Tru2way™ Technology and Interactive Applications to Take Center Stage at The Cable Show '08

Open Specifications and Technology Drive Growth In Interactive Applications and Tru2way Platform

LOUISVILLE, Colorado — Tru2way™ technology and interactive TV applications will have broad exposure during the cable industry’s premier convention, The Cable Show ’08, being held at the Ernest Morial Convention Center in New Orleans from May 18-20. Tru2way technology, which is the retail brand for the OpenCable™ hardware and OCAP™ (software) technical initiatives, will take center stage at a two-day pre-convention conference for OCAP developers and in more than a dozen demonstrations on the exhibit floor and within the CableNET® pavilion.

“Tru2way will provide a platform for faster and greater innovation,” said Dallas Clement, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Product Management for Cox Communications. “At Cox, we are excited about the prospect of bringing our customers an enhanced, convenient experience at a great value.”

“We’re seeing great response from the application developer community for tru2way™ technology and for the overall enhanced TV effort,” said Mark Hess, Senior Vice President, Digital Television, Comcast Cable Communications. “The industry’s move toward open CableLabs’ specifications and technology is generating great volumes of application development,” he added.

Tru2way technology is an innovative national software platform that enables cable’s interactive services to be delivered to two-way plug and play TVs, set-top boxes and other devices. Tru2way also creates a national footprint for the creators of interactive services to develop products that work on cable systems in nearly every U.S. market. Major cable operators have committed to support the tru2way platform on systems covering more than 90 million U.S. homes by the end of 2008.

A number of application demonstrations based on tru2way technology will be showcased in the CableNET pavilion, including:

• Softel-USA will show the powerful, multiplatform, multi-middleware MediaSphere TX carousel playing both tru2way and ETV interactive applications. Additionally, Softel-USA will demonstrate the ease of application testing with its MediaSphere Desktop and its full head-end-in-a-box. Softel-USA will also exhibit the flexibility and ease-of-use of the web-based MediaSphere Manager configuration and management tool which drives the same API found in the SDK that’s available to all users.
• UniSoft Corporation/Strategy & Technology Ltd (S&T) will show its TSBroadcaster 2.0 for tru2way, to create and broadcast multi-service transport streams containing a number of tru2way and ETV applications. ETV demonstrations will include ad insertion and splicing; ETV and tru2way applications validation; tru2way benchmark testing using Sofia’s Benchmark System; and Generation of authenticated tru2way applications using UniSoft’s tru2way Security File Generator.
• Zodiac Interactive will demonstrate a tru2way-based Zidget framework, which utilizes its plug-in architecture to support applications such as local search, weather, traffic, sports scores, and local news without disrupting the TV viewing experience.

In addition, attendees at The Cable Show ’08 can experience interactive applications, including EBIF-based applications using CableLabs’ enhanced TV specifications, in a number of exhibitors’ booths, including:

• BIAP will demonstrate market-ready EBIF applications including Yellow Pages on TV, eBay on TV, and Personalized Information TV (PiTV) running on BIAP’s EBIF User Agent platform. Additional EBIF and tru2way applications from BIAP include: Election Central 2008 and Fantasy Sports Trackers for football and baseball.
• Cisco Systems will have a number of tru2way applications in its booth, including a demo of Time Warner Cable’s digital navigator program guide; a demo of Comcast’s new iGuide, and demos of Navic Networks’ enhanced programming and advanced advertising.
• CNN News and program guide which is developed by Ensequence and enables international sports news and a program guide for upcoming CNN programming.
• Comcast’s Chill Games application which is being developed by PixelPlay and will offer casual games.
• Comcast Media Center will be introducing a national platform for deploying and managing ETV and tru2way applications at the Comcast Booth.
• Cox Communications’ Next Generation User Interface developed by NDS Group, plc.
• Ensequence will demonstrate tru2way and EBIF interactive TV experiences for WWE and Ford.
• Harmonic is developing interactive, high-quality video-rich navigation technologies for on-demand and user generated content that dramatically enhance the viewer’s experience. Integrated with tru2way, this advanced solution leverages the operator’s existing infrastructure and legacy set-top boxes.
• HSN’s successful “Shop by Remote” service is currently deployed in more than 15 million homes. Working with partners Tandberg and Ensequence, HSN is developing EBIF/tru2way versions of the service for forthcoming launches with major distributors. The service enables consumers to purchase on-air products in real time by remote control through an account with HSN.
• ICTV will demonstrate Social Networking, Web 2.0, personalized mosaics and other applications that combine the strengths of Web functionality and ETV.
• itaas will showcase tru2way and EBIF applications built to be deployed on both Cisco and Motorola set-top boxes including TAG games on demand TV network, Cisco Web Video on TV and Integra5 TV Caller ID. Portability of content from TV to mobile and broadband featuring MPTV Gateway with content from Travel Channel will also be highlighted.
• Motorola will demonstrate the advanced media mobility capabilities of its tru2way platform including whole home DVR, caller ID, external hard drive support and Time Warner’s music and photo sharing application; a demo of Comcast’s next generation guide experience and our PC-based tru2way application development environment will also be shown.
• Navic Networks has developed tru2way applications for advanced advertising, audience measurement and interactive customer care.
• Navic also will demonstrate its HyperCast Network which provides cross-operator management and delivery of EBIF-based interactivity.
• Oberon Media is completing a games service that features games from its portfolio of hundreds of titles that includes licenses from Hasbro, Atari, WPT Enterprises Inc, and the Learning Company. It also integrates Oberon Media’s own patented, proprietary JIVE™ community platform which enables the creation, integration and management of multi-user and multiplayer cross-platform games as well as the ability to obtain in-depth audience measurement analytics.
• QVC is developing the QVC Buy Button, which enables consumers to buy on-air products through a remote control using their QVC account.
• TVWorks provides both Tru2Way and ETV platforms and is developing a number of applications including advanced advertising, personal media and communications, enhanced navigation, member services / customer care, information apps, etc.
• The Weather Channel is creating an application for local weather and airport conditions on demand, being developed with Vidiom Systems.

The focus on tru2way technology and interactive television applications at The Cable Show ’08 builds on the growing momentum for open specifications that let hardware and software vendors develop innovative capabilities that can be broadly deployed on any cable system or consumer electronics device that supports those specifications. At a recent CableLabs’ tru2way interoperability event, 19 companies–including three application developers who were participating for the first time–were able to test their latest products within an end-to-end tru2way system.