Lucent, ViaGate Demonstrate First Application of HDTV Over VDSL

Demonstrating the expanded capability of DSL technology and its capacity to handle high-definition video, Murray Hill, NJ-based Lucent Technologies' subsidiary Lucent Digital Video has collaborated with Bridgewater, NJ-based ViaGate Technologies to conduct the world's first demonstration of HDTV signals over a single pair of telephone wires using Very High-Speed Digital Subscriber Lines (VDSL).

VDSL could allow traditional telephone service providers (including RBOCs and CLECs) to compete against traditional terrestrial broadcasters, cable operators, and DBS providers during the transition to digital television. And with BellSouth's recent announcement that it was teaming with Marconi Communications to develop the largest commercial fiber-to-the-curb project providing voice, video, and data to 200,000 homes in Atlanta and Miami later this year, true competition from telephony could finally be at hand.

VDSL technology has the ability to provide 20 MB/s to 50MB/s of digital bandwidth over a single pair of copper wire. HDTV signals normally require 15-16 MB/s capacity.

The service, dubbed the ViaGate 4000 Multimedia Access Switch, aggregates HDTV content, along with Internet data and voice telephone calls, onto a single platform for high-speed delivery, 26 MB/s downstream and 3 MB/s upstream to each subscriber. ViaGate's residential gateway product, the ViaWay will then separate the HDTV signal. Lucent Digital Video will provide VideoStar HDTV encoding and decoding systems.