Broadcom making channel change FastR

IBC 2010 – Hall 2, Stand C39. Not everything changed for the good with the arrival of digital television. Set-top-boxes took several seconds to change from one channel to the next, setting off a drive to faster silicon and software to replicate the old fashioned zapping experience.

Broadcom claims its new FastRTV technology accelerates digital television channel changes to near instantaneous speeds, enabling cable providers to speed up digital channel change by up to five times.

As it works with existing conditional access systems and doesn’t require changes to broadcast streams, the channel zapping acceleration technology acts as a drop in replacement for Broadcom’s current line-up of cable box chips.

To help it transition from analogue to standard definition digital TV broadcasts, US MSO Comcast has become the first service provider to deploy Broadcom’s FastRTV channel change acceleration technology in its universal digital transport adapters (uDTA).

According to Steve Reynolds, senior VP, customer premise equipment, at Comcast: “Broadcom’s FastRTV technology is an innovative solution that improves the channel change times to nearly instant speeds. As we continue to transition our customers from analogue to digital broadcast, this is a significant benefit in addition to the improved picture quality and increased capacity for advanced services that an all-digital platform offers”.

The FastRTV zapping acceleration is now available in Broadcom’s BCM7400, BCM7405, BCM7420, BCM7410, BCM7119, BCM7125, BCM7019 and BCM7025 cable STB chips. It is also available across the BCM70xx SD and the BCM75xx HD product family for universal digital transport adapters.