Bandwidth Management

iTVManager includes powerful capabilities that let you specify the feature set of each set-top box, so that you can set the maximum cumulative home bandwidth demand with the actual last mile bandwidth available.

You can enable or disable subscriber features like HD, Pause-Live-TV (PLT), and PVR (for recording and playing back programs). You can also control how many simultaneous streams can go to each device (a popular PVR feature). Bandwidth control is specified at a device level.  So 2 identical STBs in the home can be configured differently.

For example, with this capability, you can install two full featured set-top boxes each capable of recording two HD streams each, but then “downgrade” one STB to one standard definition stream only. The maximum bandwidth to the home is 2 HD streams plus 1 SD stream.  As the last mile bandwidth to that home increases after network upgrades are completed those features can be switched back on remotely. At that point, you can upgrade the second STB to support two SD streams and eventually upgrade it all the way to HD.  There is no need for a box swap or a costly on-site service call.

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