Move Networks Acquires UK-Based IPTV Provider, Inuk Networks

–Round-Up of Recent News from Move Networks

Move Networks–a Utah-based company which offers patent-pending technologies for delivering live and on-demand HD-quality broadband video with no buffering (its technologies are used by, among others, ABC, Fox, The CW, ESPN360, Pro Sieben and Televisa), and which last year announced that Microsoft had joined its Series C funding round–announced Wednesday that it has acquired UK IPTV provider, Inuk Networks. In its press release announcing the acquisition, Move described Inuk, which has been reported to have been struggling financially in recent months due to the expense entailed in building out its IPTV infrastructure, as offering “a next-generation television platform, which builds on the traditional television experience, but opens new opportunities for monetizing customers with targeted advertising, converged applications and a unique PC/Mac multi-room solution.” The acquisition follows a “strategic partnership” between the two companies that was announced last year (see [itvt] Issue 8.06 Part 2A).

Inuk’s product line-up includes 1) a wholesale IPTV platform which the company says can be white-labeled by any service provider or retail brand aspiring to deliver a TV service; 2) a multi-room “virtual set-top box” application, called igloo, which is designed to emulate the operation and user interface of a standard set-top box on PC’s and Macs, and is billed as delivering all the features and functionality of an IPTV set-top, regardless of browser, codec or conditional access system (note: according to Inuk, igloo can be customized with an operator’s look-and-feel; offers full EPG functionality; supports MPEG-2 and MPEG-4-encoded viewing in both windowed and full-screen modes; enables PVR functionality via a PC’s existing hard drive; presents on-screen information and standard TV controls as a graphical overlay on top of the video image; and comes with built-in infrared USB remote control capability); and 3) a branded triple-play service, called Freewire, which has been launched in a number of university campuses and residence halls in the UK, Ireland and Canada, and which Inuk has been attempting to bring to a broader consumer market for some time now.

Move Networks says that by adding Inuk’s IPTV platform and virtual set-top box technology to its own video publishing and adaptive streaming technologies, it will be able to provide service providers, broadcasters and consumers with a “true TV experience,” over both the open Internet and closed networks, using a mix of multicast and rate-adaptive video delivery. The company claims that the Move-Inuk HD and SD video processing platform will be “the most complete IPTV solution, combining high-fidelity viewing, functionality and enhanced features,” and will allow broadcasters and operators to offer viewers an “Internet television experience with high-definition video and no buffering or skipping, in a TV-like interface with features you would expect on a digital TV service such as immediate channel change, Electronic Program Guide, on-screen overlays, reminders, PVR and access to a VOD menu.” “Inuk’s IPTV platform is well positioned to deliver these new consumer expectations, and Move Networks’ proprietary adaptive streaming and video publishing platform delivers an HD viewing experience via the current Internet infrastructure today,” Move Networks executive chairman, John Edwards (who recently stepped down as CEO), said in a prepared statement. “This means Move Networks and Inuk have the critical components in place to support commercial deployments.”

Move also promises that it is committed to developing and growing the Freewire platform, which it says will launch in the US and Scandinavia later this year. “The Move-Inuk combination is a perfect marriage of technologies and business models,” Inuk president and CEO, Marcus Liassides, said in a prepared statement (note: for an in-depth interview with Liassides, see [itvt] Issue 7.65). “We will offer a solution that augments traditional linear-based programming, allowing more consumers to experience television on their own schedules for a personalized viewing experience. We are excited to serve those consumers with a true two-way interactive television service.”

