Motorola CherryPicker – Innovation Paves the Road to Emmy Gold

Author: Steve Musallam, Product Manager for Network Infrastructure Now that the glitz and glamor of the ceremony has passed, it’s a good time to reflect on Motorola’s recent Emmy Award for its...

Author: Steve Musallam, Product Manager for Network Infrastructure

Now that the glitz and glamor of the ceremony has passed, it’s a good time to reflect on Motorola’s recent Emmy Award for its CherryPicker digital program insertion (DPI) platform and its local ad insertion capabilities.  This Emmy reflects more than a decade of innovation and leadership by the CherryPicker team. They were among the lead members in drafting SCTE-30 & 35, the industry standards DPI is based on, and with CherryPicker they implemented SCTE-30 & 35 in a way that maximizes compatibility, reliability and performance.  Using these industry standards, the CherryPicker helped enable the market for local ad insertion, and above all, I believe this Emmy recognizes that significant industry contribution.  Today CherryPicker works with virtually every digital cable and IPTV environment in the market, achieves industry-leading splice rates, and continues to set the standard in visual quality. 

Beyond local ad insertion, CherryPicker has a long-standing heritage of innovation and leadership in the digital cable space, and has struck Emmy gold once before.  In 2007, the CherryPicker (then a part of Terayon which was acquired by Motorola later that year) won an Emmy for “pioneering development for combining multiple transport streams which are already encoded, using rate-shaping and statistical re-multiplexing.”  These cost-effective innovations helped pave the way for digital cable systems by transporting video efficiently, while maintaining the highest possible video quality.

Having won Emmys for both statistical multiplexing and local ad insertion, CherryPicker has solidified its place as a truly innovative solution in the cable space.  Our DM 6400 and CAP-1000 products are operating within the networks of the top 10 video providers in the US, and more than 100 MSOs worldwide. 

We are extremely thankful to our customers for their loyal support over the years.  And, of course, we are so thankful to the Engineering Achievement Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the recognition.  After all, it is an honor just to be nominated!