Liberty Global used the IBC confab to show off Horizon Lite, a version of its next-gen video platform that’s made to run on older set-top boxes that don’t support IP connections.

According to Broadband TV News, Horizon Lite will be introduced in some of Liberty Global’s central and eastern Europe systems.  The approach should allow Liberty Global to rapidly expand the reach of its Horizon platform on older boxes even as it continues to deploy new, IP-capable gateways.

The image of the Horizon Lite demo shown above was supplied to Multichannel News by a person in attendance at IBC in Amsterdam.

On its Q2 call, Liberty Global said it added 62,000 new Horizon TV subs in the period, and that it had added almost 600,000 new subs to the platform over the prior 12 month period. It ended the quarter with nearly 4 million “next-gen TV setups,” a figure that factors in Liberty Global’s deployment of TiVo-powered devices.

The report also speculated that Horizon Lite will rely on cloud TV technology from ActiveVideo that can support advanced services and interfaces buy delivering them to boxes in an MPEG stream.  ActiveVideo declined to comment. Liberty Global has been asked to comment on the technical underpinnings of Horizon Lite and the MSO’s rollout plan.

But ActiveVideo and Liberty Global have some business history. UPC Hungary, a unit of Liberty Global, is using ActiveVideo to deliver YouTube to older set-top boxes. Liberty Puerto Rico is also using the vendor's tech for a Social Content Navigator that presents a slate of live TV channels based on their popularity using near real-time viewership data.

Support for Horizon Lite would represent a big win for ActiveVideo, which was acquired in May for $135 million through a joint venture of Arris and Charter Communications. Arris owns 65% of the J.V., though ActiveVideo is operating independently of the companies.  Charter is also relying on ActiveVideo for a new cloud-based Spectrum Guide that can run on the MSO’s entire set-top box footprint.

According to Broadband TV News, Liberty Global also showed off a new “Connect Box” that will be deployed by end of year by Ziggo, Telenet and Virgin Media.  More technical details on the device/gateway, which apparently includes a high-speed modem and integrated WiFi, will reportedly be announced in the next few weeks.  It’s not yet known if the new device will be made to support DOCSIS 3.1, the emerging multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks.

In August, Liberty Global said it was testing D3.1 in the lab, and was preparing for live trials in a subset of its markets in early 2016.

IBC2015 wrapped up on September 15, with the organizers announcing that the event attracted over 1,800 vendors, a record, and that visitors totaled 55,128, exceeding the previous high set in 2014.

With the event producing significant discussion about the need for rapid and radical changes in broadcast technologies, IBC CEO Michael Crimp noted in a statement that “the media industry today is radically different from where we were even five years ago. We have gone from an industry that was defined by technology to one where we demand new functionality from our vendors; from an industry where broadcasters told us what we were going to watch to one where consumers call for content wherever and whenever they want.”

Read more at B&C. 

Rovi Corp. and Nuance Communications have kicked off a joint initiative to build a speech-based, “conversational” entertainment discovery platform that will be offered to TV service providers around the globe.

Under the plan, Nuance’s Dragon TV voice recognition voice recognition, text-to-speech and voice biometrics systems will be integrated with Rovi’s cloud-based Conversation Services platform, which is powered by a “Knowledge Graph” that maintains semantic, real-time information on more than 100 million entertainment-related entities, including program titles, celebrity names, and brands.

Nuance said Dragon TV can be integrated on a remote, TV or set-top box, and supports more than 40 languages.

Rovi is showing off the new combo at the IBC show in Amsterdam.

The integration deal comes more than a year after Rovi put up $62 million to buy Veveo, a maker of a voice-based video personalized search platform.

“With so much content and so many channels to choose from, consumers want instantaneous and effortless access to their favorite video content,” said Scott Taylor, senior vice president of devices, Nuance Mobile, in a statement. “Voice transforms the content discovery experience by getting people directly to the entertainment they want in just a few words. And by integrating our TV-optimized voice capabilities with Rovi’s natural language search and discovery, service providers will be able to deliver an even more personalized experience for consumers.”

“As digital content choices continue to proliferate across various platforms, media and entertainment services are becoming increasingly competitive, and providers are seeking to enrich their offerings with features that bring the most relevant entertainment content straight to viewers,” said Michael Hawkey, the recently named senior vice president and general manager of discovery at Rovi. “Rovi’s initiative with Nuance is another step forward in driving innovation in entertainment discovery based on voice and natural conversation. Our integrated approach enables providers to quickly deploy advanced services that will further enhance a user’s entertainment experiences.”

Adding to the 4K buzz at this week’s IBC show, Digital Multimedia Technology (DMT) has debuted Deseo, a TV companion device that, along with a software update, can turn a pay TV HD gateway set-top box (STB) into a secure Ultra HD/4K platform.

Deseo, the company said, supports HEVC and VP9, advanced video codecs that are increasingly being used to deliver 4K video, and can extend the life of legacy boxes. Per DMT, the Deseo receivers the pay TV provider’s UI via the gateway HD box, can be controlled by the legacy remote, and can be installed by customers.

