Consumers’ appetite for video is astounding. Studies indicate over-the-top video now accounts for about 80% of downstream data, and growth in broadband consumption is directly tied to services like Netflix. Data usage and service-tier levels are more than 10 times higher than a decade ago. Because of these changes, many operators are migrating to a managed internet protocol (IP) video service to remain competitive.

IP video provides operators with a way to address consumers’ growing bandwidth demands by reducing quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) spectrum as customers switch from legacy video to IP video services. However, this transition period requires operators to carry additional capacity to simultaneously support both video types, which could force an extensive plant overhaul. Operators must also manage concurrent increasing bandwidth demands for broadband data during this multiyear IP-video transition.

Leveraging the Cloud

One technology that easily enables increased network capacity and speed is switched digital video (SDV), which requires no changes to the outside plant. In the past, SDV had high initial costs (especially for smaller systems) due to its hardware-centric approach. It also suffered from complicated installation and limited spectrum gains. But these past barriers have been removed, and cloud-based SDV is now the perfect option for cable operators that need more spectrum fast with minimal new investments. This is ideal for the IP video migration that creates a bandwidth bubble during the transition.

Like IP video, cloud-based SDV reduces video spectrum requirements by selectively delivering only the channels customers want to view at a given time, so unused content doesn’t take up space on the network. This frees spectrum that can now be used to increase network data capacity.

That’s a smart strategy, since studies have shown as little as 10% of TV programs get 90% of views. By using bandwidth more efficiently and optimizing channel lineups, new cloud-based SDV can potentially save more than 400 Megahertz of spectrum. There will even be enough left over for multi-Gigabit services in the downstream, as well as 204 MHz available upstream for 1 Gigabit-per-second symmetric service.

In its early days, SDV had a high initial cost that prevented use by small or mid-tier operators. But the new cloud-based SDV technology is a cost-effective option for providers, who can take advantage of a financial model where they pay only per tuner and per edge QAM channel. A recent case study showed an operator using cloud-based SDV could double IP data bandwidth capacity at a price of just $15 per subscriber, far less than what’s needed for a plant upgrade. Small-to-midsized cable operators thus have a lower barrier to entry and share a level playing field with larger companies. They can leverage a technology that wasn’t previously available to them.

Cloud-based SDV technology is primarily a software installation in the headend and set-top box. Providers can complete SDV updates without touching the outside plant. The Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) box enables EQAMs to be software configured for SDV and then merged into radio frequency outputs with no hardware changes needed in the headend. A CCAP also typically has a much smaller service group size than older cable-modem termination systems, important for amplifying SDV spectrum gains. Cloud-based SDV is installed within weeks, making it an ideal stepping stone to technologies like IP video or to expand consumers’ Gigabit broadband capacity.

Reconfiguring Made Easy

Cable providers can maximize their SDV spectrum savings by varying the mix of broadcast and switched content. Older SDV systems used conservative parameters for limited gains, but with newer CCAP and cloud-based SDV, providers have more freedom to reconfigure systems and reclaim 400 MHz or more of broadcast video spectrum. They need a solution to handle both increased demands from the IP video transition and customer data usage.

Operators that want to migrate their systems to IP video must be able to simulcast both legacy QAM and IP video content during the transition, increasing spectrum requirements. Meanwhile, overall data usage continues to increase, so providers must beef up their network capacity.

Cloud-based SDV is the perfect option for operators and customers because it easily and quickly expands bandwidth capacity without altering the outside plant or adding hardware. It also utilizes a fair pricing model and gives smaller providers more chances to save spectrum, ensuring a smooth transition to IP video that delivers a competitive advantage in the rapidly changing cable landscape.

John Ulm is engineering fellow at CommScope.

Switched digital video is not a new technology, but Adara Technologies, a supplier that’s been focused on independent cable operators, has added a new wrinkle that could help those providers migrate to IP video without breaking the bank.

MSOs such as Cablevision Systems (now part of Altice), Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications have used SDV for years to conserve bandwidth by putting lesser-viewed networks on “switched” tiers. The idea is to send a multicast stream of a specific channel or network only when a viewer in a given service group selects it for viewing. Once that stream is nailed up, others in the service group can tune into that stream. The multicast stream is then torn down when no one is watching that channel.

But Adara has taken SDV to the next level, enabling cable operators to deliver their full video service — not just the long-tail stuff — in a switched environment. The company recently carved out that switched-IP solution as a standalone product.

Adara has plenty of company in that arena, though. Evolution Digital, for example, is pitching National Television Cooperative members and other independent operators on IP video transition strategies that center on its new eVUE-TV platform.

Adara has expanded beyond its early reliance on a Cisco-centric offering to support multiple vendor platforms and set-tops, including products from equipment makers such as Arris and TiVo.

“We changed the purpose of switched-IP video,” Joseph Nucara, Adara’s CEO and cofounder, said. “It’s not just for long-tail [content] anymore.”

Under Adara’s approach, an operator can set aside channels that are typically used for broadcast TV to the new switched-IP video QAMs. Legacy set-tops, meanwhile, are preserved by embedding software from Adara that allows those devices to support the new IP-based multicast video streams.

