Arris has been tabbed as a “key participant" in the development of WorldBox 2.0, a next-gen video platform that Charter Communications will be rolling across its footprint.

The announcement for the next-gen WorldBox also comes on the heels of a warrant agreement in which Charter can buy up to 6 million shares of Arris based on certain product purchases over the next two years.  

RELATED: Charter, Arris Ink Warrant Agreement

Like the first generation of the WorldBox, the 2.0 version will also be a hybrid IP/QAM platform that features a cloud-based interface. However, the new iteration, they said, will expand on Charter’s current downloadable conditional access capabilities and enhance legacy hardware-based security systems implemented across Charter’s new footprint.

RELATED: Charter Lights Data Centers for Downloadable Security

That combination will enable faster and more cost-effective deployment of the new platform, the companies said, noting that the new devices will support built-in security processing capabilities that are “now available in generic chipsets.” WorldBox 2.0 will also feature advanced graphics capabilities and processing power, they said.

Arris, which acquired U.K.-based Pace plc in January 2016 and Motorola Home in 2013, is the world’s largest supplier of set-top boxes, and apparently will be joining Charter’s mix of WorldBox  suppliers. Technicolor (via the acquisition of Cisco Systems’s set-top and CPE business nearly a year ago) and Humax are the other known WorldBox suppliers.

RELATED: Humax Enters Charter’s ‘Worldbox’ Orbit

Arris and Charter are also joint owners of ActiveVideo, the vendor that is enabling the MSO’s cloud-powered Spectrum guide on Charter’s prior-generation set-tops. Charter has already introduced Spectrum Guide in markets such as Fort Worth, Texas; and Reno, Nev. It’s made to run on the WorldBox as well as legacy, MPEG/QAM-only set-top.

Speaking on Charter’s Q2 call in August, company CEO Tom Rutledge said the plan is to have Spectrum Guide available in most legacy Charter markets by the end of 2016, and to launch it in some of the larger former Time Warner Cable markets by mid-2017, followed by rollouts in other TWC and Bright House markets through 2018.

"While Charter is focused on providing a secure video product on all devices, WorldBox 2.0 provides the same advanced video experience consumers are demanding on traditional television sets, and gives Charter the flexibility to deploy a single platform across our entire expanded network," Jim Blackley, Charter’s EVP, engineering and IT, said in a statement. "Our ongoing work with ARRIS – in developing this platform, including the downloadable security component – and the establishment of the warrant program, speaks to the strength of our long-standing relationship and the value of ARRIS's expertise in large-scale, next-generation deployments."

"We share Charter's vision for a new era of entertainment technology that leverages the power of the network and cloud to adapt to its subscribers' evolving needs," added Bruce McClelland, CEO of Arris. "With WorldBox 2.0, we're bringing to bear our expertise and scale to help Charter deliver next-gen entertainment experiences that will transform the way that its millions of subscribers will watch TV and access their favorite content on traditional television sets."

Charter Communications shed a bit more light on its downloadable security system, telling the FCC in a filing last week that it had completed two national centralized data centers to support the new platform.

Charter will be deploying the downloadable security platform in tandem with the rollout of the new IP-capable “Worldbox,” and has been rolling it out in dual-security boxes that supports an integrated form of Charter’s legacy security systems as well as the new version.

Charter deployed those dual-security boxes under an FCC waiver that expired at the end of 2015, and told the FCC last week that it was supporting 2.77 million set-tops with integrated security that were covered by that waiver. The FCC’s ban on integrated security boxes ended on Dec. 4, 2015, and is preparing to vote on a new set of set-top box rules.

“Charter commenced its deployments of a new downloadable Worldbox in 2015 and is readying deployment of Worldbox in markets throughout its footprint,” the MSO told the FCC in the filing, calling it a “closing declaration certifying its deployment of a downloadable security system.”

Speaking on Charter’s Q3 2015 call last fall, company president and CEO Tom Rutledge said the MSO was initiating deployments of its new cloud-based Spectrum guide and the Worldbox in St. Louis, Mo., and in Reno, Nev., adding that the MSO was about six weeks behind its original rollout schedule as it ironed out software issues. Humax and Cisco Systems are the known suppliers of the Worldbox (Technicolor acquired Cisco’s set-top box business last year).

Charter’s expected to provide an update on the rollout when it reports Q4 results on Thursday (February 4).

