We’re very excited about next week’s Independent Show in Orlando. Hosted by the NCTC for its 900+ independent cable operator members, this annual event gives us the opportunity to meet face-on-face with so many of our most valued customers.

Since RGB’s inception, NCTC members have been a critical element of our customer base. Over the last several years, we have helped independent operators of all sizes to implement digital simulcast solutions as they transitioned to all-digital, optimize their bandwidth in order to add more HD and other services, deploy local ad insertion solutions to generate new revenue, and now, we’re partnering with them to tackle the challenge of multiscreen IP video delivery.

Wherever you are in the evolution of the video delivery network, RGB Networks has a video processing solution and the expertise to help make your deployments easier and more cost-efficient.

Our reputation and track record are strong with this membership and we invite you to read about just a few of our deployments with NCTC member operators over the last several years:

• GCI Streams 2011 Iditarod Race to Subscribers’ PCs with RGB Networks
• XIT Communications Deploys RGB Networks’ Video Multiprocessing Gateway to Deliver Services to its IPTV Subscribers
• Horizon Telcom Uses RGB Networks’ Video Multiprocessing Gateway to Deliver More HDTV to its IPTV Subscribers
• Hargray Communications Expands Services with RGB Networks Products
• Pembroke Telephone Selects RGB Networks for IPTV Network Upgrade
• San Bruno Cable Chooses RGB Networks for Comprehensive Digital Video Network Upgrade
• Midstate Communications Delivers More Programming with RGB Networks
• RGB Networks Chosen by Crosslake Communications for Digital Video Upgrade

Stop by booth #95 at The Independent Show and let us show you why over 400 video service providers around the world trust digital and IP video solutions from RGB Networks.

With more and more services being delivered via cable and telco networks, it is becoming more important than ever before to ensure the highest reliability possible from all network components. For this reason, RGB Network has introduced the BNP3xr, providing redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and fans for even higher reliability.

And for our growing international customer base, the BNP3xr also supports DVB conditional access SimulCrypt encryption, allowing for the deployment of secure video services.

Since its initial introduction, RGB’s Broadcast Network Processor (BNP) has set an industry standard for density and functionality, and we haven’t rested on our laurels—we continue to make improvements, without compromising on RGB’s proven, industry-leading video quality. Operators throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia rely on the BNP for the delivery of advanced services, including eight of the ten largest cable operators in the U.S.

The BNP product family offers the only digital video solution that can perform grooming, statistical multiplexing, transrating, digital ad and overlay insertion, digital emergency alert system (EAS) notification, operator messaging and program substitution—all in a single, compact device. Combined with its support for both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.264, the BNP is the most comprehensive digital video processing solution available on the market today.

Please come learn more about the new BNP3xr at one of our many upcoming trade shows.

Having been there at the “beginning” of digital video as TCI and Cox blazed the way with their initial deployments in 1996-97, I have witnessed many changes in the way networks are built and managed. In those initial deployments, digital video was a bit of a science project as we all learned along the way. That was followed with “cookie cutter” deployments in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s when the goal was to get digital to as many subscribers as possible as quickly as possible to combat the growing threat from satellite. The last few years have seen video begin to evolve into a variety of narrowcast service models (VOD, SDV, nPVR) to compete with the growing online video business. As this transition has begun, the complexity of video networks has exploded with the number of “moving parts” growing dramatically. Whereas those early days saw a digital system contain maybe a dozen new devices, a medium size VOD system may see 1,000 new QAM channels!

As the network has evolved, we “video-heads” have had to learn more about the data world with our MPEG streams now carried across the same backbone IP network as DOCSIS services. This trend is now moving from the backbone to the access network with the introduction of DOCSIS 3.0 and eventual separation of the QAM and data layers of the CMTS.

What does this new world mean for vendors? It means that the days of a single vendor creating an end-to-end delivery network are gone. For the mutual benefit of our customers and ourselves, we need to work together to not simply make a system work but also to make it operationally friendly – easy to install and maintain. The introduction of universal QAM modulators, spanning all services is one way that we as vendors can help our end customers. But we cannot just stop at developing best-of-breed products – we need strong cooperation and integration among ourselves to enable the technologies, and ultimately applications, that our customers require to be deployed.

Whether it is video, data or data that is video, the growing complexities of our customers’ networks compels those in the vendor community to work together to ensure that we all benefit. Here at RGB, we are taking an aggressive stance towards the development of an integration capability to assist our customers – you’ll hear more from me on that in future posts.