Amid the technological sizzle at this week's Consumer Electronics Show is a special line of equipment and services, developed entirely for satellite video providers. And, as you might expect, it's a solution set being heavily fortified by the cloud.

That's why a strong undercurrent this week in Las Vegas (and in our suite, at the Wynn), are the innovations that can infuse satellite video providers with agility. Innovations in content, user experience, and services, specifically.

In our suite, at the Wynn, we'll have on hand everythingsatellite providers need to effectively compete - with both innovation, and service agility. Here's a sampling:

• 4K video, using next-gen video format encoding, such as HEVC, that gives amazing quality without the exponential storage and transmission overhead this traditionally requires
• A cloud-based, end-to-end solution, from ingest to uplink. Yes, we absolutely appreciate that cloud technologies are designed for guaranteed two-way environments. Still, we're looking to show satellite operators who stop by, how the cloud can make a big difference to their business. We will demonstrating how virtualized head-end technologies can make any satellite provider more agile.
• Innovation in apps and services, with web-speed handling of updates and modifications, as well as targeted, addressable and dynamic advertising, and electronic sell-through
• Multi-screen video options, to monetize content via IP distribution - live, VOD, catch-up and "sync & go" services, for instance. These solutions not only address tiers of users who want multi-screen video everywhere, but also subscribers without traditional TV services, as well as "out of country" subscribers, with annual, monthly, or even "day pass" services
• Market-leading ABR encoding enhanced by a satellite-class DRM solution
• Innovation in user experience, another exciting category, rife with possibilities for satellite providers - consistent navigation across screen types, search and recommendations, contextual apps, and personalization - all provide opportunities to create compelling end user services.

The list goes on and on, when it comes to what Cisco can do to improve a pay TV offering. So enough of me talking about what we can for our satellite customers. Come see it yourself! We're at the Wynn, our CES campus for the week. Hope to see you there!

Find us at our suite at the Wynn or tweet us at @CiscoSP360 for questions and or comments.