Though one aim of using boxes with downloadable security is to reduce the costs of the devices, Charter customers are not able to lease those devices at lower costs than the fees for Charter’s legacy set-tops, at least not in the early phases of deployment. “Lease charges for downloadable Worldboxes and for CableCARD-enabled set-top boxes are derived from a common equipment basket and are therefore the same,” Charter told the FCC.

Per the conditions of waiver granted by the FCC in April 2013, Charter said discussions with “a consumer electronics manufacturer are continuing,” and that the focus is on an app-based approach for service delivery, similar to Charter’s TV apps for iOS, Android, amazon Kindle and, moset recently, on Roku retail devices. Charter hasn’t announced that CE partner, but the MSO and TiVo have been in talks about a retail solution that would use Charter’s new downloadable security platform.

Charter said it met the public interest condition of making broadband service of 100 Mbps or greater available to 200,000 additional homes ahead of schedule, and is closing in on the completion of its digital conversion, noting that 99% of its subs have converted to all-digital.

Charter Communications has begun to deploy its new “Worldbox” to paying customers, the MSO revealed in a recent FCC filing that updated the Commission on the MSO’s rollout of a new downloadable security platform for set-tops and other types of video devices.

While the Worldbox is a device that is being leased by the operator, industry sources also confirm that Charter and TiVo are in talks about a retail solution that would employ the new downloadable security platform.

Charter, the MSO told the FCC, “deployed its first new Worldboxes to paying customers using downloadable security in April, 2015, and continues to ramp up the deployment of the downloadable security system throughout Charter’s systems. Enabling the Worldbox in any given footprint requires changes and additions to many pieces of the video delivery system, and those deployments are underway.”

Charter declined to comment further on its rollout of the Worldbox, a hybrid IP/QAM device that has at least two approved suppliers – Humax and Cisco Systems (which is in the process of selling its set-top and CPE business to Technicolor).

The Worldbox runs Charter’s new cloud-based Spectrum Guide, developed with ActiveVideo (Charter and Arris now own ActiveVideo via a joint venture). Charter has been testing the UI in Fort Worth, Texas, and has expressed plans to test it in markets such as Reno, Nev., and St. Louis.

Charter mentioned the Worldbox deployment update in a semi-annual report that it must file with the FCC per a condition for a waiver the MSO obtained in 2013 that allowed Charter to use dual-mode boxes equipped with integrated security and the operator’s new downloadable platform. Per the filing, Charter has deployed more than 2.67 million STBs with integrated security covered by the waiver as of June 30.

A condition of that waiver also requires Charter to engage in “good faith negotiations” with a CE manufacturer that intends to develop a set-top box to be sold at retail in the U.S. that uses Charter’s downloadable security system.

Regarding that status, Charter said talks with a CE manufacturer commenced in 2013 and that those talks are ongoing. Charter noted that it is “now awaiting further progress on technical details,” adding that talks with additional CE manufacturers commenced in the second quarter of 2015.

It appears that TiVo is one of the CE companies involved in those discussions.

TiVo, in a separate FCC filing about the company's interest in seeking clarity on cable’s ongoing support of CableCARDs, offered this nugget: “The TiVo representatives also responded to questions about discussions with Charter Communications concerning the use of Charter’s downloadable security solution in TiVo’s retail products as envisioned in the 2013 Order granting Charter a waiver of Section 76.1204(a)(1) of the Commission’s rules.”

Charter and TiVo declined to comment on any specific discussions pertaining to downloadable security, but industry sources confirmed that the two sides are talking about a retail-facing approach.

A retail agreement could tie up some loose ends. Charter stopped leasing TiVo boxes about two years ago (that tied into an agreement between them that was announced in January 2011), but how those two companies might continue to work together has been a lingering question ever since.

Charter’s development and deployment of a downloadable security system for set-tops and other video devices comes amid a backdrop in which an FCC-appointed committee mulls a potential successor to the CableCARD. That group, called the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee (DSTAC), is tasked with filing its recommendations to the FCC by September 4, though consensus on a unified approach has proved elusive thus far (subscription required). 

Charter plans to expand the deployment of the new UI and  Worldbox to systems that are coming way of its proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. 

Charter confirmed earlier this year (subscription required) that it has licensed the Reference Design Kit and has established two parallel development tracks: one that factors in its current technical approach and one that also includes the RDK, a preintegrated software stack for video and broadband devices that’s being managed by Comcast, TWC and Liberty Global.

