The theme for this year’s Cable Show was centered around “Putting the Future in Focus” – an obvious, yet relevant topic for the ever-evolving and forward-thinking cable industry. At RGB, we were eager to put the future of our three screen video delivery on display as we demoed our Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG) to attendees in Los Angeles.

But we aren’t the only ones talking about three screens. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to open up a cable, telecom or even mobility publication without reading something about the recent three screen invasion.

A recent Nielsen Report on three screens puts online video consumption up by 16% since last year and states that “active mobile video users grew by 57% from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the fourth quarter of 2009, from 11.2 million to 17.6 million.”

“It seems that, for the foreseeable future at least, America’s love affair with the TV will continue unabashed,” said Matt O’Grady, Nielsen Company media product leader. “We seem to have an almost insatiable appetite for media, with online and mobile programming only adding to it.”

And while analysts and reporters alike agree that consumer demand for three screen video is hitting its stride, it’s the companies that enable its delivery who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes, focused on the future of three screen video before the idea hit the mass market.

Here at RGB, revolutionizing three screen delivery has been in the works for a long time. Products like the VMG, launched last year, address the complex challenges that video providers inevitably face as they race to deliver their content to three screens.

Ramin Farassat, Vice President, Product Marketing & Business Development for RGB, discussed these challenges and examined RGB’s three screen approach at this year’s Cable Show for Broadband Gear Report’s Tech Live segment.

Farassat explains how RGB’s integrated transcoding platform enables video providers to now bring in the video only once to the network, perform all video processing functions, and distribute it to as many different types of devices as needed – such as TVs, PCs and mobile devices including iPhones and iPads – all within a single chassis. Check it out.

And be sure to stay tuned as we continue to play a lead role in the three screen revolution.

RGB is a co-sponsor of the upcoming Next-Generation Access Architecture (NGAA) for Cable webinar, hosted by Heavy Reading Senior Analyst, Alan Breznick.

Leading cable operators are exploring new ways to pump digital video signals cost-effectively through the cable modem termination system (CMTS), which would enable greater use of IP video and narrowcasting. The goal is a new, super-dense “CMTS on steroids” architecture that can separate upstream and downstream signals logically, rather than physically, resulting in significant operational benefits. The architecture also allows for a more logical modularization than the previous M-CMTS implementations, resulting in increased deployment flexibility. Implementation of this architecture would be a fundamental change from the way that cable operators have traditionally delivered video to the home.

How will this proposed Next-Generation Access Architecture work? What would be the costs of its implementation? What are the pros and cons of this approach? Join RGB Networks in addressing these questions and more.

When: Tuesday, May 25, 9:00 a.m. PT (12:00 p.m. ET / 17:00 GMT); the webinar will run for 90 minutes.

Where: Register here for the webinar.

What: Under the strong leadership of Comcast, the cable industry is now developing specs for a new class of dense, multi-service networking gear that would drastically increase QAM capacity while simultaneously slashing power needs and space requirements in the cable headend. Known as the Converged Multiservice Access Platform (CMAP), this super-dense, do-it-all networking device would replace traditional CMTSs and edge QAM modulators, forming the heart of the proposed Next Generation Access Architecture (NGAA) that Comcast is now developing. As a result, the new CMAP platform would allow cable operators to support far more narrowcast and multicast services than they can today, including those fed by DOCSIS, VOD, and switched digital video (SDV).

Why Attend: With the help of Jorge Salinger, Vice President of Access Architecture for Comcast, this webinar will explore the possibilities offered by CMAP, the technical challenges raised by it, the answers to those challenges, and the platform’s potential cost and power savings and other benefits. In particular, this session will cover the different CMAP pieces and options, including the modular implementations that several vendors are now creating for the architecture’s Access Shelf and Packet Shelf components.

After a line-up of successful events including IPTV World Forum in London, CANITEC Expo in Monterrey, Mexico, CCBN in Beijing, ANGA Cable in Cologne, Germany and The Cable Show in Los Angeles, the end of the spring trade show marathon has finally arrived! Despite ash clouds, rain and the tail end of tough times, all events showed an uptick in attendance and enthusiasm, with operators seeking us out to help them address several important video processing issues, including:

• The ongoing digital transition
• The continuing rollout of HD and VOD services and the accompanying demands they place on bandwidth
• The need for advanced advertising solutions to generate new revenues
• The start of three-screens delivery with its many complexities

Of course some of these topics aren’t new—we continue to encounter them as advancements in digital video spread around the world. However the delivery of any video to any device through advanced video transcoding is still fresh and definitely exciting (not to mention challenging).

