LAS VEGAS -- Installing and deploying the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) has been anything but a snap for cable operators, but the technology, which promises to give cable operators a common middleware for set-top applications, is starting to seep into systems run by some of the nation's largest MSOs.

Engineering executives from Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), Cox Communications Inc. , Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) (TWC), and Bright House Networks offered updates on their respective deployment and trial plans here on Sunday at a special OCAP event that proceeded this week's The Cable Show.

Cox, according to senior VP and CTO Chris Bowick, has OCAP trials underway in two markets and expects to push that to five by the end of 2007. He expects Cox to have OCAP installed across the board by the first half of 2008.

"We're well on the way," Bowick said.

Even further along is Time Warner Cable, which is timing its deployment of OCAP in Scientific Atlanta systems with the coming July 2007 ban on digital set-tops with embedded security. About 70 percent of Time Warner's systems are based on the SA platform, with the balance based on Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT).

Mike Hayashi, TWC's senior vice president of advanced technology and engineering, said the SA systems "are in the midst of [OCAP] deployment, and TWC's entire SA footprint should be OCAP-ready by July. He projects plans to trial OCAP in one Motorola system by the end of this year, with expansion into deployments in 2008.

The situation is similar at Bright House, where five of six systems are SA-based. That MSO is working to get its SA systems OCAP-capable by July, as well, according to Arthur Orduna, the operator's senior vice president of policy and product.

Comcast, the nation's largest cable MSO, has OCAP trials underway in Denver, Philadelphia, Boston, and Union, N.J. Those systems will "springboard us" toward additional OCAP work expected to occur later this year and into 2008, when about 80 percent of the MSO's systems should have it installed, said James Mumma, Comcast's director of video product development.

"We are eager for this to succeed," Mumma said, adding that Comcast plans to start trials of a low-end OCAP-based box -- the RNG (Residential Network Gateway) 100 -- sometime next year. [Ed. note: Mumma said knock you out.]

Until OCAP boxes are widely deployed, MSOs are also working on applications and software for a massive legacy base of pre-OCAP headends and devices.

Cox, for example, has been a champion of "OnRamp," a Java-based subset of application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow operators to offer applications that are compatible and transferable to the OCAP platform.

Cox has already launched several OnRamp apps, including those that enable customers to change or order services, read email, check news updates, and pay their bills. The MSO is also closing in on other apps in the OnRamp vein such as video mosaics (a navigation enhancement that displays multiple thumbnails of linear networks), games, and TV-based caller ID.

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Bowick, in a follow-up interview, said Cox expects to support OnRamp in all of its SA-based markets by the end of 2007. The MSO plans to install OnRamp in one Motorola system by the end of this year and then expand it to all markets during 2008, he added.

Time Warner Cable is taking a different approach in its Motorola systems, aiming to bridge its legacy and OCAP footprint with the OpenTV Corp. (Nasdaq: OPTV) Core 2.0 middleware system and some associated applications.

Hayashi told CDN that the OpenTV project remains active, but he acknowledged that it is not happening as quickly as was originally hoped. The issue, he said, is when to cutover the Motorola footprint to OpenTV. That cutover could occur later this year or sometime in 2008, he said.

The cable industry is also fast to work on a CableLabs -led enhanced TV (ETV) platform that applies to legacy and OCAP-based set-tops. The ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) presentation engine for OnRamp can be ported to the full OCAP stack, panelists explained.

ETV applications will be "bound," meaning they are directly associated with the program being viewed. Examples include advanced advertising and audience polling and voting applications.

For cable, prioritizing ETV apps in existing and coming OCAP environments makes sense "because that's where the eyeballs already are," Orduna said.

Comcast is conducting an ETV trial in the San Francisco area and could launch two to three additional technology trials later this year, Mumma said. Initially, Comcast is focusing its ETV efforts on a suite of test apps rather than consumer-facing services.

Panelists also teed up some advice for OCAP developers.

"Come to us with an app that has a life of its own," Mumma said.

"We're not the creatives up here," Orduna said, noting that OCAP defines a "sandbox" for application developers. "You've got to [show] us what OCAP can do from a creative perspective."

Bowick called on developers to focus on apps that can be used cross-platform and "break down the silos" of the MSO's voice, video, and Internet services.

Hayashi, meanwhile, has different expectations. Although he's seen a number of "cool apps," he warned that set-top box resources are limited. "I'd like to have an app that just works," he said.

OCAP uses a "monitor" app to police applications and monitor how the set-top's resources are leveraged. But managing those resources and prioritizing OCAP applications "is not trivial," Hayashi insisted.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News