This year at Interop, top IT professionals, bloggers and industry analysts converged in Las Vegas to see the future of networking on display.

A look inside Broadcom’s Booth at Interop.

As for Broadcom, the company announced products that are driving the next wave of networking innovation: Enabling enterprise and SMB-level companies to adopt the cloud and deploy other advanced networking technologies and bringing the power of big data to every business, regardless of size.

Broadcom also released an advanced enterprise access point system-on-a-chip, (read: mega router for businesses) that supports super-fast and power efficient 802.11ac wireless networking, or 5G WiFi.

The new releases landed some press buzz, and many tech reporters zeroed-in on Broadcom’s commitment to power efficiency – a major concern for all players in the industry.

• Tech Zone 360: Broadcom Introduces Two New System-on-a-chip (SoC) Processors at Interop
• Enterprise Networking Planet: Broadcom Secures WiFi with New Silicon
• Converge Network Digest : Broadcom’s next gen 40nm PHYs Promise 40% Power Savings

This year’s Interop was billed as the “coming out party” for Software Defined Networking (SDN), and Broadcom contributed to the conversation in a  panel discussion with Ram Velaga and a keynote with other execs from Microsoft and VMware. They each discussed the future of networking and how companies will adapt to an increasingly software-defined world.

• Light Reading: What Applications will want from SDN
• Enterprise Networking Planet: Interop Panel Tackles SDN
• Fierce Enterprise Communications: Networks must get ‘Faster and Flatter’ Judges Broadcom’s Ramaswami

Also attracting a lot of attention was the announcement by Facebook that Broadcom is one of the companies being invited to help develop the first open source switch. Our engineers will join peers from other companies to develop a standard for switches that will become part of the Open Compute Project.

• New York Times: Opening Up Networking’s Black Box
• Giga Om: Heck yeah! Facebook’s Open Compute Project is Making an Open Source Switch
• IT World: Facebook Shakes Up Switch  Market with New Open Compute Project

Finally, Broadcom technology got a vicarious nod when Arista Network’s 7500 E Series, powered by the Broadcom BCM88650 ASIC switch, was named the winner in the “Networking” category and won the Grand Prize for Best of Interop 2013. The judging committee is comprised of 16 IT editors and analysts who voted for the product with the most potential for advancing the technological boundaries of business networking.

• The Register: Arista Monster Switches Fluff Up Cloud with 1 million Virty Machines
• Network Computing: Best of Interop 2013 Winners Announced
• The Wall Street Journal: Arista Networks Named Grand Winner for Best of Interop 2013

In other awards news, Broadcom was named a winner in multiple categories in the annual Network Product Guide awards that were also announced this week.  Our products were recognized in the “Best IT Hardware,” “Infrastructure,” “Innovations in Mobile” and “Wireless and Mobile and Wireless Solutions categories.” A full list of the awards and winners can be found at Network Product Guide’s website.

Couldn’t make it to Vegas? Get all the highlights and headlines from Interop 2013 right here.

Related:

•  Keynote Recap: Exploring the Power and Potential of Next-Gen Networking at Interop
•  On Deck at Interop 2013: Simplifying With SDN
•  SDN: A Sea Change in the Data Center
•  Interop Preview: Network Infrastructure in the Spotlight

The Interop show in Vegas is in full swing, and IT professionals of all stripes are seeing the latest in the networking equipment that keeps businesses running.

They are also looking to spend money: according to an Infonectics report, enterprises are expected to spend an average of $12.7 million on their network infrastructure this year, a 15 percent increase over last year.

Driving these trends is “Growth, growth, growth,” notes Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research:

“Growth is coming in all forms — in the amount of traffic traversing networks, in network capacity, ports, WAN bandwidth, and yes, even networking expenditures … lowering the cost of networking is top of mind for network managers,” Machowinski said.

Many businesses would like the ability to upgrade over time, instead of making one massive investment that may become obsolete faster than they would like.