In other recent news from Move Networks:
–Last month, the company announced the appointment of Greg Butterfield, managing partner of SageCreek Partners and former president of Symantec’s Altiris business unit, as an independent director. According to the company, Butterfield has extensive experience in systems management: during his tenure at Altiris (where he was president and CEO, prior to its acquisition by Symantec in 2007), Move Networks says, he led the company to eight consecutive years of revenue growth and profitability, growing annual revenues from $3 million to $229 million. His resume also includes executive positions at Vinca, Novell and WordPerfect. He won the 2002 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and served as chairman of the Utah Information Technology Association from 2003 to 2005. He holds a BS in business administration and finance from Brigham Young University.
–In February, the company–along with Springboard Productions, iStreamPlanet, and AT&T–was tapped by the Recording Academy to provide live and on-demand broadband video coverage of the non-televised segment of the Grammy Awards. The segment, which was hosted by Wayne Brady and Tia Carrere, featured around 100 award categories, together with live musical performances. It was available on-demand on grammys.com for a month. The live stream of the Grammys pre-telecast was produced by Springboard and delivered by iStreamPlanet. The latter company managed onsite content acquisition and onsite encoding and transcoding, and built a custom media player that incorporated Move Networks’ adaptive streaming technology. It also handled content integration with the Grammys Web site and ingestion into AT&T’s CDN. “This is the first year that the Grammys and Grammy.com have used our adaptive streaming technology,” Move Networks’ John Edwards said in a prepared statement. “It delivered a TV-like viewing experience without the buffering and stalling frequently associated with Internet webcasts.”
–At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January, the company announced that it had optimized its media player with a simplified user interface for Intel Atom processor-based mobile Internet devices (MID’s) and netbooks. The development of the MID- and netbook-optimized user interface follows Move’s August, 2008 announcement of support for Intel Atom processor-based MID’s, and is billed by the company as addressing the fact that media consumption is becoming increasingly mobile. “Technologies from companies such as Intel are transforming television, turning it into a medium where viewer choice is never compromised by quality,” Move Networks’ John Edwards said in a prepared statement. “Intel’s advanced MID and CE platforms are moving us one step closer towards a world where television programmers and distributors can deliver high-quality Internet television programming to screens on any Internet-connected device.” Added Pankaj Kedia, director of global ecosystem programs at Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group: “Internet television access on mobile devices will increasingly become mainstream. As Internet TV shifts from PC’s to always-connected mobile devices like MID’s and netbooks, consumers will be able to access high-quality content wherever they go. By bringing together Intel’s high-performance Atom processor and the Moblin-based OS with Move Networks’ advanced Internet television delivery technology and services, we are providing consumers with more choices and access to Internet video content.”
–The company also used CES to trumpet statistics which it claims show that usage of its platform is increasing significantly. It claims that, in 2008, it streamed over 100 million hours of HD content and over 180 million total hours of HD and SD content combined, and experienced 100% growth in the number of people watching broadband video delivered via its adaptive streaming technology (from 25 million unique viewers in 2007 to 55 million unique viewers in 2008). It also says that, according to a study it conducted last year, 1) 70% of the college-age demographic have watched TV online; 2) 55% watch more than half of their TV programming via the Internet; and 3) 85% of survey respondents preferred the viewing experience provided by its adaptive streaming technology over that provided by Flash-based streaming. At the time it announced the statistics, Move claimed to stream 60% of the most popular TV shows and 11 of the top-20 primetime shows, as well as 600 live events per month. The release in which Move Networks announced the statistics also quoted John Edwards as saying “the goal of the company is to allow people to watch Internet television programming everywhere at any time. As we move forward,” Edwards continued, “we’re taking it beyond the laptop to mobile devices, set-top boxes and even gaming consoles.” Edwards added that the push for embedding Move software on other devices was coming from both consumer electronics manufacturers and content owners.
–In addition, the company used CES to announce the release of a beta version of an enhanced SDK for new and existing device manufacturer partners. According to the company, the new “Device SDK” extends its Internet TV services to Linux-based devices for multiple semiconductor architectures. It says that it is enabling it to work with CE manufacturers to extend its technology to multiple new platforms.

Cisco, Avail Media Team on End-to-End Managed IPTV Solution

Telecommunications equipment giant, Cisco, and Avail Media, a provider of managed content aggregation services, announced a joint, end-to-end solution, Tuesday, that they say will enable service providers to offer IPTV services to their subscribers quickly, easily and cost-effectively. The solution consists of Cisco’s IP Next Generation Network (NGN) and IPTV platforms and Avail Media’s content service, together with systems integration from both companies and their respective partners.

