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“Many CAS vendors will make you a good deal
on the wrong technology for your digital cable TV
network” states Jeremy Thorp, CEO of Latens Systems, the
software Conditional Access (CAS) and middleware vendor
for digital Pay TV. “Don’t be fooled by claims about the
additional security of smartcards or by the idea that
they are the most cost effective way to secure your
premium content. The real trick is to save money on a
CAS system that will meet your business needs now and in
the future, with a company that will work closely with
you to ensure you grow and give your subscribers the
best service.”
When it comes to CAS, Mr. Thorp likes to
think of Latens as the worlds premiere software vendor.
“Highly secure, cost effective technology, combined with
unparalleled industry experience and high quality
customer service – these are all the factors that are
needed to ensure the smooth roll out of digital cable
TV.”
These points are particularly relevant to the Indian TV
industry, where the cable market is incredibly dynamic
and fragmented, and digital cable has been slow to
develop because rollouts are so complex.
“Not only does India have a huge number of cable systems
ranging from large MSOs to many local operators, but it
also has to face the major obstacle of signal piracy. So
the competition is great and costs are high.” Thorp
says.
Recently the Indian government has mandated the adoption
of CAS for cable operators, which many end users and
operators see as potentially raising the cost of
delivering pay TV service considerably.
Reducing the deployment and growth costs when rolling
out your digital cable network isn’t the only thing that
Latens says it has to offer. The company has experience
and success in the industry – with over 100 successful
deployments world wide including major IPTV, Cable and
hybrid networks, and is at the heart of an ambitious
plan by DigiCable to develop a pay-TV base of some 12
million subscribers.
Indian cable operators still lag behind their
counterparts in North America, South America, Europe,
markets that Thorp says Latens have a great deal of
experience in and have learned a lot from, lessons that
they bring with them when approaching Indian cable
operators. Thorp makes his point, “At Latens we
understand the digital Pay TV industry, our senior
management and technical staff are extremely experienced
Pay TV professionals – we have the combination of
knowledge, products, the right partners and people to
remove the major obstacles in deploying digital cable TV
within budget and timescales.”
“We also work with all the major STB, VOD and industry
vendors, so no matter what your requirements we can, in
conjunction with our partners, develop a unique
ecosystem to meet your needs,” he says.
Latens Software CAS Solution
Now that Indian cable operators are finally getting
digital video service off the ground, they face the
challenging prospect of competing head-to-head with the
nation's new fleet of satellite TV providers. So they
must provide a service that offers better quality of
viewing, and most importantly can compete on cost.
When a cable operator chooses legacy smartcard CAS
technology they must consider all the costs. Latens have
set out to eliminate or substantially reduce the costs
of deploying and managing CAS systems with a new
generation of applications that do not require a smart
card or embedded chip, but instead use a secure
software module (SSM) which can be downloaded over the
network. Latens software CAS removes the cost of cards.
Card logistics costs include – Deployment Costs,
Manufacture Costs, Security Costs, Replacement Costs,
Storage Costs all required for Card based CAS. Latens
removes all these costs.
“The most effective conditional access system is the one
that maximises the operator’s profits, so clearly there
is a balance of how much to spend to stem any losses,
enable the content marketing models and achieve the
maximum amount of revenue,” says Thorp.
“I encourage Indian MSO’s and Cable operators to come
talk to Latens about their network, no matter what size
or how complex, and tell us what they want to achieve.
Latens has CAS solutions to suit any digital Pay TV
operation from Cable, DTT and DTH to IPTV and any hybrid
combination of these. All our solutions are software
only, considerably reducing costs and the integration
complexity of deployment,” Thorp concludes.
If you are interested in finding out more about Latens
CAS and solutions for digital Pay TV please visit
www.latens.com, or see our CAS for cable and MHEG
applications at Convergence India, Delhi, March 23rd –
25th March at Booth C-99. |