Broadcom’s network infrastructure technologies aim to get at the heart of the issue, according to Ed Redmond, vice president and general manager, compute and connectivity, in the Infrastructure and Networking Group at Broadcom. With the latest Broadcom products, “customers can deliver higher performance, lower power solutions while leveraging existing investments.”

To address the growing market of enterprise networking upgraders, Broadcom introduced a slate of new products at Interop this week.  The first, the BCM54920 physical layer transceivers, can deliver gigabit speeds while lowering power consumption 40 percent compared to previous generations, thanks to integrated AutoGrEEEn® plus technology.

Read the full BCM54920 press release here.

To better compete in today’s fast moving economy, enterprises must be sure their network performance is in tip-top shape, so Broadcom has a new ARM-based low power system on a chip (SoC) that enhances performance and security for small-, medium- and enterprise-sized networks.

Read the full BCM58525 press release here.

Broadcom’s Interop offerings aren’t targeted solely to the data center, but also address how individual employees connect to the network, because what is the point of faster infrastructure if your employees are still bogged down by aging devices? Broadcom developed a 5GWiFi compatible SoC For Enterprise Access Point as part of our top of the line StrataGX™ Series. The SoC is designed to play to the numerous advantages of 5G WiFi, including more processing power, faster throughput and 80 percent lower power consumption.

Read the full BCM58522 press release here.

“Our latest StrataGX Series continues the rapid expansion of the StrataGX portfolio with sophisticated new security features to protect from malware and other threats that continue to challenge the enterprise,” Redmond said. “Broadcom is delivering a highly integrated, power-efficient processor to enable the rapid adoption of BYOD and demand for 5G WiFi in the enterprise.”

To see what else is happening at Interop, visit our show page, follow us on Twitter, or use the show hashtag #Interop.

Related: 

• Interop Preview: Network Infrastructure in the Spotlight

Industry Buzz:

• Enterprise Networking Planet: Broadcom secures WiFi with new Silicon
• Tech Zone 360: Broadcom introduces two new System-on-a-chip (SoC) processors at Interop
• EE Times Asia: Multi-port Gigabit PHYs boasts power saving AutoGrEEEn tech
• Light Reading: Virtualization takes the stage at Interop
• Telecom Paper: Broadcom unveils SoC for 5G Wi-Fi enterprise access points

As you’re reading this blog post, a myriad networking processes are happening quietly in the background: data in the form of bits and bytes appears on your screen, parsed and sorted on command by switches, likely sourced and stored in massive data centers where servers comprise this nebulous thing we call “the cloud.”

Considering that all of this occurs at blink-and-you-miss-it speeds and goes virtually unnoticed by the user, the technology is pretty impressive.

At Broadcom, we live and breathe this stuff — the intricate data dance that’s wrapped up in the backend network infrastructure enables all your Internet-connected devices to do what they do. The tech spotlight will be shining on the behind-the-scenes world of networking and infrastructure at the annual Interop conference, which opens this week in Las Vegas. 

Data center networking — sometimes called “big data” — has been becoming more visible lately in the news with headlines about Facebook’s $1.5 billion mega data center in Iowa and Google pledging $2 billion to improve its data centers around the world this year.

With that much investment on the table, network managers and IT experts converging at Interop will certainly be pulling out all the stops to up their network infrastructure game.

In addition to showing off their latest product advancements, Interop exhibitors will be sending execs to speaker sessions and workshops, all centered on a group of topics: Big Data, Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Cloud platforms, security and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).

Make no mistake; the future of these trends will determine how every business on the planet operates in the coming years. Big Data is set to create smarter cities through optimized power grids, SDN is expected to  make huge efficiency strides in power-hungry data centers, the cloud can enable local businesses to have global reach and network security is slated to keep all of that data — estimated over the next eight years to grow to some 5,200 GB of data for every man, woman and child on Earth — out of harm’s way. 

