Cable ‘Auto-Flip’ For TiVo Software Ready Soon
One of the major issues for the Comcast TiVo deployment has been the need for a truck roll. The software development was predicated on the ability of the cable MSO to remotely deploy the software without the need to send out a technician. But that didn’t quite work when Comcast started deploying the software, the infrastructure for remote deployment wasn’t really ready to face the real world. But now TiVo’s Tom Rogers says that’s changing, according to Multichannel News:
Rogers said this software-downloading capability “will be ready shortly,” enabling MSOs to upgrade the features of the set-top box without requiring an expensive truck roll. This “auto flip” — an automated modification that can be done remotely — is vital to the next generation of DVRs, he said, noting that the first implementation will be on Comcast systems in New England.
According to Rogers, it took 18 months to develop the auto-flip capability for Comcast, and 10 months of that was just developing the statement of work! I guess we know why it took so long for the TiVo Comcast software to appear. Though, having worked for, and with, a number of large corporations in my career, I’m really not surprised. Rogers also has a gift for understatement:
He said that “the infrastructure that enables [the service] proved not to be very stable” at first.
No kidding. There is some more in the article if interested.
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June 1st, 2008 at 12:47
OK, when you have an eighteen-month-long project, and ten months is nailing down the statement of work…that’s a bad, bad sign.