Deseo has also been integrated with the Verimatrix VideoMark watermarking system.

“We designed Deseo to be an easy, elegant answer to the 4K problem facing pay TV operators,” said KW Lee, CTO of DMT, a set=-top maker based in South Korea that works with vendors such as Evolution Digital. “Existing solutions, such as apps that run on your TV or a client UHD set-top box, are clumsy and don’t enhance the end user experience – rather, they detract from it. “

DMT also demonstrated Deseo at the recent CableLabs Summer Conference. 

Chip and gateway makers at this week’s IBC show in Amsterdam are showing off a new line of gear based on DOCSIS 3.1, the emerging multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks.

DOCSIS 3.1 trials and deployments are expected to start late this year and begin to ramp up in 2016. CableLabs has opened up certification testing for DOCSIS 3.1-based products. 

-Broadcom unveiled trio of DOCSIS 3.1-based devices for the Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP), a high-density system that combines the functions of the cable modem termination system and the edge QAM./

Broadcom said those products – the BCM3047, BCM31442 and BCM3222 -- enable CCAP vendors to build and deploy DOCSIS 3.1-compliant equipment. Early adopters of Broadcom's DOCSIS 3.1 technology include cable operators such as Comcast and Liberty Global, and CCAP equipment suppliers such as Arris and Harmonic, Broadcom said.

"Today's new CCAP infrastructure devices, combined with the BCM3390 cable modem platform, provide a complete DOCSIS 3.1-based silicon solution with advanced capabilities that effectively compete with speeds offered by fiber deployments,” said Dan Marotta, EVP and  GM of Broadcom’s Broadband & Connectivity Group, in a statement.

"End-to-end DOCSIS 3.1 technology, in both cable infrastructure and cable modems, is critical for subscribers to receive Gigabit speeds in the home," added Balan Nair, Liberty Global’s EVP and CTO. "DOCSIS 3.1 is making it possible for Liberty Global to deliver enhanced services to consumers later this year."

The BCM3047 is a single-chip transmitter that can enable transmission up to 1.2 GHz on the cable plant; the BCM31442 Receiver is a burst receiver built on D3.1 specs that can support up to 300 MHz of upstream spectrum; and the BCM3222 MAC device is capable of supporting up to 25 Gbps, Broadcom said, noting that all three chips are currently sampling.

-Intel will be showing off the Puma 7 systems-on-chip, which is built on the company’s 14nm process technology. The platform, Intel said, will also integrate support for 4x4 802.11ac WiFi. Arris is evidently one of its early D3.1 CPE partners.

“We are continually evolving our advanced HFC network to ensure that our customers have the best, fastest high-speed Internet service available. DOCSIS 3.1 is a pillar of that evolution and fundamental to our plan to offer new gigabit speed tiers to our customers,” said Tony Werner, executive vice president and CTO at Comcast, in a statement. We are excited about Intel’s use of its latest generation 14nm process technology to drive better energy efficiency and enable compelling new form factors for cable broadband gateways.”

-Sagemcom introduced the F@st 3890, a DOCSIS 3.1-based media gateway equipped with 4x4 MU-MIMO 802.11ac WiFi. Sagemcom’s entry, like other early D3.1 modem entrants, will be hybrids that can support both DOCSIS 3.1 and DOCSIS 3.0-based traffic. The device also bakes in SWAN, the French supplier’s modular software suite for apps and services.

-And there’s some news on the DOCSIS 3.0 front. Celeno Communications has teamed with STMicroelectronics on a D3.0 reference design that integrates Celeno’s WiFi 802.11ac and 802.11n chips with ST’s Alicante CableLabs-certified chipset.

TiVo is using this week’s IBC show in Amsterdam to introduce TiVo Lite, a platform for lower-cost (and non-DVR) set-tops that take advantage of middleware from Cubiware and video search, recommendations and analytics from Digitalsmiths.

TiVo acquired Cubiware earlier this year, and bought Digitalsmiths in 2014.

TiVo said operators have the option to combine TiVo Lite STB clients with TiVo's mobile applications for iOS and Android, supporting linear TV, on-demand and OTT in and out of the customer’s home.

On the deal front, TiVo said Supercanal, a top MSO in Argentina, has picked Cubiware for a digital project that will enlist a company called Bold as the service’s integrator and  VOD service provider. The resulting offering will also include Cubiware's Portal Server and Multiscreen (CubiGo) apps. Additionally, apart from linear TV, set-top boxes will support over the top and video on demand from FoxPlay and Telecine, TiVo said. 

TiVo ended its fiscal Q2 with 6.03 million total subs (941,000 TiVo-owned, and 5.09 million through MSO partners).

Tele Columbus, a German cable operator with about 2.8 million subs, work with Espial on a next-gen, IP-powered video platform that will lean on the Reference Design Kit (RDK), a preintegated software stack for IP-capable devices that’s being managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global.

