With most of the major streaming companies beefing up their live sports offerings, fans are finding plenty of games to watch. But if Ravindra “Ravi” Velhal has his way, watching those games over the Internet is soon going to look better than ever.  

Velhal is a global content strategist at Intel, a long-time veteran of the chip giant and a leader of its push into live, streamed video at an eye-boggling 8K resolution. More importantly for Hollywood streaming companies trying to differentiate their services, Intel and partners NHK and Globo (broadcasting giants from Japan and Brazil respectively) just used the Tokyo Olympics to showcase how to send those vast, super-high-quality live streams down a garden-variety broadband connection onto screens on four continents. 

Velhal points to “three legs on the stool” that combine to create an 8K live stream for truly compelling sports viewing: 

> More pixels — The literal definition of resolution. Sony, Samsung and LG already sell 8K screens, with both a viewing experience and a price to make your eyes pop. (Market consultant Omdia said 250,000 to 300,000 8K screens were sold in 2020, compared to 100 million 4K screens.) Blackmagic Design is already selling commercial 12K cameras, and Velhal has seen demonstrations of 16K cameras. The real challenge, however, is getting content to match the resolution. Most of what runs on 8K screens these days is upscaled from 4K by a TV set’s built-in systems. That looks pretty darned good, but even 4K streams remain rare enough that streamers such as Netflix charge more for a stream worthy of upscaling. The Intel flavor of 8K sends 23 million pixels per second onto the internet by way of a video-encoding card that uses a Xeon processor with a whopping 112 cores (your PC’s CPU or graphics card probably has 8 or 16 cores). 

> Faster pixels — Auteurs like Peter Jackson have experimented for years with higher frame rates to create a more immersive experience in films such as The Hobbit, which ran in 48 frames per second, but was criticized by those who missed the cinematic feel of traditional 24 FPS. But viewer expectations for live sports are far different from those of film fans. For sports, Velhal said, 60 FPS is “extremely important,” removing the visual jitter of transitions between too few frames while creating an intentionally lifelike experience.

> Better pixels — Truly great video images need more than lots of pixels delivered quickly. They also need a wide color gamut using HDR10, hybrid log gamma, or Dolby Vision, all generally similar technologies to capture and display more of the range of colors our eyes can see. 

“All three things, when they come together, you get yourself a golden eye,” Velhal said, using the industry term for the visual experts such as cinematographers, directors, editors and color timers who bring the most demanding expectations for their images. 

A fourth component of truly immersive video is actually capturing the full sound of a live experience, Velhal said. Sophisticated audio systems are getting more common in many homes, and affordable. Vizio, for instance, sells an excellent 5.1-channel sound bar with satellite rear speakers and subwoofer for about $200. Intel’s technology captures that game audio in Dolby Atmos at three levels of immersion, stereo imaging, 5.1 channel, and a massive 22.2 channels, ideal for large venues filled with speaker arrays. 

It’s those golden eyes, though, who’ll make a difference for Intel in trying to pry open doors in Hollywood, a place where it has long pitched emerging technologies as a way to both improve the entertainment experience and sell a lot more computer chips. 

Intel and NHK have been showing off the 8K streams since the Tokyo Olympics began in late July. Over 19 days, the companies encoded and streamed a total of 216 hours of live programming, from the opening to closing ceremonies with many kinds of competitions in between. The resulting streams were fed onto public content-distribution networks, or CDNs, and streamed to destinations in Tokyo, Berlin, Los Angeles, Velhal’s home base of Portland, Ore., and Intel HQ in Santa Clara, Calif. The streams also were delivered to Globo’s operations in Brazil for distribution there.

“The NHK broadcast was mind-boggling, with the kind of quality you get to see,” Velhal said. “A judo participant dropped a contact lens, and you could actually see a mark on the contact lens. You could see the bar code on the (security) badge.” 

That latter shot is is the latest version of a long-running set of headaches caused clearer and clearer images. Such issues have vexed Hollywood set decorators and production designers (not to mention on-screen performers) for more than two decades, beginning with the shift from standard-definition to high-def that suddenly meant poor makeup jobs or fake brick backdrops no longer passed muster. 

“My God, the makeup artist has to retrain,” Velhal said. “You need to hide those blemishes. Your makeup artist needs to retool and retrain. But it’s an evolution from the bottom up, not just a continuation of what's happening in the industry.” 

More recently, Intel has been showcasing the results to Hollywood specialists, a next step in the campaign for adoption by broadcasters and streamers. 

The key to success in these trials isn’t even the quality of the streams, though that’s important. The big step forward is that they’re delivered on relatively ordinary broadband networks at speeds of as little as 80 megabits per second. That’s a decent-sized pipe, but hardly unusual in an era where many gamers and videophiles happily spring for 1 Gbps feeds. Throw in security and VPNs, and go for a purely lossless stream, and you’ll want a feed more on the order of 250 to 400 Mbps, Velhal acknowledged. But that’s still in the realm of relatively ordinary these days, at least in major markets. 

Regardless, the stream travels “over the open Internet,” Velhal said. “We’re not talking about a special network. That's the internet we use. There’s no special connection.”

Intel is betting that hard-core sports fans and the bars, restaurants and similar venues that spring for NFL Sunday Ticket will be interested in an 8K game feed. It’s also getting attention in the NFL’s own venues, like SoFi Stadium, the $5 billion home to Los Angeles’ two pro football teams, the Rams and Chargers. 

“Now we’ve created another differentiator,” for the in-person stadium experience, said Rick Hack, Intel’s head of media & entertainment partnerships. “SoFi has an 8K screen above the field. They want to deliver 8K (video) on an 8K screen.”

It also can appeal to companies such as Red Bull Media that typically stage and stream events in all kinds of temporary settings a long way from a massive NFL stadium, providing high-res replays and live shots to the in-person audience as well as remote viewers. 

It’s not hard to envision at least a couple of sports-focused streaming services also jumping on 8K sooner than later, adding an 8K live game stream as a way to drive viewership, awareness, and premium-level subscriptions. As the business gets even more competitive, and market share harder to protect, better experiences will matter to a key part of the audience.

Intel’s commercial interest in adoption also goes beyond selling that honking-big encoding card. The company is getting back into the graphics card business in competition with Nvidia and AMD next year, yes, but it’s also hoping to take advantage of a broad range of other technology it developed to deliver live, 8K sports feeds reliably over the Internet. 

