December 6, 2007

8:00 - 9:00

Registration and Breakfast

9:00 - 9:45

Keynote Presentation
Reinventing the TV Experience
William O. Leszinske, Jr., General Manager, Consumer Electronics Group, Intel Corporation

The consumer electronics industry is poised to bring the Internet into the mainstream of consumer entertainment options in the living room.  William O. Leszinske, Jr., General Manager, Intel Consumer Electronics Group, will share perspectives on how Internet services will be accessed via the TV.  Against that backdrop, he will provide insights from Intel’s worldwide ethnographic research, and discuss the impact of increasingly personalized and interactive experiences.  Mr. Leszinske will focus on the evolving role of the set top box, and discuss strategies for new alliances and business models in the next generation of consumer electronics.

9:45 - 10:15

Keynote Presentation
The Evolutionary Role of the Set Top Box and the New Realities of Connected Entertainment
Jim Denney, Vice President of Products - TiVO Corporation

Set Top Box architectures are changing to accommodate new services, business models and connected entertainment strategies. The convergence of web video, social networking and traditional TV combined with increased competition from MSOs, Telcos and Satellite operators is creating a wealth of opportunity and uncertainty. At the center of this perfect storm is the set top box.  All players in the technology, content production and delivery ecosystems are at a critical junction.  Strategic planners must place their bets now on the types of services and entertainment strategies to employ in order to maximize their market opportunity.  This keynote presentation will address the evolving role of the sTB and its impact on operators' and content owners' ability to deliver compelling connected entertainment experiences to consumers.

10:15 - 10:30

Break (Exhibits Open)

10:30 - 11:15

Donner Pass Ballroom

Cross Platform Initiatives: Bridging the nth Screen
Dr. Ken Morse, Vice President Client Architecture - Scientific Atlanta

Traditional media business models are changing as consumer entertainment choices expand to the PC, cell phone and other portable devices.  Technology providers are beginning to enable operators to expand content delivery to multiple screens creating synergies between the set top box and other devices within the home.  At the heart of this revolution is an intelligent set-top box platform.  Understand the technologies which will enable cross platform initiatives as well as the business models which will support deployment of these advanced features.

Siskiyou Ballroom

Next Generation STB, What Will It Need to Have to Earn Customer Respect?
Adam Powers, Principal Engineer and Architect - Embedded Solutions Business Unit - Macrovision

Set Top Boxes have the potential to become the center of the connected consumer home, but as other devices emerge to contend for that space, what will STB manufacturer’s need to do differently to finally win over the consumer?  Developing the next generation of intelligent set-top boxes that can store, search, manage, transcode and distribute media throughout the home is the next major step in enabling operators to deploy services which can reduce churn and generate additional revenues.  Join Macrovision as they talk about their experience with working with different types of devices and manufactures and what the common denominators are for the devices that get the five star reviews.

Cascade Ballroom

The Remote Control - The Core of the Digital Home
The Here, Now and Future of IP STBs
Wade Vesey, Business Development, Movial

IP STBs are quickly hitting the market with highly innovative and engaging interactive services for consumers. Enabling consumers to communicate with and through the IP STB is already a reality with many new services in the works. Starting now, operators and Cable MSOs can deliver interactive IPTV services, integrating TV, programming and the remote control; these service providers will also have the ability to bill consumers directly for these new IP STB services via integration into their back-end IP Multimedia Subsystem networks. The remote control is the new all purpose device in the digital home – the foundation for all new innovations for IP STB service moving forward. Movial, a leading innovator in creating richer, more integrated viewer experiences in IP STB, can present the entire ecosystem for the IP STB market, from devices and services to service provider offering and go to market strategies to the ultimate view experience.

11:15 - 11:30

Break (Exhibits Open)

11:30 - 12:15

Donner Pass Ballroom

Applications and Usage Models Enabled by Entertainment Networks
Anton Monk, VP Technology and Co-Founder -  Entropic Communications for Multimedia Over Coax Alliance

Telco, Satellite and Cable MSOs are beginning to deploy whole-home entertainment networks which provide consumers with the ability to view, manage and share their premium and personal content in new and innovative ways. While time and place-shifting are key components of entertainment networks, additional applications and usage models may also be enabled which can provide a richer entertainment experience for consumers and open up new business models and revenue opportunities for operators. In addition to exploring future applications overlaid onto entertainment networks, this session will examine the technical requirements for future-proof entertainment networks and the tradeoffs between various competing technologies.

Siskiyou Ballroom

Set-Top Box as Home Entertainment Server
Mark Evensen, Vice President of Produce Development and Co-Founder - Entone

As the proliferation of digital media and penetration of home networks converge, more opportunities than ever exist for operators to place themselves squarely in the center of consumers’ digital lifestyle. Developing the next generation of intelligent set-top boxes that can store, search, manage, transcode and distribute media throughout the home is the next major step in enabling operators to deploy services which can reduce churn and generate additional revenues.  This session will examine how the convergence of technologies and platforms that have traditionally operated in isolation will impact future STB developments.

