Advanced Television

ARRIS: “STBs not going away”

July 29, 2016

By Colin Mann

Bob Stanzione, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at entertainment and communications technologist ARRIS, has declared that the set-top box will remain a significant component of the company’s business for quite some time into the future.

Speaking during the company’s Q2 2016 Earnings Call, in response to analyst questioning regarding the company’s video product segment, Stanzione said: “Set-top boxes are not going away. We’ve said that, and we’ve had trouble getting folks to believe that, but I think the evidence right here is that set-top boxes are not going away. We are designing new next-generation set-tops for major cable operators around the world as we speak, and we believe that video set-tops will remain a significant component of our business for quite some time into the future,” he stated

According to Stanzione the ongoing debate regarding STBs has clouded the future of such devices “quite a bit”. “There’s clearly an evolution going on within video devices, and a lot of new things have been shown recently such as the app-based approach using other devices than traditional set-tops. Nevertheless, those have not penetrated the market very much yet. Over the next three, four, five years, we expect that evolution to continue,” he said.

Larry Robinson, President, Customer Premises Equipment, echoed Stanzione’s comments, suggesting that ARRIS had seen improvements across all of the market verticals: cable, telco, satellite. “It wasn’t one particular item. It was, I think, a series of things that came together as customers still obviously focus on the video part of their business,” he noted, adding that ARRIS expected that they would go through an upgrade cycle to support 4K HDR, et cetera. “To Bob’s point, over time – and when I say time, several years – there will be a migration to IP video delivery, specifically for the cable vertical, which will drive towards much more advanced broadband gateways and a different home ecosystem and architecture, if you will. But I think the video piece continues to run for quite some time,” he suggested.

In general, he expected DOCSIS to continue to provide good momentum over multiple quarters. “We’re still seeing a strong emphasis on advanced Wi-Fi capabilities, and then when [DOCSIS] 3.1 really becomes available and kicks into full stride I would expect, and the dialogues we’re having with customers indicates a pretty substantial multi-year upgrade cycle will take place on that platform. So I think both are good. But to Bob’s comments, I expect the in-home ecosystem to change over the three- to five-year timeframe,” he added.

Categories: Articles, Broadband, Cable, Equipment, Home Network, In Home, STB