“This is not just about Xeon, but also requires recording onto memory, algorithms that can process the images quickly, better buses, better graphics, faster storage, even how it connects to your TV,” Velhal said. “This technology brings all these components together.”

It’s way too soon to expect any widespread industry adoption of Intel’s approach yet, or that of any other company. 

But live sports – like video gaming and (ahem) adult programming – is one of those sectors that tends to push technology boundaries because an ardent subset of viewers will pay more to have the best possible experience. 

Sooner or later, everyone else gets to benefit as prices come down and the technology becomes more widely available. With 8K TV sets already in the market, and tech like Intel’s that eliminates the barriers to delivering the best content to those screens, it’s going to be something to watch for, and soon. 

Apple today announced one of the biggest shifts in the company’s history, saying it will leave behind Intel-made chips to use its own processors in future Mac computers. The move will allow apps made for devices including iPhones, iPads and Apple TV to also run on Mac computers.

“Today is going to be a truly historic day, showing how we’re going to take the Mac to a truly new level,” said CEO Tim Cook during the opening session of Apple’s first virtual World Wide Developers Conference. “This is a huge leap forward for the Mac. When we make big changes, it’s for one simple reason, to make the best products.”

For years, Apple has been moving to better control, simplify and unify the various operating systems and other software for its computers, phones, watches, tablets, streaming devices and home-automation systems.

By moving to the same home-grown family of Apple Silicon chips that already power iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and Apple TVs, the company should save substantial development costs, improve power usage, better control development of the “brains” to its computers, and likely unleash a flood of games and applications that have thrived on the vast iOS App Store but never made it to the Mac.

Visit Next TV to read more stories like this one. 

It is the first time in 14 years that Apple has moved to a new family of chips for its laptops and desktops. Apple has been making its own, highly regarded chips based on ARM architecture for its iPhones, iPads and other devices for a decade—experience that Cook and other Apple executives said during the two-hour recorded presentation had prepared them well for the transition.

Indeed, as Apple executives pointed out during the presentation, its current family of A12X chips make its iPad Pro devices faster than many laptops in the market.

The new A12Z Bionic chips are already running in special developer-only versions of the Mac Mini that will be available this week to the company’s millions of third-party developers. Consumer versions of new Apple Silicon machines will begin arriving by the end of the year, Cook said.

The company, as has been its practice for years at WWDC, also shotgunned through dozens of other improvements as well as new versions of its various operating systems, including iOS 14, iPadOS14, WatchOS7, and the newest Mac OS version, to be called Big Sur, following the company’s naming conventions.

The operating system for Apple TV—the pricy streaming device that handles video, games, music and some other kinds of apps—will be upgraded picture-in-picture video playback, full 4K resolution for videos played through Airplay, and multi-user support for its Apple Arcade games.

The company also unveiled a sleek trailer for Foundation, an original series based on Issac Asimov’s celebrated science-fiction series, to appear in sometime in 2021 on the company’s TV+ streaming service. The series stars Cassian Bilton, Laura Birn and Jared Harris.

Some of the other big announcements of the morning include:

> Sleeker, airier desktop design with more consistent icons and logos.

> Translation capabilities between 11 different languages.

> An overhauled Widgets, providing easy, customizable mini-programs that provide simple access to information such as the weather, stock prices and more.

> App Clips, similar to QR codes, that can be scanned to quickly call up apps in stores and other locations and also simplify touch-less payments through Apple Pay and the Apple Card.

> Scribble, handwriting-recognition software designed to turn handwriting on touchscreens into editable, even formatted text that can also be shared to other devices and apps.

> Maps improvements that now include cycling information and city guides.

> Sleep tracking and handwashing apps for the watch and iPhone.

> Adaptive lighting for HomeKit.

> Movie-theater-style spatial audio for the AirPods Pro earbuds.

Throughout the presentation, Apple emphasized its approach to privacy, sometimes contrasting it with products from major competitor Google, but also highlighting protections and controls built into its apps and web browser, Safari, among much else.

Cook said the company expects to support Intel-compatible operating systems for its current installed base of Macs for “many years to come,” and also has additional Intel-based machines scheduled to debut later this year.

Big Sur will run on both current Intel-chip machines and new Apple architectures, taking advantage of a series of programs that will allow developers to quickly recompile their programs, and for systems to virtually run new and old programs on any Apple computer. One of the programs is a revived version of Rosetta, which did much the same translation duty in the mid-2000s after Apple transitioned from Motorola-made PowerPC chips to the Intel systems that were already in wide use with Windows-based machines. 

MaxLinear has emerged as the successful buyer of Intel Corp.’s Home Gateway Platform Division, paying $150 million in cash for the unit that makes chips for home gateway products.

The addition of the Intel unit delivers Carlsbad, Calif.-based MaxLinear a new Wi-Fi processor product line, along with other broadband products, to complement its radio frequency and mixed-signal processors used in high-speed cable, fiber optic and ethernet Internet networks.

The move positions MaxLinear to compete head-one with Broadcom as a vendor of processors used in DOCSIS-enabled home routers and gateways, as well as Wi-Fi access points and ethernet broadband gear.

“These assets add significant scale to our entire business while enabling us to provide a compelling Wi-Fi product offering with tremendous growth opportunities inside and outside of the connected home, including expanding the portfolio to include Internet of Things solutions,” said Kishore Seendripu, chairman and chief executive of MaxLinear, in a statement.

MaxLinear expects to add $60 million to $70 million in quarterly revenue from the deal. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

Intel had been shopping its Home Gateway Platform Division for several months, with the Silicon Valley giant divesting underperforming divisions as of late. In 2019, for example, the Santa Clara-based company sold its smartphone cellular modem division to Apple for $1 billion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that would route internet traffic through Russian servers, according to the Associated Press, which is either insurance against having a "hostile power" cut off Russia's access to the wider web, or a way to control information to its citizens.

The bill was reportedly first introduced in response to the U.S. response to 2016 Russian election meddling.

U.S. computer companies are definitely seeing it as the latter.

"The Russian government enacted legislation that will extend Russia's authoritarian control of the Internet by taking steps to create a local Internet infrastructure, shutting out citizens from the rest of the online world," the Computer & Communications Industry Association said Thursday (May 2).