Now at Interop, we are charging into the future by addressing software defined networking. SDN, while relatively new, has the potential to be a market disruptor within the networking marketplace. Tomorrow, Broadcom’s Ram Velaga, vice president and general manager, network switches, Infrastructure and Networking Group will be participating in a speaking session titled “SDN: A Vendor’s Perspective,” 1:55 p.m. May 7.

On May 8, Broadcom’s Rajiv Ramaswami will join other top executives as part of the morning keynote series, on the “Deep Network Impact” of SDN. In the talk, Rajiv will be addressing how companies will need to respond the massive changes brought on by virtualization and SDN — how to make sure they are ready to capitalize on the positive while avoiding any potential negatives.

Keep up to date on what’s going on the behind the scenes and across the network by following Broadcom’s coverage here. You can also follow us on Twitter at the show using the hashtag #Interop.

Related:

• The Road Less Traveled: Server Virtualization and the Data Center
• Demystifying the Data Center, Part 1: Power Consumption Matters
• Broadcom at Interop: Energy Efficient Ethernet is Good for the Planet
• Broadcom at Interop: Power Consumption Technology Plays Important Role
• Broadcom’s Energy-Efficient Networking Products

Industry Buzz:

• Converge Network Digest: Broadcom’s next-gen 40nm PHYs promise 40% power savings
• Enterprise Networking Planet: Interop 2013: SDN gets real

Karen Kahn, Broadcom’s Vice President of Corporate Marketing & Communications, has been named one of the “Most Powerful and Influential Women of California” by the California Diversity Council.

In her role at Broadcom, Kahn leads the company’s corporate reputation programs, including the Corporate Design and Branding, Corporate and Product Communications, Employee and Corporate Events and Digital/Social Media programs. Kahn is also executive sponsor of the new Broadcom Women’s Network.

Kahn was honored on Thursday as part of the annual California Diversity & Leadership Conference, which is being held this week in Concord, California.  Joining her on the 2013 “Powerful and Influential Women” list are executives from Avnet, EMC Corporation, Gap, HP, Ingram Micro and Wells Fargo, among others.

She attributes her success to her willingness to be fearless.

“Changing perceptions, thinking, attitudes and behavior is never easy,” she said. “To do this, I rely on data, analysis, transparency and honesty.  Humor and charm help, too.”

The California Diversity Council is a non-profit organization committed to fostering a learning environment for organizations to grow and leverage their knowledge of diversity. The theme for its conference this year — “From Awareness to Action” — addresses the need to bring change into the model and culture of a business in order to create an environment where “one organization fits all.” Awardees for “Multicultural Leadership” also will be recognized during the conference.

Kahn joined Broadcom in April 2011.

The growth of China’s middle class — which has already surpassed 300 million people — is being met with initiatives to update the country’s cable TV infrastructure. The most up-to-the-minute technologies will give consumers the opportunity to experience new digital features and services that come with stronger broadband connections.

This week, Broadcom will be showcasing its innovative technologies for the cable industry at the China Content Broadcasting Network Exhibition (CCBN) in Beijing, where companies ranging from service providers to embedded chip makers will be scoping out the future of cable in the world’s most populous nation. CCBN is expected to draw more than 1,000 exhibitors and some 90,000 attendees from more than 30 countries.

As cable and broadband offerings take shape in China, Broadcom has been investing in technologies that will help Chinese consumers access the latest options around digital content and other Internet-based services.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Broadcom announced a new Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) system-on-a-chip, technology that accelerates the transition to fiber-to-the-home efforts throughout China. Prior to that, at the International Coverage and Transmission Conference (ICTC) in November, Broadcom talked up the efforts to help China with its digital TV conversion and massive Next-Generation Broadband initiative, specifically the development of technology that would work with the China-DOCSIS standard.

