Technology News, Earnings, Mergers And Acquisitions: CSCO: Cisco IP NGN Enables End-to-End Digital Video and IPTV Service Delivery for 'Video 2.0'

Cisco ® today announced a series of new and enhanced solutions that enable carriers of all types and sizes to deliver a "Connected Life" for businesses and consumers over the Cisco Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture. The Cisco IP NGN enables the development and delivery of application- and subscriber-aware services to help providers increase revenue and enhance efficiencies for improved profitability and control of their networks and businesses.

Today's video subscribers want choices, personalization, content sharing across communities and, often, instant gratification. They are no longer content to be just viewers; they are now producers or distributors, empowered by the worldwide IP network. This shift to "Video 2.0" recognizes that the network is now a "platform" driving the creation and interactive use of customized content for individuals and communities. This enables broad-scale collaboration, from social networking for consumers to TelePresence for business.

"Delivering the 'Connected Life' is about much more than just broadcast and on-demand video," said Mark Bieberich, Vice President, Communications Infrastructure, Yankee Group. "It's about personalized IP service bundles that integrate video, VoIP, Internet access, messaging, gaming and audio entertainment applications requiring dynamic multicasting, advanced QoS and policy management. The delivery of personalized service bundles that include video requires a new approach to service control at the network edge. The Cisco IP NGN architecture is a solid foundation upon which to develop these new service offerings and business processes."

Cisco continues to deliver on its IP NGN vision and architecture for carriers by introducing innovative solutions and reaching new customer milestones. Today's announcements are focused on defining, preserving and realizing digital video and IPTV. The Cisco innovations announced today also help ensure that service subscribers enjoy the highest-quality viewing experiences, regardless of content sources or device types.

For more information, please visit the Cisco Website: http://www.cisco.com/go/ipngn7

Defining Video Experience - To enable the personalized experience demanded by today's viewers, advanced content delivery systems must manage and deliver any content at any time. This "on-demand" requirement means formatting and provisioning content to any device across any network, anytime - streaming content to PCs, PDAs, iPods, cell phones and other devices - while maintaining the integrity of the visual experience.

Today's announcements include:

Introduction of the Cisco Content Delivery System (CDS). This solution is designed to transcend the limitations of existing video on demand (VoD) systems, giving providers an intelligent, distributed network platform for the development of personalized entertainment, interactive media and targeted advertising. The Cisco CDS is designed to expedite content delivery to subscribers' televisions, and, soon, to PCs, mobile handsets and other multimedia-capable devices.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_120306d.html

Preserving the Video Viewing Experience - Once video is defined, it must be delivered to subscribers over the network. If not performed properly, the transport process can significantly degrade video quality, negatively affecting the overall viewing experience. To maintain content integrity and the overall quality of experience (QoE) their subscribers receive, providers are looking for both the advanced technology and the service expertise necessary to maximize their differentiation from competitive offerings.

Today's announcements include:

Significant enhancements to the Cisco 7600 Series Router portfolio, establishing it as the industry's first comprehensive Carrier Ethernet service edge platform for converged video, voice and data services with mobility (any-play). This integrated intelligence includes support for Cisco's Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG) - announced earlier this year on the Cisco 10000 and 7200 Series platforms - which provides policy control, service control, and subscriber management. Further enhancements include integration of video/voice Session Border Control (SBC) for IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and non-IMS applications.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_120306c.html

Visual Quality Experience (VQE) technology improves the quality of video service and viewing experiences. VQE enables network-based rapid channel-change and video error repair, two significant challenges in the development and delivery of digital cable and IPTV services. Based on industry standards, including Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), VQE enables providers to prepare networks for delivery of advanced video services such as IPTV and digital video by detecting and repairing packet loss on degraded copper lines. It further enables network-based rapid channel-change to enhance the viewing experience for IPTV subscribers. VQE will initially ship as an appliance and will soon be integrated into Cisco 7600 Series Routers.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_120306b.html

For more information about each of the solutions being announced today, please visit the Cisco Website: http://www.cisco.com/go/ipngn7.

Realizing Video Experience - The final stage in the process is the "realization" of the video experience on the end device. This, too, has very strict requirements in order to present the content in its truest form and to help enable subscriber personalization of the viewing experience. In the "Connected Home", set-top boxes, the subscriber-facing component of system, are particularly important.

