The latest generation of conditional access modules produced by Kudelski’s SmarDTV have received CI Plus certification.
Having put the SmarCAM-3.5 through its paces, Digital TV Labs has made a custom development based on the SmarCAM for the official CI Plus Test Tool, which is used for the certification of CI Plus televisions and set-top boxes.
“The successful development and certification of the CI Plus version 1.3 features is a major milestone in the history of our company. Building complex features such as operator profile and VOD into a CAM brings great benefits for operators and also leverages the powerful platform we have developed for our SmarCAM product line,” said Laurent Molac, Vice-President of Engineering at SmarDTV.
The inclusion of the latest deployed specification allows SmarCAMs to offer new features including Operator Profile (the ability for an operator to enable specific channel listing according to privately defined mechanisms) and Video-on-Demand directly to iDTV. These new features bring large benefits to operators and are expected to drive the further penetration of CI Plus modules in the satellite and cable markets in coming years.
Channel ordering has been a particular concern for operators on satellite and cable networks who desire to have defined channel numbers – this is now solved via the new specifications and also the addition of Video-on-Demand has been a consistent request from the cable market in particular,” said Molac, adding that SmarDTV had also collaborated with Digital TV Labs on the testing of IDTVs.
“For our new certification tool, we looked for a reliable module technology which is supported by a trusted partner and provides an efficient development environment, enabling us to build a dependable testing tool and a robust certification regime,” commented Keith Potter, CEO of Digital TV Labs. “Amongst the different platforms evaluated, the SmarCAM appeared to best fulfill these key criteria. Our CI Plus 1.3 certification services are now fully available to the TV industry.”
The members of SmarDTV’s Interoperability Partner Program (CI+ IPP) have already been supplied with SmarCAM-samples, in a bid to ensure that their TVs and STB are interoperable with the SmarCAM even before any field deployment. This partner program addresses a key difficulty of any new technical specification adoption.
