BigBand Networks Announces First Integrated Video, Audio and Data Router to Deliver Broadcast-Quality Content and Advanced Interactive Services to the Mass Market.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

The Western Cable Show

Booth No. 4409

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 21, 2000

New Class of MPEG and IP NativeMedia(TM) Router in Beta Testing 

With Leading Cable Providers Cox Communications Inc.

and Rogers Communications, Inc.

BigBand Networks, Inc. today announced the Broadband Multimedia-Service Router (BMR(TM)), the industry's first integrated video, audio and data router that uniquely routes multiple media types in their native formats and enables service providers to deliver broadcast-quality content and advanced, interactive services to their massive customer base over broadband networks.

The router is currently in beta testing with leading cable service providers Cox Communications Inc. (NYSE:COX) and Rogers Communications Inc. (NYSE:RG). Next week, the company will demonstrate the BMR at The Western Cable Show in Los Angeles, Calif., booth no. 4409 in the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center, Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.

The new class of router enables provisioning of new services by routing and integrating together multiple media formats and services such as broadcast video, the Web, video on demand (VOD), audio and data content to a full range of customer devices. The BMR features the modular and patented NativeMedia Operating System that runs inside the BMR and uniquely routes, manipulates and synchronizes the delivery of multiple media types in their native formats.

"Service providers are struggling in the race to provide converged Internet, telephony, and television, as well as new personalized services featuring on-demand content," said Amir Bassan-Eskenazi, president and CEO, BigBand Networks. "However, they are challenged to provide converged services through infrastructures that were originally built for singular purposes such as data delivery or, in the case of the cable network, one-way analog video broadcast. To solve this problem, BigBand Networks has applied its unique combination of expertise in IP routing and MPEG digital video transport to build the industry's first router that enables provisioning of a full range of media services -- not just high speed data -- to multiple customer devices including TVs, not just PCs."

Introducing the BMR1200(TM) and BMR100(TM) for the Cable Market

BigBand Networks is targeting the cable market for its initial application of the BMR. The cable network today serves over 60 million homes in the United States with high bandwidth, video-rich content. Multiple system operators (MSOs) are aggressively deploying digital set-top boxes (STB) and cable modems. However, they require more bandwidth and functionality to offer new services, and the capability to support more types of devices such as new and existing STBs, PCs, and emerging new devices.

To address MSO needs, BigBand Networks today introduces the highly scalable, carrier-class BMR1200 and BMR100 that were designed to provision multimedia services and thousands of broadcast-quality video sessions at a time. The BMR is situated between application servers and the hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) distribution network, enabling the easy introduction of new integrated services, intelligent dynamic allocation of bandwidth between services and optimized bandwidth usage. Based on an open architecture, the BMR supports standard interfaces and formats, including MPEG, IP, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and others. In supporting these standards, the BMR enables MSOs to augment and leverage their previous investments (including QAM modulators, deployed STBs etc.) rather than replace them.

"Advanced services are critical to our success," said Nick Hamilton-Piercy, senior technical advisor and former vice president, chief technical officer, Rogers Cable Inc., a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc. "We are creating new television services by linking our customers' TV screens to the Internet and blending video and data services. We need to seamlessly integrate these media streams and send large volumes of IP and MPEG traffic to our customers' televisions through our broadband network. We will deploy these services to our entire subscriber base and that requires a scalable system designed to support thousands of interactive sessions. The BMR is the kind of product we need to satisfy our requirements."

BigBand Networks' NativeMedia Operating System runs inside the BMRs and serves as the foundation for the NativeMedia Routing Engine and NativeMedia Processing Engine, enabling the manipulation and delivery of multiple types of media in their native formats, such as MPEG-2 transport for broadcast-quality digital video or IP for interactive data. As an example, the BMR can be used as an IP gateway that delivers data streams directly to legacy digital STBs using the same transmission path used by the video services to enable applications such as Web browsing from the television. NativeMedia's content-intelligent quality of service (QOS) supports the delivery requirements of video, audio and data while its service-intelligent bandwidth management capability dynamically assigns bandwidth per session, service, channel, user, or customer device.

"The cable spectrum is a valuable resource for us," said Chris Bowick, senior vice president, technology development for Cox Communications. "We can maximize that value by continuing to find more efficient ways of using that bandwidth for new advanced services. The NativeMedia operating system developed by BigBand Networks enables us to do so by sharing bandwidth across multiple services. As we continue to expand our deployment of advanced services, we will need a new class of multimedia service router, such as the BMR, to support our mission and build the infrastructure of our future network."

Customers can take advantage of the BMR's ability to dynamically combine VOD traffic, which can vary dramatically by time of day or week, with data traffic and, therefore, more efficiently use valuable cable bandwidth. The NativeMedia Processing Engine also statistically multiplexes and adapts video bit-rates of the VOD streams to free up even more bandwidth by packing more streams into the same QAM modulator. The modular design of the NativeMedia system is future-proof, allowing customers to add new functionality to the system when they are ready to use it. NativeMedia was designed with the recognition that these new multi-service networks must efficiently manage both data and video traffic and evolve to add new services. Radical architecture changes are impractical and won't result in mass deployment of advanced services.

"Using our NativeMedia operating system, we enable the multimedia, multi-service network to scale just like the Internet was enabled by the IP router," said Ran Oz, CTO and co-founder of BigBand Networks. "With our transport-agnostic BMR, service providers can offer new, advanced video services such as VOD and digital broadcast, data and web services to the TV over either MPEG or IP networks. That's because our system is content, device and service intelligent. The result of two years of work from our 100 person, multi-disciplinary team, the BMR was designed from the ground up to deliver interactive, multimedia services. Throughout that time we have communicated and worked very closely with our MSO partners and with the leading VOD and enhanced TV vendors. It is a true validation of the BMR that Cox Communications, Rogers Communications, and other broadband leaders are testing our BMR for pioneering their advanced services."

BMR Models and Configurations

The BMR1200 is a high density, carrier-class router designed for headends and larger hub facilities, featuring eight high-density I/O cards supporting up to 128 QAM outputs. The BMR100 with two high density I/O cards supporting up to 32 QAM outputs is the most space efficient model in the BigBand Networks' BMR product line and appropriate for most hub facilities or small headends.

The BMR100 can be combined with the BMR1200 to meet the full range of cable architectures. The two BMR models are controlled and managed by BigBand Networks' Service Management Unit, the SMU1000(TM) which has a standard interface to multi-vendor applications and bandwidth management systems, making it transparent to the broadband service operator. The BMR easily fits into the operator's network environment and is equipped with a set of standards-based management and monitoring tools with graphical user interfaces (GUI) collectively packaged as the BMR Management Suite.

Pricing and Availability

Both the BMR1200 and BMR100 are currently in beta tests with several major MSOs and are scheduled for general availability in the first half of 2001. Base pricing for the BMR starts at around $40,000.

About BigBand Networks

BigBand Networks, Inc. designs, manufactures and sells Broadband Multimedia-Service Routers, a new class of router that uniquely routes and integrates video, audio and data in their native formats and enables service providers to deliver broadcast-quality content and advanced, interactive services to the mass market. The company is funded by Redpoint Ventures, Pilot House Ventures, Cedar Fund and Evergreen Investments and is based in Fremont, Calif. Additional information can be found at www.bigbandnet.com.