BigBand Networks Updates BEQ6000 For China’s Cable Market

Video networking innovator adds functionality to support video-on-demand for Chinese cable operators to “universal” edge QAM


REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 2008—BigBand Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBND), a leading innovator in video networking, today announced an updated version of its “universal” edge QAM platform—the Broadband Edge QAM (BEQ™) 6000—for the Chinese cable market. The BEQ6000 is designed to accommodate a wide range of services, including broadcast digital TV, video-on-demand (VOD), switched digital video, network PVR, high-speed data and voice-over-IP. BigBand shipped approximately 140,000 edge QAMs in 2007 and is the deployment leader in switched digital video (SDV), a technology that allows cable operators to expand digital television programming at a relatively low cost.

“The BEQ6000’s superior RF performance and reliability are designed to allow operators to ensure the highest quality for today’s services and tomorrow’s advanced services, and significantly reduce operational costs,” said John Holobinko, BigBand’s vice president of product management. "Now we’re bringing this industry-leading platform to China’s cable industry to support digital television services and video-on-demand.”

The BEQ6000 establishes a number of industry benchmarks designed to enable it to achieve what BigBand estimates to be the lowest total cost of ownership of any available edge QAM platform. BEQ6000 benchmarks include:

Lower operational cost. The BEQ6000 is intended to provide significant improvements in operational cost over other leading edge QAM platforms. The BEQ6000’s protocol support, power efficiency, RF performance and reliability are designed to lower the operational costs associated with delivering video, data and voice services.
Superior RF performance. The BEQ6000 achieves QAM modulation with up to twice the signal quality and up to twice the signal level compared to other leading QAM devices on the market today. This enables operators to achieve a high quality-of-service for a broad range of applications, even as they migrate to new, advanced technologies such as M-CMTS and SDV.
Superior reliability. The BEQ6000 has been designed with a balance of density, functional design, component durability, signal quality and modularity designed to make it the industry’s most reliable edge QAM platform. BigBand has customized high-quality components—such as power supply and fans—to improve product uptime and enable longer product life. BigBand believes the BEQ6000 also features the industry’s only service-level fault detection and protection switching to maximize the benefit of redundant transport and minimize the impact of routine network maintenance.
Pricing and Availability

The BEQ6000 is available now and has been deployed by service providers on multiple continents. For technical specifications and other information, visit: beq6000.html?release=beqlaunch. For information about how to purchase a BEQ in China, please contact BigBand Networks in Hong Kong at +85.2.3151.7304, in Beijing at +86.10.6512.6860 or in Shanghai at +86.21.6391.6125; or send email to asiapac@bigbandnet.com.