This standard helps cable providers in China provide both Internet and cable over the same wiring, saving on infrastructure costs and speeding up adoption. The support for C-DOCSIS is set to accelerate the rollout of Next-Generation Broadband – a plan that  could reach 315 million Pay-TV households by 2017.

Related: C-DOCSIS Greenlighted, Ushers Next-Gen Broadband to China

Rapid broadband adoption is set to quickly usher in all types of new Pay-TV offerings, including Internet protocol television (IPTV) that will allow broadcasters to transmit into every Chinese home over secure, high speed connections.

With its highly urbanized population, China has to have a way to securely deliver content to apartment buildings and other multi-dwelling units (MDU) in its cities.  By using standards and technology from Broadcom, including EPON and GPON, different Chinese operators are able to service multiple customers within the same MDU, preventing potential service area monopolies.  This allows China’s triple-play cable service market to stay competitive for consumers, while keeping installation costs low for providers.

At this year’s CCBN, Broadcom will be showcasing cable technologies that enable carriers to offer smart TV features and other broadband services at a competitive and affordable price, to an emerging new group of TV-watchers and content consumers in China.

Get all of the highlights from CCBN and the latest news from Broadcom by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter and reading the blog.

Last week, our friends at RCR Wireless stopped in the Broadcom’s booth at Mobile World Congress to see our latest tech innovations. The result was a series of compelling video interviews with Broadcom engineers that look at the top trends for mobile technology on display at the show, including GPS, 4G LTE networks and more.

First up, Broadcom Senior Technical Director of GPS Frank Van Diggelen explains what geofencing tech is all about and why Broadcom’s technology will soon be ubiquitous in phones and tablets:

Next, we have Punit Awatramani, a test engineer in Broadcom’s Mobile and Wireless Group, demonstrating a speed test for the latest Broadcom 28 nanometer processor chipset for 2G, 3G, and 4G cellular networks:

The carrier aggregation capabilities of Broadcom’s 4G LTE advanced modem  are on display in this next video. Ajay Wadhawan, associate technical director from Broadcom’s Mobile & Wireless Group, shows how carrier aggregation allows two non-contiguous bands of spectrum to run at the same time:

Finally, what good is all that speed and spectrum crunch-busting tech, if it sucks the life out of the phone’s battery? Broadcom’s chip not only solves that problem, but also accounts for giant battery drain that comes from streaming media on a 4G LTE processor. Broadcom’s Wadhawan explains how software embedded into the Broadcom chip manages to be 25 percent more power efficient than competitors’ offerings:

Didn’t make it to Barcelona? Get all of the highlights from Mobile World Congress on our dedicated site. Get the latest news from Broadcom by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter and reading the blog.

Related:

• That’s a Wrap! Broadcom Makes Headlines at Mobile World Congress
• Seen at the MWC Broadcom Booth: Preserving Battery Life for 4G LTE
• Ahead of Mobile World Congress: Broadcom’s Latest GPS Tech Zooms in on Geofencing
• Designed for a 4G World: Broadcom 4G LTE Unleashed

Now that the whirlwind energy of Mobile World Congress is starting to wind down, we’re reflecting on what we’ve learned at the show.

Broadcom made a slew of big announcements and showed off a lot of buzz-generating demos, including our 4G LTE Advanced modem and the key features that make it attractive to wireless carriers and consumers alike; new advancements in geofencing technology built into our GPS chips; the growing momentum of 5G WiFi with a design win in an award-winning smartphone; a meaningful entrance into the small cells market for mobile and broadband operators — and even some neat PC tech that helps redefine the concept of mobile computing.

Check out the sites of Mobile World Congress 2013 on Facebook.

It’s clear that the mobile space is as competitive as ever. We also saw that embedded technologies, such as LTE processors and NFC chips are playing an important part in the conversation as consumers continue to get more savvy about their mobile lifestyles.

Below are some of the top trends that surfaced above the show floor’s thrum, and how Broadcom fits into the stories.

