're just pieces hear this speech—is as they you have in the whole standards of paper—or just a bunch of start to see that there are process is people recognizing a electronic files—unless some- standards in place. common end goal: We need one executes. So I think the work that we to make our advertising tech- at SCTE do, and the work that nology provide the accountabil- Can you give us a status report CableLabs does in terms of ity and the measurability that on SCTE 130? the specification process, those the Internet does; we need to We have a few more piec- are both very significant and provide the addressability that es going to ballot. We have comforting things, both to the direct mail does; we need to amendments for 1, 2, 3 and vendors, who have to build a provide the visual excitement 4. We have 6, 7 and 8 that will widget, and to the MSOs, who that HDTV does. We need to go to ballot. I think that they will be asked to buy it. bring all of these things togeth- probably get released by early I think that drives and moti- CableLabs is now a part of er. At the end of the day, we all February for ballot. And then vates. And one could argue— this whole advanced advertis- fail or we all succeed. we still have to finish Part 5. and I don't think it's farfetched— ing process, by making sure But I believe that all eight but as everybody is going to that we have a good solid ADI That kind of intra-industry team- parts of SCTE 130 will be com- be constrained for the next 12 2.0 specification as they have work should augur well for pleted, balloted and approved months or so, that it's a great revised the VOD specification Canoe's success, shouldn't it? no later than June. We prob- time for people to focus on from 1.0 to 1.1 to 2.0. Those When you talk with Arthur ably will go back and do some building the infrastructure for kinds of things that CableLabs Orduna at Canoe and with the tweaking and some amend- the future. It's going be a go- contributes are important people that he's bringing on ments, but they will be a com- slow, in terms of the Internet and and valuable in the same way board, you see that they want pleted, wrapped-up, signed, everything else. that my WG5 team contributes to build on that, and they're not sealed and delivered standard This is an opportunity to take things to the emerging SCTE trying to formulate something by that point in time. a deep breath and say, "OK, I 130 standard and some of the from scratch. I think that they We will have done most don't have to have an address- other processes because it want to find ways to leverage of the work to coordinate it able, measurable solution in creates that environment and these things that are in place with some of the older stan- place by March 15, 2009." the overarching infrastructure to provide that superstructure dards that need to be brought Because if it was, it wouldn't in which they will exist. under which cable advertising into line, like 67, 30, 35 and matter. Look at how advertising These standards mean there can go back and grow. especially the 118 series. But dollars are pulled back. can be different players and that's what my committee is But if you take the year of different parties who excel in You often refer to cable's first going to be driven to accomplish 2009 to focus on the develop- different components. It means wave of local advertising, the in the coming four months. 8