Communications Technology - Communications Executive

CRAIG CUTTNER

Craig Cuttner
HBO

Craig Cuttner is senior vice president, advanced technology, for Home Box Office. His responsibilities cover projects related to video and audio distribution systems and distribution-related computer and communications systems. That includes satellites, compression, digital rights management and related technologies, including high-definition television (HDTV), subscription video on demand (SVOD) and wireless services to cell phones in the United States and worldwide. He has been active in HDTV technology since the late 1980s and was named a Fellow in the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers in 2000.

management” early in the days of HBO On Demand. When more on-demand launched, and other content was added to the mix, the need for asset management became important. What we’ve seen, though, is that affiliates still need to keep a watchful eye on DAM systems—content still goes missing from the UI, and consumers still complain when content isn’t where it is supposed to be and when—so our caution to affiliates: Automation does not mean “lights-out.”

Could you remind us about the efficiency/quality
gains you have seen related to MPEG- 4 to MPEG- 2
transcoding?

Currently, our MPEG- 4 HD is operating at about 50 percent of the bit rate of our MPEG- 2 HD, with better picture quality. The MPEG- 4 to MPEG- 2 transcoders in headends have been loaded with new code for stability and picture quality improvements.

Are the metadata and digital rights aspects of
MPEG- 7 and MPEG- 21 on your roadmaps?
We keep a watchful eye on evolving standards—but,
so far, the cable industry’s standardization around
CableLabs metadata has served us all well—the
“encode and pitch once” model allowed VOD to be
very successful.

How much of an efficiency win is DVB-S2 on your transponders? HBO launched (in the ‘90s) with a 47 Mbps approach—so our “net gain” was a 65 percent increase in data throughput going to our chosen DVB-S2 rate of 72 Mbps. (Editor’s note: for more on HBO’s delivery of MPEG- 4 content over DVB-S2, see sidebar.)

What obstacles do you see remaining to the
scaling of advanced (addressable/interactive)
digital advertising in cable networks?
Although HBO and Cinemax aren’t ad-supported,
some of those targeted advertising technologies are
interesting. The large-scale accurate distribution of
lots of content to loads of destinations—like we’ve
seen grow in VOD—isn’t trivial.

What technologies are you using to enable the delivery of content to “three screens”? For our HBO on Broadband trial with Time Warner Cable, HBO is using Windows Media encoding. Our encoding and delivery of content to wireless carriers is based on their needs and infrastructure.

HBO Field Test Results

Conclusions reported in 2008 NCTA Technical Paper on Field Test of DVB-S2 and MPEG- 4 HDTV deployment, by HBO Engineering Manager Andrew Levine:

Is business and technology partnering with cable affiliates part of the “three-screens” equation? In addition to the HBO on Broadband trial, we would certainly discuss wireless content through cable operators—but wireless activities by MSOs are limited.

Does the adoption of new digital asset
management (DAM) systems impact your
affiliates technically? If so, how?
The early-adopter MSOs were exposed to “asset

• RF transmission link using DVB-S2 is

“extremely stable.”

• A forward error correction (FEC) rate of 5/6 will yield a transponder data payload of 72 Mbps, which is “suitable for successful headend reception performance with an average size downlink antenna.”