OpenCAS Specifications Submitted to Standards Body for Review
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Open Interface to Help Spur Vendor Competition, New Consumer Services and Retail Availability of Set-Top Boxes
MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 1999-- A consortium of cable and broadcast operators, equipment manufacturers and content providers today submitted for approval a new set of open cable standards that will enhance services, increase competition and give greater choice to U.S. cable television consumers.
The specifications, submitted by the 22-member OpenCAS consortium to the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, define the interface between conditional access systems -- the gatekeeper of cable television programming -- and other cable television broadcast, or head-end, equipment. The interface specifications, a key to opening the current cable television infrastructure system to open-market competition among makers of non-proprietary conditional access systems, promise to help pave the way to the sale of set-top boxes at retail stores.
''The OpenCAS specifications will benefit everyone from cable system operators to consumers,'' said John Carlucci, chairman of OpenCAS and a DiviCom engineer. ''Among other advantages, an OpenCAS interface will give cable operators greater equipment choice and allow them to expand services, ease entry into the infrastructure component market for new vendors, and intensify competition among set-top box manufacturers as the devices move closer to retail availability. The OpenCAS connection will also enable head-end manufacturers to expand their equipment offerings.''
''The OpenCAS initiative is a breakthrough in the digital world, bringing with it all the key values that the cable industry needs for greater service availability,'' said Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst with Cahner's In-Stat Group, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based consultancy. ''Conditional Access prevents pirating of digital content, and must be in place before new digital OpenCable TV services are deployed. The OpenCAS initiative will accelerate the roll-outs of key applications such as interactive television and in-band data broadcasting. The 22 companies that comprise the OpenCAS consortium are already industry leaders who have enough combined clout to drive this initiative that will give cable operators the freedom to choose best-of-breed equipment.''
The OpenCAS interface is also expected to cut system integration time among set-top and head-end manufacturers and cable operators, and help bring innovative services such as video-on-demand and interactive TV to consumers sooner.
''OpenCAS is going to open up an entire new world for consumers and how they view cable television,'' Carlucci said. ''For example, OpenCAS will accelerate the development and adoption of digital cable-ready television, a much-anticipated product.''
While the specifications, referred to as OpenCAS 1.0, were submitted today, official SCTE review won't begin until the standards group's December 13 meeting. The review is expected to take six to eight months, followed by balloting that could take another two to three months.
Making up the OpenCAS consortium are more than 20 companies working to complement efforts by Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs), an industry group that launched the OpenCable(TM) initiative in 1997 to establish open interfaces for set-top boxes and other cable-network devices. CableLabs has since conducted the first successful test of an interoperable point-of-deployment module, a credit card-sized consumer device that slips into set-tops and allows households to plug in boxes from different manufacturers. OpenCable promises to spawn a new generation of set-top boxes that deliver digital video, data, and interactive services.
As OpenCable members worked to establish interfaces geared toward opening the set-top box connection, other companies also saw a need to specify the CAS head-end interface and launched OpenCAS to pursue that goal.
In a parallel but separate effort from the OpenCable initiative, the OpenCAS consortium began to craft specifications between head-end and CAS equipment for ANSI due-process standardization. The OpenCAS specifications are based on proven DVB Simulcrypt technology in use throughout most of the world, but with modifications for North American applications.
Comprising the OpenCAS consortium are ABC/Disney (NYSE:DIS - news), Canal+, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - news), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA - news), Cox (NYSE:COX - news), DiviCom (NASDAQ:CUBE - news), General Instrument (NYSE:GIC - news), Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT - news), Liberate (NASDAQ:LBRT - news), MediaOne (NYSE:UMG - news), Mindport (NASDAQ:MIHL - news), NagraVision (SWX:KUD), NDS (NASDAQ:NNDS - news), Philips (NYSE:PHG - news), Pioneer (NYSE:PIO - news), Samsung, SCM Microsystems (NASDAQ:SCMM - news), Scientific Atlanta (NYSE:SFA - news), SkyStream, Sony (NYSE:SNE - news), Thomson Consumer Electronics (NYSE:TMS - news), and Time Warner (NYSE:TWX - news).
OpenCAS
To learn more about the OpenCAS initiative and its participating companies, visit www.opencas.com.
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