Is the notion of “black box” that can support video services from all forms of multichannel video programming distributors a discrete piece of new hardware or merely a metaphor for a more virtualized component or chip that can be embedded inside set-tops and other video devices?

That was one of many questions weighed last Monday (February 23), when the Federal Communications Commission-appointed Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee (DSTAC) held its first meeting.

The group, comprised of 18 individuals from companies such as Dish Network, Amazon, Comcast, Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, TiVo and Google, is tasked with investigating the successor to the CableCARD, a removable security module that failed to create a vibrant retail market for cable-ready retail video devices, and file its recommendations by September 4.

The committee is tackling the idea of a uniform solution even as other MVPDs, including Charter and Cablevision, have already developed and deployed downloadable security systems. Comcast and TiVo, meanwhile, are also pursuing a non-CableCARD solution.

The initial meeting focused on the scope of the report, including which types of navigation devices and the types of content and services – including linear TV and on-demand video -- should fit inside it.

The notion of an all-MVPD black box outfitted with downloadable security dominated the early discussions, though what form it will take remains an item that still needs to be clearly defined.

Talks gravitated toward a virtual module or even a chip that can support the baseline input and output requirements of pay-TV operators. That could end up spanning elements such as service discovery, channel tuning/content requests, emergency alert system information, closed captioning data, copy control information, subscriber authentication, and the audio and video streams themselves.

There are already factions forming on what this black box shouldn’t be.

Joe Weber, the chief technology officer for TiVo’s Service Provider Business Unit, warned that it would not be feasible for a retail CE company to support a multitude of separate devices that sits between it and the retail device from a wide range of MVPDs  

Concerns were also raised that adding yet another power-sucking device to the mix runs counter to the desire to lessen the pay-TV industry’s already sizable carbon footprint.

Alan Messer, vice president of advanced technology for Samsung’s Advanced Technology Lab, expressed some uneasiness about a so-called black box taking the form of a new chip, noting that it could significantly raise the materials costs for makers of TVs, DVRs and other retail video devices. Such a chip "might not be the right mindset,” he argued. 

Also up for debate is whether over-the-top services should be considered in the committee’s upcoming report, which is being researched as the FCC shoots for new rules that will would define some online video providers as MVPDs, at least with respect to access to cable and broadcast TV programming.

Mark Hess, SVP, office of the CTO, business and industry affairs at Comcast Cable, suggested that it will be difficult to exclude OTT from the discussion in a meaningful way given the current state of the video marketplace.

“It is an error to ignore it,” agreed Kenneth Lowe, vice president and co-founder of TV maker Vizio.

The process will also prove to be a challenge for MVPDs, such as satellite TV operators, that were not required to adhere to the original separable security rules. Dish Network, for example, is inherently a one-way, downstream-only platform. While its boxes do use broadband connections for upstream communications, they are out of Dish’s control and, therefore, not something that is fully reliable or secure.

“DBS is going to be the problem child here and bring in some unusual challenges,” John Card II, director of standards and technology, at EchoStar Technologies/Dish Network, warned.

While some on the committee are pushing for a successor that’s based on IP-based transport, others warned that MVPDs are not migrating there in lock-step.

“Not all operators move at the same timeframes,” Milo Medin, vice president of access services at Google, said. The challenge, he added, is to focus on solution that succeeds the CableCARD “without a multi-year gap.”

Another concern is whether metadata will be included in the downloadable security platform. Hess pointed out that MSOs such as Comcast strike separate deals for metadata and the rights on how they can use them. “There are a lot of subtleties to this as we go deeper,” he said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler paid the DSTAC meeting a visit, thanking the group while also acknowledging that the task ahead won’t be easy.

“Congress gave us a non-trivial task that you all know so well,” he said. “We are under no allusions about the challenge that that mandate represents.”  

Humax has been selected as a second source for the “Worldbox,” a next-gen class of hybrid QAM/IP video devices from Charter Communications that will support the MSO’s new downloadable conditional access system (DCAS) and its cloud-based interface and applications.

A Charter spokesperson confirmed the selection of Humax, but wouldn’t talk about the financial terms of the agreement or what percentage of Charter’s Worldbox business would be going to the South Korea-based supplier.

But the selection is a clear indicator that Charter intends to source boxes from a variety of suppliers using an “open” downloadable security architecture that is also in use at Cablevision Systems. Samsung Electronics and Humax are among the known vendors Cablevision has picked to supply “Future Services Portal” boxes that utilize its DCAS.

