News Stories

Social TV Has Arrived: Technicolor, Entropic Communications Power Comcast's Xfinity HD Video Calling Experience

5.21.2012

[Press Release]

Last week, Comcast rolled out its consumer widescreen High-Definition (HD) video calling experience made possible through advanced technology provided by Technicolor FR:TCH -1.05% , a worldwide technology leader in the media and entertainment sector and Entropic Communications, Inc. ENTR +0.56% , a world leader in semiconductor solutions for the connected home. Technicolor provided the custom-developed adapter, powered by Entropic’s integrated broadcast system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, to give Xfinity customers an interactive video calling experience — making video or audio calls with friends and family while watching the same TV program simultaneously — over their existing set-top box, TV or wireless LAN network.

“There is a large and growing market for interactive applications over broadcast TV,” said Jason Blackwell, director, Service Provider Strategies, Digital Consumer Practice at Strategy Analytics. “Technicolor and Entropic’s video chat over live TV solution represents one of the first in a new wave of Social TV applications that will drive operator services and increases in ARPU (Average Revenue per User) with triple-play services.”

Comcast’s experience delivers an unparalleled two-way video communications dialogue over a live broadcast stream. The Technicolor 720p HD telepresence adapter leverages the media processing power and performance from Entropic’s ARM(R) Cortex(TM)-A9 CPU (PNX8471) of SoC solutions. This solution showcases Entropic’s innovation to integrate a new value-added service, a HD video call, on its platform by augmenting a web-enabled technology with traditional broadcast. Specifically, Entropic’s client-based SoC technologies act as a HDMI pass-through that connects to a live event (the HD video conference) from a remote connection (the cloud); affording Comcast the ability to have video as an overlay on top of its TV content, or as a picture-in-picture.

“We selected the Technicolor and Entropic solution because their joint vision and ability to execute proved valuable in allowing us to integrate new digital services, like video conferencing, into our traditional service packages,” said Steve Reynolds, senior vice president of Premise Technology for Comcast. “The device developed by Technicolor uses the advanced capabilities of Entropic’s ARM-based SoC to enable us to quickly develop and deploy new video-centric applications.”

“Comcast is at the forefront of mass adoption of video services,” said Barbara Bessolo, senior vice president of Technicolor’s Set-top Box Division. “We have been working with our long-term partner, Entropic, to deliver a powerful telepresence experience that uses advancements in HDMI pass-through technology to overlay the remote video with a local preview while watching Comcast’s TV service.”

“Social TV has arrived, and we are proud to have worked with Technicolor and our ecosystem partners to drive a movement to where video chat over live TV exists,” said Mark Samuel, senior vice president, Set-top Box Group, Entropic Communications. “We combined the best of broadcast with broadband technologies to enable Comcast to securely deliver high-quality HD video calls with superior picture quality.”

Key Technical Features:

          --  The Technicolor adapter includes an HDMI input and output, Gigabit
              Ethernet, WiFi, RF4CE (Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics)
              control, external USB and SD card slot, and an integrated external
              camera and microphone.
          --  Entropic's PNX84xx integrated broadcast SoC family includes all the
              major building blocks needed to develop next generation set-top box and
              client applications for global cable, satellite and IPTV networks. Key
              highlights include: superior video and audio quality, best web browsing
              through the ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, an advanced 3D GPU, flexible content
              decoding, advanced 3DTV processing, efficient power management, and
              support for Linux and Google Android(R) Operating Systems.

Availability

Comcast began its national rollout of its Xfinity HD video conferencing service on May 15th. For more information regarding availability, please visit www.comcast.com/skype . The technology will be demonstrated at The Cable Show 2012 in Boston, May 21-23, 2012.

See the original post here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/social-tv-has-arrived-technicolor-entropic-communications-power-comcasts-xfinity-hd-video-calling-experience-2012-05-21

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Specification for Naming VFX Image Sequences Released

ETC’s VFX Working Group has published a specification for best practices naming image sequences such as plates and comps. File naming is an essential tool for organizing the multitude of frames that are inputs and outputs from the VFX process. Prior to the publication of this specification, each organization had its own naming scheme, requiring custom processes for each partner, which often resulted in confusion and miscommunication.

The new ETC@USC specification focuses primarily on sequences of individual images. The initial use case was VFX plates, typically delivered as OpenEXR or DPX files. However, the team soon realized that the same naming conventions can apply to virtually any image sequence. Consequently, the specification was written to handle a wide array of assets and use cases.

To ensure all requirements are represented, the working group included over 2 dozen participants representing studios, VFX houses, tool creators, creatives and others.  The ETC@USC also worked closely with MovieLabs to ensure that the specification could be integrated as part of their 2030 Vision.

A key design criteria for this specification is compatibility with existing practices.  Chair of the VFX working group, Horst Sarubin of Universal Pictures, said: “Our studio is committed to being at the forefront of designing best industry practices to modernize and simplify workflows, and we believe this white paper succeeded in building a new foundation for tools to transfer files in the most efficient manner.”

This specification is compatible with other initiatives such as the Visual Effects Society (VES) Transfer Specifications. “We wanted to make it as seamless as possible for everyone to adopt this specification,” said working group co-chair and ETC@USC’s Erik Weaver. “To ensure all perspectives were represented we created a team of industry experts familiar with the handling of these materials and collaborated with a number of industry groups.”

“Collaboration between MovieLabs and important industry groups like the ETC is critical to implementing the 2030 Vision,” said Craig Seidel, SVP of MovieLabs. “This specification is a key step in defining the foundations for better software-defined workflows. We look forward to continued partnership with the ETC on implementing other critical elements of the 2030 Vision.”

The specification is available online for anyone to use.

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