This article printed from Broadband
Week, located at www.broadbandweek.com.
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BigBand Reaches Digital Milestone
BigBand Networks Inc. said its Broadband Multimedia-Service Router (BMR) now serves more than 500,000 digital cable subscribers in North America thanks in part to deployment deals with Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Blue Ridge Communications and Canadian operator Rogers Cable. BigBand, which is working with other undisclosed MSOs, said it reached that milestone less than six months after the first commercial sale of the BMR system. BigBand's technology is designed to boost bandwidth efficiency by grooming standard-definition television (SDTV) and high-definition TV (HDTV) in the same channel. In addition to HD and SD grooming, the BMR platform also is designed to handle new services such as targeted digital advertising and video-on-demand over standard video and data interfaces such as DVB-ASI, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet. BigBand Co-Founder and CEO Amir Eskenazi said the BMR allows cable operators to maximize their bandwidth efficiency for HD and VOD without expensive rebuilds or upgrades. "Cable operators are choosing to leverage existing capital investment and manage it smartly, versus doing it by brute force," he added. Eskenazi declined to say how many BMRs BigBand has deployed, but noted that a single unit used for broadcast services can scale to the "high tens of thousands" of subs that hang off a particular hub on a cable network. Under a VOD scenario, one BRM can support "thousands" of concurrent streams. Blue Ridge, the latest MSO to join BigBand's customer base, plans to deploy the BMR in all of its headends over the next few months in an effort to expand its digital repertoire to include HDTV, VOD and digital ad insertion. Blue Ridge, a division of Pencor Services Inc., serves about 175,000 subs in Northeast Pennsylvania. "The ability to better manage bandwidth enables us to deliver more content and advances television services," said Blue Ridge Assistant General Manager Mark Masenheimer, in a statement. In comparison, Time Warner Cable is using the BMR for broadcast grooming and Cox and Rogers are employing the equipment for enhanced television applications. |
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