ANAHEIM, Calif. — Without warning, Sony Electronics Inc. has introduced a unique encoding and encryption technology to attendees at the BroadbandPlus cable TV show here. The system, Passage, requires a dedicated encoder device between system groomers and conditional-access systems. Passage allows incumbent and alternative set-top boxes to coexist with different conditional-access schemes within a single network.
Passage extracts transmission data for decoding, which is replication and encrypted once for incumbent systems, once for new systems. The same transport flow is sent to all set-top boxes, and the individual set-top box extracts the encrypted information relevant for its system. Sony has already shown it can be deployed with point-of-deployment, or POD, modules.
Passage partners include semiconductor suppliers Broadcom Corp., Conexant Systems Inc., ST Microelectronics and LSI Logic Corp.; system partners include Cisco Systems, BigBand Networks, Harmonic, Terayon and Digeo.
Rick Doherty, director of the Envisioneering Group (Seaford, N.Y.), a technology assessment and market research firm, said Sony had kept its announcement tightly under wraps. Company officials did not brief anyone in advance and no rumors had circulated that something like Passage was in the works.
