UPC Cablecom "Horizon"

2011 promises to be an important year for cable as industry leaders are gearing up for what some promise to be a new area for in home digital entertainment. Will the new UPC set top box on steroides be a game changer? And how is TiVo pushing digital cable TV to a higher levle? What's the new technology and serivice model? And will it allow cable to also win the batle beyond the living room, and go mobile?

Delay for UPC Horizon box
Published: 09.42 UTC, February 16, 2011 by Julian Clover

CABLE CONGRESS 2011 – LUCERNE. The launch of UPC’s new home gateway known as Horizon has been delayed for several months, Broadband TV News has learnt. Earlier this week Liberty Media CEO Mike Fries said a launch in Switzerland during the first half of 2012 was realistic. With the Netherlands slated to be the first UPC territory for deployment, this would suggest a deployment there in the latter half of 2011, rather than the mid-year as had previously been assumed. Switzerland itself was initially anticipated to receive its first supplies during 2011.

“We’re still keeping to the timetable, just that the timetable is now later than originally planned,” a senior technology source told Broadband TV News. The precise reason for the hold up remains unclear.

A spokesman for UPC declined to comment on any delay, pointing out that the company had never made its schedule public.

Meanwhile, further details of the Horizon product have emerged. Technology partners Intel, NDS and Samsung had already been widely publicized, but in a Cable Congress session on Tuesday afternoon Balan Nair, CTO, Liberty Global revealed that Horizon would launch with 100 widgets, most of which would be drawn from the Yahoo framework, which would be included as part of the Horizon set-up. Providers of widgets would be able to use metadata from the TV guide so that they could add value without risking the stability of the platform.

It has also been confirmed that Horizon will run both Flash and HTML-5 as part of its ability to run a variety of file formats as the device pulls in content from the internet and around the home. Nair said Liberty was working with NDS to ensure the cableco had permission to carry as many formats as possible.

Lancement prévu sur le marché

Liberty Global teste actuellement le projet Horizon aux Pays-Bas. En cours d’année, des utilisateurs testeront la solution. Le lancement sur le marché est prévu pour le premier trimestre 2012 au sein de UPC en Hollande. upc cablecom (Suisse) et Unitymedia (Allemagne) suivront peu après. La solution Horizon sera intégrée à l’offre existante de l’entreprise.

Jean-Marc a écrit:Cela ne sera probablement pas pour toi, ni pour moi Paladin, car VO-Energies tout comme Gruyère Energies se "divorce" de l'ex crabe devenu lotus bleu !

Nous aurons droit à des box NetGem !

JM

Paladin a écrit:
Oui, je crois aussi vu que cette box Motorola semble prévue en premier lieu pour donner accès à l'Internet et ensuite pour l'accès à toutes les fonctionnalités de télévision numérique..