To ensure that their subscribers receive the latest in HD programming, Horizon needed to reliably transcode incoming MPEG-2 streams into H.264 for more efficient transmission through their network. They knew there were several different options available and underwent an extensive evaluation of transcoding solutions.

With two critical factors in mind—scalability and reliability—Horizon selected RGB’s Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG™). The VMG’s modular, chassis-based architecture allows Horizon to easily and cost-effectively expand their services as customer demand increases, and provides carrier-class reliability with extensive redundancy features.

For more information, please read the press release.

Our Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG) is one of the solutions up for the ‘best digital video processing technology’ award in what CSI describes as a ‘record breaking year in terms of number and quality of entries.’

The VMG is no stranger to winning awards. Its ability to repurpose any type of video feed for delivery to any device has already won it recent accolades from the UK SCTE and TelcoTV. We’re hoping to complete the hat-trick on September 10, when the CSI winners are announced.

If you’re interested in finding out what the buzz is about, we’ll be demonstrating the VMG on our stand at IBC (#4.B91). As well as simultaneously delivering video content to TVs, PCs and mobile devices (including the iPhone and iPad) we’ll also be highlighting its unique three screen ad insertion capabilities. The VMG is the only solution capable of delivering tailored advertising simultaneously to all types of video-enabled devices.

For free entry into IBC (including a five-day local travel pass), please click here and use customer ticket code 15307.

A recent report in FierceIPTV examines a new TDG study that probes the demand for TV Everywhere and the potential (think millions) in revenue up for grabs.

TDG estimates that “some 60 percent of adult broadband users are ‘enthusiastic’ about TV Everywhere, and more than half of them would be willing to pay $5 or more in addition to their pay-TV subscriptions each month to access a TVE service.”

“Current TVE-type offerings remain relatively fledging services with little in the way of compelling content,” said Michael Greeson, TDG founding partner and author of the new report. “That’s to be expected from a service breaking new ground and no doubt feeds operator belief that these services should be viewed as a free value-added service to existing residential TV subscribers as opposed to a new service capable of generating additional revenue.”

TDG stresses that failing to charge an additional fee for multi-screen access could leave operators with empty pockets—and regret.

With our in-house development and recent acquisition of RipCode, we at RGB are poised to enable video service providers to cost-effectively deliver TV-like services beyond the television to desktop and mobile devices (trials are underway!). By giving our customers the tools they need for successful three screen delivery, we are opening the doors for them to claim this untapped revenue—revenue that, as TDG states, could tip the scales in the tens of millions.

Now that’s a piece of pie worth snagging off the table!

“Big changes are taking place in the way video is delivered by operators and how it is received by consumers—services have expanded beyond the television to desktop and mobile devices, and are increasingly being delivered over IP infrastructure. RGB is developing and delivering solutions that address the challenges presented by these changes, without requiring massive overhauls to existing infrastructure. We look forward to sharing our latest innovations for cost-effective video delivery to all devices at this year’s IBC.”

At IBC stand 4.B91 RGB Networks will be demonstrating multiple applications on its award-winning Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG), the industry’s most advanced video processing platform. The multi-function VMG enables video service providers to cost-effectively deliver services to their subscribers on any video-enabled device, and is the industry’s only platform capable of supporting ad insertion across all three screens using a proven ad ecosystem.

RGB’s stand will feature a live multi-screen solution, demonstrating how service providers can deliver content in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.624 formats simultaneously to the TV, PC and mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPad. Attendees can learn the unique operational benefits of delivering three screen services utilizing the VMG’s high-performance, high-capacity and highly scalable platform. The demonstration will also highlight the VMG’s unique ad insertion capabilities, showing how providers can seamlessly extend their advertising strategies across all three screens.

Also at IBC, RGB Networks will demonstrate its 3D processing capabilities, showing how video service providers can deliver 3D content to the home in a bandwidth-efficient manner without compromising picture quality. Utilizing RGB’s VMG for transcoding 3D streams between MPEG-2 and H.264, Broadcast Network Processor (BNP) for broadcast statistical multiplexing and Dynamic Bandwidth Manager (DBM) for video-on-demand (VOD) statistical multiplexing, the demo will highlight how 3D content can be delivered alongside existing video services, allowing service providers to gradually and cost-effectively introduce 3D programming into their channel line-ups.

For free entry into IBC (including a five-day local travel pass), please click here and use customer ticket code 15307.

Many believe the last hurdle for cable operators and other service providers to provide live TV on mobile devices is the real-time transcoding of programming from the bandwidth-hefty MPEG-2 into the bandwidth-thrifty MPEG-4/ H.264, but this isn’t entirely the case.

Service providers are quickly learning that transcoding isn’t the hardest part of mobile video—it’s the integration and management of all the equipment to perform the variety of necessary video processing functions. While it’s certainly possible to cobble together transcoders, ad splicers, etc. into a viable solution, the cost and complexity of managing these devices is a tremendous headache, and reliability becomes a significant factor.

