Not So Fast, EchoStar: Cable MSOs Look For Other "Sling" Options

本周早些时候，我写了一篇文章 article 关于媒体融合的新趋势, where streaming media technologies are merging into traditional living room media devices. 从卫星机顶盒到DVD播放机再到电视, 今天的关键词是整合, 把地盘扩张到网络视频和, 经常, blurring the lines between competitors in the traditional media space and the back-end equipment designed to support expansion.

Part of this whole discussion centers on the "TV Everywhere" concept, which means about as many different things to the various parts of the video ecosystem as does the term "HTTP Streaming" to those involved with streaming media. Between TV Everywhere and the A/153 mobile television specification I 写了两周前, the potential to disrupt "traditional" streaming media equilibrium appears quite high as we enter 2010.

To get a sense of the blur occurring between established media segments as they battle for new media supremacy, one only need look back to last week's SCTE Cable-Tech Expo Show in Denver. 在同一场演出中 Ankeena宣布与Juniper合作, EchoStar announced what they suggest is "cable's answer" for TV Everywhere: Sling Media's place-shifting technology in a cable-ready set-top box.

EchoStar thinks cable providers might just be able to get the best solution for place shifting by crossing over from traditional set-top boxes to ones made by EchoStar, 谁以前只做卫星接收盒.

Instead of spending dollars and time creating a cable-exclusive place-shifting technology, EchoStar的理由是, 有线电视提供商应该使用一种已经被证实的技术.

"You don't want to stumble out of the gate," said EchoStar's Michael Haskey. “给他们(消费者)完整的体验. TV Everywhere is not about getting some of my TV channels or some content on some of my devices some of the time."

电缆的反应?
坊间传言，有线电视管理公司可能不想要这个答案, 尤其是考虑到EchoStar的背景, which was part of highly competitive Dish Networks before being spun off in 2008, 在Sling Media被收购后不久.

如何竞争? 历史至少可以追溯到13年前, during which time EchoStar was defending itself against cable providers.

"EchoStar's DISH Network has been under direct attack by the cable giant,美国商业资讯1996年的一份新闻稿指出, "for the alleged shortcomings of satellite dish technology through print, 广播和电视广告."

EchoStar took the fight to the consumer and was successful in enticing away subscribers from some cable providers—and also gathering a number of subscribers who fell outside of cable providers' physical plant boundaries. 宿敌难以平息, 因此，提供echostar技术的行动可能会遭到拒绝, 为其他位置转移技术提供了机会.

美国广播百家乐软件简报，来自大陆自动化建筑协会, is one of the more eclectic e-newsletters I receive on a daily basis, but a recent edition had details about at least one other "video sling" application is in the works.

阿里斯集团公司. is developing a place-shifting application for a multimedia cable gateway that would let users send live and on-demand video to PCs, 智能手机, 和其他IP视频显示通过宽带连接,通讯中写道, 通过以下方式引用报告轻松的读物.

What's most interesting is that Arris acknowledges it is competing directly with SlingLoaded boxes, 但他认为这是一个好处.

Arris expects its Arris Moxi MG5000 Series DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) 3.0多媒体网关, a long name for an infrastructure box that most users will never see, touts one of its primary features as being the gateway's ability to "account for any out-of-home distribution restraints specified by MSOs and programmers"—simply put, to keep from occurring the potential disruption that a true place-shifting device like a Silng Media box might allow.

电缆的看门人?
当保罗·萨根在今年的流媒体东部大会上发言时, 他回忆起有线电视的早期, in which there were a multitude of small cable providers and almost as many cable technology providers. 从狂野的西部开始, 萨根指出, the cable industry's maturation led to a need for interoperability.

有线电视实验室公司., 更广为人知的名字是cabllabs, 这个行业的解决方案是什么, 因为它认证了许多电缆产品的互操作性.

当有线电视开始上线, offering cable modems to compete with DSL services from the telecoms, 电缆实验室认证的电缆调制解调器，以满足DOCSIS 1.0规范.

即使是现在, as the battle for online middle- and last-mile supremacy wages in a three-way battle between the telecoms and cable providers, a CableLabs certification is 经常 critical for a product to be included in a widespread cable MSO rollout.

该行业目前处于DOCSIS 3阶段.0, and CableLabs has issued a request for 信息 (RFI) surrounding the concept of TV Everywhere. 在这种情况下, the intent from a cable service provider's perspective is to guarantee a common technical approach for consumers to offering secure online subscription video services to cable subscribers.

In other words, in yet another example of carving up the online video world, any U.S.-based over-the-top or catch-up service offered by the existing cable companies will likely need to meet a CableLabs-certified specification, which will in turn govern the back-end functionality for all cable MSOs.

CableLabs has set a deadline for responses to the RFI of December 11, just over one month away.