Pegasus...................................
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Time Warner Sets '98 Rollout for Pegasus
By LESLIE ELLIS
Time Warner Cable's key digital set-top supplier, Scientific-Atlanta Inc., is well beyond prototypes for the "Pegasus" box -- but don't look for any commercial launches until early next year.
Mike Hayashi, vice president of advanced-network technology for Time Warner, said laboratory and field tests will continue through the remainder of the year, followed by commercial deployments in early 1998.
Hayashi didn't describe the launch as late. Instead, he said, Time Warner -- with lots of experience with delays from the now-defunct Full Service Network in Orlando, Fla. -- built extra time into its internal launch schedule.
"It's looking more like early next year," Hayashi said, saying that sometimes, vendor shipping schedules are more aggressive than reality dictates. "We're pretty happy with where we are now," he added.
Last Tuesday, a troop of key Time Warner technical executives descended on S-A's new digital center in Atlanta to discuss product-development milestones, said Bob Van Orden, director of digital-video-systems business for S-A.
And S-A isn't outside of the gaze of Microsoft Corp., Van Orden said, noting, "A lot of people, including our friends up in Seattle, think that [S-A's Explorer 2000 digital set-top] would be an interesting category for the industry."
While Van Orden declined to discuss specific business and technical milestones reached by the manufacturer, he did say that all of the hardware has been developed and manufactured, and S-A is in the software and systems-integration phase now.
S-A's headend hardware is being manufactured in Atlanta, and its Explorer 2000 set-tops are being made in Mexico, he said.
Van Orden said he also expects the manufacturing engine to start really cranking up within the first two months of next year.
"We start field tests very, very shortly, and those will continue through the latter part of this year," he said.
Time Warner executives have declined to discuss test or launch locations, but sources close to the project pointed to the MSO's Austin, Texas, system as a likely candidate.
Three other Time Warner sites have also been identified as initial targets for the digital-video gear, sources said.
At last year's Western Show, Time Warner signed a contract with S-A for "up to" 550,000 digital set-tops, priced at under $400.
At the time, Time Warner executives said that S-A's Explorer 2000 set-tops would start rolling into the MSO's systems this fall, citing the need for a "seamless weave" of analog video, digital-broadcast video and Road Runner high-speed-data service.
Since the contract was signed, S-A added an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) engine to an existing technology roster of IP (Internet protocol) addressing, and a built-in Ethernet port so that the box can also act as a cable modem.
"It sure seems as though the S-A box has most of the OpenCable elements that the industry is seeking," said one financial analyst, who asked not to be identified. He was referring to an ongoing industry quest, anchored by Cable Television Laboratories Inc., to identify interoperability specifications for digital set-tops.
The OpenCable group holds a meeting at Time Warner's Stamford, Conn., headquarters this Wednesday (Oct. 29), as it tries to "fast-track" the process to completion.
Time Warner still plans to buy up to 200,000 digital terminals from Pioneer New Media Technologies and roughly 250,000 from Toshiba America Inc., bringing the MSO's total order to 1 million boxes.
One thing is certain, said Hayashi and James Chiddix, the MSO's chief technical officer: Time Warner will not put its digital set-top plans on hold to wait for the "new-and-improved" terminals that come out of the OpenCable set-top initiative.
"Pegasus is not about the box: It's about the network," Hayashi explained, saying that the Pegasus specification was written to include many aspects that OpenCable is now debating, including the use of IP and real-time two-way functions.
"If we design Pegasus correctly, it will allow us to have multiple types of boxes in the field," Hayashi said.
Hayashi added that beyond interoperability issues -- which are tightly coupled to a retail set-top model that will give relief to MSO capital budgets -- OpenCable also holds a powerful draw for content-creators.
That's because content-developers want to write applications once that will run on what will likely be many millions of cable set-tops.
"Let's say you own this big software company, and you're looking to made content for analog boxes, as an example," Hayashi explained. "First, you try to write for the [S-A] 8600x, and then, you write it again to run on the [NextLevel Systems Inc.] CFT2200, and, pretty soon, you're saying, 'This is pretty stupid. I want to write it once,'" Hayashi said. "We want to enable them in that goal." |