CCIA has expressed concerns about what it sees as a growing trend by foreign governments to balkanize the Web, a point it made to the U.S. Trade Representative last fall.

"[I]n recent years countries have begun to adopt laws and regulations that hinder the further growth and cross-border delivery of Internet services. Under the guise of promoting domestic innovation, national security, and privacy protections, countries are increasingly adopting discriminatory policies that disadvantage U.S. technology companies," it told USTR.

It cited, among other things, the 2015 law that "requires all operators that process the personal data of Russian citizens to maintain databases located in Russia and the 2017 amendments to its Information Law that requires VPN operators from preventing users in Russia from accessing Web sites blocked in Russia.

"For years we've seen alarming censorship measures in Russia," said CCIA president Ed Black. "The legislation approved today is yet another step by the Russian government to restrict access online and artificially create borders on the Internet. We strongly encourage the international community and U.S. Administration to respond."

CCIA members comprise a Who's Who of edge providers, tech companies and others including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Intel, Samsung, Mozilla, Dish and Univision.

Turner Sports said it has signed a multi-year deal to use Intel’s technology to deliver live NBA games in virtual reality, starting with All-Star weekend.

The games will be available to cable and satellite subscribers for free via an authenticated NBA on TNT VR App powered by Intel.

Intel will also be a global provider of virtual reality and 360-degree volumetric video with Intel freeD technology for official NBA broadcast partners globally.

The NBA has jumped into the virtual reality space. Before the season started it announced that its League Pass subscribers will have access to 27 games in VR this season using NextVR technology.

Related: NBA Adds VR Subscription Package to League Pass

“We all recognize that the VR market hasn’t fully materialized, but from the NBA’s point of view, we’d really like to be ready with the best possible experience when it does materialize,” said Jeff Marsilio, vice president, global media distribution, for the NBA. “The partnership represents another opportunity to experiment with a first-class VR technology company in Intel and to work with one of our longest-standing partners in the broadcast space with Turner.”

Marsilio said the NBA sees VR as a way to give fans access they might not otherwise not be able to experience, such as sitting courtside beside big-time celebrities. He says viewing of NBA games in VR is up sharply.

“That means there must have been a lot of progress in the last few months in penetration of the market and maybe, I hope, a lot of progress in the product we’re providing,” he said.

Related: Intel Dumps 'Project Alloy'

The virtual reality games will be different from the games TNT regularly televises. The schedule will be announced closer to the All-Star game. The first arenas to install the Intel freeD technology are the American Airlines Center in Dallas, home of the Mavericks, and Quicken Loans Arena, where LeBron James and the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers play home games.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Intel’s foray into VR headset hardware has hit the skids.

The chipmaker has scrapped plans to launch Project Alloy, an x86-based standalone “merged realty” headset hardware design that was introduced in 2016, according to Road to VR.

Unveiled at the company’s developer forum in 2016, Intel originally billed Project Alloy as an all-in-one solution that supported both virtual reality and augmented reality applications and leaned on Intel’s RealSense technology. It was expected to launch this year.

RELATED: Intel Gets Into VR Hardware Game

Despite scrapping plans to launch the Project Alloy reference design, the company “will continue to invest in the development of technologies to power next-generation AR/VR experiences,” Intel said in a statement to Road to VR. The ongoing investment will center on Movidius (for visual processing), RealSense, as well as other “enabling technologies” such as WiGig (for wireless VR with HTC), Thunderbolt (for high-speed data transfers) and Optane (advanced memory and storage), the company said.

“Project Alloy served as a great proof of concept for Intel and the industry – showing what’s possible in a high-performance, immersive and untethered VR experience. What we’ve learned through Project Alloy will inform future efforts,” Intel added. 

RELATED: Oculus Developing Standalone VR Headset

Though Intel is stepping away from Project Alloy, others in the VR sector, including Google and Facebook-owned Oculus, are moving ahead with plans to develop and launch standalone virtual reality headsets that don’t need to be tethered to a PC or gaming console or work in tandem with a smartphone.

RELATED: Google CE Partners to Debut Standalone VR Headsets in 2017

FCC chair Ajit Pai said Thursday (April 20) that he met with Facebook, Cisco, Oracle, Intel in Silicon Valley this week to talk about an open internet and consumer protections.

Pai was responding to questions in a post-FCC meeting press conference Thursday (April 20).

He said the conversation was not about any pending proceeding, but outside of that context he was soliciting input on how to "Secure online consumer protections."

He said that he has been consistent in saying that he favors a free and open Internet and opposes Title II.

According to sources he has talked with telecom trade groups about what to do next on network neutrality, including possibly have the Federal Trade Commission enforce voluntary commitments not to block or degrade, but he signaled at the press conference that that was part of the same input-collection process generally and not about any pending proceeding.

A reporter had noted that there had been no ex parte filing on that meeting, which would be required if it had dealt with a proceeding currently before the commission.

Pai said he did not outline a regulatory plan for rolling back Title II in that trade group meeting. "We did not discuss the merits of any pending proceeding," he said, but, again, generally how to "secure some of those principles of a free and open Internet that I think most people agree on."

Pai said he was "reaching out and trying to solicit a diversity of views among a diversity of stakeholders" and that he thought for their part they recognized, as he did, that "there is a lot of common ground here with respect to the need for a free and open Internet."

LAS VEGAS — On the day before CES opened, a seven-mile trek through the ever-expanding exhibit space — way beyond the Las Vegas Convention Center, into surrounding hotels — indicated that our appetite for gadgetry is apparently endless.

This year marked the 50th birthday of CES, described on the morning news here as “the Woodstock of electronics,” and there’s little that wasn’t captured and shared instantly, as it happened — thanks, by the way, to the broadband connectivity this industry built.

First, then, a brief look back: Not unlike that World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893, lots of things that we now take for granted were debuted at a CES. The World’s Fair gave us Cracker Jacks, the Ferris wheel, and moving walkways; CES begat the VCR (1970s), Atari (1975), the Commodore 64 computer (1982), HDTV (1998) and hundreds of other developments that did and did not make it beyond the show floor.

Ten years ago at CES, for instance, we were (sadly) talking weird acronyms like OCAP (OpenCable Applications Platform) and “CHILA” (Cable Host Interface Licensing Agreement); that was was the year of the awkward press conference, hosted by CableLabs, declaring the deployment of OCAP headends and hardware. Sprint was touting its JV with cable operators; Sony touted its “Passage alternate conditional access system, that lets MSOs use other vendors than Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola to secure premium content.”

