CableLabs
Encyclopedia
Founded in 1988 by cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

 operating companies, Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs) is a not-for-profit
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...

 consortium that has cable operators as its members. System operators from around the world are eligible to be members. Members dues are based on revenue generated from the cable services and businesses they sell to consumers. The CableLabs Board of Directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

 is composed of the Chief Executive Officers
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...

 of member companies, thus affording business and strategic insight into the technology development process.

CableLabs works with members to determine what service requirements are to be supported by new technologies and new services. CableLabs then seeks to support those requirements through open interface specifications, written in tandem with members and suppliers. The specifications, in turn, take much of the guess work out of vendors' engineering decisions as to where cable operators are moving with many of their new businesses. These freely published specifications are available at www.cablelabs.com.

This process is designed to get products to market more quickly and at lower price point
Price point
Price points are prices at which demand for a given product is supposed to stay relatively high.- Characteristics :Introductory microeconomics depicts a demand curve as downward-sloping to the right and either linear or gently convex to the origin...

s due to global economies of scale
Returns to scale
In economics, returns to scale and economies of scale are related terms that describe what happens as the scale of production increases in the long run, when all input levels including physical capital usage are variable...

. Innovation is driven by a multiplicity of working relationships between suppliers and CableLabs staff: Visiting engineers and contributing engineers from these vendor organizations create a pool of thousands of individuals providing innovative input to the work performed at CableLabs. Development undertaken at CableLabs and endorsed by the cable industry has led to relationships among companies never before known within the cable market.

The key CableLabs technology projects– OpenCable (for interactive digital video
Digital video
Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...

 and known as Tru2way in the retail market
Retailing
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

), DOCSIS
DOCSIS
Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification is an international telecommunications standard that permits the addition of high-speed data transfer to an existing cable TV system...

 for high speed Internet
Broadband Internet access
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is a high data rate, low-latency connection to the Internet— typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56 kbit/s modem or satellite Internet with inherently high latency....

 access/broadband,PacketCable for digital voice and multimedia, and Cable Information Services open the door to cable establishing a national footprint for rolling out new services. CableLabs' facilitation of intellectual property rights
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

(IPR) discussions minimizes exposure to intellectual property risk for companies entering the marketplace.

CableLabs has approximately 160 employees with an additional on-site population of visiting engineers and consultants.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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