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Cisco Betting That Your TV Is About To Get Networked Too
from the more-cpes-for-cisco dept
You used to think of Cisco as being a company that supplied networking hardware to big enterprises and (to a lesser extent) telcos. However, two and a half years ago, they snuck into the home by buying Linksys. A few months ago, the rumor was that they were out kicking the tires on Nokia to make it clear that networking and telecommunications was a single world. Of course, such a deal didn't make much sense for Nokia and didn't go very far. However, it appears that the dealmakers at Cisco have been looking around for convergence-related "big" deals lately. While they're famous for buying plenty of startups and quickly integrating their products into the Cisco machine, they seem to be thinking bigger. The news is breaking that they're spending $7 billion on Scientific Atlanta, a major supplier of set-top boxes to the cable industry. The bet here is clearly that the telco world and the internet world are quickly merging. Televisions will soon be "on the network" in one way or another, and this gives Cisco a jumping off point to be a part of that trend. Still, swallowing a company that big won't be quite as easy as their normal startup devouring process. Either way, Cisco clearly believes your home is about to get a lot more networked, and they want to be supplying the equipment when it happens.
Reader Comments
(Flattened / Threaded)
Wanna know how it'll end?
You'll have a Google Phone+TV+GeoMapping+..well uh everything!
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Cisco's already there...
As you mentioned, they purchased Linksys, and you can see the Cisco logo on every box there. WiFi is big and getting bigger.
What people may not already know is that Cisco has a HUGE presense in IP telephony and call centers (that bane of everybody that calls corporations!), and while these technologies aren't home-specific, it gives them a presense in telephony along with their wireless and inter-networking and fiber.
Home cable is a natural progression then, and cellular (digital cellular, anyway) isn't too much of a stretch.
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Ya know Cisco is a lot of things...
Cisco does way more than just routing and switching. they do network security and have one of the broadest end to end solutions out there. Beyond IP Telephony, and Call Centers, they're also working on prescence, meaning tying web collaboration together with your mobile phone and your home and work phones - where ever you are, never miss a call. Beyond that, they do optical, and data storage, and wireless. Don't forget they also aquired KiSS Technology that makes network enabaled plasma TVs...
I see Cisco as being a main piece of the networked home. A good example of this already in action is the Time Warner center in Columbus Circle in NYC. Every loft and penthouse has Cisco phones, and wireless, and is prewired...
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No Subject Given
SA's huge in the headend as well. Almost all the receivers are Motorola or SA. And they are expanding to ip encoders for the headend.
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My DVR boxes on my network too?
Ya know, that would be just perfect. Let me rig my SA Explorer 8300 DVR box into my LAN, so I can port my shows over to my PC for long term storage and/or DVD burning.
For now, seems they are inexorably locked into that infernal silver cablebox/DVR and the cable company likes to give me a hard time about keeping too much data on the drive (they littereally ordered my wife to delete stuff, when she called about an unrelated problem with our service)
Just outta curiosity, anyone know any good sites with some kinda hack or way I could export my stuff from the SA Explorer 8300 DVR box?
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Re: My DVR boxes on my network too?
This is the same thing I would like to know!!!
Any answers ?
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Cisco Buys Scientific Atlanta
Great. Now my cable box will join my Linksys boxes in no longer working. Linksys went to hell after Cisco bought them - Scientific Atlanta (oxymoron) is next...
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Re: Cisco Buys Scientific Atlanta
Actually linksys went to hell long before Cisco aquired them.
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Slow
Nope.
I won't even subscribe to digital programming because of one reason: That annoying pause when I change the channel. That's the only reason I resist going to digital or dish. There should be no delay when I change a channel, the new channel should appear on the screen instantly. As it is now, there's a 2-4 second delay and a black screen when the channel is changed. Set top boxes or dish. Unacceptable.
It's all about convenience.. and speed. I don't want my TV networked for this very reason, and I'd imagine millions of others don't want it either because of that annoying pause, and other new delays it will now bring.
So, nope, ain't gonna happen.
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Re: Slow
Watch for IPTV
Digital channels with no delay. Like the U-Verse service from AT&T.
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Re: Slow
That 2 to 4 seconds you talk about is your receiver buffering the channels content. I can easily see the box grabbing content from the channels up and down the dial from what you are currently watching, but if you bounce 100 channels up the dial how could it know where you were headed?
The whole point of digital is better sound and higher picture quality, so that means data. You are basically giving up a couple of seconds to see your channel in high definition.
At least on my provider I have noticed that the HD channels do typically come right up, maybe some artifacts or a funny image or two, and then the channel is clear and the sound is in 5.1.
I am willing to give up a little to get a lot.
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