Cox Rolls Out New ‘Trio’ Guide Combining Search Across Content

As Cox Communications rolls out a new “Trio” interactive program guide (IPG) designed to tie together search of linear, on-demand and broadband content, it will continue to seek to have CE manufacturers deploy it in products, the company said. The IPG, which Cox jointly developed with NDS during the past two years, will be deployed in Cisco 8642 tru2way set-top and 1642 client boxes starting in two markets this month and expanding system-wide by year end, said Steve Necessary, vice president of video product development and support. Trio will replace Rovi’s Passport and Cisco’s Sara IPG in digital boxes. Rovi also is unveiling a version of its TotalGuide targeting cable operators at the NCTA convention in Los Angeles this week.

A “retail” version of the tru2way guide was available to CE manufacturers last year, but found few takers, Necessary said. Panasonic introduced tru2way-capable plasma TVs in Chicago and Denver in 2008 using an IPG jointly developed by Comcast and Rovi, but never expanded distribution. Rovi and Comcast have since dissolved their Guideworks joint venture. “We had a retail version of the guide, but nothing showed up in our markets,” Necessary said. At the time, Trio’s software development “wasn’t done” and Cox was still conducting customer focus groups.

The new Trio guide, which will be available as part of Cox’s Advanced TV Plus package that allows multi-room MoCA-based DVR functionality, provides channel listings in a three-panel view. Trio will likely carry a $5 premium on a digital cable subscription, a Cox spokesman said. There are channel and program lists as well as detailed content descriptions. Grid and theme-based views also are available. The guide, which uses Cisco Axiom middleware and DVR platform, features universal search using keywords, actor name or program title to access Tribune Media Services metadata. Trio can be customized to show favorite channels for up to eight individual users, company officials said. Cox and NDS initially develop 22 applications for the new platform, three of which will be available at launch, including Caller ID and customer support. It will rework applications available on its “legacy” systems including e-mail, news, sports and weather for Trio, company officials said. Cox worked with Frog Designs on the guide’s user interface.

Cox will upgrade its Motorola set-tops to feature Trio, but it’s “unlikely we will get to that this year,” said Lisa Pickelsimer, Cox executive director of video product management. Cisco set-tops are in 55 percent of Cox’s installed base, while Motorola is in 45 percent, company officials said. The Cisco set-top features, dual 400 MHz processors, 250 MHz DSP, 2 MB and 384 MB flash and RAM memory. It also is available with 160, 320 and 500 GB hard drives, HDMI 1.3 with CEC, and can output 1,920x1,080i 60 Hz and 1,920x1080p 30Hz. It’s capable of tuning up to 1 GHz. Cox is among the first cable operators to deliver video in 860 Hz spectrum. It has 6.2 million customers.