Philips/C-Cube boxes................................................
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Broadband Week for January 24, 2000
CableLabs Releases Interim POD Specification
By NATALIA A. FEDUSCHAK January 24, 2000
Louisville, Colo. -- Cable Television Laboratories Inc. last week publicly released the OpenCable 1.0 interim specification for the point-of-deployment copy-protection system.
The release means vendors can now move ahead with plans to build a new generation of set-top boxes compatible with the OpenCable architecture for digital-video systems, in hopes of meeting a July 2000 deadline imposed by the Federal Communications Commission to resolve current interoperability problems.
"This marks a major milestone in the OpenCable project and moves the industry closer toward its goal of retail-market deployments in the second half of 2000," said Jim Chiddix, chief technical officer at Time Warner Cable and a key executive in the OpenCable project.
"We are continuing to work as fast as we can to ensure that all of the specifications a supplier needs to build OpenCable boxes and PODs are available as long before July as possible," he added.
CableLabs' interim specification describes a mechanism to protect high-value content that crosses the POD-host interface. The implementation of this mechanism requires the use of the widely accepted "5C" device certificate to authenticate the host and the use of DES (data-encryption standard) to protect the content.
A host can be a set-top or an integrated television set. The removable security device, or POD, would enable that device to interpret and display copy-protected cable content to consumers.
Last week's announcement was welcomed by the cable industry, as it is anxious to get new set-top boxes to retailers for public consumption.
"This more clearly defines how a set-top box can be designed to be able to ubiquitously function and operate in the various different types of networks that are already deployed and being deployed," said Dwight Sakuma, director of market development for Motorola Inc.'s digital-network-systems group. "There are certain things that we haven't been able to define because specifications were not finalized."
Sakuma said Motorola planned to begin production of retail-ready set-tops in May to be ready for the July deadline.
The news was also welcomed at Philips Consumer Electronics Co., which is producing set-tops for MediaOne Group Inc.
"What Philips is looking for is openness for any standards," director of product strategy Paul Pishal said. "We've been supporting CableLabs all along in the spec writing and interoperability and the ongoing tests. We're excited and totally engaged in making this a success."
David Broberg, director of OpenCable requirements at CableLabs, said another round of interoperability testing will be conducted to work out any kinks and to finalize documents.
The release of the information marks the end of a two-year review process by CableLabs, its members and suppliers. Six OpenCable interim specifications provide vendors with the build-to requirements to begin the implementation stage of OpenCable retail products and PODs.
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