Switched Digital Video

   Switched digital video enables cable operators to use their channel capacity more efficiently and deliver many more programming choices to the viewer.
   In a cable system, an operator dedicates a fixed channel frequency, or number, to each programming service and delivers them all down the cable pipe at the same time. To view a particular network, a viewer selects the channel number assigned to it and tunes it in. Switched digital video allows an operator to deliver only those programming services actually being viewed at a given time, thus freeing up bandwidth and enabling him to offer more programming options than there are available fixed channel slots.
   To learn more about this technology and what it means to cable marketers, Leslie Ellis spoke with Ron Wolfe, Senior Product Marketing Manager for BigBand Networks, which is in the process of rapidly deploying the technology.
   This segment was produced at the studios of the Comcast Media Center.

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