Pioneer Digital Technologies Inc. debuted software advancements for its “Passport” interactive navigation suite at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ Cable-Tec Expo Wednesday.
The vendor said Passport is the only software that is compatible with both Motorola Inc. and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. digital-cable set-tops.
Passport’s new features are:
• Title Search: a keyboard interface with a moveable highlight for character entry to quickly target specific program titles;
• Quarter-Screen Video, which is displayed in the interactive programming guide’s time, theme and title views on Motorola’s “DCT 2500,” “5100,” “6200” and “6400” boxes;
• Extended Channel Banner, which allows full-screen video viewing to continue while also accessing all available information for any program in the channel lineup from the data available on the set-top; and
• Switched Broadcast, which brings together service management, switching and media processing of live video content on BigBand Networks Inc.’s “BMR (Broadband Multimedia-Service Router)” and client access through the Passport DCT software platform, enabling operators to provide live programs in dynamic response to subscriber viewing, so that only those programs being watched consume bandwidth and resources.