Along with the rollout of new services, a recurring theme at the various trade shows over the past two months has been the need for cost-efficient solutions that streamline deployments. Whether an operator is delivering to one, two or three screens, they are seeking the most bang for their buck, and their requirements demand the operational simplicity and cost-efficiency uniquely provided by RGB’s high-density, integrated platforms.

If you attended any of these recent events, we’d love to hear your thoughts—what’s your take on the hot topics for your region? What did you learn?

Are you attending this year’s Cable Show? If you’re working on a transition strategy to a three screens environment, you’ll want to talk with us at booth #1255 to learn about the advantages of our integrated, scalable solution.

At the show you’ll see demonstrations of RGB’s Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG). The VMG incorporates advanced transcoding and transrating, among other advanced processing capabilities, and we will highlight several multi-screen scenarios including:

• Transcoding MPEG-2 programs into H.264 and displaying them in appropriate formats on a PC, iPhone and iPad
• Transcoding a high definition (HD) MPEG-2 program that consumes 15 Mbps into lower bitrate H.264 streams
• Transrating an H.264 HD program running at 7 Mbps so that it only uses 4 Mbps without any loss of picture quality
• Transcoding an H.264 HD program into a standard definition (SD) program in MPEG-2

RGB will also be demonstrating some groundbreaking ad insertion developments in the area of EBIF and digital overlays in conjunction with partners OpenTV, ARRIS, Unisoft, Sigma Systems and others. Stop in the CableNET pavilion to catch this demonstration at OpenTV’s pedestal.

See you at the show!

Before the IPTV World Forum we discussed how U.S. service providers are meeting the challenge of funding new services through the use of advanced advertising and the impact it’s having on Europe’s cable, telco and satellite providers. At the show we received many questions regarding advanced advertising, demonstrating that this revenue-generator is gaining attention worldwide as the content delivery environment continues to evolve.

And now with a new Parks Associates report stating that in 2010 targeted ads will top $130 million, we feel more affirmed than ever. CED covered the Parks Associates report last fall, focusing on the predicted return for pay-TV providers that have invested in advanced and addressable advertising. With the work that’s being done and the progress that’s being made, not to mention the global attention it’s attracting, it’s possible to predict the attainment of such an impressive goal as early as this summer.

“Major U.S. cable television operators, direct broadcast satellite TV providers and telcos have identified advanced advertising as a key revenue opportunity moving forward,” said Heather Way, research analyst at Parks Associates. “In the short term, digital TV operators continue to ramp up their investment in advanced advertising solutions as a pre-emptive move to sustain ad revenues. In the long term, the investment serves to grow the advertising business segment.”

As long as consumer demand for VOD, DVR and other advanced services continues growing, the need for advanced advertising revenues will likewise grow in order to offset the cost of expanding these services. What can be intimidating to service providers is the investment—and in this economy, who can blame them?

But the proof is in the profit. And the only thing better than $130 million is $4 billion—which is what Parks Associates is predicting as soon as 2014, with advanced advertising revenue accounting for nearly 12 percent of total cable, DBS and telco TV ad revenue.

A lot of work by many throughout the industry has gone into pushing through the challenges in this developing area, with CableLabs and the SCTE leading the charge and a dedicated group of technology innovators joining in. RGB is excited to be a part of this growing ecosystem and we look forward to demonstrating some of our ad insertion developments in the area of EBIF and digital overlays at the upcoming Cable Show in conjunction with partners OpenTV, ARRIS and Unisoft. Please visit CableNET where you can see our demo, or stop by our booth #1255.

At ANGA Cable today, RGB has announced the availability of our new BNP3xr for European operators. What makes this announcement so significant for this market is the product’s support for DVB-CA, a key international standard for the secure delivery of video services. By integrating encryption support into the BNP3xr, we eliminate the need for a separate scrambling device, which simplifies your network architecture and eliminates wiring and management headaches. RGB is working with all of the major conditional access vendors to ensure seamless operation.

Stop by our stand—B50—and take a look.