Broadcom’s LTE Makes Noise

Our pre-show LTE announcement made a lot of analysts and carriers take note, as competition has arrived in the LTE processor marketplace.  Our built-in carrier aggregation technology was also a huge hit, as it will help carriers avoid spectrum crunch and deliver the fast streaming speeds mobile consumers are demanding.  Here’s what they had to say:

• Trefis Team, Forbes: “The 4G LTE modem along with Broadcom’s leading Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC technologies provide manufacturers with a comprehensive product offering needed to build advanced mobile devices.”
• Phil Goldstein, Fierce Wireless: “Broadcom announced its intention to enter the LTE modem market with a chip the company boasted as one of the world’s smallest, fastest and most capable.”
• Brian Klug, AnandTech: “It was nice to see BCM21892 silicon working and demonstrating all of the available features we heard about in the announcement working.”

Small Cells Spark Interest

Small cells is a wireless infrastructure technology that when deployed will help carriers handle the massive uptick in data transmissions happening on mobile devices. While small cells are not going to be purchased by consumers — they will mean a lot to the customer experience: better signal, faster speeds and improved call quality.

Because of these features, carriers and bloggers are very excited about their mobile future:

• Martha DeGrasse, RCR Wireless: “Small cells are a major focus this week at Mobile World Congress, with several semiconductor companies launching new products to power and connect everything from femtocells to enterprise small cell networks.”
• Rick Merritt, EE Times: “Small cells are widely seen as the answer to the flood of mobile data congesting today’s traditional macro base stations.”
• John Cox, Network World: “Chipmaker Broadcom announced a development platform that manufacturers can use to build small cells with simultaneous 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi capability.”
• Mike Demler, EE Daily News: “Greg Fischer, Broadcom’s VP and GM for Broadband Carrier Access, says that the BCM61760 can support 100 to 200 simultaneous LTE users, and 32 to 64 for 3G.”

Low-power geofencing demo inside the Broadcom booth at MWC.

NFC Taps Into The Future

Smartphone and tablet makers tout their device’s NFC capabilities in commercials, but in order for the tap tech to work for consumers — retail and payment companies need to get on board as well. Even though announcements of new NFC tech were sparse, there was news of partnerships that will enable the “tap to interact” ecosystem of the future:

• Eric Franklin, CNET: “By the look of things, especially here at Mobile World Congress, NFC isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
• Monica Gleberman, Mobile Commerce Insider: The partnership with SecureKey is a natural next step as [Broadcom] continue(s) building industry leading, highly integrated, NFC platforms for easy adoption by mobile, gaming, and consumer electronics OEMs.
• Mike Wheatley, Silicon Angle: “One of the biggest stories to come out of the Mobile World Congress so far is Samsung’s announcement that it’ll be working closely with Visa to deliver mobile payments via Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.”

HTC Upgrades to Broadcom’s 5G WiFi for One® Flagship Smartphone

Ultimately, Mobile World Congress is all about devices. We are particularly proud that the HTC One, designed and built with Broadcom’s 5G WiFi inside, was named “Best in Show” by TechRadar magazine, and they were not the only ones to sing the phone’s praises:

• Shankar Pandiath, TMC Net: “By adopting Broadcom’s BCM4335 5G Wi-Fi technology, HTC is offering the power, reliability and speed of 5G Wi-Fi in its newest device.”
• Analyst Blog, Zacks: “Broadcom’s 5G WiFi technology… will significantly enhance the range of a wireless connection. It will provide higher-capacity video streaming, connect multiple devices to the network at the same time and also reduce power consumption by 83% in mobile devices.”
• Kate Solomon, TechRadar: “In the inaugural TechRadar MWC Awards, there could be only one Best In Show – and our crack team of experts deemed the HTC One the cream of this year’s mobile crop.”

Didn’t make it to Barcelona? Get all of the highlights from Mobile World Congress on our dedicated site. Get the latest news from Broadcom by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter and reading the blog.

