ITV

Category: Set-top Boxes

  • STBs considered as telecom equipment to encourage indigenous production: Javadekar

    STBs considered as telecom equipment to encourage indigenous production: Javadekar

    NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued orders confirming that set top boxes (STBs) are part of telecommunication equipments. This has been done to promote indigenous production of STBs.

    Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar today informed the Lok Sabha that this was done after his ministry along with other ministries took up the constraints of Indian manufacturers in the production of indigenous STBs, in view of the fact that an estimated 110 million STBs would be required for the third and fourth phase of digital access system (DAS).

     

    While the earlier government had introduced digitisation in the country, it failed to chalk out a clear path for it, especially for boosting indigenous production of STBs. The new government had assured all the players that it would look at every sector’s problems and work on them. This thrust to indigenous STB makers seems to be a step forward in that direction.

     

    Javadekar also said that a task force has been set up to finalise the modalities and study the implementation of the last two phases of DAS which need to be completed by 31 December 2014. A Deloitte report prepared for ASSOCHAM recently said about 12 million STBs have been seeded and 80 per cent consumer application forms received as of December 2013. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) claims 100 per cent digitisation has taken place in the second phase of DAS.

    TRAI has also said that recommendations on the new direct to home (DTH) licences would be brought out very soon. HITS licences have been issued to two players and are expected to enable digitisation in Phase III and Phase IV markets.

    Meanwhile, the report notes ‘complaints have poured in against STBs. People in the city are complaining about digital STBs installed in their residences and commercial organisations. Visual and sound disturbances coupled with channels going off air from time to time have left viewers unhappy.’

     

    It also noted that ‘in the haste to install STBs in the city, cable operators have overlooked a crucial step – that of filling in the conditional access form (CAF) before installation of the device. The purpose behind mandating DAS was to identify the actual number of cable viewers in the country. But with most customers not filling in the form, the purpose still remains defeated.’

     

    ‘With penetration of TV in India standing at approximately 65 per cent, at present, the country has close to 80 million non-TV households, which present a key opportunity for the television distribution players. This low level of penetration holds a great potential for players to increase their subscribers and revenues. Drivers such as rising incomes, decreasing household size, multi TV phenomenon and rising urbanisation would only provide a further fillip.’

  • Chip maker Broadcom gets chirpy about India

    Chip maker Broadcom gets chirpy about India

    KOLKATA:  It’s got India on its mind.  Most Indian cable TV and DTH operators are pretty familiar with the  US-headquartered Broadcom Corp. The company provides the chips that go into the set top boxes and also for enterprise networking and mobile connectivity functions. What they probably don’t know is that it has invested more than 15 per cent of its global R&D budget in its Indian R&D centre. And that its Indian MD Rajiv Kapur is extremely gung-ho about the potential in India as its television ecosystem digitises. 

     

    And that’s despite the fact that there’s not been a flood of orders from those wanting to supply STBs to Indian  cable TV ops and MSOs.

     

    Says he:  “Right now activity is more on the technology front. The actual orders are expected to come before the end of the deadline (31 December 2014). And hence I can confidently say further growth will come. Even in the current situation, India’s revenue is being noticed from the global perspective.”

     

    Surely. With India’s transition from analog to digital television service, many consumers need new, full-featured set-top boxes (STBs) for home viewing. This represents a major opportunity for regional operators and set-top box manufacturers, as only a portion of the roughly 100 million STBs in consumers’ homes have already been digitised according to published government figures. Adding to this potential for set-top box growth is the trend of consumers adding more than one television to their home, as well as natural consumer upgrade cycles from standard definition to high definition, and so on.

     

    Meanwhile Kapur  points out that the company has invested -and is continuing to invest –  in India to develop complete solutions and also for support infrastructure.  “Our core competency is in chip making. But we have walked the extra mile by designing the complete hardware and software part. We have put many more features in the chip,” says Kapur.  

     

    Demand for those chips will come in the not to distant future. For  now, he says, “We see an immediate demand for standard definition STB “Zappers,” which are cost-effective and easy to deploy to new and current subscribers. In time, STBs with advanced features may either be imported or manufactured regionally due to their lower volume demand.”

     

    Endorsing his view is Vadodara-based VKJ Advisory CEO Vinod K Jhaveri who adds that Broadcom could and should take advantage of the current government’s stated policy to encourage indigenous production of chips in order to save the nation precious forex and make the silicon affordable. “Companies like Broadcom Corp have a great future as they can – in  the years to come – become a hub for Asia. They can use their  facilities to export  chips and semi conductors to countries like China and other Asian counterparts.”

