Nearly 90 Firms Attend OCAP Developers' Conference, Interoperability Testing Event.Business Editors LOUISVILLE, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 27, 2002 Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs(R)) reported today that representatives from nearly 90 different companies participated in the recent OpenCable(TM) Developers' Conference and the first OCAP OCAP Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (Canada) OCAP Open Cable Application Platform (middleware software specification) OCAP Out of Control Action Plan (TM) interoperability The capability of two or more hardware devices or two or more software routines to work harmoniously together. For example, in an Ethernet network, display adapters, hubs, switches and routers from different vendors must conform to the Ethernet standard and interoperate with each other. testing event. More than 165 attendees represented a range of companies from start-ups to large international corporations, many of which sent multiple members to the conference to represent their various business units. This conference was one of a series of developers' conferences that illustrate the on-going cable industry commitment to making OpenCable and a retail environment for digital set tops and other devices a reality. OCAP stands for OpenCable Application Platform This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected . The content may change as the software release approaches and more information becomes available. and is intended to extend the goals of the OpenCable project into a software environment for the next generation of interactive television applications. "We discovered that there is a ready-made MHP MHP Multimedia Home Platform (consumer electronics) MHP Milliyetci Hareket Partisi (Turkish: National People's Party) MHP Mobile Home Park (district) MHP Maximum Human Performance community of reference implementation vendors, interactive application developers, and infrastructure tool vendors that can quickly apply their expertise to the OCAP environment," said Don Dulchinos, Vice President of Advanced Platforms and Services at CableLabs. "I believe this larger-than-expected turnout is partly the result of our active alliance with the European European emanating from or pertaining to Europe. European bat lyssavirus see lyssavirus. European beech tree fagussylvaticus. European blastomycosis see cryptococcosis. DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) An international digital television (DTV) standard that is the European and Far Eastern counterpart of the North American ATSC standard. organization," he added. Georg Luetteke, Chairman of the MHP Group of the DVB Commercial Module, said: "I am impressed im·press 1 tr.v. im·pressed, im·press·ing, im·press·es 1. To affect strongly, often favorably: by the large participation and the quality of presentations and discussions at the various events during the conference. OCAP/MHP is an important step towards a global solution for interactive multimedia applications and forms another milestone for converging con·verge v. con·verged, con·verg·ing, con·verg·es v.intr. 1. a. To tend toward or approach an intersecting point: lines that converge. b. the worlds of Digital Television and the Internet." The conference and interoperability event were coordinated and sponsored by CableLabs in conjunction with 20 vendors actively developing products or services that support the OpenCable platform. CableLabs summarized its project and the OCAP specifications, described its OCAP compliance test process, and discussed the OpenCable Applications Platform specification roadmap. A list of companies that participated in the conference is attached. Thirteen participating companies presented on topics covering reference OCAP/MHP implementations, application developer toolkits, content authoring tools, application servers and data carousels A format that interleaves information streams in a repeating pattern for digital video broadcasting. See DVB. for interactive television (iTV), software test and diagnostic tools, application management and delivery mechanisms, emerging Java technologies for iTV, and developer support programs. Following the developer conference, CableLabs opened its facilities to 14 active implementers who successfully demonstrated the interoperability of several different iTV applications simultaneously running on various manufacturers' hardware platforms Each hardware platform, or CPU family, has a unique machine language. All software presented to the computer for execution must be in the binary coded machine language of that CPU. Following is a list of the major hardware platforms in existence today. See platform. . The success of this interoperability demonstrates the feasibility and near-term reality of running various iTV applications on a number of different platforms, without undergoing the costly and time-consuming process of "porting" each application to each manufacturer's hardware and operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. . This "application portability" is made possible by the software interface described in the OCAP specification, and is an important competitive response in the delivery of cable services. Application portability also is considered by many to be a critical objective of competitive retail suppliers of set-top boxes The cable TV box that sits on "top" of the TV "set," although it is often located several feet away in an equipment rack. The set-top box descrambles the premium channels and provides a tuner for the higher cable numbers that very old TVs did not support. and television receivers so that those retail devices may deliver the same digital cable services to customers as the services being delivered to customers with leased digital cable set-top boxes. "Our interoperability testing is an extremely valuable part of the whole process," said CableLabs President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Dr. Richard R. Green. "We have used this process successfully in the past with our DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) A cable modem standard from the CableLabs research consortium (www.cablelabs.com), which provides equipment certification for interoperability. cable modem cable modem Modem used to convert analog data signals to digital form and vise versa, for transmission or receipt over cable television lines, especially for connecting to the Internet. program, and it has proven to accelerate the development work of the different vendors," Green added. OpenCable is an initiative sponsored by leading cable television companies, managed through CableLabs, with a goal of attaining interoperable The ability for one system to communicate or work with another. See interoperability. digital set-top boxes and other advanced digital devices manufactured by multiple vendors. These devices would be capable of delivering digital video, data and interactive services to a television set. The capability also may be built into consumer electronics devices, such as digital television receivers. CableLabs is a research and development consortium of cable television system operators representing the continents of North and South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . CableLabs plans and funds research and development projects that will help cable companies take advantage of future opportunities and meet future challenges in the cable television industry. The company also transfers relevant technologies to member companies and to the industry. In addition, CableLabs acts as a clearinghouse to provide information on current and prospective technological developments that are of interest to the cable industry. CableLabs maintains web sites at www.cablelabs.com; www.cablemodem.com; www.cablenet.org; www.opencable.com; and www.packetcable.com.
List of Participating Companies - OCAP Developers' Conference
February 14, 2002
Adelphia
AT&T Broadband
ATI Research
Alticast
Ambit Microsystem Corp
America Online
BitRouter
Broad and Wide
Broadcom
C-Cor.net
Canal +
Chosun Group Inc
CrossDigital
DIVA
DVA Group
Deray
DigiSoft.tv
Digital Video Arts
Dolby Laboratories
Ellacoya Networks
EnterCom
Entropic Communications
Espial
GIST Communications Inc
Grundig Digital Services
Hamilton Technologies
Hewlett Packard
Hitachi Home Electronics
ICTV
Mark Mindenahll, Independant Consultant
Integra5
Intellibyte Inc
Intellocity
Interact-TV Inc
John Dixon Group
KPMG
Keen Personal Media
Liberate Technologies
Livewire
MARGI Systems
MetaTV
Microsoft
Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America
Motion Picture Association
Motorola
Moxi Digital Inc
NDS Americas
Nielsen Media Research
NxtWave Communications Inc
Puremac Ltd
Pace Micro
Paddle Krumland Group
Panasonic
Philips
Pioneer Digital Technologies
PowerTV
Practical Interactive
Samsung
SCM Microsystems
SNAP2
Sanyo
Scientific Atlanta
Seagate
Sharp
Siemens Carrier Networks
Silicon Image
Sofia Digital
Softel
Sony
Starz!Encore
Strategy & Technology
Sun Microsystems
Tality
Tao
TeraLogic
Thales
The Weather Channel
Thomson Multimedia
Time Warner Cable
Toshiba America
Triveni Digital
Tuxia
Ucentric Systems
UniSoft Corporation
Vidiom Systems Corp
Vista Systems
WindRiver Services
WorldGate Communications
Zentek
List of Participating Companies - OCAP Interoperability Testing Event
February 14-16, 2002
Alticast
Digisoft
GIST
Harmonic
Philips
S&T
Samsung
Snap2
Sofia
Softel
Tality
Tektronix
Thales
Tuxia
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