5/6/2009 -- Last month, Cisco Systems Inc. quietly moved to shore up its presence in the cable service provider space, outlining a new initiative, Connected Life at Home, in tandem with several cable service provider partners.

To that end, Cisco touted its new Explorer 8600 HDR set-top boxes, along with a vision of what officials called a "medianet," or a service provider network that's optimized for rich media. Cisco positions the new Explorer 8600 HDR series as the next-gen front end for its Connected Life at Home.

Industry experts say it's a savvy move on Cisco's part. For one thing, noted Ron Westfall, a research director with market watcher Current Analysis, the new Explorer 8600 HDR really does deliver the goods, which means that Cisco's vision of end-point-, network- and media-aware medianets is far from a pipe dream.

That's of crucial importance to cable operators struggling to fend off attacks from telco IPTV providers. According to a statement by Westfall, "The Explorer 8600 Series enables cable operators to extend medianet capabilities deeper into the home including HD Whole-Home DVR services, personal content sharing across the Internet and HDTV, as well as content access on mobile devices. Such flexible IP-enabled capabilities significantly improve the ability of cable operators to counter the mounting threat of telco IPTV services as well as satellite and DTT TV services."

It's an especially timely move from Cisco, too, he added. "[T]he company needed to introduce the Explorer 8600 Series to headline and propel its medianets-centric sales and marketing efforts further into the multiple services operator (MSO) space. This includes introducing the Explorer 8650HDC/8640 DVR models and the Explorer 4650HDC/4640HDC/1640HDC/1540C Digital Interactive models to extend a wider range of medianet-savvy capabilities such as dual MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.264 support and DLNA/DTCP/MoCA, and IP video decoding features to meet burgeoning consumer demand for services that support enhanced interactive/personalized options."

Westfall believes Cisco's move will have a significant impact. "Cisco commands market share leadership in the overall cable infrastructure space and strong presence in the [set top box] segment, such as market share leadership in the IP STB segment," he said, arguing that the new Explorer 8600 Series and Cisco's medianet strategy will put rival players on the defensive. "Rivals will increasingly need to address the medianets concept as well as fine tune product development and marketing efforts to counter Cisco-supported capabilities such as HD Whole-Home DVR services." --Stephen Swoyer