A new standards-based system is being added to CI Plus, allowing operators to run network services such as video on demand and ad insertion without the need for a set-top box.
The system combines Neotion’s CI Plus module with Tandberg Television’s OpenStream Digital Services Platform. It handles the management of content, session control, billing, catalogue generation, ad-insertion and resource management.
“Consumers want to watch more television on their own schedules and cable operators with VOD and network-based catch-up TV are rewarded with higher service take-up and reduced churn,” comments Edward Allfrey, cable business director, Tandberg Television. “This solution makes it easier and cheaper for cable operators to introduce on-demand, while maintaining full control of the service.”
CI Plus will soon be supported in 80% of Sony digital televisions and approximately 70% of all new integrated Digital TV sets.
Sony and Strategy & Technology, which has developed a data-driven MHEG application that runs within the CI Plus browser in the TV, are also collaborating in the technology that relies on the next generation common interface specification CI Plus supported by Sony and Neotion and their partners in the CI Plus Forum. The addition of network applications emphasises that the technology is more than a means of switching encryption systems.
