C-Cube boxes...........................
Just these...........................
PowerTV has ported its OS to work with Pioneer New Media Technologies Inc.'s "Passport" program guide, though, and it is working with Pace Micro Technology plc in its U.S. deployments, chief operating officer Bow Rodgers said.
multichannel.com
Broadband Week for January 24, 2000
Set-Top Software Rivals Target Different Niches
By DAVID ILER January 24, 2000
Liberate Technologies, the bright comet that flared across the set-top-box software world last year, is kicking up more sparks in 2000.
Last week, on the heels of its Jan. 13 acquisition of Source Media Inc.'s "VirtualModem" technology, Liberate announced that Canada's Shaw Communications Inc., a Liberate investor, will deploy its software for interactive-TV services.
The Calgary, Alberta-based MSO plans to make interactive services available to more than 300,000 subscribers in the second half of this year.
Liberate's announcements coincided with news from both PowerTV Inc. and Microsoft Corp. as the set-top-box software sector enters a crucial period of development.
Venerable set-top-box operating-system maker and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. subsidiary PowerTV said Jan. 12 that it was integrating Sun Microsystems Inc.'s "PersonalJava" into its platform.
And entertainment-on-demand and interactive developer Intertainer Inc. was named the first company to offer a PersonalJava-enabled service on the PowerTV platform.
Overshadowing the news, though, was revived speculation that PowerTV would be spun off from S-A, allowing PowerTV to compete in set-top platforms outside of S-A's.
Officially, S-A and PowerTV are mum on any plans to spin off PowerTV, citing a quiet period in anticipation of an earnings report due this week. "PowerTV's board has not yet approved an IPO [initial public offering]," an S-A official said on condition of anonymity.
S-A has told analysts that it could take PowerTV public this year.
Meanwhile, at the recent Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft Corp. outlined a new version of its "Windows CE" OS. According to Alan Yates, director of TV-platform marketing for Microsoft's WebTV Networks division, a few of the new enhancements to WinCE will make their way into "Microsoft TV," the company's set-top client/server platform.
These software makers are positioning themselves for what is expected to be an eventful year.
"We think this year is a breakout year for advanced-TV and interactive services," Yates said, adding that he expects AT&T Broadband & Internet Services to roll out set-tops equipped with Microsoft TV client software sometime this year.
With Liberate staking new ground following a wildly successful IPO last year, giving it a market capitalization of more than $7.5 billion, PowerTV is assuredly looking at what a comparable war chest could mean for extending its products beyond the S-A hardware platform.
"PowerTV has to get over the hurdle of being owned by a set-top-box company," said Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst with research firm Cahners In-Stat Group (a sister company to Multichannel News).
While several high-profile agreements have been announced between cable operators and software companies, including Microsoft's $5 billion investment in AT&T Corp., the playing field for set-top software -- especially the middleware layer that resides between the OS and specific applications -- is still wide open.
As Michael Adams, principle network architect for Time Warner Cable, pointed out, a middleware layer that can run several applications on multiple set-top boxes/digital-ready TVs and future iterations of those devices is a crucial component of digital-services implementation.
Time Warner, he added, is still evaluating several middleware layers to run on its digital boxes, but it has yet to choose one.
Formed in 1994 with seed money from S-A, which remains an 80 percent stakeholder, PowerTV boasts an installed base of more than 1 million set-tops using its OS. But it has not been able to capture market share outside of S-A set-top deployments.
PowerTV has ported its OS to work with Pioneer New Media Technologies Inc.'s "Passport" program guide, though, and it is working with Pace Micro Technology plc in its U.S. deployments, chief operating officer Bow Rodgers said.
Those relationships pale in comparison with Liberate's long list of business deals.
While Liberate technically offers application software, as opposed to an OS, PowerTV is positioning itself to "providing the entire software stack," including OS and middleware, Rodgers said.
He emphasized PowerTV's use of "Java," HTML (HyperText Markup Language), "JavaScript" and PersonalJava to offer flexibility to application developers and network operators alike. PowerTV offers a suite of applications for its platform, including e-mail and Web browsing.
With VirtualModem, Liberate will be able to offer a much thinner client than its "TV Navigator" client for Motorola Inc.'s General Instrument Corp. "DCT-2000" and "DCT-1200" set-tops, Liberate vice president of marketing Charlie Tritschler said.
"We really wanted to take advantage of the platform out there today," he said, noting that there are 4.5 million DCT-1200 and DCT-2000 boxes in the field.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has targeted the upcoming advanced digital set-top for Microsoft TV, which Yates said will include components of the new version of WinCE that relate to TV devices.
For example, "DirectX," Microsoft's graphics technology, will make its way into Microsoft TV. DirectX "supports a much more flexible and rich graphics environment for TV display," Yates said.
This year will be key for Microsoft as it expects AT&T Broadband and Canada's Rogers Communications Inc. -- in which Microsoft owns stakes -- to begin rollouts of advanced digital set-tops with Microsoft client software installed in some configuration.
Yates called those rollouts "North American showcases" for Microsoft TV technology. "We expect many more network operators to jump on the bandwagon," he added.
While Microsoft's software has yet to take to the field in a set-top, Yates pointed to the company's experience in platform development.
"People tend to overlook how complex it is to fully support a platform," he said. This includes ensuring backward compatibility, scaling to high volumes and supporting peripheral devices, such as printers, DVD players and hard drives.
"We understand the platform business, and we know how to bring it to a mass-market consumer scale," he said, adding that future versions of Microsoft TV will feature real-time performance guarantees and TV connectivity to home networks.
Whether or not cable operators buy into a single vendor for OS and middleware software on advanced digital set-top boxes remains to be seen.
Kaufhold said In-Stat has been asked by its clients to project what the set-top box will look like in 2002. "We're still trying to figure it out," he added.
Kaufhold and the industry may not have to wait long, as operators such as Time Warner are reaching critical masses of installed digital set-tops. "Things are happening more quickly than we thought," Adams said.
Working quietly behind the quickly unfolding events is Cable Television Laboratories Inc.'s OpenCable project, a fast-track effort to establish standards for interoperable set-top boxes.
CableLabs accepted more than one-dozen requests for proposals for the middleware component of set-top software last year, indicating that the level of interest by software companies is intense. "The real money is in middleware," Kaufhold said.
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