Charter Activates All Digital Service over HFC Network

Charter Communications activated an all-digital service delivered without an analog set-top box over an existing HFC (hybrid fiber-coaxial) network. Basic analog cable programming is delivered simultaneously with the digital service. Charter claims to be the first MSO in the U.S. using both a digital compression system and a digital program insertion system. The digital compression system, which is central to the service, is powered by Harmonic's DiviCom MV 50 variable bit-rate encoders and third-generation DiviTrackXE closed loop statistical multiplexing system. The company said that converting from analog to digital recovers valuable bandwidth capacity, which can be used to provide more high definition television as well as targeted services such video-on-demand and specialized subscription packages. The all-digital service was activated in the company's Long Beach, California system.



Charter Communications also noted that an all-digital service makes it possible to realize significant capital savings by using lower cost digital only set-top boxes. Charter calculates that entry-level digital set-tops that support broadcast, interactive and on-demand services cost approximately 50% less than comparable analog/digital set-tops. At the high-end, removing both the analog receiver and internal digital video compression subsystem from set-tops with a digital video recorder (DVR) yields a cost reduction. Furthermore, the highly compressed MPEG-2 video distributed from the headend makes it possible for the DVR to store more content per gigabyte than in a mixed analog/digital service environment. Charter believes that when serving hundreds of thousands or millions of subscribers the aggregate savings will be substantial. http://www.charter.com