John Fountain, Vice President of Technology, Cox Business Services/Hospitality Network, Las Vegas

The telcos are trying to make inroads into the cable-dominated video market by transmitting MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 signals over an IP infrastructure using their age-old traditional twisted-pair network and hoping to achieve a home-grown triple play. Their attempt at IPTV gets a lot of attention, and they go out of their way to position cable technology as less robust. But Cable already has the triple play that the telcos are attempting to replicate. And the telcos don’t have the corner on IPTV, either. Cable is now successfully incorporating these IP technologies; just look at Hospitality Network (HN) in Las Vegas (purchased by Cox in 1998 and now part of Cox Business Services).

Since the early 1980s, HN has been providing services to the hotel-gaming industry mainly in Las Vegas. HN offers technologies that improve the in-room guest experience. When the hotel gaming industry started shifting its focus from gaming-only activities to gaming and entertainment activities, HN (it’s now referred to as CBS/HN) was ready to pounce.

One of the advanced technologies at CBS/HN is an IP infrastructure used to transmit feature-length motion pictures and other video services. It incorporates high-definition IP networking that’s based on the Intrigue Multimedia System. Intrigue is an interactive, multimedia in-room entertainment and information system. It features access to the Internet at speeds 50 times faster than dial-up and offers true digital video on demand, Internet access, and other hospitality services and options via in-room television or laptop computer. Intrigue video system provides high-definition VOD at 20 Mbps per stream, standard-definition VOD at up to 4.3 Mbps NTSC video and ATSC video support. CBS/HN installed over 3,000 of these Intrigue set-top boxes at Wynn Las Vegas. They’re connected to high-definition plasma as well as LCD television sets and bring multimedia connectivity to guests via IP technology. Each guest room offers 100 Mbps of connectivity for data service and an additional 100 Mbps for video service. The Cisco network is aggregated via gigabit Ethernet connections to a head-end where Internet backhaul and video servers are located.

It’s hard to keep hearing about how telcos are offering some out-of-this-world technology and that all cable does is provide cable television. Former Cox CEO Jim Robbins was right on the money when he said, “We have to make sure that the world realizes that we (the cable industry) are not some technological stepchild”. Remember, it’s the telcos that are attempting to catch up with Cable’s triple play.