Italian ISP Tiscali, which operates what used to be the Homechoice IPTV service in the UK and which is building something similar in its home country, has chosen local Italian supplie Telsey to offer a single IPTV set top for both.
Homechoice used to build its own set top using the Texas Instruments AR7 and other DSPs, so this will be the first time it has awarded a contract to an established, if not well known, STB builder.
These set tops would contain a Digital Video Recorder and also allow access to the local DVB-T free to air TV services, so they would support a hybrid service and the device is called the FS600 and it will have two DVB-T tuners, so that two digital broadcast programs could be watched and recorded at the same time. A single ESG for both the IPTV service and the DVB-T services will be supplied, and the customer won’t need to be aware which program is coming over what service. This will be a major change for its IPTV operation in the UK which provided most of the channels that are carried on the Freeview DVB-T service, but not actual access via DVB-T.
The initial contract will last for 15 months, and Telsey will supply two versions of the set top, one for each country. Part of the deal will involve a set top with 2 tuners and a DVR option, allowing users to record contents to be viewed later than the broadcasting timetable. The devices would also allow access to broadband and VoIP services through the same broadband line. Telsey was founded in 1993 and currently supplies Access Gateways and Home Networking systems for FTTx and xDSL networks.