Cascade Ballroom

JavaME – The Killer Middleware?
John Allen, CEO - DigiSoft.TV

DigiSoft has a deep understanding of the client middleware market. As a long-timer in the industry fulfilling the role of technical advisor, prime contractor and application developer to operators globally, it has evaluated and worked with the chosen middlewares of their customers, as well has helping them to understand the merits and limitations of each, in order to make a selection.

This session will look at JavaME as an alternative to the complex and technically-limited middlewares on the market today for IPTV. It will further explore the reasons why browser-based solutions come up so short, and in what way the browser can still have a role in a JavaME STB for IPTV, Cable or Satellite IP hyrbrids.

12:15 - 12:30

Break (Exhibits Open)

12:30 - 1:15

Donner Pass Ballroom

Future-Proofing the Set Top Box
Wilfred Martis, Director of Product Marketing, Consumer Electronics Group - Intel Corporation

The rapid pace of innovation in service offerings poses both challenges and opportunities to the service provider.  Overlaying compelling new services allows providers to differentiate and potentially generate additional revenue per user.  In addition, new codecs, delivery mechanisms, quality of service schemes, remote management, DRM, device support and security are all constantly evolving.  Perpetually redeploying set-top boxes is not an economical option.  This session examines the gains silicon providers, software vendors and STB platform OEMs are making in developing future-proof set-top boxes that can meet both operator and customer requirements in the future.

Siskiyou Ballroom

User Interface, EPG, Navigation and Content Discovery
Matthew Huntington, Vice President Solutions Marketing - OpenTV

As set-top box OEMs and operators enable a greater array of content choice and content delivery pipes into the home, traditional static EPGs (Electronic Programming Guides) won’t cut it.  OEMs, operators and technology providers must work together to deploy new and innovative and interactive programming guides that bridge Web content, digital content on the home network, VOD and traditional broadcast media.  This session will examine the emerging solutions for search and navigation from industry leaders which will result in a richer and more responsive user experience. 

Cascade Ballroom

Set-top Boxes for the YouTube Generation
NXP

Consumer products like Sling Box and Apple’s iTV are not only capturing the imaginations of users, but inspiring traditional Telecommunications, Cable MSO and Satellite operators to embrace a whole new set of features, business models and content usage models.  As operators move beyond the “we only do TV” model, they must consider the implications of bringing user-generated content and other Internet video content to the TV as well as allowing users to create and share captured video content with others.  This session will also examine how the integration of Sling Box-like features into mainstream STBs will impact platform design and business models.

1:15 - 2:30

Lunch (Exhibits Open)

2:30 - 3:15

Donner Pass Ballroom

The TV Ecosystem 2.0
David Price, Vice President, Business Development and Marketing Communications - Harmonic Inc.

Television is undergoing a rapid transformation that was initially sparked some 13 years ago by the adoption of digital video compression. Now the transformation has turned into a revolution as powerful personalized services become a reality. IPTV is fundamentally the provision of video programming targeted at a television display device using internet protocols to provide addressable delivery. It has been widely adopted initially by DSL service providers around the world and will become ubiquitous as it becomes viable in other forms of delivery. The underpinning ecosystem that supports this powerful personalized experience stretches from the source to the three screens of consumption. This presentation develops ideas based on the real life experience that Harmonic has gained with more than 50 leading IPTV service providers and how the end to end ecosystem from content acquisition to playout through next generation Set Top Boxes is deployed. It also looks at the technological, commercial and legal challenges that must be tackled by operators to achieve commercial success in this space.

Siskiyou Ballroom

How Home Networking Technologies Accelerate Growth and Impact future requirements for STB manufacturers.
Chano Gomez, Vice President Technology and Strategic Partnerships - DS2

Very soon consumers will expect to be able to enjoy live or pre-recorded content, whenever or wherever they are, in any HD display at home. The amount of bandwidth that will be required to stream recorded High Definition TV shows to each individual display, 24 hours a day, will be huge, so most industry experts predict that wireless networks won't be able to sustain this amount of bandwidth, especially as wireless networks become even more popular and the number of channels available for non-overlapping wireless networks is reduced. The problem will get worse as new extended-range wireless access points penetrate the market, increasing the area of interference by each access point.

This presentation will focus on how powerline connectivity is helping accelerate IPTV growth and how it will impact future requirements for STB manufacturers.Demand for STBs with integrated powerline technology is expected to grow tremendously during 2008, as other Service Providers implement the successful powerline-based model developed by operators like British Telecom or Telefonica.  The speaker will consider the different strategies for embedding powerline networking, with special emphasis on low-cost designs that provide reliable connectivity and guarantee interoperability with next generation powerline technology (400 Mbps and beyond).

Cascade Ballroom

Stand Alone Set-Top Boxes Are Dead
Buno Pati, CEO and Co-Founder - Building B

Building B co-founder and CEO, Buno Pati, created his company to address the convergence of technology and changing consumer expectations through a comprehensive content delivery service (broadcast and cable TV, Internet, movies) and breakthrough advertising platform that are easily and wirelessly delivered to the home television, creating a unique, personalized, on-demand viewing experience for the consumer. To date, consumers have been left to decipher the growing volume of content, networks, stand-alone set-top box devices and service plans by themselves. But consumers are steadily demanding change and the industry is set to embark on a new home entertainment adventure that puts the consumer first by focusing on service, content delivery, and unique viewing experiences. Buno will examine the disruption in the industry, best practices for staying relevant with consumers through personalization, navigation innovations and interactivity, as well as business strategies for attracting industry partners, including broadband providers, content companies, broadcasters and advertisers.

