Hot on the heels of its exclusive partnership with Sling, Arris is already talking additional set-top enhancements. With smarter gateways available to handle video transcoding in the home, Arris wants to slim down client devices and create new form factors that challenge the traditional set-top box. At the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo show, the company described plans to develop hardware like the Chromecast streaming stick. That type of dongle would plug directly into a user’s TV and connect over Wi-Fi to the home gateway – to expand options for whole-home networking and simplify access to premium content from multiple TVs.
Meanwhile on the Sling front, an industry insider suggested at the SCTE Expo that the placeshifting deal was done twice with Arris; first with Arris of old, and second with Arris after the Motorola acquisition. Now that everything’s signed, sealed, and delivered, it’s not clear if any major U.S. cable operators will integrate a Sling solution. However, given Netflix looks to be on the table, I supposed anything’s possible these days in cable land. Certainly cable companies are watching their satellite TV counterparts to see how far they can push the envelope with programmers.
Meanwhile, Arris has already proven it can get traction on the software front with tier-two operators. The company’s Moxi platform is in place with Buckeye Cable System, BendBroadband, Suddenlink, and WideOpenWest, as well as Shaw Communications in Canada.
I wonder if Arris realizes that the logical endpoint for all of this is to simply integrate the whole-home client into the TV…
Glenn- I think they do, but I also think they see a lot of money to be made in gateways until then. Plus they’re bulking up on the software side. Big question is always execution.
IP client in the TV is already real, but to be whole-home you would need an encoder/transcoder in the TV to send to other devices in the home via MOCA or DLNA. The real answer is an HTML5 cloud-based delivery over managed (and unmanaged) IP or QAM networks with an ultra-thin client that can be easily ported across the whole managed and unmanaged client options (set top, smartTV, oTT/Roku, n-screen…)
@Bill,
I’m assuming that the whole-home-DVR in the closet thing will take root, with IP distribution to consumer electronics devices like Roku or TiVo or a TV with a built-in decoder. We’ll see if this ever happens of course.
@Glenn: Something like a beefed up Simple.TV?
I am curious about tthis too. From my recent interaction with a 1st gen Simple.TV along with a Roku, iPad, and web browser, the concept has some promise. More so than the Boxee Cloud DVR did.