4.05.2007
Sharpening The Bleeding Edge
Posted by Chris Morley

Pushing the envelope is fraught with peril and glory. It takes perseverance, dedication, and passion to operate at the edge and still deliver a consistent and superior customer experience. It’s no secret that digital cable support on the PC is a newborn technology that, for the first time, is reliant upon a close collaboration between a PC company and a 3rd party technology provider (cable operators) that, until recently, has no experience in the PC realm.

CableCARD support in Vista is hands down the coolest and most exciting technology to come to PCs in a long time. The road here has been long, winding, and difficult to navigate. It’s not over, but our early adopters and enthusiasts are having great success and are enjoying the CineMagix Grand Theater long before any other manufacturer has been able to ship.

As the face of the digital cable story, Velocity Micro has worked closely with Microsoft, AMD, and Cable Labs to ensure that this product is a success going forward. We have closed feedback loops with these companies to provide guidance, customer feedback, and recommendations to smooth out the deployment process. These companies are providing fantastic levels of support and should be commended. In particular, I’d like to thank from these companies Mike, Victor, Clint, Deanna, Joe, Tim, Mitch, Paul, Tony, Shane, Allan, Maria, Michael, Greg, Doug, Pat, Frank, Mark, Margit, and everyone else that has had a hand in this joint project. You guys are awesome. If I’ve left anyone out, you know we’re grateful.

I’d like to share with you some of the work we are doing to make sure you get the most out of our digital cable systems.

1) We have seeded systems around the United States in different markets. This allows us to test out the end-user experience on different networks (Motorola vs. Scientific Atlanta) and with different MSOs like Time Warner, Cox, Comcast, Verizon, and others.

2) We are providing testing platforms to Microsoft, AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel – all of whom are instrumental in ensuring this product's success and doing so allows us to troubleshoot in parallel any issues that arise.

3) We are providing MSOs with discounted systems so they can familiarize themselves with this technology and be able to work closely with customers at a comfortable level with the product.

4) We are extensively training our award-winning support staff in advanced CableCARD troubleshooting techniques to assist the cable companies with ensuring a fast and easy install process. We are on call for our customers when the cable company shows up, and we can use our remote diagnosis software to set up the system like we were sitting there with you on the couch. We can even see remotely if you are getting a TV signal!

The key here to a smooth installation process is ensuring that the installer you get understands how to activate CableCARDs. If terminologies like pairing, provisioning, sending INIT and HIT signals, head-end, EMMs, etc. mean nothing to them, you might want to see if you can get a supervisor. We can assist you with talking to the cable companies. Sometimes you get an installer that just doesn’t know about the technology, but that’s ok – there are people who do. Velocity Micro is the undisputed leader in this technology, and we are proving it every day, with every system we sell.

[4.05.2007 @ 6:30 AM]  [Digg it]