Cable's Second Wind: TV Has Never Seen Cable Like This Before
Cable TV revolutionized television in the 1970s by offering the TV viewing public the widest and most diversified variety of programming ever available. Two decades later, cable is poised to do it again, this time by leading the race to bring high speed Internet power not just to the computer, but to the TV as well.
Maybe you've already heard something about cable modems, advanced set top boxes, broadband networks and fat pipes. For the Internet savvy, this means PC connection speeds of up to 50 times faster than are possible with a 56Kbps modem and a standard phone line. For avid TV viewers, it means seamlessly adding e-mail, video-on- demand, interactive TV listings, and full, multimedia Web content to traditional TV fare. For society at large, it means that as the realm of the Internet continues to grow at brain- numbing speeds, its fusion with television will make it more understandable and palatable to those in danger of being left behind in the digital dust. Enhanced, interactive, smart TV is coming for real, and cable stands ready as the pipe to deliver it to millions.
Fat Pipe Skinny
With the advent, popularization and standardization of cable modems, a traditional TV conduit has been enlisted in the quest for faster, cheaper Internet bandwidth. In many large cable markets across the country, the race is on among operators to become cable- based Internet Service Providers. While we may wince at the prospect of our cable companies providing Internet access, our collective customer service could actually improve as cable operators vie to seduce enough consumers to make cable Internet profitable. Competition is stiff among ISPs and there's no exclusive distribution arrangement when it comes to the Internet, as there is with TV.
Cable will provide the so-called "broadband pipes" in a couple of different ways. Cable modems will connect it to the PC, and digital set-top boxes will connect it to the TV. Both connections will give people the ability to download large, multimedia-rich files from the Web in a fraction of the time, including high resolution graphics, stereo sound, animation, and full-motion video. Currently, millions of people in several major urban markets in the U.S. can already connect their PCs to the Internet with a cable modem and network card (see chart, page XXX). This connection affords them a one- way pipe that delivers data up to 10 times faster than a 56 Kbps modem. Users download data through the cable, but use a phone line for their Internet "back-channel."
On the near horizon is a digital set-top box that connects the TV to the Internet. It will be similar in appearance to an existing cable box, but will offer much, much more. The digital, or advanced, set-top box promises to deliver interactivity, multimedia, e-mail and the Web to people who are only now vaguely familiar with the power this access can afford. The cable-Internet-TV connection will likely be a hybrid version of what we currently see when we interact with either the Web or our TVs. The interface will be tailored to the TV user who wields a remote from the couch rather than a keyboard from the desk, resulting in something altogether different from either.
"We've moved from…a simple browser experience to creating a personalized experience with people's Web space and e-mails," said Thomas Jermoluk, CEO of @Home Network at an online services conference earlier this year. @Home is the largest cable-based integrated service provider in the nation. "It's not a browser experience; it's not a Web surfing experience. It is, in fact, a media experience; it's a programmed media experience utilizing this broadband capability."
This is an important element, as people are bombarded with more and more information and entertainment and ways to get it. Recent studies indicate that TV watching has declined with the rise of the Internet, but fusing the two could serve to stem the tide of viewer defection from the TV.
"From a marketing perspective, people are accustomed to paying for cable. They add their Internet costs to their cable costs, and it seems it's easier for them to justify. It turns out that the high-speed Internet access you can get with a cable modem is very compelling," says Paul Ashcraft, senior partner for the Envision Group in Torrance, CA, a market research firm.
The Promise
Just as it did for TV in the 70s, cable is again poised to blow the doors wide open for new worlds of choice in entertainment and information content. Only this time, wider pipes, computer smarts and Internet delivery standards mean unprecedented interactivity. With new versions of consumer software like RealNetwork's RealPlayer G2, Microsoft's NetShow, Apple's Quicktime and Macromedia's Shockwave, the possibilities are astounding. Essentially, all multimedia currently available on the Internet, including streaming video, streaming audio and animation, would be available at a speed and quality only dreamed of with the typical modems installed in today's PC desktops.
Brian Hurst, President of Tandem Intermedia, a new media strategic planning firm, says that viewers are particularly interested in interactive sports, news, edutainment, commerce, and game content. Intertainer is a good example of the new types of content cable viewers can expect with the introduction of cable modems. Offered initially in Philadelphia and Arizona, Intertainer is the first aggregator to use a broadband delivery system for on-demand entertainment and shopping. New sites by CNN (www.cnn.com), NBC (www.videoseekers.com) and American Interactive Media (www.comedynet.com) also expect to tap the advantages of broadband by offering exclusive content and more full-motion video on their sites.
Online commerce is also expected to be a substantial draw. While shopping and purchasing goods online still makes some people nervous, e- commerce is expected to boom to $3.8 billion by 2002, according to an estimate by Forrester Research.