It used to be that the sleekest and prettiest gadget would get all of the attention at technology trade shows — but now, as Mom always said, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

Fira de Barcelona Gran Via, new home of Mobile World Congress. Source: Toyo Ito Architects & Associates

At last month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the “C”  in “CES” might as well have been for Component, instead of Consumer. Given the attention that chip companies like Broadcom received from bloggers, tweeters and the like, it’s clear that people are looking anew at what goes into their devices.

Chipmakers and other embedded component companies have generally been quiet when it comes to industry gadget-fests — but not so anymore. Tech reporters, trade press and consumers increasingly care more about speeds and feeds and how those specs are changing the user experience, especially as the market continues to be cluttered with hundreds of lookalike smartphones and tablets.

The shift in interest is likely to extend to the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona later this month, which is expected to draw 70,000 people from 200 countries.

Broadcom and its partners are set to have a big showing this year at MWC, and will join in the lively industry conversations around what’s next in mobile connectivity, including: the upcoming transition to LTE networks, Near Field Communication, small cells, wireless media sharing between devices, global positioning technologies and much more.

Mobile World Congress is the industry’s biggest showcase for new handheld devices. There’s a lot of anticipation about what will be on display from many of the biggies, including Samsung, LG, HTC, Intel, Microsoft and others.

Barcelona, which was dubbed the “mobile world capital” in 2011, is living up to its moniker. This year’s show is set to feature a unique space called the “connected city.” It paints a futuristic picture of a time when everything in our world is connected — a vision Broadcom shares.

MWC organizers say the “connected city” aims to show “the latest technological advances applied to households, public transportation, retail and urban services” and will “deepen the smart city concept.”

The trade show is also experimenting with Near Field Communication tech, and show attendees will be able to pay for services and goods in some of Barcelona’s taxis, hotels and restaurants with a “tap” of their smartphones.

Come by and see us at:

Not heading to Barcelona? Get the latest MWC news from Broadcom and our partners by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter and reading the blog.

Related:

• Designed for a 4G World: Broadcom 4G LTE Unleashed
• Will the Real 4G Please Stand Up: Getting to Know LTE Technology

As we wind down from the excitement and sensory overload of last week’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, members of the tech press keep talking about Broadcom’s technologies that were showcased at CES.  Among the miles of exhibits on the show floor and the sight of perhaps millions of gadgets to gawk at, Broadcom’s innovations rose above the din and garnered some buzz from the reporters and bloggers who covered the annual mega-event.

Included among the Broadcom standouts were our mobile and set-top box products announcements, particularly our system-on-a-chip technology that’s helping operators deploy content for the much-hyped Ultra HD televisions that were all the rage at the show. Ganesh T S from AnandTech called the unveiling of the BCM7445 “undoubtedly the most exciting news to come out of the Broadcom camp for CES 2013.”

Below is a sampling of from around the web of what the tech media had to say about Broadcom’s announcements at the show.

Ultra HD TV

“When 4K TV, now known by the more buzzy Ultra HD moniker, finally makes its way to living rooms stateside, there’s a good chance it’ll arrive on the back of Broadcom’s tech.” — Joseph Volpe, Engadget, “Broadcom’s new ARM-based chip boosts Ultra HD TV into living rooms of the future.”

• CNET: “Broadcom chip ushers in H.265 and UltraHD video” by Stephen Shankland
• ZDNET: “Broadcom debuts ‘game changer’ chip for HDTVs” by Rachel King

Mobile

“Broadcom is generally known for its wireless technology prowess, but don’t be surprised to see the company be the chip that puts the smarts in your smartphone or tablet.” — Kevin C. Tofel, Giga Om,“Why Broadcom wants to be the smarts in your next smartphone.”