Gateway Computer hosted private meetings to discuss its looming “sneak attack” of selling flat panel displays. Phones with built-in cameras (what!) were on the drawing board, as was a his-and-hers nightlight, located in the toilet bowl, and an Internet-connected defibrillator, which dialed 911 when activated.

Five years ago, “Ultrabooks” were the thing, and “superphones” included a 13-megapixel camera. LG introduced a “blast cooler,” which chilled a can of beer from lukewarm to frosty in five minutes.

The point is that CES is about things. Stuff. Objects, made of plastic, with buttons and lights and screens and sound.

This year, it was still about things, stationary and airborne (talk about Drone City), but it was as much or more about the invisible threads trying to weave those things together. Threads like artificial intelligence, fueled by machine data, to inform the analytic algorithms that make products, care and services better.

Also: security. Last year will remembered for lots of horrible things, but as it relates to our stuff, it was a banner year for hacks — ransomware, to bring down hospital operating rooms, really? Really. Lots of attacks on the things of the Internet of Things, left on default settings. Candy for a hacker.

From a connectivity perspective, there was wireless and mobility. Getting there is a choice of three options: Build, buy or rent. Building is expensive and too late. Buying is expensive and risky. Which pretty much explains MVNO agreements, so in vogue.

One thing we saw on the CES floor — a continuation from the last few years — were products and services aimed at making our WiFi lives better. Intel, for instance, was touting its work with Comcast and RDK (Reference Design Kit) on what is probably the most dope router ever.

The intent is for it to be, for broadband, what X1 was (and is) for video. It’s based on RDK-B, where the B stands for Broadband; Intel’s part is its Puma 7 chip, which has RDKB on board as its primary stack for all of its routers and gateways. (That alone is a big deal.)

And, of course, the weird stuff. My favorite: A levitating, waterproof Bluetooth speaker. Other weird stuff: A connected cocktail machine, a wristband that alleviates nausea, an auto-lacing shoe, a pollution-fighting “smart scarf” and a fitness-tracking ring. (We saw one two years ago, but it was doughnut-sized.)

That’s this report from Vegas, where we again traipsed through a million-plus square feet of digital confetti. Viva!

Stumped by gibberish? Visit Leslie Ellis at translation-please.com or at multichannel.com/blog/translation-please.

Fifth-generation (5G) wireless technologies present "a unique opportunity to radically expand the capacity and flexibility of wireless networks, which will have profound implications for broadband competition and productivity growth," according to a report published on Thursday.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) evaluation "5G and Next Generation Wireless: Implications for Policy and Competition" urges that national and local  policymakers "should support the development' of next-generation networks by ensuring new spectrum is available and by streamlining deployment of physical infrastructure.

Related:ITIF Report: FCC's 5G Efforts Should Focus on Spectrum, Not Standards

"We will continue to see additional competition in providing broadband access, as the performance of wired and wireless networks converges," ITIF said. "5G networks will also enable a new level of IoT connections, touching key verticals throughout our economy."

ITIF's "5G" triangle (see illustration) focuses on the "confluence of technologies is enabling an adaptable network that effectively provides numerous new functions." It singles out "enhanced broadband," "Massive Internet of Things " and "Critical Communications" as the three major categories for 5G, pointing out the very different capacity, reliability and accessibility of each application.

"Video places an order of magnitude larger demand than most other uses on the capacity of networks, so to enhance mobile broadband, end-user download speed remains the main driver," says the report, written by Doug Brake, a telecommunications policy analyst at ITIF. "For mobile to become a more robust competitor for wireline broadband networks, speeds will need to increase, and in a way that is economical as to see larger monthly data plans."

ITIF expects that "with the right policies in place, 5G will provide wildly increased capacity, allowing for super-high definition streaming of augmented reality; far more numerous, less costly connections, supporting a boom to IoT; and highly reliable connections, enabling critical communications and large-scale industrial automation."

Citing existing circumstances, the report acknowledges that pole attachment and other infrastructure policies for wired communications must be addressed in overall 5G planning. And as part of its extensive contemplation about standards and competitiveness, ITIF warns that "too strong a government hand in guiding technical standards, especially when tied to arbitrary deadlines, can lead to sub-optimal outcomes."

At a Thursday seminar accompanying the release of the ITIF report, officials from Verizon, Qualcomm, Intel, Samsung and other companies evaluated business approaches to 5G.

Charla Rath, vice president-wireless policy development at Verizon, affirmed that, "We have made clear that we want to take an aggressive stance on 5G."

"It's going to be a transition of ...networks of networks," Rath said "It's going to be a lot of different spectrum,"  including licensed and unlicensed spectrum. She noted that "IoT is increasingly about video."

Peter Pitsch, executive director of communications policy and associate general counsel at Intel, characterized the introduction of 5G: "We're going to get spectrum in the marketplace in a flexible way."

"We're going to need low, medium and high spectrum, not just for capacity but because of the differences of capabilities ... for applications," Pitsch explained.

Noting that he's often a critic of FCC spectrum policies, he complimented chairman Tom Wheeler's "astounding effort" to make spectrum available, noting that 28 GHz and 37-40 GHz  will be licensed. Pitsch predicted that because things are moving so quickly already, there will be fast action making  65 -71 GHz bands available on an unlicensed basis.  He said he expects the FCC will make licenses available "in a very flexible, investment-friendly way...[for] long-term licenses with reasonable technical limits."

Intel Corp. said Tuesday it will cut 12,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce, by mid-2017 amid a reorganization in which data centers and the Internet of Things (IoT) businesses become the chipmaker’s “primary growth engines.”

Intel, a key supplier of silicon for DOCSIS cable modems, gateways and set-top boxes, said the workforce reduction will occur through a combo of voluntary and involuntary departures and “re-evaluations of programs.”  Most of those actions will be relayed to employees over the next 60 days, with some spilling into 2017, the company said.

“We expect to realize over half of the total workforce reduction by the end of this year,” Stacy Smith, Intel’s CFO and EVP, said on yesterday’s earnings call.

Intel said the reorg is expected to result in $750 million in savings this year and an annual run rate savings of $1.4 billion by mid-2017. As a result, Intel will also post a one-time charge of approximately $1.2 billion in the second quarter.

