OCAP becomes tru2way

OCAP, the OpenCable Application Platform, which was developed by CableLabs based on the GEM specification is now being marketed in the US under the name tru2wayâ¢.The announcement was made in a press release issued by CableLabs on January 7th.

The Cable Show, taking place in New Orleans from May 18-20, will be preceded by a developers conference dedicated to tru2way. A report in informitv quotes Dr. Richard Green, chief executive of CableLabs: âtru2way is the path to the future of television. The participants in this conference are developing the guidelines and applications that will influence the design of new products and services that will benefit consumers for years to come.â

The following consumer electronics companies demonstrated tru2way-based products at CES 2008 in Las Vegas in January:

• Panasonic â Displayed 42″ and 50″ tru2way plasma televisions, part of their Viera line that will operate without a set-top box from a single remote and that will be in the marketplace by the 2008 holiday season.
• Samsung â Demonstrated a tru2way HD set-top box that was running the Comcast/TV Guide program guide, model DCB-H670C.
• LG Electronics â Showed its Model 42LG51 – LCD television with tru2way functionality.
• Thomson â Exhibited a tru2way set-top box, the “9000 Series â HD MPEG-2/4 Interactive Cable Decoder for the North American market”.

At the show, Panasonic and Comcast also teamed to announce a new portable digital video recorder (P-DVR) that uses tru2way technology.

Other companies that exhibited specific tru2way innovations at CES included:

• VividLogic â Demonstrated tru2way software. Its customers include Funai, Mitsubishi and Pioneer.
• ViXS and Advanced Micro Devices both showed CableCARD⢠chipsets that support tru2way technology.
• Digeo â Demonstrated its Moxi Media Center, which integrates content sources throughout an advanced user interface and centralizes all sources of entertainment on a single TV screen.

More information about CableLabs’ application developer resources can be found at: www.opencable.com/ocap/.

Here’s the full CableLabs release announcing the Tru2way launch:

Tru2way⢠Brand to Succeed ‘OpenCable⢠Platform’ in Consumer and Retail Settings

Louisville, Colorado, January 7, 2008 – The U.S. cable industry has adopted the âtru2wayâ¢â brand to succeed use of the term âOpenCable Platformâ as it applies to the marketing and branding of the interactive video platform for consumers and in retail markets.

CableLabs®, the industry’s research and development arm, will license the brand to cable companies, cable programmers, and consumer electronics manufacturers that will deliver, create or build devices to access tru2way applications and services. Most cable companies plan to advertise, use, and support the tru2way technology. Use of the mark on devices capable of receiving such services is strictly voluntary for manufacturers.

Tru2way technology is built into televisions, set-top boxes, and other devices enabling cable companies and other interactive television service and application developers to âwriteâ interactive applications such as games once and see them run successfully on any cable television system that supports the specification.

The technology has been licensed by several dozen application authoring entities and equipment manufacturers, including Digeo, LG Electronics, Panasonic Corporation of America, and Samsung Electronics Co., and by chip makers Broadcom and Intel.

The tru2way technology enables consumers to access two-way digital cable programming without the need for a cable operator-supplied set-top box and is capable of supporting all cable services now delivered to devices currently leased to consumers as well as future services written to the tru2way technology. Major cable operators have committed to deploy support for the tru2way platform in service areas covering more than 90 million U.S. homes by the end of 2008.

The tru2way brand was developed by the global brand consulting firm Siegel + Gale, in consultation with the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), and marketing and technology representatives of a variety of major cable providers.

Additional information may be found at www.tru2way.com.