HITS Central eases CA morass

By Brian Santo -- Ced Magazine.com | Tue, 27 Jul 2010

Comcast Media Center's (CMC) HITS operation can now set up a system that will enable its customers to use devices that are compatible with different conditional access (CA) technologies without having to install and support multiple CA management systems.

The solution is aimed at smaller cable operators, who would be able to support a wider array of customer premise equipment (CPE) without significant upgrades to their headends .

HITS calls the centralized headend management solution HITS Central. The solution is based in part on the Conax DVB-CA (Digital Video Broadcast Conditional Access) encryption systems. It supports Evolution Digital's universal SD and HD digital to analog (DTA) converters - DTAs that support the CA technologies of both Motorola and Cisco, and so can operate in either type of network.

..."This new partnership between Evolution Digital, Conax and CMC provides operators with an open standard conditional access platform that supports multiple set-tops," said Brent Smith, President of Evolution Digital. "This can dramatically reduce the costs for a cable operator to go all digital."

Campus Televideo, which markets to college and university campuses, will be the first cable system operator to deploy HITS Central services using Evolution Digital HD DTAs with integrated Conax conditional access on its cable plant. Campus Televideo's first announced customer for the service is Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y.

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