Serafino and All, check out this post over on the HLIT thread:
To: JohnP (2884 )
From: Hiram Walker
Monday, Aug 16 1999 5:36AM ET
Reply # of 2896
Must Read****
teledotcom.com
Techonomics
Is the Future Finally Here?
by Michael Arellano. Michael Arellano is an analyst with Degas
Communications Group Inc.(New York), a market researcher. He can be
reached over the Internet at degascomm@earthlink.net.
One variation of an old cable industry punch line is that interactive
television is the technology of the future--and always will be. AT&T may
be on the verge of turning that joke on its head by creating a technical
infrastructure that could make the future actually happen.
AT&T's hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) telephony trial in Fremont, Calif.,
features HFC nodes serving 600 homes passed. In Salt Lake City,
however, AT&T Broadband Internet Services (formerly TCI) engineers,
working from plans developed five years ago by AT&T Labs, are taking
things a step further and readying a 50-home-per-node trial for the fall.
ITV becomes very interesting at this node density. In full-service HFC
networks, video traffic from the headend to the node is broadcast. The
same 80 to 100 video channels are sent to each node. There, video
signals are put onto coaxial cable in a bus topology, and all the signals are
sent to each home (with some bandwidth reserved for voice and
high-speed data). This differs from traditional telephone networks, in
which a star topology creates a dedicated path from the local switch--the
equivalent of the HFC node--to each subscriber, who only has access to
the signal intended for him or her.
If a Sonet ring links the headend to the HFC nodes, each of which is
connected to the ring by an add/drop multiplexer (ADM), different video
signals can be "dropped off" at each node. In a
600-homes-passed-per-node network--likely with 400 to 500 video
subscribers, many with more than one TV set--this capability doesn't
mean much because the coax from the node to the homes served has a
limit of 80 to 100 channels. If there are only 50 homes passed per node,
true interactive TV--including user control of start time, pause, rewind
and fast-forward (and no trips to the video store)--becomes feasible. It's
still bus topology from the node to the home, but the key is that each
television served has a "private" channel.
This could be the turning point for cable.
As you all know, I have been comparing HLIT to IATV as far as stocks go. HLIT's low for the year is 7 and change and it currently trades at over 89. HLIT supplies the hardware, mostly fiber optic cable components, that is necessary in building out the infrastructure of the digital world we have been waiting for. Now, who do you suppose is going to provide the software for all those "private" channels? The next year should be an exciting time for ACTV and I'm glad to be a shareholder. |
