Pace adds features, functions to home gateway product

Pace Micro Technology Americas has introduced an IPTV digital home gateway set-top box that upgrades its existing DSL streaming media delivery system by adding features and functions that expand the range of delivery networks.

The IP500, is “IP front-end agnostic. It doesn’t really matter if you have an ADSL system, a VDSL system, a fiber-to-the-home build or a multidwelling environment, the box will be able to operate on the back of any IP infrastructure,” said David Novak, Pace’s marketing director.

While still intended for telco-based network providers, the box enhances the features and functions of the existing--and continuing--DSL 4000 product line, Novak said. In addition to MPEG-1/2 support, it supports lower bit-rate CODECs for things like MPEG-4, Real Player and Media Player and can handle streaming protocols that operate at 500 to 800 kilobits per second [K/bps] instead of the 3 megabits per second [M/bps] required for MPEG-2.

Because of the lower bit rates, operators can use the new gateway to provision to two televisions, in addition to the high-speed data and telephony services. Additionally, Ethernet connectivity has been increased from 10BaseT to 100BaseT “so the box is capable of functioning off the network in a much more robust way,” he added.

While declining to name customers, Novak said several RBOCs are testing the product’s capabilities in their laboratories and that they are particularly interested in the video distribution.

“This is the first time a true set-top box with a very reasonable cost factor is being deployed in the marketplace that has the same kinds of capabilities as a multicast TV-over-cable system would have--being able to offer hundreds of channels of TV; being able to offer video-on-demand, Internet browsing, advanced TV applications, interactive applications,” Novak said, predicting, “You’re going to start to see the RBOCs be able to deploy these services.

Novak predicted that volume product shipments would begin in the second quarter of 2002 with “real volume being driven by the telcos or fiber-to-the-home developers going out in 2003.”

The operating system is Linux-based, Novak said.

“Being able to work with all the different kinds of applications developers, choosing a very open standards-based operating system is very important,” he said, while conceding, ‘if you want Microsoft-based applications, it makes it fairly difficult to operate on a Linux-based environment.”

Pace also upgraded the DSL 4000 feature set because “we’re trying to meet the market halfway in the interim while we start to look at what the future holds for the video-over-IP space,” Novak said.