TANDBERG Television chosen for New Zealand DTT headend

New Zealand transmission network operator Kordia and TVWorks, the division of media company MediaWorks NZ that broadcasts national stations TV3 and C4, have selected key DTT headend technology from TANDBERG Television. The equipment will be used for New Zealand’s forthcoming terrestrial Freeview free-to-air service, which will complement the existing Freeview satellite platform.

Irdeto moves from licensee to owner of Cloakware software security

Naspers-owned Irdeto says it is enhancing its existing pay media security solutions and expanding its market reach to include enterprise, government and consumer electronics thanks to the 100 per cent acquisition of Cloakware, a software security provider. The companies have already been working together since 2003; Cloakware provides the additional layer of protection that enabled Irdeto to launch a software CA solution targeting IPTV and two-way cable in 2004.

IPTV World Series Awards 2008: deadline for entries is December 19th

Nominations for the IPTV World Series Awards 2008 must be delivered to Junction Group by December 19...which is two days away. The awards, hosted at the world’s leading event for the IPTV industry (www.iptv-forum.com), recognise the best solutions for television-over-IP, with independent judges selected from high profile industry publications and organisations.  The awards are completely free to enter.

Triple-play and quad-play will boost newly merged ARRIS and C-COR

The acquisition of C-COR Inc. by ARRIS, completed December 14, will create a leading broadband solutions company with combined sales of over $1.2 billion over the past twelve months, ARRIS has declared. It also expands the ARRIS product portfolio and addressable market, and creates a global, technologically diverse team with a broader and stronger platform from which to drive portfolio expansion.

Harnessing the Internet to create iTV 2.0

The convergence of Internet and television, with broadband access lines and home networking as the physical enablers, is paving the way for a new generation of interactive TV services. The innovations will fall under the general banner of iTV 2.0, which also includes advanced Electronic Programme Guides, greater use of stored content on DVRs, more personalised and targeted advertising, and television/mobile convergence.

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Amino/dicas support innovative IPTV over satellite hospital feed

Content from Spanish broadcaster Antena 3 is being delivered to hospitals in Spain over an IP satellite data link, in an interesting use of IPTV technology. It is thought to be the first such delivery of a live national TV channel in the country and is being supported by set-top boxes from Amino Communications and encoding by dicas, the German MPEG-4 specialist.

ABI survey suggests 82 per cent of DVR owners skip adverts in North America

A survey conducted by ABI Research suggests that 82 per cent of North American Pay TV platform customers using Digital Video Recorders skip all or most commercials. Forty three per cent of DVR owners who get their recorder from their Pay TV operator record two or more hours of content a day. The Internet survey discovered that one-quarter of online consumers use a DVR (the vast majority of them were furnished by the Pay TV provider as opposed to retail purchase of a TiVo).

Little profit in mobile TV, but mobile operators must offer it anyway

Mobile network operators do not stand to make much profit from mobile TV services – yet they must offer them to remain competitive. That is the conclusion of UK-headquartered analyst firm Screen Digest, which says in a new report that operators that do not offer mobile TV will simply lose their subscribers to other operators or other media devices, such as the in-car devices so popular in Asia. The company also predicts that mobile TV will be bundled to encourage subscriber upgrades.

Broadcom demonstrates HDTV Wi-Fi home networking with 802.11n

Broadcom Corporation has been demonstrating Wi-Fi home networking of HDTV content using dual-band radio chipset technology based on the new 802.11n draft standard. The company used three suites of a London hotel to stream two pre-recorded broadcast streams to a television and laptop. The MPEG-2 streams, one at 20Mbps and the other at 10Mbps, were multicast and either could be viewed on each of the devices, illustrating the potential to provide true HDTV multi-room functionality over wireless for either IPTV, cable or satellite operators.

GoBackTV unveils another customer for cable IPTV solution

GoBackTV has unveiled another customer for its innovative cable IPTV solution, which uses the current DOCSIS standards to deliver video as IP data but avoids the need to route vast volumes of downstream IP packets through the CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System). Danish telecoms wholesale and retail company, A+ Group, is going to use the GoBackTV GigaQAM IP technology to extend its existing FastTV IPTV services beyond its traditional market of DSL and fibre into cable systems.

Charter using Switched Digital Video to expand HDTV

Charter Communications, Inc., the third largest publicly-traded cable operator in the U.S. (serving approximately 5.7 million customers in 29 states), has selected a Switched Digital Video (SDV) solution from BigBand Networks to help it expand HDTV and other programming. The technology will be used for digital TV services in Charter’s Los Angeles-area system, including Malibu, Burbank and Glendale, California.

IPTV World Series Awards 2008: time for nominations

With the run up to the IPTV World Forum 2008 in full swing, the event’s organiser, Junction Group, has announced that the IPTV World Series Awards 2008 are now open for nominations. The awards, hosted at the world’s leading event for the IPTV industry (www.iptv-forum.com), recognise the best solutions for television-over-IP, with independent judges selected from high profile industry publications and organisations.  The awards are completely free to enter.

North American cable prepares for HDTV, on-demand and bundling battle

John Moulding takes a look at how cable operators in North America are preparing for increased competition by expanding HDTV, VOD, broadband speeds and Internet presence. Network innovations like Switched Digital Video are among the technology enablers

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Rohde & Schwarz to supply transmitters for UK switch-over

National Grid Wireless, one of the UK’s two terrestrial television network owner/operators, has selected Rohde & Schwarz UK Ltd to supply and install digital TV transmitters and transmitter input equipment for use in the UK’s digital switchover programme taking place between 2008 and 2012. National Grid will take delivery of high efficiency transmitters at sites throughout the UK.

Study says 200 million non-set-top box devices will feed TV sets in 2012

IMS Research is predicting that in 2012, 200 million non-set-top box Consumer Electronics devices will be shipped that can deliver digital video content to the television set. This includes a growing number of IP-enabled consoles, SlingCatcher and Apple TV type devices. Given the growth of ‘over-the-top’ services like Joost, this presents a challenge to existing television providers.

Mobile TV operators using MediaFLO transmission technologies will be able to replace an existing Conditional Access system with another, or even simulcrypt (run multiple CA systems simultaneously), as a result of the OpenCA Key Management System Framework, which has just been completed by the FLO Forum. The framework is designed to create a standards-based environment that enables multiple vendors to implement content security systems within the FLO (Forward Link Only) architecture.

Reliance backs Mediaroom to deliver connected IPTV experience in India

Microsoft has scored another big hit for its Mediaroom IPTV service delivery platform, with Reliance Communications in India stating its intention to launch its IPTV services using the software. Reliance will have the exclusive deployment right for the platform in India and intends to introduce VOD, DVR and personal media sharing as well as standard-definition and high-definition TV.

EchoStar takes on IP-PRIME with IPTV television/VOD platform

EchoStar Communications Corporation has launched itself into the IPTV distribution market to compete with SES AMERICOM’s IP PRIME platform with a solution that ranges from programming through to set-top boxes. The company’s subsidiary, EchoStar FSS Corporation (EFSSC) is also targeting private and rural cable operators, municipalities and community video providers (like gated communities) with the ViP-TV service, which includes push-VOD and pull-VOD.

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'TheHDWeb' portal designed to showcase potential for Internet HD video

Akamai Technologies, Inc. has unveiled a ‘proof-of-concept’ web portal designed to showcase the experience consumers can have with high-definition video content online. The Website, 'TheHDWeb' at www.thehdweb.com, showcases a variety of content including footage from the BBC's 'Earth' nature extravaganza, which looks compelling in a choice of downloads (1280x720 and 1920x1080 resolution).