The Change Mariner

Device Could Enable Massive Bandwidth for CableCos

DetroitNews.com:
...Pace Micro Technology unveiled at cable's annual convention here what it calls the "world's first" inexpensive digital-to-analog signal converter.

These devices, about the size of two cigarette packs, could enable cable systems to transmit lots of high-definition TV (HDTV), video phone connections, video on demand and far faster high-speed Internet connections.

...Operators envision buying millions of these converters — or similar ones planned by Motorola and others — and putting them on virtually every TV owned by their nearly 72 million customers. Then operators can stop transmitting analog signals and go all-digital.

That's a big deal. Analog TV channels consume about 65% of the bandwidth on most modern systems — and operators can squeeze as many as eight digital channels into the bandwidth that each analog channel now fills

...An HDTV channel takes two to three channels of analog capacity," says Kagan World Media chief content officer Larry Gerbrandt. "So it's a better use of bandwidth."

Some also see using the capacity for services satellite and phone companies can't easily match.

"What may drive us to use a device like that is the ability to mix voice with video and data — like with games, where you could talk" to opponents, says Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt.

The Pace adapter is attractive, executives say, because it's small and inexpensive. The model on display this week would sell for about $70 and would feed signals to both a TV and a VCR.