  • “The country cannot afford to have tens of millions of bad STBs deployed”

    “The country cannot afford to have tens of millions of bad STBs deployed”

    For a company that was founded just about 23 years ago, Broadcom Corp has indeed come a long way. Founded by a student-professor combo, it is expected to announce financial toplines in excess of $8.5 billion this year. But more than that it is a market leader in providing chips for technologies such as enterprise networking, set-top boxes, and mobile connectivity functions.

     

    Earlier this year Broadcom president & CEO Scott McGregor had announced that both China and India are critical markets for the company at a conference in Shanghai. He had highlighted that Broadcom’s investments in research and development in India are probably the highest outside of the US. 

    Broadcom executive vice-president & general manager of broadband communications group Daniel Marotta had stated at the same conference that the company sees huge opportunities in the digitisation of the Indian cable TV business and that it had developed a special chip for the market as the ARPUs in the country are low. 

     

    Indiantelevision.com’s Sandhya Sutodia got in touch with Broadcom India managing director Rajiv Kapur to get further insights into how he views the progress of India’s government mandated digitisation and the opportunities available to his firm.

     

    Excerpts:

     

    What is the current state of digitisation in the country and Broadcom’s role in it?

     

    Digitisation has just about begun with phase III and IV still ahead of us. The new government seems to be putting its focus on various forward looking initiatives. We expect digitisation to continue with a high momentum.

     

    As Broadcom, we have prepared a variety of STB platforms providing a range of solutions for operators to offer to their subscribers. These range from the very basic cost sensitive SD zappers to entry HD platforms to higher end PVR and server class solutions. We offer several unique market differentiating features in each of these platforms, allowing subscribers and operators to enjoy the best of digital TV.

     

    Broadcom also invests heavily in hybrid solutions enhancing live TV with interactivity and over the top content and applications. Our lowest end SD solution offers USB and Ethernet interfaces at market competitive prices.

     

    We have a host of suppliers ready with STBs designed, both in the country and abroad, ready to ship as operators place future orders for the next wave of digitisation they are preparing for.

     

    How do you see the growth in the next two years?

     

    We expect the high growth in STB sales to continue beyond the digitisation deadlines. First reason is that subscribers may stagger their purchases of STBs for their second and third TVs in some homes.  Then, continued sales of TVs drives a healthy demand for more STBs in a market where TVs are always recycled to another room or home. Third, and most importantly, operators will continue to catch up with additional technologies and applications we invent on a continuous basis to drive improved user experiences and in turn higher retention and ARPUs for themselves.

     

    How are the dynamics of the business changing since the past couple of years in the Indian market?

     

    One visible change is a rising interest in local design and manufacturing. We are finally seeing supplies for the national optical fiber network (NOFN) which demanded a large percentage of made in India products. Small entrepreneurs are stepping up to design and manufacture electronics products locally. Operators are showing more acceptance of locally manufactured products.

     

    What are Broadcom’s recent innovations and solutions for the cable industry?

     

    We have implemented an almost complete turnkey solution for the low end cable TV market which includes a ready hardware and software stack to go along. This is so optimised that the memory footprint is very small, thus reducing costs. Additionally, market differentiating features like fast channel change have been added to enhance the user experiences in a digital world.

     

    We also invested in a range of STB solutions that have a unique technology that allows operators to manage their networks with high quality of service. The end-users benefit with better video and service at lower costs and faster response times.

     

    We have also invented new architectures for broadband on coax that are designed for deep finer, low density networks. This lowers costs of installation for operators so more customers can enjoy high speed broadband despite lack of subscriber density.

     

    Please share some of the latest developments at Broadcom for the STB space?

     

    We keep innovating on market differentiating features. With a large R&D team in India, we take advantage of the local resources to invent new features for the country. We named a few above. There are many others. For example, we automatically can adjust the volume of programs to levelize them across ads or channels. Or we can automatically reformat video received on live TV for viewing on a mobile screen in the same room or for take away. Many more examples exist.

     

    What concerns you about digitisation in India over the recent past?

     

    Rapid paced digitisation is always risky. Additionally, quality of hardware and services are critical, not just for now but for a long life of hardware ahead. I am particularly concerned about some of the suppliers that are shipping into India.

     

    For example, most STBs in India face a high risk of lightning or surge burn out. Operators have been experiencing this. We strongly recommend all STBs imported into the country be specified to meet a high protection standard to reduce risks and damage commonly seen here.

     

    Additionally, the harsh conditions in India make it important that performance of each STB is predictable and consistent for years to come despite physical damage, moisture etc. Legacy CAN tuners in TVs are known to have a varying performance from STB to STB, and over the years.

