BigBand Gets Urge to ConvergeBigBand Gets Urge to Converge

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- BigBand Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBND), a leader in digital video networking, today announced the Converged Video Exchange (CVEx™), an intelligent software control plane that provides a unified means to deliver and manage linear and non-linear video services across the network edge, to traditional MPEG set-top boxes (STBs) and next generation IP devices.

CVEx is designed to meet service providers’ need for a converged video delivery solution that brings increased efficiency of spectrum across their applications today with a graceful migration path to tomorrow’s converged network.

CVEx will be the first platform capable of removing the boundaries between disparate video service types by dynamically controlling the allocation of all RF and IP video services within a single bandwidth pool, and providing a holistic view into service usage and resource utilization. The software is designed to offer a single control plane as operators move toward eliminating the dedicated bandwidth silos for individual services such as Video on Demand (VOD), Switched Digital Video (SDV) and IPTV, while simultaneously improving spectrum utilization. CVEx is built to support many industry standard protocols, offers interfaces for third party applications and is designed to integrate with CMTS architecture.

In a converged video environment, deploying a unified control plane will result in high transaction rates with fast response times required for both multicast and unicast session requests. Performance, reliability and redundancy will become increasingly important as operators add services and adopt network-based set-top box guides. BigBand Networks is well positioned to provide CVEx, based on its experience as the industry leader in delivering fully redundant session managers capable of very high session transaction rates for SDV. BigBand solutions currently execute billions of real-time transactions per year across more than 24 million households passed.

“Transitioning to next-generation networks capable of seamless video delivery to multiple networks opens up tremendous complexity,” said David W. Heard, Chief Operating Officer of BigBand Networks. “By unifying the video through our intelligent software control plane, CVEx can help transform today’s architecture into a true converged video solution delivered to any device so that in the future, it won’t matter if it is wired or wireless, legacy or next-generation IP. Our job is to arm our customers with a more simplified and nimble video delivery solution that consistently delivers a quality video experience to multiple devices, anywhere.”

The CVEx platform will bring the following new capabilities:

This intelligent software platform provides a single context to simultaneously manage video services - whether broadcast, multicast or unicast. BigBand believes that the platform’s flexibility will support future applications and offer service providers a vehicle to quickly introduce new services such as the delivery of traditional video services to PCs and devices. The company believes this unified approach to video delivery will help transition today’s cable infrastructure into a single converged network.

The initial implementation of CVEx product will include application sharing between RF applications with subsequent functionality added as the industry further evolves toward IP.

BigBand Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: BBND)