> With the cable industry in eternal stealth mode for some reason, it's good to have sleuths like Jeff Baumgartner of Light Reading Cable around to tell the world when organizations like CableLabs--always stealthy, now even more cloaked--issue a new set of interface specifications for online video, a.k.a. TV Everywhere. The Labs "quietly issued" the new specs called Online Content Access (OLCA) Oct. 29, Baumgartner reports. Story.
> Not everyone in the cable industry feels the irresistible urge to hide technology developments from any inquiring minds. Cox Communications, for instance, issued a press release announcing it is "prepared to support the next evolution of Internet addressing (IPv6)" and is "conducting active trials with Cox Business customers." The MSO further stated that it would extend those trials to its residential product line in the future. It's a good move since IPv4, the current Internet addressing method, is expected to top out in 2012. Cox said its core network is "fully IPv6 compliant."
> Speaking of stealth (it's a theme, go with it), the consumer protection organization of German federal state Rhineland-Palatinate, Verbraucherzentrale Rheinland-Pfalz, is boiling over decisions by cable operators Kabel Deutschland and Unitymedia to employ encryption on digital carriage of German's commercial TV channels "despite the channels being free-to-air on analog cable TV, via satellite and DTT." Two things here: first, thank goodness when the decision came to choose a national language our founding fathers went with English, not German; and second, it seems that U.S. service providers haven't cornered the market for messing with broadcasters and federal agencies. Story.
> There's absolutely nothing stealthy about Entone's FusionTV offering that it says will combine traditional live programming and online media services via IPTV. In fact, Entone is right upfront in stating that the service will fight those with the urge to cut the cord. "Cord cutting is a real threat," said Entone CEO Steve McKay. "We believe this service fills a void and creates value for everyone and the expectation is that it will come to the consumer at no additional cost." Story.
And finally... It's out in the open. Bob Barlow will replace Nate Smith as president of Oceanic Time Warner Cable. Barlow had been president of TWC's San Diego division and Smith is on his way to New York City where he'll be senior VP of business development. Story.