• The Verge: “Qualcomm just got some competition as Broadcom enters the mobile processor market” by Dan Seifert
• AnandTech.com: “Broadcom teases its first LTE enabled baseband with VoLTE demo” by Brian Klug

TV Set-Top Boxes

“The new Broadcom 7125 chipset under the hood enables full Sling capability, with all the benefits of DVR integration, letting you view live TV from any of your subscribed channels.” — Zach Honig, Engadget,“Dish launches Hopper with sling, a commercial jumping DVR that boosts live and saved content to the web.”

• Light Reading: “Comcast’s X1 gets a multi-room partner” by Jeff Baumgartner
• Multi-Channel News:  “CES – Broadcom powers Pace’s Comcast X1 set tops” by Todd Spangler

Multimedia coverage was plentiful this year, with some video crews on-hand to capture product demos at Broadcom’s booth.

• Forbes: Broadcom CEO on the future of pairing devices with NFC [Video]
• MoCA Alliance: Broadcom shows the world’s first UltraHD TV video decoder & single-chip 1 Gigabit MoCA 2.0 solution [Video]
• Tek Zilla: Getting 4K with Broadcom’s HEVC Encoding –CES 2013 [Video]
• RCR Wireless: Broadcom demos NFC products at CES 2013 [Video]

If your thirst for Broadcom news hasn’t been quenched (and we don’t blame you), you can visit our website for a roundup of stories and news coverage.  We also encourage you to follow us on Twitter, ‘Like’ us on Facebook and keep reading the blog to get your Broadcom news fix year ’round.

Related:

• Broadcom’s Michael Hurlston on CES Panel: “Six Wireless Technologies You’ll Want to Know”
• Tech Overdrive: Inside the Broadcom Booth at CES
• Home Theater of the Future: Ultra HD Gets Real at CES

Comcast is on the road to an all IP-based set-top box, and Broadcom’s helping it get there.

It’s one of the many cable innovations being delivered through powerful new set-top boxes on display across the convention center floor at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Cable operators like Comcast are hoping to thrill subscribers with new offerings that go beyond the typical “triple play” broadband package. 

The rise of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) boxes and cloud-based storage for digital video recorders (DVR) has generated a lot of buzz lately, thanks to the ability to create a truly “on-demand” viewing experience.  Features such as search, video-on-demand (VoD), streaming Internet services (such as Netflix and Pandora) and the ability to share content between devices continue to raise the bar for operators and remove barriers between viewers and their favorite TV content.

Both service providers and subscribers are looking for solutions that will provide quality content, fast streaming and additional options while staying affordable.

That’s where Broadcom and Comcast shine: At CES this week, the companies are talking about the first deployment of Comcast’s Device Software Reference Design Kit, which is based on the BCM7125  connected home set-top box system-on-a-chip (SoC).

The chipset will be going into Comcast’s RNG-150 set-top box, which is set to offer customers a slew of upgrades and options by being the first to fully integrate Internet connectivity with standard digital cable.

Broadcom makes all the fancy new features play nicely together in one box by integrating five major set-top box functions into one device, including:

• a full standards-based DOCSIS cable modem
• a decoder that ensures the delivery of high-def content to your TV
• MoCA-powered connectivity for watching recorded content in any room
• 3-D graphics for a slick user-interface
• speedy content delivery with 1Ghz tuners

For Comcast customers, it translates to the ability to stream both IP and broadcast cable content to any device in any room with all of the cutting-edge innovation that a single (set-top) box can hold.

Not heading to Vegas? Get the latest CES news from Broadcom and our partners by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter and reading the blog.

Related:

• Light Reading: Comcast’s X1 Gets a Multi-Room Partner
• Multi-Channel News: CES – Broadcom Powers Pace’s Comcast X1 Set Tops
• Beyond “Triple Play”: Innovation on Display at Broadband World Forum
• In Television, the Future is Now
• Broadcom’s Stephen Palm on the future of the connected home
• Hello Sao Paulo: Digital TV Takes Over in Brazil