Motorola Brings ITV to Older Set-Tops With ActiveVideo Software
Cisco Also Has Licensing Deal for ActiveVideo CloudTV Platform
By: Todd Spangler
Multichannel News
Feb 25 2013 - 2:35pm
http://www.multichannel.com/video/motorola-brings-itv-older-set-tops-activevideo-software/141898
Motorola Mobility, whose Home division is in the process of being
acquired by Arris Group, has licensed ActiveVideo Networks’ CloudTV
HTML5-based interactive TV software to render advanced user interfaces
on even low-end set-tops.
ActiveVideo also has a licensing pact with Cisco Systems, which has
offered the CloudTV software under its Videoscape brand as a way to let
service providers deliver new features and applications to legacy
set-top boxes.
Motorola said a virtual module available for its DreamGallery IPTV
software uses the ActiveVideo software to render HTML5 elements in the
cloud, enabling service providers to offer dynamic and personalized
guides and features to existing Motorola set-tops that would not
otherwise have the memory or processing power to deliver the
DreamGallery stack.
A Motorola Home representative said the company does currently have
customers using the ActiveVideo software.
“Consumers want to find content faster and enjoy it on any device. Our
service provider customers are eager to address this demand with rich
DreamGallery experiences, but are constrained by the cost and complexity
of upgrading their set-top boxes,” John Burke, Motorola Mobility senior
vice president and general manager of converged solutions, said in a
statement.
DreamGallery is the user navigation component of Motorola’s Medios+
platform for multiscreen video distribution. Customers using
DreamGallery include Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV.
In the U.S. there are millions of set-tops and other devices that don't
support HTML natively "and never will," ActiveVideo senior vice
president of business development Michael Taylor said. "Literally all we
need in a device is a decode chip, either MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, some kind
of operating system and a return path -- and we're good," he said.
Separately, Verizon last fall said it would pay more than $260 million
to San Jose, Calif.-based ActiveVideo to settle the interactive TV
vendor’s patent litigation against the telco.
Arris’s $2.35 billion cash-and-stock deal to acquire the Motorola Home
unit from Google, announced in December, is pending. The Department of
Justice earlier this month requested more information from the parties
as part of its review. Arris said it still expects the deal to close in
the second quarter of 2013.
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