WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, more than 20 exhibitors displayed a variety of interactive TV services and two-way cable-ready devices that are being prepared for wide-scale deployment to consumers. The event, the OpenCable™ Showcase, was held at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

The new interactive TV services and two-way devices are being enabled by an innovative national software platform – the OpenCable Platform – that provides a national distribution footprint for cable operators to deliver interactive services to consumers in nearly every U.S. market. 

“With OpenCable, the interactivity that consumers take for granted from the Internet will become more of an everyday reality for television,” NCTA President & CEO Kyle McSlarrow said.  “Whether it is on a plasma, LCD, or PC, consumers will wield more power than ever to search for, interact with, and view what they want, when they want it.”

In conjunction with the event, NCTA said two major developments were being announced today which endorsed the cable industry’s OpenCable approach:

• Intel Corporation and CableLabs®, the technology consortium of cable operators, announced that Intel will incorporate support for the OpenCable™ Platform in future consumer electronics (CE) products, based on Intel system-on-a-chip (SoC) processors.  Incorporating support for OpenCable into the chips allows digital television, set-top boxes, digital recorders and other networked devices to run standard applications and services delivered by cable operators, consumer electronics companies, program networks, and other software developers.

• Microsoft and CableLabs have established a collaborative relationship which will explore ways to enable cable’s two-way services to work on personal computers and speed deployment of OpenCable-enabled retail devices.  At the Showcase, Microsoft exhibited an OpenCable Uni-directional Receiver (“OCUR”) on a Windows Vista Media Center PC, the first PC that can display high definition uni-directional cable content on a computer monitor or HDTV as well as on an Xbox 360 through Media Center Extender.  Microsoft, CableLabs, major cable operators, and other key vendors are looking forward to expanding the scope of the cable services delivered to the PC platform to include bi-directional services in the future.

Developed in partnership with hundreds of companies, the OpenCable Platform is a series of internationally-approved technical specifications based on the Sun Microsystems Java-based system already in use by many developers to create content for TV, personal computers, game players, mobile phones and the Internet.  The software serves as a “universal translator” so retail devices can receive the full range of cable’s digital services, including interactive guides, digital video recorders, and video on demand, plus new applications and services yet to be deployed.

The OpenCable Showcase featured exhibits and displays from some of the biggest names in consumer electronics, home computing and software development.       

OpenCable Showcase exhibitors included:

• Aptiv Digital
• BigBand
• Cisco
• Comcast
• Dell Computers
• Ensequence
• ESPN
• Hewlett-Packard
• Microsoft
• Motorola
• Navic Networks
• Panasonic
• Samsung
• Scientific Atlanta
• Sun Microsystems
• The Weather Channel
• TiVo
• Unisoft
• VIA Licensing
• Vidiom Systems
• Vividlogic
• Zodiac Interactive

OpenCable is a trademark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.

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