After a deployment with Cablevision in Argentina late last year, Armstrong is the first North American cable operator to sign up to use the Rovi DTA Guide.
Armstrong will deploy the DTA guide, which has richer features and more functionality than previous DTA guides, as part of its all-digital conversion project.
Last month, Rovi announced that it would be heading to market in the first half of this year with its HD and SD DTA (digital terminal adapter) guide for North American cable operators.
The Rovi DTA Guide, which was first announced at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in 2011, provides more digital-like features in viewers’ living rooms while freeing up bandwidth for Armstrong.
“The benefits of going to an all-digital environment are abundant,” said David Wittmann, vice president of cable marketing at Armstrong. “We wanted to make it easier for our subscribers to enjoy their entertainment choices. This includes bringing a guide to the DTA. The program data, TV listings and user experience provided by Rovi are an important complement to our service offerings.”
Armstrong provides triple play services to subscribers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland.
Instead of a basic grid guide, the Rovi DTA Guide’s features include the ability to find out what’s on TV, tune channels directly from the program grid, set parental controls, and set language options for the guide and audio.
“The transition to an all-digital service enables cable operators to optimize the use of their bandwidth, expand their offerings, and bring added value to their subscribers. The Rovi DTA Guide is intended to help Armstrong increase its customer satisfaction as it upgrades its system,” said Bob Shallow, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Rovi. “Rovi’s guide solution provides Armstrong with the ability to expand access to the guide to more rooms in the home, and to enhance the entertainment experience for its existing subscribers.”
Initially championed by Comcast, SD DTAs started out as low cost, one-way channel zappers for analog TVs before evolving into more complex devices, including HD and universal DTAs, that are now capable of working in various environments.
Converting analog channels to digital frees up bandwidth for faster data speeds, more HD channels and larger VOD libraries for cable operators. In addition to Comcast, Mediacom Communications, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications are in various stages of all digital conversion projects, although Charter isn’t using DTAs.
With the conversion from analog to digital, the first wave of SD DTAs allowed subscribers that had analog TVs to continue viewing their cable operator’s programming. With analog TVs virtually extinct in the United States, customers are now buying low-cost HDTV sets with HDMI inputs, which can work in tandem with HD DTAs.
The one-way DTAs work well as a low-cost option for second, third and fourth TVs in a home, and they also provide some operational efficiencies in terms of reducing truck rolls when a customer disconnects and reconnects a video service.
Cable operators can also use DTAs to provide a stripped-down HD offering that doesn’t include amenities such as pay-per-view or VOD. Lastly, DTAs can also be used to provide service to hotels that don’t want to invest in more expensive equipment or infrastructure,
Rovi previously said it was working with DTA vendors, including Cisco, Evolution Digital and Pace, to test and pre-port Rovi DTA guides. In 2012, Evolution Digital was the first announced customer for Rovi’s new guide.