To address this obstacle, RGB has developed the Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG) as an “all in one” solution multi-screen video using a single management system. Rather than assemble multiple independent “pizza box” transcoders, ad inserters, etc., service providers can take advantage of the chassis-based VMG and its family of flexible modules, each devoted to a specific application, such as transcoding. Service providers can populate a multi-function VMG with any mix of modules for transcoding, ad insertion, etc. they require and easily manage everything with a single user interface. This modular system also allows for easy, license-based upgrades, while the carrier-class platform ensures superior reliability. The VMG is currently involved in several multi-screen video trials and the feedback is both positive and helpful in further refining the VMG to make it the ideal solution for mobile TV.

As we approach accelerated adoption in 2012, be sure not to count out 2011. Subscribers’ appetite for mobile video may likely accelerate faster as the popularity of mobile devices, such as the iPad and iPhone, continue to proliferate. The key to ensuring that service providers can scale their limited trials into a ubiquitous service are innovative new products like the VMG that take video processing to a new level.

As service providers navigate the complexities of delivering video to TVs, PCs and mobile devices over a single, converged network, we believe the unmatched simplicity, reliability and scalability offered by RGB’s integrated chassis solution will quickly set a new standard for multi-screen delivery.

We invite you to visit our website for more details on the acquisition and our new three screen offering.

But we aren’t the only ones talking about three screens. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to open up a cable, telecom or even mobility publication without reading something about the recent three screen invasion.

A recent Nielsen Report on three screens puts online video consumption up by 16% since last year and states that “active mobile video users grew by 57% from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the fourth quarter of 2009, from 11.2 million to 17.6 million.”

“It seems that, for the foreseeable future at least, America’s love affair with the TV will continue unabashed,” said Matt O’Grady, Nielsen Company media product leader. “We seem to have an almost insatiable appetite for media, with online and mobile programming only adding to it.”

And while analysts and reporters alike agree that consumer demand for three screen video is hitting its stride, it’s the companies that enable its delivery who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes, focused on the future of three screen video before the idea hit the mass market.

Here at RGB, revolutionizing three screen delivery has been in the works for a long time. Products like the VMG, launched last year, address the complex challenges that video providers inevitably face as they race to deliver their content to three screens.

Ramin Farassat, Vice President, Product Marketing & Business Development for RGB, discussed these challenges and examined RGB’s three screen approach at this year’s Cable Show for Broadband Gear Report’s Tech Live segment.

Farassat explains how RGB’s integrated transcoding platform enables video providers to now bring in the video only once to the network, perform all video processing functions, and distribute it to as many different types of devices as needed – such as TVs, PCs and mobile devices including iPhones and iPads – all within a single chassis. Check it out.

And be sure to stay tuned as we continue to play a lead role in the three screen revolution.

Leading cable operators are exploring new ways to pump digital video signals cost-effectively through the cable modem termination system (CMTS), which would enable greater use of IP video and narrowcasting. The goal is a new, super-dense “CMTS on steroids” architecture that can separate upstream and downstream signals logically, rather than physically, resulting in significant operational benefits. The architecture also allows for a more logical modularization than the previous M-CMTS implementations, resulting in increased deployment flexibility. Implementation of this architecture would be a fundamental change from the way that cable operators have traditionally delivered video to the home.

How will this proposed Next-Generation Access Architecture work? What would be the costs of its implementation? What are the pros and cons of this approach? Join RGB Networks in addressing these questions and more.

When: Tuesday, May 25, 9:00 a.m. PT (12:00 p.m. ET / 17:00 GMT); the webinar will run for 90 minutes.

Where: Register here for the webinar.

What: Under the strong leadership of Comcast, the cable industry is now developing specs for a new class of dense, multi-service networking gear that would drastically increase QAM capacity while simultaneously slashing power needs and space requirements in the cable headend. Known as the Converged Multiservice Access Platform (CMAP), this super-dense, do-it-all networking device would replace traditional CMTSs and edge QAM modulators, forming the heart of the proposed Next Generation Access Architecture (NGAA) that Comcast is now developing. As a result, the new CMAP platform would allow cable operators to support far more narrowcast and multicast services than they can today, including those fed by DOCSIS, VOD, and switched digital video (SDV).

Why Attend: With the help of Jorge Salinger, Vice President of Access Architecture for Comcast, this webinar will explore the possibilities offered by CMAP, the technical challenges raised by it, the answers to those challenges, and the platform’s potential cost and power savings and other benefits. In particular, this session will cover the different CMAP pieces and options, including the modular implementations that several vendors are now creating for the architecture’s Access Shelf and Packet Shelf components.

• The ongoing digital transition
• The continuing rollout of HD and VOD services and the accompanying demands they place on bandwidth
• The need for advanced advertising solutions to generate new revenues
• The start of three-screens delivery with its many complexities

Of course some of these topics aren’t new—we continue to encounter them as advancements in digital video spread around the world. However the delivery of any video to any device through advanced video transcoding is still fresh and definitely exciting (not to mention challenging).

Along with the rollout of new services, a recurring theme at the various trade shows over the past two months has been the need for cost-efficient solutions that streamline deployments. Whether an operator is delivering to one, two or three screens, they are seeking the most bang for their buck, and their requirements demand the operational simplicity and cost-efficiency uniquely provided by RGB’s high-density, integrated platforms.

If you attended any of these recent events, we’d love to hear your thoughts—what’s your take on the hot topics for your region? What did you learn?