3:15 - 3:30

Break (Exhibits Open)

3:30 - 4:15

Donner Pass Ballroom

A Vision for the Digital Connected Home
Krishnan Rajagopaln, Vice President of Digital Media Technology - MPAA

The past few years have seen significant advances in technologies and services available at the digital home. On the living room front, there is an increasingly number of sources of high-definition digital content (Digital cable and Satellite, ATSC, IPTV, and Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs) and the wide adoption of high definition displays by consumers. In parallel, consumers are also voraciously consuming various forms of Internet streaming video (UGC sites like youTube, p2p streaming services like Joost, etc). Video is also becoming an important part of the mobile platform, starting with short-form content. An unintended side-effect of these advances has been the creation of channel-specific silos of devices that create confusing consumer experiences and prevent the consumer from legitimately consuming content on all their devices. This presentation presents a vision for the digital connected home that meets the "content anywhere, anytime, any device" promise without compromising content owner rights.

Siskiyou Ballroom

Balancing New-World STB Features With Old-World Reliability and Simplicity
Will Beals, Director of Hardware Systems Architecture - EchoStar Technologies, Corp.

STB evolution needs to carefully balance new features with customer expectations, education and reliability.  STBs are evolving out of the controlled content provider network into the home network.  Customer expectations are the same even though the networks are not.  When you focus on the actual customer requirements, surprising architectures are possible.

Cascade Ballroom

Enabling Interactivity in Set Top Boxes
Chris Ward, Director of Sales, Media Processing Division - ARM Holdings PLC

Beyond the virtually unlimited content choice, interactivity is a key component supporting the staggering growth of online media consumption.  Can the experience be conveyed to the living room? Yes, by simply examining lessons learned from online media, electronic game development and display and mobile phone user interfaces. ARM will present unique low-cost technology solutions for STBs to enable much more advanced and richer user interface experience and invite interaction from viewers, to use the remote control. The user will view enhanced graphics, 3D content, and rich video immersion.

4:15 - 4:30

Break (Exhibits Open)

4:30 - 5:15

Donner Pass Ballroom

Bringing Internet Video to the Television
Roy Kirsopp, VP & General Manager, Amino

Although video on the Internet has experienced phenomenal growth, this experience has almost exclusively been relegated to a 2ft PC experience.  Combining over 1.2 billion TVs deployed globally and the rapidly growing availability of broadband access, it's no wonder that several new players are entering the market with Internet TV offerings.  However this plethora of accessing content on the TV is not without problems.   Many of the technologies used to deliver Internet TV are diverse and incompatible, although easily played on a powerful PC with flexible operating system, this does present challenges to making it work in a consumer friendly affordable set-top box.  Low cost, high value and ease of use make Internet TV an attractive service, but the correct model and approach is needed.   We are already seeing entrants come onto the market with Closed Systems, however: 

What are the options for an open system?
What constitutes and open versus closed system?   
An open system would most likely favour this service, but what defines this exactly? And what are the challenges in building it? 

Siskiyou Ballroom

The Next Generation Home Digital Experience
George Cacioppo, Vice President Product Development, ACCESS Systems America 

The next generation home digital experience is about one essential idea: to deliver more and diverse media-rich content to the consumer by giving consumers access to their digital life when they want it, how they want it and where they want it. This experience revolves around a new generation of television sets, mobile devices, HD and games appliances, wirelessly connected homes as well as a host of set-top box options. As communications, broadcast media and broadband entertainment are continuing to converge, a major shift has begun in the connected home environment. The integration of the television experience with the complete power of the new end user technologies, from broadband to mobile, opens the door to not only an exclusive world of entertainment and information, it brings a next generation idea of full consumer interactivity within diverse mobile experiences. Personalized television and mobile will forever change the consumer entertainment landscape and will open the door to a consumer with more and greater control over his or her environment. As a mobile Internet pioneer, ACCESS has helped to develop and deliver technologies that have brought the Internet to a new generation of mobile devices and consumers. In this presentation, George Cacioppo will discuss the future of the mobile and beyond-PC markets, the next generation home digital experience and how this will affect the consumer in the era of convergence.

Cascade Ballroom

Digital Distribution with a Physical Twist
Jim Taylor –General Manager, Advanced Technology Group - Sonic Solutions

The recently approved industry specifications for recording electronic downloads set by the DVD Forum and the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA), opens the door for studios, independent and niche programmers to cost-effectively deliver video entertainment direct to the home. It also ensures convenient access to a vast array of titles for consumers to download and burn in the comfort of their living rooms.  Find out more about the technologies involved, the new channel of distribution they create, and how you can participate in this new “Hollywood to Home” value chain.

5:00 - 6:00

Evening Mixer and Exhibits