According to Cisco and Avail, the new solution will process television programming and other content and distribute it via satellite to telcos. Its IPTV services will be fully managed through Cisco’s National Control Center, thus eliminating the need for operators to hire staff for headend management, the companies say, and MPEG-4 content distribution will be provided by Avail Media’s Avail Connect service. According to the companies, the latter, combined with the Cisco IP NGN and IPTV platforms, will create a complete, end-to-end IPTV service with encoding, encapsulation, middleware, digital rights management, conditional access, scrambling and descrambling, satellite receivers, set-top provision, service management, systems integration services, and program management for video hub office components. “We’re harnessing Cisco’s networking heritage and IPTV expertise and combining it with our proven IP-based video solution to give service providers the means to launch profitable IPTV services quickly while helping them control their capital costs and ongoing operational expenses,” Avail Media CEO, Ramu Potarazu, said in a prepared statement. “Our integrated solution includes an expansive composition of industry-leading technologies for aggressive launches that leverage the two companies’ proven experience.” Added Dave Davies, Cisco’s VP and general manager of IPTV solutions: “This solution greatly reduces the complexity of and time-to-market for service provider IPTV deployments. We are extremely pleased to be working with Avail Media in our efforts to help service providers deploy flexible and differentiated end-to-end IPTV solutions that are designed to evolve and help them stay competitive in an ever-changing marketplace.”

IPTV Operator, HickoryTech, Launches CloverLeaf Digital’s Interactive TV Service

CloverLeaf Digital, a Brooklyn-based interactive TV applications developer that specializes in building and managing localized “walled-garden” services, said Tuesday that HickoryTech, a regional telco that offers triple-play services, has launched its flagship DotDaily interactive TV service to its IPTV subscribers in Minnesota.

The DotDaily service provides localized news and information, including news and sports coverage from the Associated Press, local weather from AccuWeather, local movie guides, and horoscopes, as well as an array of content–including community events calendars, school lunch menus and community slideshows–published by community organizations, using CloverLeaf’s DashDaily community content publishing tools. “CloverLeaf’s localized news and information service contributes to our efforts to provide customers with on-demand services they can’t get from other providers,” Damon Dutz, president of HickoryTech’s Consumer and Network Solutions division, said in a prepared statement. “The interactive media provided by DotDaily was simple to launch, and we look forward to adding additional local content to the service.” Added CloverLeaf managing partner, Lawrence Brickman: “Two-way interactive services are the easiest and least expensive way for service providers to add value to the IPTV offering. We are pleased to be able to leverage IPTV technology to offer HickoryTech’s subscribers compelling content and functionality.”

New Over-the-Top Service, ZillionTV, in Deals with Verimatrix, Inlet

Studio-backed, subscription-free, “over-the-top” on-demand TV service, ZillionTV, said Monday that it has deployed Verimatrix’s Video Content Authority System (VCAS) for IPTV to enable secure delivery of its on-demand programming offerings over the Internet. Verimatrix bills the software-based VCAS technology as providing the encryption needed to protect content from widespread piracy and enable a wide choice of consumer viewing options.

ZillionTV claims that its service will offer around 15,000 titles from Hollywood studios and TV networks. The content will be delivered through an Internet-connected box called, simply, the ZillionTV Device, which comes with a motion-sensing remote control that is based on technology from Hillcrest Labs. The service will provide viewers with a choice of watching programming free-of-charge with targeted, addressable advertising; renting it for what ZillionTV says will be a “nominal fee”; or buying it to own–depending on how each content owner decides to offer each title. Content providers that have signed up for the service to date include Disney, 20th Century Fox Television, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, The Weinstein Company, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. “Content security is an essential, foundational element of the ZillionTV service, as our content partners must be assured that their assets are well protected,” ZillionTV CTO, Mike Catalano, said in a prepared statement. “Verimatrix brings us best-in-class content security. VCAS for IPTV offers the flexibility to adapt to our device architecture and enables a distributed delivery infrastructure, while also providing a transparent viewing experience for consumers.”

According to ZillionTV, Verimatrix configured VCAS for IPTV to work in conjunction with the ZillionTV service’s IPTV middleware, which the company says includes “specific methods of entitlement for a secure viewing experience.” Verimatrix bills VCAS for IPTV as a software-based security system for broadband entertainment networks that can be transparently updated as required, in order to combat “evolving piracy concerns.” “The ZillionTV deployment is an excellent example of how content security can help enable innovative business models, rather than limit them,” Steve Oetegenn, Verimatrix’s chief sales and marketing officer, said in a prepared statement. “The service combines the content, viewing and search options typically available only via the PC with the ease-of-use of the TV, plus the new targeted advertising model. Within this challenging platform, we were able to meet all the security requirements from the content owner, service provider and viewer perspectives.”

