IPTV DRM specialist Verimatrix used CommunicAsia 2008 to show off its new VCAS for Mobile TV for triple and quadruple service operators. The company has cut its teeth on IPTV and has recently added PC content protection and has now come to market with a software only protection for Mobile TV whether it is broadcast, streamed across the cellular network or delivered over Wi-Fi. Verimatrix will also include MultiRights in the mobile TV system which allows multiple pre-loaded DRMs such as OMA to work alongside VCAS.
Minerva Networks says that it has 15 new clients, 10 of them in the USA for its IPTV middleware, and has a new version of its iTVManager software which is says enhances DVR function, provides a more robust development environment, and adds a series of record keeping and a bandwidth management tools. It also used NXTcomm to show new applications from Integra5, MetaSwitch and Nortel in converged communications. iTVManager release 3.2 adds support for new Amino and Entone HD set tops.
Cisco said this week it has acquired Denmark based DiviTech, a provider of digital-service management systems for broadcasters, cable and IPTV operators. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Cisco will fold DiviTech into its Digital Media business unit as part of the Service Provider Video Technology Group which is made up of the former Scientific Atlanta. DiviTech employees will move into Cisco’s Copenhagen facility.
Rounbox, which offers handset software to support broadcast applications has raised $20 million, with $12 million of its called down immediately, from investors including Montagu Newhall Associates, Core Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners and RRE Ventures. The company had already raised $23 million in two previous funding rounds.
Telef’nica said this week that it will distribute the Apple iPhone
in 12 Latin American countries as well as the Czech Republic as well a previous distribution deals it has with O2 in the UK and Ireland, and
those it has in Spain. The new agreement covers Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Encoder specialist Harmonic used CommunicAsia to announced that Korea’s Hanaro Telecom has deployed its Narrowcast Services Gateway and its NSG 9000 universal edgeQAMs on the cable portion of its network for use as a Cable Modem Termination System.
Zoran said this week it had completed the acquisition of Let It Wave, a fabless semiconductor company based in Paris, France which has patents in video frame rate conversion and image enhancement on flat panel TVs and other consumer electronics products. Zoran acquired Let It Wave in an all-cash transaction valued at up to $27.6 million, which includes earnout provisions.
The Polish public broadcaster TVP is preparing to launch a satellite DTH platform from the SES Astra satellite and may launch as early as 2009. This will be the fourth DTH service in Poland, which so far reach 3.5 million homes combined. Local incumbent telco TPSA will also launch one in Q3 this year and all so far use the Eutelsat Hot Bird.
According to Home Media Magazine in the US Blu-ray high-def disk sales will reach $1 billion mark this year, jump to $2.5 billion next year, according to estimates from several Hollywood studios. Speaking at the Home Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles, the movie chiefs said that consumer acceptance is just around the corner. There will be three million standalone Blu-ray players in US homes by year’s end, they said.
Addressable advertising pioneer Packet Vision has partnered with Ericsson’s Tandberg Television, to deliver advanced advertising solutions. The companies have built what they believe to be the world’s only solution capable of delivering truly frame-accurate splicing in H.264 over IPTV, which is a key component in ensuring seamless delivery of addressable advertising. The system has already been used in the Inuk university students network in the UK, replacing adverts which played out during Channel 4 commercial breaks with ads for a major UK convenience food brand. The system used Packet Vision’s PV1000 as well as Tandberg’s EN8030 encoder.