Beyond Television
Bandwidth Management
Continue to next: Channel Management
The Bandwidth Management feature lets operators configure each set-top box to match the maximum bandwidth demand with the actual capabilities of the last mile network.
Operators can remotely enable or disable features like High Definition, Pause-Live-TV, and Personal Video Recording. They can also control how many simultaneous streams a subscriber can record.
Operators can install two full featured set-top boxes each capable of recording two High Definition streams and then “downgrade” one set-top box to perform as a standard definition playback device without recording capabilities. The maximum bandwidth consumption would then be limited to two High Definition streams plus one Standard Definition stream. As the last-mile bandwidth increases with network upgrades, the capabilities of the set-top boxes can then be upgraded remotely.