In other ZillionTV news: Encoding specialist, Inlet Technologies, said Monday that ZillionTV is using its Armada automated encoding workflow management platform as its backend infrastructure to support the encoding handled by ZillionTV’s third-party encoding company partners. According to Inlet, the Armada platform helps ZillionTV’s encoding partners to quickly and efficiently transcode large volumes of content from a variety of sources into multiple digital media formats. By automating the entire encoding workflow and incorporating encoding intelligence into the system, the company claims, Armada saves time and resources. “We needed an encoding partner that really understands how to build a business around digital content, and an encoding technology that could scale to meet our quality thresholds in coordination with our third-party encoding partners,” Charles Cataldo, ZillionTV’s SVP of digital entertainment, said in a prepared statement. “Inlet Technologies is recognized for their industry expertise, and Armada was an ideal solution for our needs.”

IPTV Specialists, Amino and Minerva, Team on Whole-Home DVR Solution

–Round-Up of Recent News from Minerva

At the NAB show in Las Vegas, Monday, IPTV set-top box vendor, Amino Communications, and IPTV middleware provider, Minerva Networks, unveiled a whole-home DVR solution. The solution consists of Amino’s AmiNET530 DVR-equipped IP set-top box, integrated with Minerva’s new whole-home DVR control module. The companies say that it will allow service providers to offer advanced DVR services throughout a subscriber’s home, using a single DVR set-top box, and will allow end-users to independently play, pause, rewind and fast-forward programming stored on the DVR set-top from any TV in their home, via other set-tops (including boxes without a hard drive). “Operators want to use the in-home broadband network to offer new services without increasing their infrastructure cost,” Minerva CEO, Mauro Bonomi, said in a prepared statement. “Amino and Minerva are demonstrating how to extend DVR functionality throughout the home without requiring additional set-top boxes with embedded storage, keeping costs low while enabling a better subscriber experience.” The joint solution is being demo’d this week in Amino’s NAB booth (#C2054).

In other recent news from Minerva Networks:
–In February, the company announced that it had extended its partnership agreement with Latens, under which the companies have been providing IPTV solutions to operators in North and South America, consisting of Minerva’s iTV Manager middleware and Latens’ conditional access technology. Under their renewed agreement, the companies also plan to collaborate on integrating their joint solution with set-top box and VOD platforms from major manufacturers. “The partnership between Latens and Minerva brings together and unifies two major parts of a traditionally fragmented solution,” Philip Cardy, Latens’ director of product marketing, said in a prepared statement. “Our continuing partnership allows telcos to deploy IPTV services quickly and with confidence, with the assurance of Latens’ excellent customer service…By combining Minerva’s middleware with our proven conditional access technology, we can continue to meet our goal to provide the most closely integrated CAS solution for Minerva’s middleware product. The renewal of our partnership agreement with Minerva strengthens our commitment to the US market and will allow us to continue to grow and expand.”
–In January, the company announced that it had added three new channel partners in Latin America: ITS (Costa Rica), LOOK (Dominican Republic) and Union Electrica. Minerva says that it is building a worldwide network of qualified system integrators that can enable operators to deploy IPTV services using its own technologies in conjunction with components from its certified “ecosystem partners.”

ATIS IPTV Interoperability Forum Releases Five New Standards

–New Standards Represent Conclusion of Phase 1 of IIF’s Three-Phase Work Plan

Standards-development organization, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), last week released five new standards which it bills as establishing IPTV’s “foundational framework.” The standards, which were created by ATIS’ IPTV Interoperability Forum (IIF), conclude Phase 1 of the IIF’s three-phase Work Plan: Phase 1’s goal was to standardize linear TV service over an IP network.
ATIS says that work has already begun on Phase 2 of the plan, which will focus on interactive services, including on-demand applications and pay-per-view programming. Phase 3, which is scheduled to begin in 2011, will focus on what ATIS describes as IPTV’s “most demanding” applications, including multi-party video conferencing and next-generation gaming.

The newly completed Phase 1 standards documents are:
–“IPTV Linear TV Service” (ATIS-0800018), which is billed as establishing IPTV’s “fundamental building blocks” for expansion into more advanced services, including pay-per-view and next-generation gaming.
–“IPTV Consumer Domain Device Configuration Metadata” (ATIS-0800022), which specifies the data structures (metadata) required to provide basic information needed to acquire IPTV content.
–“Media Formats and Protocols for IPTV Services” (ATIS-0800013), which is billed as a comprehensive listing of the protocols and media formats required for the implementation of IPTV-related services.
–“IPTV Terminal Metadata Specification” (ATIS-0800029), which ATIS says defines the data structure that facilitates the exchange of user-related data and the IPTV devices.
–“Fault Codes for IPTV” (ATIS-0800028), which includes a categorized listing of fault codes for IPTV functions and components.

