By David Alsobrook , Director of Business Development, Connected Home Solutions, Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group

It’s a big day here at Cisco (and it’s not just because it’s Halloween and there are bowls of candy everywhere…!)

Today, we go to market with AT&T with an industry first: IPTV set-tops equipped with video-optimized Wi-Fi. AT&T calls it the “AT&T U-verse TV Wireless Receiver” — a first-ever way to arrange your TV to go with your life, furniture, and living environment.

Guests for the weekend? Move the TV to the guest room. Wish you could have three TVs to follow this weekend’s games? Go for it.   With this no new wires solution, the “plumbing” is no longer an issue.

We Cisco people call it our ISB7005 wireless set-top box and our VEN401 wireless access point.  One is a set-top that can be located anywhere in the house; the other is a video-optimized wireless access point. Read More »

Tags: AT&T, dvr, isb7005, Service Provider, stb, tv, u-verse tv wireless receiver, ven401, videoscape, wireless receiver

If you read the trade press, service provider video business models are under assault.  IPTV operators are challenged by the high cost of video services, while traditional pay-TV operators are seeing growing OTT traffic threatening their cost and revenue structures.  Amidst all this, ACG Research recently reported that the service provider video infrastructure market grew 4.5% sequentially in Q2 2011, to $3.5 billion.  According to ACG, Cisco grew its market leadership position in the overall service provider video infrastructure market to 41.9%, added three share points in the CMTS market to 65.8%, and gained a commanding 34.6% share in the IPTV set top box market.

What’s contributing to this growth? Two factors: an evolving understanding of video, and an appreciation of the shifting composition of network traffic. Read More »

Tags: ACG Research, broadband, cmts, IPTV, Service Provider, stb, video

By Everth Flores, Director & GM, Service Provider Video EMEA, Cisco

Quite the feeding frenzy this week over an expected bit of news about our partner, Virgin Media, and its supply chain plans for digital set-top boxes! Yeesh.

The facts: Per a long-standing agreement, we manufacture and supply TiVo-based digital set-top boxes to Virgin, as well as to Ono in Spain. To date, we’ve been the sole supplier of those devices — with the certain understanding that Virgin, like any sensibly minded operator, would at some point introduce a second source. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, ono, samsung, Service Provider, set top box, stb, tivo, video, virgin media