At the International CES earlier this month, Cisco Systems was revealed as the first supplier of the Worldbox, which will initially feature two models -- an HD-DVR and an non-DVR HD client device (the Cisco-made non-DVR model is pictured above). Cisco has been tapped as a “key” supplier of Worldboxes through 2015, providing a “substantial share” of them to Charter, while also supplying the platform’s downloadable conditional access system and digital rights management platform.

Charter hasn’t announced any other Worldbox suppliers. However, Arris hopes to be in the mix, as it will have “equal opportunity to bid on the Worldbox [business], as any other competitor,” Bob Stanzione, Arris’s chairman and CEO, said last week at an investor conference.

 Humax officials have yet to comment for this story, but the selection by Charter obviously gives its U.S. cable ambitions a boost.

Last April, Time Warner Cable announced that it had picked Humax to build the MSO's first device based on the Reference Design Kit (RDK), a preintegrated software stack for video and broadband devices that is being managed by Comcast, TWC, and Liberty Global.  What is not known is how that deal, which centers on an IP-based HD client that can support TWC’s next-gen UI, will carry forward if and when Comcast and TWC complete their proposed merger.

Humax has also been linked to the Xi3, an IP-only, RDK-based client device that Comcast is developing for its X1 platform (a Humax-made model passed through the FCC in 2012). Comcast, however, has been using Xi3s made by U.K.-based Pace for its initial rollout.

Las Vegas – International CES – Charter Communications and Cisco Systems used this week’s gadget-fest to unveil the “Worldbox,” a hybrid IP/QAM video device that will use downloadable security and a cloud-based interface that will serve as central components of the MSO’s next-gen video platform.

The companies also announced that Cisco will serve as  a “key” supplier of the Worldbox through 2015 as well as the device’s downloadable conditional access system (DCAS) and digital rights management platform (Charter will use Cisco’s VideoGuard Server for the DCAS and its VideoGuard DRM for security on client devices).

Financial terms were not disclosed, but Cisco will supply a “substantial share” of Worldboxes while also continue to provide CableCARD boxes to Charter until it migrates current and acquired systems to the new DCAS solution. Execs here said the DCAS in use by Charter shares the same “open” architecture for the downloadable system now deployed by Cablevision Systems.

Here during an event for press and analysts, Charter and Cisco showed off the Worldbox and the cloud-based guide that will grace it. Charter has already developed two versions of the Worldbox – and HD client (pictured) above and an HD-DVR model that will come equipped with 1 terabyte of storage. Both models contain 16x4 DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems, 1 Gigabyte of RAM and USB connections “to enable future applications.”

Charter expects to start deployments of the Worldbox and the new downloadable security system in select markets in “early 2015,” an MSO official said. Charter is currently testing the Spectrum Guide with tens of thousands of customers in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Looking ahead, Charter expects to deploy downloadable security to its current systems this year, and then will continue deployment to acquired systems that will come way of a deal that hinges on the pending Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger.

Charter will also look to deploy the new guide to all set-top boxes across its footprint, including older boxes that don’t speak IP, by leaning on a system from ActiveVideo Networks that processes the guide on the network and send the video content and the interface in an MPEG stream. Update: Zodiac Interactive is supplying the software stack powering the device. 

That network-based approach  “makes every box and every TV in the Charter footprint state-of-the-art,” Tom Rutledge, Charter’s president and CEO, said. It also means Charter won’t have to swap boxes to get its new UI deployed broadly. "Smart networks make dumb screens smart," he added. "We can take any kind of device and make it a sophisticated device." 

Rutledge also talked up the economics of the new platform, calling it a “breakthrough in terms of cost and capability.”

While Cisco is Charter’s initial source for the device, Charter is expected to add others into the mix. Charter said it is working with vendors toward manufacturing compatible boxes for the retail market as well.

The network-based processing system will also pave the way for Charter to render its UI on retail boxes. Here at the show, Charter showed a proof-of-concept of the Spectrum Guide running on a Roku box.

“We are proud to join Charter today to showcase the leading edge IP and cloud-based video solutions they are developing, and the Cisco products at their core, Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers said in a statement. “We are proud to join Charter today to showcase the leading edge IP Charter’s new video solution, featuring cloud-driven video experiences offered across many devices will be a huge win for Charter subscribers.”