ANGA Cable 2008 Preview: Nagravision/Kudelski Group, hall 10.2 stand E11
Nagravision is showing its low-OPEX on-demand solution, which it claims will “immediately generate incremental revenues for cable MSOs, satellite operators and telcos”, thereby downplaying its battered conditional access core business.
Nagravision says it aims to foster an open retail market of home devices as it not only drives service adoption, but is also a key lever for an operator to control the most important element in capital expenditure. However, at the show Nagra will also demonstrate its efforts in the development of the CI+ standard for the use of seperate conditional access modules in set-top-boxes “ensuring the interests of both service providers and content owners are protected”.
However, as the standard is not backwards compatible with the existing DVB CI standard it leaves all the consumers that have bought and are buying current common interface enabled receivers at full retail prices out in the cold.
Also on show will be the testing capabilities Nagra acquired with TESC, which is currently testing and certifying over 150 set-top box models a year.
Sharing the stage will be a range of interactive applications and userinterfaces, such as the OpenTV Advanced User Interface, offering content navigation functionality and scheduled to come to market from 2009 onwards. Also included are NagraGuide interactive applications on HD and SD PVR set-top boxes running on OpenTV middleware.
Running on a Sony Cable ready iDTV (integrated digital television set), the SmarDTV CI+ browser (running on a seperate plug-in module) is set to enable operators to offer an uniform on-screen look and feel across different platforms, including retail market TV sets.
SmartDTV is also offering secure delivery of digital Pay-TV to PCs via removable USB devices. For IPTV services there will be the NagraIP Cardless CA/DRM solution, on show. The Nagravision and G&D µSD/SD card with embedded security provides a combination of convenient media portability and content security.
In mobile TV, Nagravision says it will show an advanced time-shift TV service that is fully transparent to the viewing device.