Because new boxes aren’t required, “It’s extremely non-intrusive to the subscribers,” Nucara said.

He estimates that deployment requires freeing up eight to 24 6MHz-wide channels, depending on how much headroom the MSO needs to accommodate capacity demands.

“It’s like bandwidth on demand,” Nucara said.

Adara’s system monitors usage in real-time, and is designed to flag the operator when available bandwidth usage for the IP switched offering nears the 80% mark on a consistent basis. That, Nucara said, tells the operator when it needs to add capacity to those service groups or subdivide them.

Because that spectrum is now used to deliver IP-style “switched” technology, operators can support “unlimited content” in a smaller swatch of bandwidth, and can use reclaimed bandwidth for other needs, such as DOC SIS 3.1, Nucara said.

He said the same process could also support 4K video services, as MSOs look to take advantage of the new pixel- packed format.

Adara hasn’t broken down the exact costs of its system, but Nucara said a typical deployment requires about half a rack of equipment in the MSO’s headend, plus the new SDV components.

While Adara doesn’t preclude Tier 1s from using the platform, it has been taking hold mostly with small- and mid-tier operators, including Cass Cable of Central Illinois; CCAP in Quebec City and Cable Cable of Ontario, Canada; Cablevision in Warwick, N.Y.; Darien Telephone in Georgia; and Fayetteville Public Utility in Tennessee.

Nucara estimates that more than 75 operators are using Adara’s technology. He also thinks that the switched IP video component will draw the attention of larger, Tier 2 MSOs.

As part of its big summer software release, TiVo has developed an “embedded” way of supporting cable switched digital video (SDV) without having to rely on a separate Tuning Adapter.

The embedded SDV technology, built into the newly released software client, is initially in place to support TiVo devices deployed by the company's MSO partners, though it’s technically possible that it could be applied to TiVo boxes that are sold at retail and operate on cable systems that employ switched digital video. Dave Zatz of the ZatzNotFunny blog first referenced the existence of the new embedded SDV feature on the TiVo forum.

SDV, a technology championed by operators such as Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems, delivers a subset of channels in a multicast switched tier that are delivered only when a customer in a given service group requests them for viewing. TiVo DVRs don’t inherently support SDV, so the cable industry came up with a device called the Tuning Adapter to ensure that those users could still view channels in the MSO’s switched tier. But the approach is a bit of a kluge because it requires the user to latch on an additional power-sucking device.

In this new embedded approach, the new software, used in tandem with additional headend work, would do the same job, only without needing a clunky, separate box.

Similar to the way TiVo supports cable VOD services, the embedded SDV implementation uses a proxy in the network, enabling the TiVo box outfitted with the updated software client to communicate through an IP channel and access channels in the switched tier, Jim Denney, TiVo’s vice president of product management, explained.

TiVo originally developed its embedded SDV solution for partner BlueRidge Communications, and plans to do the same for Canada’s Cogeco, explained Todd Kulick, TiVo’s VP of technology and principal engineer. Cogeco recently announced that it had scrapped an IPTV project in favor of a next-gen video platform powered by TiVo.

The embedded SDV component, Denney said, “is enabling part of our wholesale business.”

He said the same approach could be used on TiVo boxes sold at retail, but noted that, because it requires some headend work, it would require negotiations and some form of an agreement with the cable operator. He said TiVo’s technical team is already holding discussion with operators about a way to support SDV without a Tuning Adapter.

TiVo doesn’t break out how many of its customers need Tuning Adapters, but the bulk of them are customers of TWC, which has deployed SDV widely.

Embedded SDV support is just one feature that graced TiVo’s significant summer release.

Among the bigger additions with summer software release (20.4.1) is TiVo’s move away from Adobe Flash for its user interface and applications, and its conversion to Haxe, an open-source multiplatform programming language. In addition to improving performance, particularly on TiVo’s Series 4 platform, it gives TiVo a unified look and feel across the Roamio, Premiere and TiVo Mini.

The conversion to Haxe also gives TiVo the potential to support a cross-section of devices without having to recreate applications for them. As shown in this slide about the company’s  Haxe-related work and a broader “TiVo Anywhere” strategy, the Amazon Fire TV, Xbox consoles as well as smart TVs represent the sort of hypothetical devices that TiVo could support thanks in part to its conversion.

“We’re experimenting with that now,” Denney said, noting that TiVo demonstrated at this year’s Cable Show in Los Angeles how its core app could run on non-TiVo CE hardware. “The implication of how that rolls out is all still a work in progress. But it holds promise in terms of being able to run the application on multiple devices.”

Other companies have similar ideas, though under different approaches. ActiveVideo, for example, has demonstrated how its cloud-based system could deliver the TiVo UI as well as Comcast’s X1 interface to a variety of devices, including Roku boxes, connected TVs and older, QAM-only DCT-2000 digital set-top boxes.

There are other benefits to TiVo’s Haxe conversation. Pieces of TiVo’s Haxe code for the set-top box, for example, can also be used to manage TiVo’s mobile apps and help the company “normalize” how its software clients interact, Denney said.