AllVid was a proposal to develop technology enabling smart broadband-connected video devices to access the content on the managed networks of cable operators, telcos, and satellite-TV operators. It was initially proposed in the U.S.

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

's (FCC) National Broadband Plan in 2010. The AllVid hardware would act as a universal adapter for all types of

pay TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

content such as video-on-demand and pay-per-view, as well as interactive programming guides, delivered through a wide variety of means, including

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...

, satellite TV, VDSL,

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

, and Internet TV. AllVid was intended to replace CableCARD. Unlike CableCARD rules which only applied to cable operators, AllVid would apply to all Multichannel Video Programming Distributor’s (MVPDs) including satellite and telco companies. As of January 2017, AllVid was never adopted or developed.

Design

The FCC has proposed several design aspects to AllVid while soliciting feedback from interested parties on a final specification before going forward for rulemaking. Major elements of the FCC's AllVid proposal include: *Gateway device capable of decoding six video streams and feeding through a home network to various devices.
AllVid Notice of Inquiry
', p.10, 25 FCC Rcdbr>4284
/ref> *Adapter device capable of decoding two video streams and feeding directly to a television or consumer electronics device. *Physical connection using 100BASE-TX

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

. *

Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet. IP ...

as a communications protocol between the AllVid gateway and end devices. *Encryption and authentication using the DTCP-IP standard used by the Digital Living Network Alliance.
AllVid Notice of Inquiry
', p.11, 25 FCC Rcdbr>4285
/ref> *Content ordering and billing for VOD and PPV services may be handled via gateway generated screens but additional options are requested. *Service discovery may use Universal Plug and Play, as suggested by TiVo, but other proposals are invited. *Content encoding is proposed to support multiple

codecs A codec is a computer hardware or software component that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder o ...

to allow devices flexibility in choice of video formats without requiring transcoding by the gateway.
AllVid Notice of Inquiry
', p.12, 25 FCC Rcdbr>4286
/ref>

Responses

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

has supported the AllVid proposal, stating that "Google supports an all-video (“AllVid”) solution like the one put forth in the NOI. Consumers would be well-served by having such an inexpensive universal adapter available at

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

, which would feature an easy-to-use, common interface, and employ nationwide interoperability standards to connect to televisions, digital video recording devices (“DVRs”), and other smart video devices. These navigation devices effectively would separate the network interface from the device functionality, making video more “portable” across platforms and devices." The AllVid proposal has been criticized by the

Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the Major film studios, five major film studios of the Cinema of the United States, United States, the Major film studios#Mini-majors, mini-major Amazon MGM Stud ...

for providing insufficient protection against

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

by unauthorized multichannel video programming distributors and by

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

for preempting market forces already underway.

Industry alliance

On February 16, 2011 several companies announced the creation of the AllVid Tech Company Alliance. This group works to support implementation of the AllVid standard and specifically addresses issues raised by the National Cable Television Association (NCTA). Alliance members include: * Best Buy Co., Inc. *

Inc. * Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America * Nagravision * SageTV, LLC * Sony Electronics Inc. * TiVo Inc. - TiVo withdrew from the group in 2014

Successor proposals

Unlock The Box

In January 2016, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler proposed rulemaking to "unlock the

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

" and the FCC voted to move forward with the proposal in February 2016. Critics claimed that this proposal was essentially AllVid which Wheeler refuted. The FCC never had a vote to adopt the proposal because Wheeler could not get a majority of commissioners to support it. In September 2020 the FCC closed the navigation device proceeding and eliminates CableCARD support and reporting requirements., 4 December 2020

References

External links

In the Matter of Video Device Competition
(Proceeding 10-91) on the Electronic Comment Filing System from the FCC {{North American DTV Digital rights management standards Federal Communications Commission Cable television technology Set-top box