Intel said the changes are being made to amid an initiative to “accelerate its evolution from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices.” It said data centers and IoT delivered $2.2 billion in revenue growth last year, and made up 40% of revenue and the majority of operating profit, largely offsetting declines in the PC segment. Intel said it saw the PC total addressable market drop 10% from 2013 to 2015.

About 40% of our Intel’s revenue and 60% of its margin comes from areas other than the PC sector, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said on the call.

“It's time to make this transition and push the company over all the way to that strategy and that strategic direction. So that's why we wanted to do it now,” he said.

He also said the restructuring will enable Intel to invest in the aforementioned growth areas. “[W]e are going to continue to double down, focus on those.”

As investments go, they will focus on “thin-and-light devices,” Krzanich said, but added that Intel will also “push even harder on high-end gaming systems, which are growing at a very fast rate.”

For Q1, Intel posted earnings of 54 cents per share, up 20% from a year ago, on revenues of $13.8 billion, up 8% versus a year ago. 

Comcast shareholders won’t have to worry about catching planes, trains or automobiles to make to next month’s 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. This time the annual confab will be held entirely within the electronic confines of the Internet.

In filing its annual proxy statement Friday, Comcast said that the 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, scheduled for May 16 at 9:45 a.m., will be conducted entirely online. And barring any technical disasters, it’s the way the company wants to handle the annual ritual from now on.

The practice of virtual annual meetings is not new – the first company to hold one was consulting group Inforte in 2001 – and according to TheCorprateCounsel.net, 93 public companies held online shareholder meetings in 2014. For the most part, virtual meetings were the bailiwick of smaller, more obscure companies until Martha Stewart Living OmniMedia conducted one in 2012 and Hewlett-Packard took the plunge in 2015. Intel, which began offering shareholders the option of attending in person or online in 2008, is holding its 2016 annual meeting exclusively electronically on May 19.

According to Comcast, shareholders will be given an 16-digit control code on their share proxies to log in to the virtual meeting and can ask questions via their computers. Shareholders will be able to vote their shares electronically during the meeting, except with respect to shares held in the Comcast Corporation Retirement-Investment Plan or the Comcast Spectacor 401(k) Plan, which must be voted prior to the meeting. Non-shareholders can access the audio feeds and view presentation slides online through a “guest-only” option, but won’t be allowed to vote or ask questions.

According to Comcast, shareholder turnout for its annual meetings is usually low – 35 showed up for the 2015 annual meeting at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. With the new technology, more shareholders will be able to access the meeting.

“We are excited to embrace cutting edge, virtual meeting technology that we believe will provide expanded shareholder access and participation, improved communications and, over time, cost savings for our shareholders and company,” Comcast said in its proxy statement.

Annual meetings have long been an opportunity for shareholders to rub elbows with the people who run the companies they own, and in some cases, grab a few perks. The Walt Disney Co. annual meeting has long been a spectacle for shareholders, who regularly pose for photos with statues of Disney characters at the event.

Shareholder get-togethers have also been opportunities for protesters to gain some high-profile publicity and for activists and shareholders’ rights groups to ask their questions – also formally submitted and contained in the proxy statement – directly to the chairman, CEO and board of directors.

They also presented an opportunity for reporters to occasionally pigeonhole executives making the rounds at the meetings, but that practice has been severely curtailed in the past several years.  

Offering another glimpse at the expected speed of cable’s rollout of DOCSIS 3.1, chipmaker MaxLinear expects product volumes to climb toward the second half of next year.

Speaking Tuesday on the company’s third quarter earnings call, CEO Kishore Seendripu said MaxLinear made progress on its DOCSIS 3.1 initiatives during the quarter, and “we currently expect to ramp in volume in the second half of 2016.”

In September at the IBC show in Amsterdam, MaxLinear and partner Intel announced a chipset designed to be compatible with DOCSIS 3.1, the emerging multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks. That platform features combines an upgraded form of Intel’s Puma silicon with MaxLinear’s MxL268 Full-Spectrum Capture tuner, which can obtain channels for bonding from anywhere along the cable spectrum. The first wave of DOCSIS 3.1 modems will be hybrids that can support both DOCSIS 3 .1 and DOCSIS 3.0-based traffic.

Hitron Technologies said last month that its first D3.1-based modem product will be powered by the Intel/MaxLinear combo.

MaxLinear and Intel will be competing on the D3.1 chip front against Broadcom and STMicroelectronics.

Seendripu noted on the call that Comcast is one of the MSOs “leading the charge” on DOCSIS  3.1, while other MSOs look to offer gigabit capabilities using DOCSIS 3.0-based platforms that can bond up to 32 downstream channels.

“So we got multiple ways to get to multi-big gigabit services,” he said.

MaxLinear posted Q3 revenues of $95.2 million, up 34% sequentially and 193% year-over-year, reflecting the first financial period that reflected a full-quarter of contribution from the company’s acquisition of Entropic Communications, a maker of silicon for set-tops and Multimedia over Coax technology. MaxLinear also posted Q3 net income of $1.6 million (3 cents per diluted share), versus a net loss of $3.2 million (9 cents per share) in the year-ago quarter. 

Those results beat Wall Street analyst expectations. MaxLinear shares rocketed $2.65 (20.18%) to $15.78 each in early day trading Wednesday.

Hitron Technologies Americas will use this week’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans to trot out the CODA, a DOCSIS 3.1-based cable modem that’s powered by Intel’s Puma 7 chipset.

Hitron (booth 1235) said the CODA, fully-loaded, will support up to 5 Gbps downstream and up to 1 Gbps in the upstream. Like all modems in the initial DOCSIS 3.1 wave, Hitron’s will be a hybrid that supports both DOCSIS 3.0- and DOCSIS 3.1-based transport signals.

The Puma 7 is a dual-core Intel Atom processor that supports third-party 4x4 MIMO WiFi and voice recognition modules, noted Hitron, which delivers more than 1 million DOCSIS products annually to MSOs worldwide. Hitron’s announced DOCSIS modem customers include Videotron, GCI, Mediacom Communications, Suddenlink Communications and Cable One, among others.

