NCTA: Top Cable Tru2way Questions Answered

Aiming to broaden its coverage beyond pure application development, the Tru2way Developers Conference at The Cable Show addressed a series of technical, marketing, consumer electronics and business challenges the cable industry believes must be met for the initiative succeed.

Tru2way promises to reshape the way cable companies do business by providing a Java-based open applications platform that enables a rich, interactive experience for viewers via TVs, set-top boxes and other devices.

While the Tru2way specification is set, many questions need to be answered to the satisfaction of those in the food chain. Here are a few that came up in today’s event held during with the NCTA national conference.

What is Tru2way? Tru2way is the retail marketing name for CableLabs’ long-in-the-making Open Applications Cable Program (OCAP) interactive applications development effort.

When will cablecos support Tru2way in their networks? Cable kingpin Comcast Corp. expects to have 90 percent of its network ready this year, with 60 percent of its network operationally capable in that same timeframe, said Sree Kotay, a top exec with the company. In 2009, he said he expects 50 percent of all the set-top boxes Comcast delivers services through to be able to be Java-capable.

How can Tru2way application developers create and test their wares? “Developers can get the platform and build upon it, but tools and the ability to test what they develop is what’s necessary to scale this effort,” explained Ralph Brown, CTO for Cable Television Laboratories Inc. (CableLabs), the industry group that helped create the specification.

“There are a limited number of labs in which they can work,” said Bill Helms, vice president of subscriber equipment in the advanced technology group at Time Warner Cable. “We need standalone tools so they can go work on their applications.”

Comcast’s Kotay said his company is providing source code to a sample application that developers can use to write a Tru2Way application shell. The company will run betas as part of nationalizing its software program to further assist developers.

How are customers going to get Tru2Way units? Neither Comcast, nor Time Warner Cable executives said they envision customers calling their toll-free customer service lines and ordering them. They agreed that retail chains, such as Best Buy, will handle that function.

What will the units cost consumers? Having conducted extensive consumer research, Best Buy executives believe the Tru2way units should not cost more than current units. “There should be a zero delta,” said Chad Bell, merchandise manager for the retailer’s access services area.

What’s needed to realize cable’s go-to-market plan in which it doesn’t sell direct to consumers? Comcast has done joint calls with TV OEMs, such as Panasonic and Samsung Electronics and retail chain executives in an effort to show there’s more than the cableco pushing gear through retail locations.

Do consumer electronics companies beyond TV makers see value in adding Tru2way support to their devices? “There’s no timeline for a Tru2way DVR yet,” said David Sandford, vice-president of product management for service providers at TiVo Inc. “But it’s something we’re working on.”

When will Tru2way TVs be available? “Later this year, we’ll have a line of TVs with Tru2way built in and a launch of [compatible] STBs sooner,” said Victor Carlson, director of innovation for Panasonic Corp. of North America. “We’re already working closely with the cable industry..”

The question that remains unanswered is to what extent Tru2way is embraced by the developer community. CableLabs’ Brown likened the initiative to the Google Android effort and the open network undertaking recently announced by Verizon Communications Inc.

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