     

    The country cannot afford to have tens of millions of bad quality STBs deployed. We cannot waste energy and resources to replace STBs in a few years. The quality of every STB is critical.

  • Indigenous STBs, courtesy ABS Productions

    Indigenous STBs, courtesy ABS Productions

    MUMBAI: Efforts have been on to spur Indian companies to manufacture cable TV set top boxes (STB) domestically – the government has been encouraging and nudging the private sector to do so.  The Mumbai-based ABS Seven Star group – which runs a health channel and a cable TV network in Mumbai – seems to have taken the bait. It has set up a new company called ABS Productions Pvt Ltd which has designed standard definition (SD), high definition (HD) and hybrid STBS – both MPEG2 and MPEG4 – and contracted Videocon group company Trend Electronics to manufacture them at its Aurangabad plant.

     

    “Trend Electronics also makes STBs for Videocond2h and it has very good experience doing so. Hence we have struck up a manufacturing alliance with it,” says ABS Seven Star CMD Atul Saraf.

     

    Saraf has hired a 20 member team for the STB manufacturing initiative – 14 of these are working on the software while the rest will be looking after the hardware. While the manufacturing unit has a 30,000 STBs per day capacity,  its first order will roll out of the assembly lines by 15 May.  “The first order is for our cable TV network ABS Seven Star, which is close to 50,000 boxes,” he says.

     

    Saraf points out that close to $1 million has been pumped into R&D while designing the STBs locally.

     

    Saraf is a firm believer of indigenous manufacturing of STBs. “When the government mandated implementation of digitisation, it was since then, that I was against importing boxes from abroad. These plain vanilla Chinese boxes are of poor quality and need to be replaced every couple of years. Also, a big disadvantage is that there are no service centers,” he says.

     

    He reveals that local manufacturing will ensure better service standards apart from generating employment.  “Phase III and IV markets will need approximately 100 million STBs.I hope to capture about 5 per cent of this by next year” he says.

     

    Based on the Broadcom chipset – ensuring better video quality – the higher end boxes will have a recording facility as well, apart from being able to deliver internet.  The Hybrid STB will also deliver a video on demand service. “We are not tying up with any OTT platform for this, but will create our own platform to facilitate the VOD service,” says he.

     

    In order to ensure better service, 200 Videocon d2h service centers, across India, have been roped in to bandage and spruce up the STBs should they face any problems in close proximity to their installation.

     

    ABS Productions has priced the  MPEG2 SD box at  Rs 1200-1300, the MPEG4 SD box at Rs 1400-1600, the MPEG4 HD box at  Rs 2,300-2,400 while Hybrid Box is priced at  Rs 3,500-3,800. 

  • Cisco’s technology in six million digital homes of Den Networks

    Cisco’s technology in six million digital homes of Den Networks

    MUMBAI: As India slowly inches towards 100 per cent digitisation, it is the various cable and multi system operators who are to be applauded for the increase of digitisation in the country. One of the well known technology companies, Cisco has announced that its services have reached to six million pay-TV homes on Den Networks.

     

    Cisco’s conditional access and middleware has been used by Den Networks since 2008 in its set top boxes. A range of Videoscape technologies from Cisco are used to cater to its subscribers. Den’s digital head-ends, networking routers, switches and set top boxes have been procured from Cisco.

     

    Earlier this year, Cisco expanded its Videoscape TV services delivery platform to include new cloud video capabilities. This would help media companies increase revenue, reduce operating expenses and enhance agility.

     

    Den currently has about 30 million viewers across the country and is looking at increasing that number through phase III and IV of digitisation. Commenting on the partnership Den Networks CEO SN Sharma said, “It gives me immense pleasure, in this highly competitive market, to reach out to more than 30 million viewers through our digital cable TV services. We expect this number to increase significantly with the completion of the remaining phases of digitisation. Cisco’s global expertise in managing the end-to-end delivery of digital pay-TV solutions gives us a strong competitive edge and empowers us to enable new services and advanced features, resulting in satisfied subscribers and encouraging growth.”

     

    Cisco Service Provider Video Software Solutions Vice President Sales Asia Pacific Sue Taylor said, “Cisco is excited by the success of its customers and would like to congratulate Den for reaching such a major milestone. We anticipate that the current digitisation drive will spur us on to achieve many greater milestones, both in roll-out volume and technology deployment, with the introduction of many new features using the latest designs and technologies. This will lead to overall customer enjoyment in terms of the TV viewing experience.”