Copies of the standards documents are available through the ATIS Document Center at: https://www.atis.org/docstore. “The IIF’s completion of Phase 1 work is a significant step forward towards enabling tomorrow’s innovative IPTV ecosystem,” ATIS president and CEO, Susan Miller, said in a prepared statement. “Representing the IPTV ecosystem’s companies, the IIF has distinguished itself as a leader in IPTV interoperability standards development. Going forward, the IIF’s open, pragmatic approach will ensure it continues to lead in this paradigm-shifting technology’s realization.”

Amino’s AssetHouse Partners with 180Squared, Sun Microsystems

–AmiNET Set-Tops Integrated with Optibase’s EZ TV

Cambridge, UK-based IPTV set-top box vendor, Amino Communications, said Thursday that AssetHouse, the digital proposition management company that it acquired last June (see [itvt] Issue 7.87 Part 1), has formed a new partnership with 180Squared, a company which specializes in software and integration services for Microsoft’s Mediaroom IPTV platform (and which earlier this week launched “Mediaroom in a Box,” a Mediaroom solution geared towards smaller carriers–see the article published on itvt.com, April 15th).

The companies say that their partnership sees them working to deliver an end-to-end, cross-platform solution that will allow producers, network operators and content owners to use a “truly revolutionary method to merge their diverse content and marketing requirements into Microsoft Mediaroom.” “The 180Squared Framework acts like the glue that connects multiple third-party systems into Mediaroom,” Amir Littman, 180Squared’s founder and VP of business development, said in a prepared statement. “Our company has been solely focused on empowering both customers and third-party developers to expand their interaction into Mediaroom by providing a robust and extensible backend development platform. We’re proud to be working with AssetHouse to bring new functionality to Mediaroom by providing truly amazing content integration. In a market where profit margins are thin, anything that you can do to help increase those margins can make a big difference.” Added Sandip Sarda, AssetHouse’s SVP of product strategy and business development: “With a scalable platform for merchandising content, AssetHouse manages the product lifecycle of digital products across all channels and devices. Working with 180Squared, we can eradicate the expense and time of building and maintaining bespoke integrations, and provide the ability to deliver compelling and profitable bundles and packages.”

The companies say that 180Squared allows Mediaroom customers to take full advantage of AssetHouse’s features, including enabling linear and on-demand content to co-exist in the EPG.

In other Amino Communications news from the past week:
–On Wednesday, the company announced a “collaboration” between AssetHouse and Sun Microsystems, which it says will result in a “groundbreaking…truly scalable” solution that will allow service providers to better capitalize content catalogs while “adding a new dimension to the personalized ‘MyTV’ experience and hugely extending their ability to target advertising to the end-consumer.” According to Amino and Sun, the solution enables service providers to “refine their market propositions” because “different headends can have different content and advertising profiles.” The solution allows entertainment content to be “bundled together, packaged with relevant advertising, targeted to consumer preference and streamed unicast to the device,” the companies say. “We’re very positive about our joint capability to really help customers get the most from digital commerce,” Darrell Jordan-Smith, VP of global communications and media industry at Sun, said in a prepared statement. “AssetHouse’s ability to manage the end-to-end lifecycle of digital products and to combine targeted content with targeted advertising fits well with our innovative server systems and responds ideally to what the marketplace is demanding.” Added AssetHouse’s Sandip Sarda: “The Sun Fire servers and storage systems from 1U to 14U and the Sun Streaming System provide tremendous scalability. Its ultra-low entry-point and ability to add massive storage and IO capacity means service providers can cost-effectively store their whole long tail of movie assets which AssetHouse can then monetize. Storing linear TV with VOD content enables us to cross-reference and cross-sell. Its phenomenal streaming capacity means that unicast becomes a reality, bringing the ‘millions to one’ nirvana one step closer.”
–On Tuesday, the company announced a deal with Optibase that sees the latter’s EZ TV system integrated with Amino AmiNET IPTV set-top boxes. With the newly enhanced EZ TV STB Module, the companies say, users can now access the system’s live or on-demand content on standard- and high-definition TV’s, in addition to PC’s and Macs. Optibase bills the EZ TV system as an integrated video delivery portal that allows distribution of real-time and on-demand content over existing enterprise IP infrastructures; its EZ TV Player provides PC users with an enhanced, interactive Web-based viewing experience by supporting multi-format video feeds in a mosaic view of 1, 4, 9 or 16 simultaneous streams, the company says. According to Amino and Optibase, the integration of the EZ TV system with the AmiNET set-top box product line will allow end-users to access on their TV screen the entire live and on-demand video content line-up managed by EZ TV. With the EZ TV STB Module, the companies say, users can browse video content, choose channels, access information, control volume and recall channels–all using the Amino set-top box remote. The integration is also billed as including automatic database synchronization which ensures that the channel guide and content are constantly up to date. “With the integration of the Amino STB interface, EZ TV is the most comprehensive enterprise video portal available today,” Optibase VP of marketing, Nir Shalev, said in a prepared statement. “Users can control the content either on HDTV screens or on their PC’s and yet still maintain centralized management. Amino was the obvious partner choice for us. The AmiNET STB’s are highly reliable products that provide our customers with comprehensive functionality, including full format support from MPEG-2 SD to H.264 HD.”

