French encoder specialist Ateme has landed the contract for providing DirecTV in the US with 1080p H.264 based encoders for its VoD service. DirectTV will use the Kyrion File Encoder and will use it to also streamline its tapeless content production process. DirectTV hosts a library of 5000 SD and HD titles on-demand including content delivery via satellite and broadband.
Broadcom said this week that its Broadcom BCM7405 set-top box system-on-a-chip has completed Microsoft Mediaroom client integration and can now be used in second generation set-tops to support whole-home DVR services, high performance user interfaces, and photo and music sharing.
Europe now accounts for 30% of global broadband and 51% of all IPTV customers said the Broadband Forum this week announcing its latest statistics at Broadband World Forum Europe. Global broadband grew by 12.9 million lines in the second quarter of 2009 to reach 445 million, while IPTV growth remained strong at 11% reaching 26.9 million. In Europe broadband grew 13% to reach 135 million, and is now the second largest broadband region in the world. The pecking order is China, USA, then a big fall to Japan, Germany, France and the UK, followed by South Korea, Italy and Brazil making up the top broadband countries.
Sun Microsystems and UK set top company Amino will offer the JavaFX TV platform in their next generation IPTV set-top boxes. Amino reckons this will help enable third-party developers to create new, expressive content and interfaces, mostly ways of accessing the internet. JavaFX was originally designed for handsets and PCs but now supports set tops, gaming consoles, Blu-ray players and other platforms and the same experiences can be developed for all of them in one go. JavaFX is a simple scripting language for content authoring, capable of supporting GUIs of any size or complexity.
Samsung Electronics said this week it will add YouTube to its line of Blu-ray players, and all new models will include it as standard and will also now support MKV file formats. Existing owners of Samsung Blu-ray players will be able to upgrade their device with both features via a firmware update from Samsung.com.
IBC Short – Appear TV announced its launch of a new decoder which can handle MPEG 2 or MPEG 4 in either SD or HD able to decode up to 30 channels in one 4RU chassis.
IBC Short – Siano Mobile Silicon added a new Mobile TV chip, the SMS1230 which supports DVB-T, T-DMB, and ISDB-T plus digital radio (DAB) and FM Radio.
IBC Short – The Open IPTV Forum released its second Architecture Specification adding remote access, notifications, and session transfer replication to mobile devices, as well as more sophisticated timeshift, pay per view and personalized channels, and remote management functions as well as new parental controls and session controls across multiple devices.
IBC Short – Viasat Broadcasting has chosen long-term set-top box partner Pace to supply a second generation high definition DVR with built-in hybrid function using of Pace’s TDS855NV hybrid HD PVR. This will allow an extra 40 hours of content to be stored than its predecessor, in a smaller footprint. The Pace set top is used with NDS Videoguard conditional access by Viasat.
IBC Short ‘ Swedish VoD server specialist Edgeware, said that Armenian service provider, Ucom, has deployed its Orbit-2X video server platform to drive Armenia’s first IPTV service.
IBC Short ‘ NDS announces that Indian cable operator GTPL will deploy an NDS VideoGuard conditional access system to be used with NDS MediaHighway middleware, to bring interactive games and electronic program guide to its service and 180 TV channels.
IBC Short ‘ Conax points out that it will provide the conditional access to Hannu Pro Bulgaria, a system integrator in the Baltic States, which has been awarded the tender to build the second phase of the Bulgarian DTT project. The network will cover 96% of Bulgarian territory by 2015.
IBC Short – Appear TV and Satcab, a leading Portuguese systems integrator have landed a deal with Portugal Telecom to supply Appear TV DC1000 head ends as part of PT’s next-generation networks project.
The DC1000 head ends, which are to be situated at 10 metropolitan head-end sites throughout Portugal.
Nokia has released the pricing on its new Booklet 3G at €575 around $820. Most observers believe that the price is way too high and can’t see Nokia making ground with this. But subsidized and sold through operators we reckon this will do okay, though it could be cheaper.
Rubberduck Media Lab has launched a streaming mobile TV service for operator O2 in Ireland, providing a completely outsourced service including content acquisition and technical support and management. The service costs €1 for a 24-hour pass, with a 30-day pass at €5.