By Robert Dandrea, Ph.D., Comcast Cable
Comcast has deployed several EBIF-based Interactive TV applications very broadly to its footprint in the past two years. The goal of this paper is to share the technical challenges and lessons learned from this broad deployment experience. Besides reviewing some video platform design considerations that have evolved from this experience we also describe some work done collaboratively with Canoe and Cable Labs that also has aided in creating a scalable EBIF delivery ecosystem.
One challenge has been in extending Comcast’s operational support system to cover these new applications. The paper will therefore discuss both platform and process advances that will enable us to support iTV broadly across our footprint. The paper also discusses how Comcast manages scalability as the number of applications and the number of enhanced networks increases.