Orca’s Compass IPTV Content Discovery Solution Integrated with Trusted Opinion

–Orca Tapped by Vestitel to Power “Partnership IPTV” Service

At the IPTV World Forum last month, IPTV middleware and applications provider, Orca Interactive (note: the company was acquired last year by Viaccess–see [itvt] Issue 7.77 Part 1), announced the integration of its Compass personalized programming recommendation platform with social networking portal, Trusted Opinion. The company says that the resulting joint social TV solution will allow viewers to share personalized content recommendations with friends and family over the Web and to the TV.

Orca bills the Compass recommendation platform as blending user profiles, popular choices and personal usage history to build a personalized set of viewing recommendations for linear and on-demand TV content, thus allowing viewers to avoid “having to navigate their way through the confusing array of channels and programs via their EPG.” The solution’s integration with the Trusted Opinion portal “provides the added value of leveraging recommendations from the most trusted of sources–our friends,” the company says. By incorporating this new source of recommendations, Orca claims, Compass will increase the buy-rate and ARPU of an IPTV service, and expand the overall range of content accessed by viewers because viewers now have the ability to recommend and rate content to one another in a “fun and enjoyable manner.” “The interactive TV world is missing the level of interaction, sharing and recommendation of content available today on the Web,” Trusted Opinion’s founder and CEO, Shahar Smirin, said in a prepared statement. “The phenomenal viral growth and addictiveness of social networking has not yet deployed on TV, mostly because of the limitations of the TV set and its remote control. Trusted Opinion allows users to bring their social network of friends together to share great recommendations about the movies they like the most. Members find it so fun and addictive that every second user invites an average of 90 of their friends, consequently providing viral growth that is sorely missed in ‘young’ platforms such as IPTV. Trusted Opinion is proud to partner with Orca to deploy the fully integrated solution with Orca’s Compass platform, enabling TV users with instant and transparent access to recommendations from their social network right on their TV set.” Added Orca’s VP of sales and marketing, Sefy Ariely: “Compass introduced to the market a revolutionary platform to provide viewers with the ultimate personalized TV experience. Based on the success and market demand for this unique technology, we are now taking things a step further by allowing people to easily receive content recommendations from those whose opinion they value most–their friends, family and social groups. We expect that innovations like these will give our customers the tools to create growth, customer loyalty and increase customer satisfaction, thereby creating new revenue opportunities.”

In other Orca Interactive news: The company also announced last month that its RiGHTv IPTV middleware platform has been selected by Bulgarian triple-play operator, Vestitel BG, to power the latter’s own IPTV service, as well as a managed IPTV service (“partnership IPTV service”) that Vestitel is offering to other Bulgarian service providers and that is scheduled to go live at the end of this month. Orca’s middleware will replace Vestitel’s existing middleware solution.