Video-on-demand offers subscribers instant, interactive access to movies, sitcoms, dramas, documentaries, music videos, educational programming, kids shows, game shows, adult channels and whatever else they might want. It was supposed to make interactive TV a hit in the early 1990s, but fizzled under the pressure of exorbitant costs and viewer nonchalance. Today, the technology is far less expensive and because of the Internet, people are more aware of what instant access to personal content is supposed to feel like. Video on demand is expected to be a very popular feature of the new cable-based broadband networks.
Broadband connections also make networked games more exciting. Not only will you be able to play popular favorites like Myst and Raven online, but be prepared for a new kind of video game. Expect high definition video backgrounds where users immerse themselves in a 3D holadeck-type of experience. Participants pick the story line, the characters, and the amount of time they want to play.
More "traditional" online multiplayer games like Quake or Ultima will also get an edge from the faster connection. With the convergence of high speed data and communications, larger hard drives, 3D acceleration chips, and blazing CPUs, (along with digital TV) lots of interesting things will be happening, according to Robert Berzins Grand Webmaster for Interplay, a game developer.
The Players
Each of the major cable multiple service operators, including Time Warner, TCI, Comcast and MediaOne, currently offer cable modem PC connections to the home in their major urban markets. They each have also announced plans to offer digital set-top box services to subscribers. The largest broadband content service provider is @Home. Other broadband services include Time Warner's RoadRunner and MediaOne's Express.
For the up-and-coming digital set-top box arena, the two dominant manufacturers are Scientific Atlanta and General Instrument. SI has agreements with Media One, Cox, TimeWarner, and Comcast to deploy its Explorer 2000 advanced set-top box to test markets this year. The General Instrument digital set-top box is scheduled for deployment in TCI markets next year. It will include Microsoft Windows CE, a stripped-down version of the full PC operating system designed for the appliance market. The TCI deal has attracted more attention than the Scientific-Atlanta deployment because it involves a Microsoft foray into TV, but the Scientific Atlanta box will be first to market.
Costs for the new set-top services will vary from service to service, but will probably be similar to what people pay now for premium cable services, suggests Caroline March-Long, a spokesperson for Scientific-Atlanta. PC-based cable modem services also vary, but as an example, subscribers to the @Home network typically pay $29.95 to $49.95 per month, depending on the cable provider and whether the user purchases or leases the cable modem. Add to that a one-time installation fee that runs between $99 and $175 and includes installing the Ethernet card in the computer, splitting and running the cable wire to the home computer, installation and configuration of the customized browser and an overview of the service.
When the fat pipe reaches the TV in force, along with @Home and RoadRunner some of the leading broadband content and service providers vying for eyeballs will include ICTV, ACTV and the Interactive Channel. The cable companies will strike partnerships with one or more of these providers to provide custom, localized interface and content selections based on area demographics and customer preferences. It remains to be seen, of course, who really ends up delivering what and when it happens. When the dust settles, both the consumer and whichever companies are left standing will reap the rewards.
The Specs
The term cable "modem" itself is relatively new and refers to a box that acts as a bridge or router connected to a computer and operates over ordinary coaxial cable TV lines. The new generation of cable modems being introduced in the U.S. is based on a standard recently adopted by the OpenCable project called MCNS (Multimedia Cable Network Systems). MCNS is a set of specifications for transmission schemes, digital video transport, and implementation for data encryption. This standard is important both for quality and security. Competing technologies like the digital subscriber lines (DSLs) offered by telecommunication companies, currently lack standards and face significant technological hurdles.
Cable TV frequently operates on a hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) broadband network, which is able to support both the bandwidth requirements and the flexibility to support a full range of analog and digital cable modems provide. These could include Internet data, digital cable television, analog cable TV, and video-on-demand. Cable modems attach to this network using a common computer network protocol called Ethernet. The "modem" attaches to the same coaxial cable in the house used for cable TV, and the cable TV operator connects a Cable Modem Termination System (CTMS) in his end (the Head End). Unlike a regular phone modem, which is a private point to point connection, the cable "modem" network is a shared local area Ethernet network, similar to those used in businesses.
The Future
Ideally the cable companies would like cable modems to be as easy to install as phone modems. Consumers could buy them at CompUSA, Good Guys, Egghead, Circuit City or any specialty retailer, install them in their PCs, sign up with the cable operator as the ISP, and everyone's in business. The cable modem set-top box will bring the high speed access to everyone else. It's a grand vision, but if cable modems and digital set-top boxes can deliver on their promises to provide two-way Internet connection on the cable, speeds from 10 to 100 times faster than today's fastest telephone modems, and an Internet connection that's always on but doesn't tie up a phone line, they are bound to popular.
"It's somewhat ironic that in the beginning, the Internet and the digital cable set- top box were seen as competitors. Now, we see the Internet and high-speed cable modems driving the consumer demand for the set-top box." Says Ashcraft of the Envision Group. "I think the digital set-top box will be a success. The Internet will push it over the top."
Jody Baram is a freelance writer, designer and television consultant. Read her first-hand account of what it's like to live with a perpetual Internet cable modem connection on the Smart TV Web site at www.smarttvmag.com.
Digg This!
del.icio.us
Technorati
Reddit