December 15, 2007

PRAGASH PILLAI

Communications Executive Profile

Pragash Pillai is vice president of strategic engineering for Bresnan Communications. He previously was the vice president of advanced engineering for Charter Communications.

Where does the industry stand in terms of the MPEG-4 technology life cycle?

We will see limited deployment of MPEG-4 set-tops and content sometime in 2008. I think MPEG-4 makes a lot of sense for services like VOD, SDV and expanded HD tier. A broadcast MPEG-4 tier allows for expanding the offering of HD content. For example, if a network is delivering their core HD in MPEG-2 and additional HD programming in MPEG-4, it is natural for the MSO community to do the same.

Customers would be able to sign up for the expanded HD programming tier, and the operator would replace their existing MPEG-2 only set-top with the new MPEG-4 capable set-top. VOD and SDV session resource managers have the ability to identify the set-tops and provide MPEG-4 content to MPEG-4 enabled set-tops. Since the majority of deployed set-tops are MPEG-2 only and these devices will remain usable for some time, MSOs need to be creative in seeding the MPEG-4 set-tops in the marketplace before enabling their core programming in MPEG-4.

What kinds of techniques are best suited for smaller operators to deliver HD content?

Statistical multiplexing is an important way for smaller operators to maximize bandwidth allocated for HD without sacrificing quality. Achieving a 3:1 (HD-to-analog channel) ratio a realistic goal. Another option would be to utilize Comcast's preconfigured 3:1 HD services, delivered over the HITS Quantum platform.

What developments in the switched digital video arena are you tracking?

The ability to share QAM between VOD and SDV will be a critical step to further optimize the operator's bandwidth and capital investment. The development of an open platform based on standard interfaces and protocol, which integrates seamlessly with existing Motorola and Scientific Atlanta headends, is a critical step for wide-scale deployment of SDV technology.

Have advertising and technology gotten closer over the past year? Do any obstacles remain?

Digital program insertion for the linear broadcast platform is working well and is widely deployed for both standard definition and high definition content. Even though solutions for targeted and on-demand advertising are currently being deployed, they are lacking standardized interfaces and integration with automated asset and business rule engines. The success of targeted and on-demand advertising is highly dependent on the industry's ability to develop these components effectively using uniform standards.

What trends do you see impacting set-top boxes?

Home networking will be a key technology for the digital home in the near future. It will provide the ability for a low-cost set-top to share features available on the larger media centers, such as DVR and media sharing. There are major hurdles that will need to be addressed within existing home networking solutions, such as lack of interoperability among devices, systems and content.

The wide-scale adoption of OCAP will also have a significant impact on the application platform for low-end and high-end set-tops. OCAP could provide the ability for different classes of set-tops to share applications across platforms, which will further enhance the user experience.

At what points do you see DOCSIS and video technologies converging?

From a network perspective, DOCSIS could replace the legacy out-of-band channels for the set-top. The bandwidth robustness of the DOCSIS QAM could be leveraged to further enhance or complement the viewing experience by introducing interactive content or content on demand. The DSG (DOCSIS set-top gateway) signaling protocol was developed to specifically address the needs of an open, standard-based signaling protocol for the set-tops. DSG will also play a significant role for the success of DCAS implementations.