     

    Den’s footprint now stretches over 200 cities in India covering markets such as Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Kerala, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar.

  • China’s Shenzhen Coship plans to set up STB making unit in India

    China’s Shenzhen Coship plans to set up STB making unit in India

    KOLKATA: China’s Shenzhen Coship Electronics Co Ltd, a cable television and broadband equipment maker, plans to set up a set-top box (STB) manufacturing facility in India.

     

    “We are planning to set up a set-top box manufacturing facility with a capacity to make 2.5 lakh units a month in India to start with and the scale up the operations on the back of demand,” Vipan Kumar Sharma, Country Manager, India, Coship, told indiantelevision.com, on the sidelines of Cable TV Show 2014, an exhibition of cable television industry in Kolkata.

     

    “We will see and evaluate the benefits and policies of the government”, he said.

     

    Sharma further said the company might look at a place near Delhi, in Chennai or around Pune. “We already have our technical office at Chennai and our commercial office is in Delhi,” he said. 

     

    The proposed STB manufacturing unit would employ about 1,000 workers, he said.

     

    Sharma did not disclose the investments that would be required for setting up the STB manufacturing facility but said the average cost of producing one STB would be around $22.

     

    Shenzhen Coship, which has already supplied 10 million STBs in India since 2007, is planning to export to India another 5 million STBs by the end of 2014.

     

    The company’s clients include Siticable, Kerala Communicators Cable Limited (KCCL) and Sun Direct DTH.

     

    Sharma said it is also in talks with Videocon d2h for supplying its STBs.

     

    He said demand for STBs in phase III and phase IV of digitisation would be the growth driver for the company in India. He, however, said in rural and semi-urban areas, availability of funds is an issue for the multi-system operators (MSO) and local cable operators (LCOs).

     

    As per the Information and Broadcasting Ministry estimates, a total of 75 million STBs would be required for installation in the third and fourth phases of digitisation. The deadline for the third phase of digitisation is 30 September and for the fourth phase is 31 December.

     

    Shenzen Coship has three factories in China with combined capacity to manufacture 25 million STBs  — both SD and HD — a year.

  • JAINHITS attains BIS certification for its set top boxes

    JAINHITS attains BIS certification for its set top boxes

    NEW DELHI: JAINHITS, India’s only HITS Platform based service in India, today announced that it has successfully attained the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification for its set top boxes. This certification is in line with the DeitY’s (Department of Electronics and Information Technology) recent mandate on compliance of all imported as well as locally manufactured products electronic goods across 15 categories to comply with BIS’ quality benchmarks.  

     

    The ruling has been brought into effect owing to the increasing demand for electronic goods in India and includes product ranges from set top box laptops to tablets, and TV sets to microwave ovens. With this outline, all such products will need to be BIS-compliant for sale, manufacture or importing in the country. 

     

    Adding to this, Devinder Singh, Head- Regulatory & Corporate Affairs, Noida Software Technology Park Ltd. said, “Any Certification by itself is a tedious and time taking process. Where the aspect of human safety is required it becomes all the more tedious. It not only involves monetary expenditure at various stages, but also requires time and extensive documentation, testing both in-house & various International Certification agencies like “CE”, “UL” etc. The equipments presently requiring BIS certification for import or manufacturing in India need to be tested by Govt. recognized laboratories for meeting all standards including safety and transmission. Besides BIS certified, our subscribers would get to choose from SD and HD quality, MPEG4 STBs.”       

     

    Motorola is the end to end technology partner providing end-to-end networks solution, including video core solutions, access network solutions and customer premises solutions (set-top-boxes). 

  • Entropic appoints Tanmay Jha to expand its India biz

    Entropic appoints Tanmay Jha to expand its India biz

    MUMBAI: Entropic, a semiconductor solutions for connected homes is looking at expanding its base in India. Thus, the company has announced the appointment of Tanmay Jha as its associate director for sales for India.

     

    Prior to joining Entropic, Jha was working with Pace-India. In his new role, he will focus on growing Entropic’s set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) and connectivity businesses in the Indian sub-continent. Jha will be based in New Delhi and will report to EMEA and India VP sales Noel McKenna.

     

    “I am happy to be a part of Entropic. My immediate role will be to push Entropic’s suite of system-on-chip, broadband access and channel stacking switch solutions to the cable and satellite operators across the country,” said Jha.

     

    Jha joins Entropic with 20-years of Pay-TV sales experience. He was with Pace – India for two years as an integral STB sales team member. Earlier, Jha has also worked with a number of leading Indian Pay-TV companies including the IPTV, Myway, as well as with Zee Turner, Sahara TV, Tata Communication and Sify.