Scientific Atlanta, a Cisco Company, announces today that it has shipped more than 30 million set-top boxes and more than six million digital video recorders.

Scientific Atlanta innovations such as single-slice encoding help display video content most accurately. Scientific Atlanta developed digital video recording technology and multi-room viewing of live and recorded video to help deliver a more personalized experience to the subscriber.

Cisco and Scientific Atlanta have also combined their IP and video expertise to deliver complete lifecycle services including end-to-end solution integration to help providers develop and deliver the "Connected Life" experience. Cisco's phased approach to services allows providers to tailor services to meet their unique business and technical requirements.

"The world of video and television as we know it has changed forever," said Mike Volpi, senior vice president of the Cisco Router and Service Provider Technology Group. "We are extremely pleased with our momentum in innovation in the digital video and IPTV space over the last year, especially regarding continued global momentum and the ongoing successful integration of Scientific Atlanta. We look forward to evolving the role of video both with consumers and businesses, and we will continue to work closely with providers of all sizes and in all geographies to help ensure their continued development and deployment of advanced video services."

Global Cisco IP NGN Service Provider Deployments

Cisco continues to accelerate service provider adoption of its IP NGN solutions globally. Recent carrier deployments include:

BT (UK): Completed the first live deployments of eleven CRS-1 Carrier Routing Systems in the Internet Protocol / Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS) core of BT's 21st Century Network (BT 21CN). Additional CRS-1 systems will be deployed within approximately 100 BT core points of presence (PoPs) for BT 21CN over the next year. The BT 21CN core network will support voice, business virtual private network (VPN), IP and broadband traffic, including consumer video and mobility services, throughout the UK. For more information, see the separate announcement issued today.

Cable& Wireless (UK): Expanding its deployment of the Scientific Atlanta iLYNXTM platform to create a nationwide contribution and distribution platform on behalf of a major U.K. broadcaster. The network will link studios across the U.K. and will transport standard-definition, high-definition and analog TV services. Cable & Wireless also deployed Scientific Atlanta's ROSATM Network Management System for this project and worked with Scientific Atlanta's EMEA SciCareTM Professional Services group of systems integration experts. For more information, see
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_090706b.html

Charter Communications, Inc. (USA): Expanding availability of its converged data, voice and video services with a network based on the Cisco IP NGN architecture. For more information, see
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_101806.html

HEF Bredbånd A/S (Denmark): Building a new 5,000-kilometre fibre-optic network based on the Cisco IP NGN architecture to bring entertainment- and business-grade communication services, including IPTV featuring 150 channels and video-on-demand (VoD), to more than 80,000 customers. The network uses Cisco Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Ethernet technology. For more information, see
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_092606.html

TDC Kabel TV A/S (Denmark): Deploying Scientific Atlanta's MPEG-4 advanced video compression (AVC) encoder for delivery of cable and DSL video services. TDC plans to use the MPEG-2 encoding option to deliver high-quality digital video to its cable customers, while initial plans call for bandwidth-saving MPEG-4 AVC encoding to support DSL video. For more information, see
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_090806b.html

VTR (Chile): Deployed the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System to facilitate the growth of any-play (data, voice and video with mobility) services over residential broadband connections. VTR is the leading Chilean provider of cable TV and broadband Internet and is the country's second-largest provider of residential telephone service. VTR has more than 2.2 million residential subscribers, with 1.2 million digital cable TV subscribers, 300,000 Internet subscribers and 400,000 IP telephony subscribers. For more information, see
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_071706.html

Industry Recognition

Cisco continues its culture of innovation to enable providers to deliver profitable converged data, voice and video services with mobility. Recent industry recognition includes:

Scientific Atlanta HD Encoder Named CES Innovations 2007 Design and Engineering Honoree - The Scientific Atlanta MPEG-4 HDTV Advanced Compression Encoder (Model D9054TM) has been acknowledged as an International CES Innovations 2007 Design and Engineering Awards Honoree by the Consumer Electronics Association. For more information, see: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_110906b.html

Cisco Wins Metro Network Technologies and Services Award at the InfoVision Awards 2006 - Held at Broadband World Forum Europe in Paris and presented by the International Engineering Consortium (IEC). The product nominated under this category was Cisco Integrated Video Admission Control. For more information, see: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_101206.html.

For more information about how Cisco is enabling providers and their customers to benefit from the shift to "Video 2.0", please visit the Cisco Website: http://www.cisco.com/go/ipngn7.