Vestitel, a subsidiary of the Bulgarian natural gas company, launched its own IPTV service two years ago, and says it decided to leverage its investment in IPTV infrastructure by launching its new managed IPTV service. It claims that multiple operators have already signed up for the new service. According to Orca, Vestitel chose the RiGHTv middleware platform because it offered the best price/performance value, together with the ability to be customized to fit the needs of third-party operators. Vestitel was also interested in the “innovative nature” of its solution, Orca says, including the Compass recommendation technology. “We chose the RiGHTv solution because we needed a very reliable solution that is mature, adaptable and open enough to fit into our unique requirements for our service concept,” Vestitel CEO, Alexander Vaglarov, said in a prepared statement. “Since we will be selling the managed service to competitive operators, the need for each operator to be self-sufficient and able to reflect their brand and tailor the solution to fit different market segments was also of paramount importance.” Added Orca CEO, Haggai Barel: “We are convinced that the partnership IPTV model will be a very successful new development in the IPTV market place. We strongly applaud and support Vestitel’s initiative and look forward to a successful partnership in the years to come.”

180Squared Launches “Mediaroom in a Box” IPTV Solution for Smaller Carriers

Pleasanton, Calif.-based 180Squared–a company that bills itself as “a team of Microsoft Mediaroom alumni with extensive Mediaroom product and services expertise” (note: Mediaroom is Microsoft’s IPTV platform)–announced Wednesday the launch of a Mediaroom solution, dubbed “Mediaroom in a Box,” that is geared towards smaller carriers. The company says that, while working with Microsoft to support existing Mediaroom customers, it has also been working towards developing an end-to-end solution that will “help smaller carriers in the US to sharpen their business case around IPTV” and “support Mediaroom as the middleware of choice.” “Some new things have been happening in Microsoft recently,” 180Squared founder and VP, Amir Littman, said in a prepared statement. “Recently, Microsoft has made some major strides in scalability in their software. In addition, with their use of virtualization, they’ve effectively now brought a solution that used to require a large server footprint to support their middleware down to something most smaller carriers can fit into their CAPEX budget. In addition, there has been a renewed interest in Microsoft to support these smaller carriers as they (Microsoft) want to see continued growth in their Xbox 360 and ‘Connected Home’ markets. This has led them to a path that now supports a licensing model more geared towards supporting smaller carriers. 180Squared’s Mediaroom in a Box solution takes advantage of these efforts in Microsoft to develop a single, end-to-end solution that works in partnership with smaller carriers. The goal is to bring a single, end-to-end solution with all the components carriers are asking for, at one low price with a quick time to market.”

Key features of Mediaroom in a Box, according to 180Squared, include: full architecture and deployment services for Mediaroom; B/OSS integration service; a 180Squared Framework B/OSS software package that includes a global operations manager, B/OSS interfaces and workflow engine and basic set-top box management; caller-ID; and remote PVR.

Sigma Designs’ SMP8654 Selected by Celrun for Korean IPTV Deployment

System-on-chip (SoC) specialist, Sigma Designs, announced Wednesday that its SMP8654 media processors will be used to power the TD-1100 set-top box from Korean IPTV technology provider, Celrun, which Korean telecom provider, LG Dacom, plans to use for a nationwide IPTV service. Sigma says that its chips have now been integrated into the TD-1100, where they will support real-time IPTV streaming, along with VOD services. “Our selection by LG Dacom to be deployed across Korea was largely due to Sigma’s next-generation system-on-chip, SMP8654, as LG Dacom demanded set-top boxes that are robust and offer technology advanced enough to scale for all IPTV customers in Korea,” Celrun CEO, Young Min Kim, said in a prepared statement. “As a longtime partner with Sigma Designs, the company continues to meet our needs in terms of best performance and cost–we look forward to our continued work together.”

According to Celrun, the TD-1100 supports multicasting, VOD and DRM, and delivers multi-task performance by processing multiple streams of content in tandem at speeds up to 20Mbps. Sigma, meanwhile, claims that the SMP8654 provides a “50% increase in overall performance” and can reduce sub-system costs by around 30%, compared to its predecessor, the SMP8634. According to the company, the SMP8654 offers a full complement of advanced decoder engines with HD video encoding, including H.264 (MPEG-4 part 10), Windows Media Video 9, VC-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (part 2), and the new AVS standard. Its multimedia core also includes high-performance graphics acceleration, multi-standard audio decoding, advanced display processing capabilities and HDMI 1.3 output, the company says. Content security is provided via a dedicated secure processor, on-chip flash memory and various DRM engines for high-speed payload decryption. It also features various system peripherals, including a dual Gigabit Ethernet controller, a dual USB 2.0 controller, a NAND flash controller, and IR controller and a SATA controller.