“The Intel Puma 7 will enable innovators like Hitron to design true multi-gigabit broadband modems and home gateways with the latest DOCSIS 3.1 technology,” said Keith Wehmeyer, general manager for the cable segment at Intel’s Connected Home Division.

Update: MaxLinear also announced today that  Hitron has selected its MxL278 Full-Spectrum Capture (FSC) digital cable front-end receiver and MxL236 upstream programmable gain amplifier for its new family of DOCSIS 3.1-based consumer premises equipment. 

DOCSIS 3.1 product activity has been heating up ahead of Cable-Tec Expo. On Monday, Arris introduced two D3.1-based models – one for direct sale to MSOs, and another tagged for retail distribution.

Averna said Intel has selected its DP-1000 DOCSIS Protocol Analyzer to test its DOCSIS 3.1-based cable modem chipsets ahead of format certification testing at CableLabs.  

Averna said the DP-1000 captures and filters MAC-layer data in real-time to verify RF parameters, validate MAC-level communication, troubleshoot interoperability issues, and improve performance. The DP-1000 tests input frequency in the range of 100 MHz to 1.8 GHz in the downstream, and 5 MHz to 200 MHz in the upstream direction, the company added. 

Averna’s system is optimized for D3.1-basded modems, which will be hybrids that  support both DOCSIS 3.0- and DOCSIS 3.1-based data traffic.

CableLabs announced in August that it had “opened the door” to vendors that are seeking to certify and qualify products for DOCSIS 3.1, an emerging multi-gigabit platform for hybrid/fiber coax (HFC) networks.  Intel, Broadcom and STMicroelectronics are the known vendors that are developing chipsets for DOCSIS 3.1-powered modems.

New test and measurement tools and systems were emphasized at a recent CableLabs-run DOCSIS 3.1 interop that featured a wide range of modem and cable modem termination system suppliers.  

No products have been certified for DOCSIS 3.1, but deployments are expected to get underway in 2016, and ramp up in 2017.

"Intel was seeking a solution to test its new chipset for D3.1 as well as D3.0, validate CableLabs specifications for the MAC-layer and parts of the PHY-layer, as well as evaluate CMTS interoperability," said Alex Pelland, director of broadband test strategy at Averna, in a statement.

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.

STMicroelectronics officially tossed its hat into the DOCSIS 3.1 ring Tuesday with the unveiling of a chipset designed for an emerging platform that will deliver multi-gigabit speeds over HFC networks.

STMicro’s new D3.1-based chip, the STiD325 (codenamed “Barcelona”), is currently sampling with “lead customers.” The chipmaker, which will compete in the DOCSIS 3.1 CPE sector against Broadcom and Intel, has not announced any vendors that will use the STiD325 in broadband CPE products, but noted that it has participated in the CableLabs Acceptance Test Plan development committees and interoperability tests.

The company also stated that the Barcelona “early platform” operated successfully in what it called the world’s first end-to-end DOCSIS 3.1 field test conducted earlier this year. STMicro didn’t go into further detail, but Comcast has been conducting field trials of DOCSIS 3.1-based traffic, and revealed last month that it expects to follow with a market trial in the fourth quarter of 2015.

STMicro, which is demonstrating its new cable broadband tech at this week’s CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, Colo., said the STiD325 is for a wide range of broadband CPE products, including stand-alone cable modems, embedded media terminal adapters (which support cable  VoIP), as well as video gateways. Barcelona also supports RDK-B, a version of the Reference Design Kit software stack that’s made to work with broadband devices and set-top boxes. Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global are managing the RDK.

STMicro’s Barcelona chipset will be a hybrid in the sense that it will support both DOCSIS 3.0 and DOCSIS 3.1 traffic. On the D3.1 side, it will handle two blocks of 196 MHz-wide OFDM downstream spectrum, and two 96 MHz-wide OFDM-A upstream channel blocks; on the D3.0 end, the chipset will support 32 single-carrier QAM downstream channels and 8 upstream QAM channels. While DOCSIS 3.1 is designed for capacities of up to 10 Gbps downstream and at least 1 Gbps upstream, the initial wave of D3 .1 modems will support about 5 Gbps/1Gbps when fully loaded.

"Prepared to be among the first commercial DOCSIS 3.1 deployments, our innovative platform architecture supports our ambition to make Barcelona a reference in the Cable industry," said Philippe Notton, group vice president and general manager of STMicroelectronics' Consumer Product Division, in a statement. "As a standalone for multi-gigabit cable gateways or combined with our Monaco SoC for an UltraHD media gateway, ST can offer complete solutions for fast design."

Hitron Technologies has taken the wraps off a new DOCSIS 3.0-powered modem that can deliver downstream speed bursts in excess of 1 Gbps.

Hitron’s “Gigabit Cable Modem,” a model also known as the CDA3-35, can bond up to 32 downstream channels and up to eight upstream channels, representing an advance over 24x8 DOCSIS 3.0 modems. The new model can handle up to 1.2 Gbps in North American systems that use 6MHz-wide channels, and up to 1.6 Gbps on EuroDOCSIS systems that utilize 8MHz-wide channels.

The CDA3-35 is equipped with Intel’s Puma 6-MG DOCSIS processor and MaxLinear’s 32-channel MxL268 tuner, which, Hitron noted, are “drop-in and software compatible upgrades to prior 16- and 24-channel solutions.” Broadcom has also announced a 32x8 DOCSIS 3.0 solution.

All of those options are appearing ahead of DOCSIS 3.1, an emerging multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks. The first D3.1 modems will be hybrids that support both DOCSIS 3.0 and DOCSIS 3.1-based  traffic.

Hitron, which ships more than 3 million DOCSIS units worldwide per year, also announced that GCI of Alaska and Suddenlink Communications are the first MSOs to deploy the CDA3-35 for residential and business customers.

Last month, Suddenlink launched a 1 Gbps (downstream) residential broadband service to an initial set of markets -- Bryan-College Station, Texas; Nixa, Mo.; and Greenville and Rocky Mount, N.C. That service, which uses DOCSIS 3.0, is paired with a 50 Mbps upstream, and sells for about $109 per month as a stand-alone service, and for less when bundled with other Suddenlink services.

Hitron claimed that the CDA3-35 is the industry’s first 32x8 D3 modem product to deploy commercially in North America.

