Jontopia

June 5th, 2007

According to Multichannel News, Time Warner Cable will be installing switched digital video technology in a couple of their markets. Switched digital video (SDV) is a technology I saw at NCTA this year and in my opinion has a huge advantage over satellite. In a nutshell, SDV allows cable operators to offer a virtually unlimited number of cable channels. Currently a cable operator has to provision a certain number of channels given the limited spectrum. For example, let’s say a cable operator can only handle 100 channels due to throughput restrictions for the medium. Channel 002 is always Station X and channel 003 is always Station Y and even if no one is watching Station X, the operator has to send the station’s signal out. SDV allows the cable operator to reclaim throughput not being used and provision it for other channels. So, if no consumers are watching Channel 002, the operator can use channel 002’s bandwidth to offer a new channel, channel 101. So, the idea behind SDV is more analogous to your home internet. You have a certain amount of bandwidth going into your DSL or cable modem…what you do with it is up to you (50k of your 800k bandwidth isn’t always reserved to do one thing). SDV allows operators to virtually stream programming only when consumers want it. Therefore, a cable operator can offer thousands of channels. If no one’s watching a niche channel, nothing is affected since that space is reclaimed to send signals that people are watching a different channel.

This technology will ultimately lead to more high definition channels and more niche channels. Imagine having a high definition channel that solely consists of a camera mounted somewhere in Yellowstone Park (HD of course) and a channel dedicated to underwater basket weaving. Traditionally, a cable operator wouldn’t dream of such a thing since it would take away their ability to offer more mainstream channels but now the possibility exists to offer almost any channel as long as it’s commercially viable.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Entertainment, Media, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.