ncta

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we will be covering most stories in summary/round-up form over the next few weeks. Here is a round-up of regulatory/government news for the past few days:

Here is a round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

In a July 31st letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), US incumbent telco, Verizon, complained that the US cable industry's tru2way standard "is not compatible with other video providers' networks, including Verizon's all-fiber FiOS network" over which it offers its interactive TV-enabled FiOS TV service; and encouraged the FCC to take a "platform-agnostic" approach to fostering the implementation of two-way interactive TV.

US cable-industry research, development and standards organization,
CableLabs, recently issued a press release trumpeting the "broad
exposure" enjoyed by tru2way- and ETV/EBIF-based interactive TV
applications at this year's NCTA Cable Show. Among the Cable Show
tru2way and ETV demos highlighted by CableLabs in the release:

In this recorded episode of [itvt]'s talk radio show, "The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow," a panel of interactive TV
experts--Steve Borelli, VP of marketing and business development at
Integra5; industry analyst, Leslie Ellis (author of the popular
Multichannel News column, "Translation Please"); Will Kreth, director

of product management for interactive TV at Time Warner Cable; Alex

The second annual tru2way Developers Conference will be held in
New Orleans on Saturday, May 17th and Sunday, May 18th, just prior
to the NCTA Cable Show. The conference is produced by the NCTA,
in partnership with CableLabs (the originator of the tru2way/OCAP
standard) and premier sponsor, Vidiom Systems, a company that
specializes in tru2way/OCAP technology and that has a long track
record of offering not-for-profit classes and other educational events on
the standard. According to the organizers, the conference will provide a
forum for cable operators, content providers, Java developers, and

The NCTA and CableLabs have announced the line-up of companies
that will be participating in CableNET, their annual showcase of new
cable technologies and products at the NCTA's Cable Show (takes
place May 18th-20th in New Orleans). A number of participating
companies, including UniSoft/Strategy & Technology, Sigma Designs
and Zodiac Interactive, will be demo'ing tru2way-based technologies,
and several other companies, including Digeo, Motorola, Pixel3 and
Symmetricom, will be demo'ing other advanced video technologies. In
addition, there will be a number of presentations on tru2way at a
CableNET Theater.