     

    “We welcome Tanmay to Entropic’s dynamic sales team – where we are focused on developing new business and growing sales in the Indian sub-continent market,” said McKenna. “He brings a depth in knowledge and local market expertise to help increase Entropic’s regional presence as the only pure-play platform semiconductor supplier in connected home entertainment,” he added.

  • Conax demonstrating total service protection for Indian operators at Convergence India

    Conax demonstrating total service protection for Indian operators at Convergence India

    NEW DELHI: Conax, a leading global expert in total service protection for digital video content distribution over all types of networks and devices, today announced that it will demonstrate its total value chain broad portfolio of service protection solutions at Convergence India, January 21 to January 23. The company will be holding a feature event at Convergence India on  at 4 pm on the Conax stand with KCCL and partners to reveal the details of launch of new Conax technology in the KCCL operations.

     

    Conax’s 11 years of India success and broad spectrum of reference customers is a result of dedication to pay-TV operators in India, a pioneering approach to the needs of the market and its renowned open partnering policy for secure set-top-boxes for pay-TV operators. Conax is helping operators secure increased ARPU through digital service offerings, and easy, flexible upgrade for new, future solutions such as secure hybrid content delivery and multiscreen, anytime/anywhere content delivery.

     

    Equipping operators for the future, Conax is providing an entire value chain of service protection – future-proof, open and flexible solutions and partnerships for evolving new business models and capturing new segments well into the future, enabling operators to be first out with new services and solutions.

     

    Demonstrating Conax Value Chain of total Solutions at Convergence India

     

    Today’s marketplace filled with challenges and opportunities, thus service providers are on the move to identify the best technologies and solutions to positioning for future business. Meet experts from Conax to learn how we can bring your operations into the future.

     

    Conax Contego, the CAS solution with a broad portfolio of future-proof Secure Clients provides content security for any device with or without Smart Cards. It is designed to support operators of any size; small, medium and large, delivering unrivalled security to satellite, cable, terrestrial, IP and OTT networks.

     

    Conax is expanding its future-proof client portfolio with a cardless option that provides a unique level of cardless content security using new chip technology not offered by competitor’s pure software solutions. Conax recommends a combined approach using smart card security for high-end content operations and the cardless option for low-end ARPU content, based on the joint Conax security back-end.

     

    Hybrid, multiscreen and OTT content distribution for the future: The Conax team will feature Conax security hardened PlayReady Clients and Conax Xtend Multiscreen™, – cost-efficient, pre-st, 2013: Conax, a leading global expert in total service protection for digital – 23rd. The company will be holding a feature event at Convergence India on  at 4 pm on the Conax stand with KCCL and partners to reveal the details of launch of integrated, fast-time-to market solutions, enabling any operator to easily add and capitalize on a multiscreen offering.

  • Videocon Industries plans new STB capacity by end-2014

    Videocon Industries plans new STB capacity by end-2014

    MUMBAI: The Indian government last year raised the import duties of set top boxes (STBs) from five per cent to 10 per cent in a bid to encourage Indian entrepreneurs to start making them indigenously. To no avail, Indian MSOs, DTH players, continued importing the boxes from China, Korea and Taiwan to meet the government mandate of digitising India’s cable TV sector.

    At least one player yesterday announced that it had taken up the gauntlet: electronics major Videocon Industries. Director Anirudh Dhoot told Press Trust of India that his company is planning to set up a one million STB manufacturing plant by end-2014. Dhoot told PTI that the plant is likely to be set up in either Punjab or Madhya Pradesh. 

     

    The Videocon group also runs Videocon d2h – one of the fastest growing DTH players in India. 

     

    The digitisation of cable TV in phase III and phase IV towns is expected to require around 80 million STBs; of which 60 million will likely be rolled out this year itself, totting up to a business potential of an estimated  Rs 7,500 crore at factory prices. The second and third phases of digitisation are scheduled to be completed by end 2014, but everyone in the industry expects a delay of about three to six months. If Videocon manages to get its plant to start churning out STBs by end this year, it could meet some of that demand. 

     

    The Indian cable TV industry has deployed around 22 million STBs during the first and second phase of digitisation; even as DTH players have deployed around 45-50 million STBs collectively over the years since DTH launched in India.

     

    Most of these were imports. Videocon, on its part, upped the capacity at its existing STB plant from 700,000 per annum to one million during the festival season last year. Now it plans to set up a new plant. Other players who are involved in the manufacture of STBs domestically include: Noida-based Dixon Technologies and Kortek Electronics.