Under the deal, Tele Columbus will license Espial’s G4 set-top client and Media Services Platform (MSP) backoffice, and tap Espial to integrate the MSO’s next-gen IP video platform. Espial’s role on the set-top box (Tele Columbus has not announced its STB suppliers for the project) will include the resulting platform’s user interface, according to Jeff Huppertz, Espial’s vice president of marketing and business development.

Tele Columbus, which grew in size when it acquired PrimaCom Holding earlier this year, is expected to start trials on the new platform later this year, and follow with full deployments sometime in early 2016.

Huppertz said Tele Columbus’s approach follows a trend/new model in which the operator separates the hardware from the software and develops UIs using a third-party design partner. He said Espial’s platform, which uses HTML5, will position Tele Columbus to provide an advanced platform on set-tops as well as mobile devices.

Ottawa-based Espial introduced G4 in May. It’s a fourth-gen set-top client can be applied not just to cable operators, but to telcos, satellite TV providers and other type of operators looking to provide a unified offering that blends on-demand, linear and OTT content. At the time, Espial said three operators, including one “major” MSO in North America and two in Western Europe, had selected G4 for their next-gen video platform. Those three operators have about 8 million subs between them.

The Espial G4 STB Client, Espial Media Service Platform and the Espial Experience professional services team were selected based on their industry leading software and expertise in RDK and user experience,” Ronny Verhelst, CEO of  Tele Columbus, said in a statement.

Tuesday’s announcement is Tele Columbus’s first public acknowledgement that it will use the RDK for its next-gen platform, and is an example of the platform’s progress outside the U.S.

RDK Development LLC has more than 25 MVPD licensees around the world. In addition to Tele Columbus, known MVPD licensees include Comcast, TWC, Liberty  Global, CenturyLink, Charter Communications, Rogers Communications, Kabel Deutschland, and Japan’s J:COM.

Video software and security specialist Nagra said it has completed the “first steps” toward helping its pay TV provider customers offer Netflix on the set-top using Nagra’s anyCAST Connect client and its OpenTV5 middleware.

The integration update comes about nine months after Nagra’s parent company, The Kudelski Group, and Netflix dismissed all pending patent litigation in the U.S. and notched a long term stay of pending Dutch patent litigation. The settlement included a new deal involving the integration of Kudelski’s video protection technology with Netflix’s OTT subscription-VOD service.

As part of the agreement, Nagra will integrate the Netflix application SDK 4.2 into its OpenTV 5 connectware platform. Netflix is also adopting Nagra PRM (persistent rights management) platform as a Netflix-supported DRM. Nagra PRM is part of its anyCAST Connect client. Nagra said it will ensure content protection for Netflix content using Nagra-on-chip security for set-tops and TVs. 

Nagra said its Netflix-facing handiwork will be on display at this week’s IBC confab in Amsterdam, and that the first pay TV operators to adopt the joint solution are expected to be announced in 2016.

“We are pleased to be working with Netflix to further increase the value of the pay-TV services our clients provide to their subscribers, especially with the advent of 4K UHD,” said Maurice van Riek, SVP, head of content and asset security for Nagra, in a statement. “We have worked closely with Netflix to ensure that NAGRA PRM becomes a trusted part of the Netflix platform. Together with our DECE and DTLA endorsements, this puts PRM in a class of its own as an operator-controlled, multi-platform DRM for the protection of premium services like Netflix.”

Metrological has introduced a set of TV app store management tools that enables pay TV operators to customize app store lineups based on live events and household viewing habits as well as integrate app billing and transactions.

The new elements are now part of Metrological’s Dashboard product, part of the Metrological Application Platform, which provides full lifecycle support for operator branded TV app stores. The Dashboard provides insights on TV app store operations, including key performance indicators such as top performing apps, average viewing times, number of app views and number of transactions.

Among the new capabilities, the Dashboard provides automated app scheduling, allowing operators to personalize the scheduling of content based on time of day. For example, daytime programming can highlight children’s apps and evening hours can highlight news app content.

“Operators can now personalize app experiences to reflect consumer viewing habits and local content, which is an important tool in strengthening the customer relationship,” said Jeroen Ghijsen, co-founder and CEO of Metrological, in a statement. “Using our intuitive platform, operators can tailor app store content to viewers based on a number of filters, such as audience segments, live events, red button apps and time of day to automatically change the apps being offered in each market or household.”

Metrological will show its new wares at IBC, set for September 11-15 in Amsterdam.

Of recent note, RDK Management LLC, the RDK joint venture, and Metrological introduced the RDK App Emulator in April. Metrological combined its application framework with the RDK to create the app emulator, which enables developers to prototype, create and test RDK apps remotely on a laptop without the need for a physical RDK device or set-top box. In June, Metrological said it had certified mor ethan 250 apps for the RDK, a preintegrated software stack for IP-only and hybrid video devices and broadband gateways is being managed by Comcast, Liberty Global and Time Warner Cable.