“The rollout of gigabit cable modems into the home will enable the adoption of advanced applications such as high-definition streaming content, interactive services, home security and other next-generation connected home technologies that rely on fast, reliable broadband connectivity to the Internet,” explained Jeff Heynen, Research Director, Broadband Access and Pay TV at IHS.

“For cable operators, the availability of gigabit technology over their existing cable plant will enable them to quickly compete with fiber-based services at an affordable price point,” Jeff Heynen, research director, broadband access and pay TV at IHS, said in a statement.

“The CDA3-35 provides the fast Internet connectivity speeds that will allow MSOs to deploy next-generation interactive services to their subscribers and support the increasingly advanced applications and devices in the Connected Home,” added Todd Babic, chief sales and marketing officer for Hitron Technologies Americas. 

Chief technology officers from Comcast and Liberty Global were among those cheering the closure of Intel’s acquisition of Lantiq, a maker of broadband access and home networking silicon.

Intel, which makes chipsets for cable set-tops and gateways as well as DOCSIS modems, announced the deal in February, noting that it will help it broaden its play into the “Internet of Things” and provide a boost to “smart routers” for the connected home.

“This acquisition enables us to extend our success in cable home gateways into DSL and fiber markets giving us full coverage of broadband access methods around the world,” Intel’s Gregory Bryant explained in this blog post. “The teams are already developing innovative ways to use our combined IP to create new products to benefit our customers, which we’ll share more about in the coming months.”

Dan Artusi, Lantiq’s CEO, now reports to Bryant -- the corporate vice president in Intel's Client Computing Group, and GM of desktop client platforms -- and lead Intel’s new Connected Home Division.

MSOs that work closely with Intel weighed in on the deal.

“We’re pleased to see Intel growing their gateway business with the purchase of Lantiq," Tony Werner, Comcast’s EVP and CTO, said in a statement. “As Comcast continues to scale our networks to gigabit speeds, we look forward to having the benefit of a common architecture across multiple access technologies that shortens development time so we can quickly deliver ultra-fast broadband experiences to our customers.” 

“We’re glad to see Intel expanding their portfolio of technologies with the Lantiq acquisition,” added Balan Nair, EVP and CTO of Liberty Global. “The combined group will be a leading supplier for broadband technologies with a comprehensive range of solutions to help us deliver ever faster connectivity to our customers.”

Arris, which makes devices that rely on Intel silicon, said the combo will bring benefits to its connected home platforms, Charles Cheever, Arris’s consumer premises equipment CTO, said.

When the deal was announced, Intel said more than 100 operators worldwide had deployed products powered by Lantiq, which has been focusing on DSL technology, including G.fast,  an emerging standard designed to bring 1-Gig capabilities to DSL. 

Already strong in the cable modem and gateway market, Intel will look to expand more deeply into the world of DSL, FTTP, WiFi, LTE and the broader “Internet of Things” by snapping up Lantiq, a maker of broadband access and home networking silicon.

Intel did not disclose the financial term of the deal, but expects to close it within 90 days. Intel said the deal will deepen its ability to power a new class of “smart routers.”

Intel said more than 100 operators around the world have deployed Germany-based Lantiq’s DSL technologies, noting that the company has also been developing products for GPON and G.fast, an emerging standard designed to bring 1-Gig capabilities to DSL. Of recent note, Lantiq has been identified as one of several vendors that have awarded design wins to Sckipio, a startup that specializes in G.fast silicon. Last year, Dan Moloney, the former president of Motorola Mobility, joined board of Lantiq, a former unit of Infineon that was acquired in 2009 by Golden Gate Capital.

Intel, which got into the DOCSIS and cable gateway game in 2010 through the acquisition of Texas Instruments’ cable modem business, believes the purchase of Lantiq will position it to support a broader variety of access technologies.

"By 2018, we expect more than 800 million broadband connected households worldwide," said Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Client Computing Group, in a statement. "Intel has been a global leader in driving broadband into the home and to connected compute devices. The combination of our cable gateway business with Lantiq's technology and talent can allow global service providers to introduce new home computing experiences and enable consumers to take advantage of a more smart and connected home."

"Intel and Lantiq share a common vision about the evolution of the connected home and the intelligent network," added Lantiq CEO Dan Artusi. "Together we can drive the transformation of the broadband customer premises equipment (CPE) as it becomes a smart gateway that connects an increasingly diverse roster of devices and services in the home."

Broadcom is using this week’s International CES to unveil its first system-on-a-chip based on DOCSIS 3.1, the emerging CableLabs spec that is paving a path toward multi-gigabit speeds over HFC networks.

Broadcom, the first chipmaker to introduce a D3.1-based chipset, unveiled the BCM93390, a modem reference design that also bakes in 802.11ac WiFi radios that, it claims, can also pump out in-home wireless speeds of up to 2 Gbps.

Intel and STMicroelectronics, which is demonstrating DOCSIS 3.1 here at the show, are among the other chipmakers known to be developing DOCSIS 3.1 silicon.

The initial crop of DOCSIS 3.1 modems will be hybrids in that they will also be capable of supporting both DOCSIS 3.0 and DOCSIS 3.1 traffic. The aim there is to provide cable operators with a relatively smooth migration path as they light up fresh DOCSIS 3.1 spectrum.

As for Broadcom’s entry, the company said it complies with the D3.1 specs, meaning it will feature support for two OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) channels that are each 196-MHz wide, two 96 MHz OFDM-A upstream channels, 32 single-carrier DOCSIS 3.0 QAM downstream channels, and 8 single-carrier DOCSIS 3.0 QAM upstream channels.

Broadcom noted that the chip also integrates PacketCable voice and e-router apps, as well as RDK-B, an emerging, unified version of the preintegrated software stack for set-tops as well as DOCSIS-powered broadband gateways. The original version of the Reference Design Kit, which is being managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global, supported only hybrid QAM/IP and IP-only video devices.

Broadcom said the BCM93390 DOCSIS 3.1 design is currently sampling, and did not announce pricing or when it expects the SoC to reach commercial availability.

CableLabs, which conducted its first D3.1 interop last month and will host its second one later this month, expects to start official DOCSIS 3.1 certification and qualification testing as early as the second quarter of 2015.

DOCSIS 3.1 is a more efficient platform that aims to support capacities of up to 10 Gbps downstream and at least 1 Gbps upstream by utilizing blocks of OFDM subcarriers and a the introduction of the Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) forward error correction scheme. In addition to paving the way toward cable’s eventual all-IP migration, DOCSIS 3.1 will enable cable operators to deploy gigabit speeds on a broad basis without having to pull fiber all the way to the premises. 

