OpenCable Specs Released

Cable World, March 20, 2000 by Jim Barthold

CableLabs has released a final OpenCable Network Interface (OCNI) specification revised to reflect the recent agreement between the cable industry and consumer electronics manufacturers relating to compatibility between cable networks and digital TVs.

"We've comported the OCNI spec with the agreement that we have announced with the CE guys," explained Mark Coblitz, SVP-strategic planning for Comcast Corp. and a key executive in CableLabs' OpenCable project. "This has to do with how sets are actually connected to the network."

The revised specification was also sent to the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Digital Video Subcommittee (DVS) as part of the standardization process to reflect agreement between the two industries and encourage TV set makers to build units with these specifications.

Another part of digital interoperability, Point of Deployment Devices (PODs), will go through another round of interoperability testing this week at CableLabs. The last POD interoperability tests were during the Western Cable Show in Los Angeles last December.

Fourteen consumer electronics and digital headend manufacturers have signed up for this week's interoperability tests, including DiviCom Inc., LG Electronics Inc., MARGI Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp., Mindport Inc., NAGRA USA Inc., Philips Consumer Electronics, Samsung Consumer Electronics Inc., Scientific-Atlanta Inc., SCM Microsystems Inc., Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc. and Zenith Corp.

PODs will provide, among other things, conditional access to cable programming, including premium channels and other information encrypted by the cable operator. They will be used to authorize set-top boxes and digital TV sets available through retail channels,