Broadcom’s announcement also shed some light on when some of the world’s largest cable operators expect to start rolling out DOCSIS 3.1.

“The next generation of DOCSIS technology supports the Gigabit speeds our subscribers will increasingly demand over time,” said Balan Nair, Liberty Global’s EVP and CTO, in a statement. “DOCSIS 3.1 will enable Liberty Global to deliver an even richer experience once we begin deploying this cost-effective technology during the second half of 2015.”

“DOCSIS 3.1 is a critical technology for Comcast to provide even faster, more reliable data speeds and features such as IP video to our subscribers’ homes by harnessing more spectrum in the downstream,” added Comcast EVP and CTO Tony Werner. “By more effectively using our cable plant to grow our total throughput, we expect to offer our customers more than 1 Gigabit speeds in their homes in 2015 and beyond.”  

The Television Academy has announced the recipients of the 66th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards, which will be honored on January 8, 2014, at the Bellagio Hotel, and held in tandem with the Consumers Electronics Show

-The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), a group founded in 1916 under the chairmanship of inventor Charles F. Jenkins, is this year's recipient of the Philo T. Farnsworth Award, which honors an agency, company or institution whose contributions impacted TV technology and engineering.

-Laurence J. Thorpe is this year's recipient of the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors a living individual whose on-going contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering. Thorpe has served as the head of HDTV market development at Sony Electronics as well as senior fellow at Canon U.S.A.  A graduate of the College of Technology in Dublin, he began his career with the BBC in London.

The Academy also announced this year’s five Engineering Emmy recipients:

-Philips Professional Broadcasting for the LDK6000, DPM CCD Multi-format HDTV Camera System. First demonstrated in 2000, it uses the company’s patented DPM (Dynamic Pixel Management) imager technology, enabling the camera to capture multiple video formats and frame rates without physically changing the image sensor. It became a popular choice for remote sports and entertainment television productions including the Olympics (2004) and Super Bowl (2005), as well as live entertainment shows such as the Academy Awards (2003-2006).

-Sony Professional Solutions of America for the Multi-format HDTV CCD Fiber Optic Camera System. First used in 2005 on the Fox TV show, American Idol, the product is touted for providing superior HDTV image quality in a progressive video format (720 progressive). 

-High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI).  HDMI has evolved into a universally-implemented, standardized, digital-interconnection method that delivers high quality digital audio, video and auxiliary data to home entertainment devices while simplifying the consumer experience.  Unlike older cables, an HDMI connection transmits uncompressed audio-video data in 100 percent digital form through a single cable, the Academy pointed out.

-Intel Corp. for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). Intel Corporation, in concert with HDMI, created and deployed a universally implemented protocol for the clear identification and transparent delivery of copyrighted high quality audio/video content in a manner that discourages unauthorized redistribution.  Gaining broad adoption as an approved output protocol, it supports billions of device interfaces used by consumers worldwide.

-Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) for its Recommended Practice on Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television.  Spurred by public pressure, impending legislation, and newly-refined techniques for quantifying apparent loudness, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) codified a Recommended Practice on Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television as RP A/85. This publication is now mandated by the FCC as an enforceable regulation in response the United States Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act of 2010, effective December 13, 2012. 

There are no qualified or certified DOCSIS 3.1 products to speak of yet, but some suppliers are already starting to talk up components that provide “network compatibility” with the emerging multi-gigabit cable IP platform.

Intel and MaxLinear announced Friday that they have co-developed a next-gen cable modem/gateway chipset designed to work on DOCSIS 3.1-powered networks while also baking in a DOCSIS 3.0 implementation that can bond up 32 downstream channels – a requirement for D3.1 modems, they said.

The first wave of DOCSIS 3.1 modems will be hybrids that can support both DOCSIS 3 .1 and DOCSIS 3.0 spectrum, a setup that should help to smooth cable’s migration path to D3.1, a platform that will be capable of delivering 10 Gbps in the downstream, and at least 1 Gbps in the upstream.

The DOCSIS 3.0 bonding configuration in the new 32-channel Intel/MaxLinear product will support downstream bursts of 1.2 Gigabits per second in North American settings (6MHz-wide channels), and up to 1.6 GHz on EuroDOCSIS systems that use 8MHz-wide channels.

Intel and MaxLinear didn’t say when the new chip will be ready for commercial shipments (Multichannel  News will update the story when those facts are known), but they did note that the new 32-channel system is made to deliver 33% percent more downstream punch in the same power envelope.

Update: Intel confirmed that the new chipset is currently sampling to customers, with volume shipping slated for the fourth quarter of 2014. The chip is also paired with the ability to bond up to 8 upstream channels.

The chipset, to be demonstrated at the IBC show in Amsterdam, combines an upgraded form of Intel’s Puma 6 DOCSIS silicon with MaxLinear’s MxL268 Full-Spectrum Capture tuner, which can obtain channels for bonding from anywhere along the cable spectrum. They said the chip provides a “pin-compatible upgrade path” from 16 to 24 to 32 channels.

“By listening to our customers, we have been able to satisfy the market need and quickly bring a 32-channel solution to complement our Puma 6 family to market,” said Ran Senderovitz, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Service Provider Division, in a statement.

Instead of using 6 MHz- or 8MHz-wide channels, the DOCSIS 3.1-facing side of coming hybrid D3.0/D3.1 modems will utilize orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), a technique already popular in the wireless realm that will enable operators to pack tiny subcarriers into wide blocks of bandwidth and utilize higher levels of modulation that can deliver more bits per hertz. When paired with a low density parity-check (LDPC), a Forward Error Correction (FEC) format that uses less bandwidth than the current Reed-Solomon approach, DOCSIS 3.1 is expected to be about 50% more bandwidth-efficient than DOCSIS 3.0.

CableLabs issued the first product specs for DOCSIS 3.1 last fall; deployments are expected to be well underway by 2016.

Last June, Broadcom announced a DOCSIS 3.0 chip that can bond 32 downstream channel and 8 upstream channels, but has yet revealed its DOCSIS 3.1 product roadmap. STMicroelectronics, another chipmaker, is also expected to toss its hat into the D3.1 ring.