TANDBERG Television's HD and SD MPEG-2 encoders have been chosen by Journal Broadcast Group for an over-the-air ATSC broadcasting solution. The system has been sold by systems integrator Heartland Video Systems, Inc., a long standing TANDBERG Television business partner. TANDBERG Television’s MPEG-2 encoding systems offer ATSC broadcasters newly expanded solutions for the digital transition, including AFD signaling capabilities for downstream analog conversion. The first of Journal Broadcast Group's stations to use the encoders has selected a multi-pass statistical multiplexing solution, which increases the bandwidth efficiency when simultaneously broadcasting multiple streams of HD and SD.

Corinex announces that Bell Aliant selected its home networking technology to aid in the deployment of Aliant TV. Corinex’s AnyWire Connectivity product line solves the in-home wiring problem plaguing IPTV service providers by connecting the DSL modem to multiple set top boxes. It provides an easy set up that reduces the installation time of Aliant TV.

Aliant TV offers customers 240 channels of full digital content, all starting at $29 per month for the first 12 months. The service has been successfully deployed to Aliant TV customers with category-5 Ethernet cabling being installed for in-home connectivity. Now with Corinex’s AnyWire Connectivity products, adapters which utilize existing coaxial cabling (or electrical wiring) in the home are reducing the install times for in-home connectivity for Bell Aliant installers and customers.

TANDBERG Television is launching a new professional integrated receiver decoder range which will be on display in its booth #SU4210 at the NAB Show (Las Vegas, April 14-17, 2008). Optimized for specific high volume video distribution applications, the new RX8300 series will simplify content acquisition for cable, satellite and telco operators in the all-digital future of TV broadcasting.

Both the RX8310 Distribution Receiver and the RX8320 ATSC Broadcast Receiver include a mixture of standard features to meet the majority of needs in their target applications, with the flexibility to add advanced features should the operator require them. Each variant provides an RF demodulator combined with industry standard ASI transport stream input, for network delivery flexibility. Transport stream output is provided as a standard feature for content turnaround into digital cable, satellite and telco broadcast networks. The RX8300 range has the capability to provide single or multi-service descrambling, as well as multi-format MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC 4:2:0 video decoding. Additionally, HD services are down-converted and output as SD video; providing a simple and cost-effective route to video distribution into analog broadcast systems or for service monitoring.

Entone's award-winning Hydra IP video gateway is deployed with Minerva's iTVManager middleware platform. This fully integrated solution offers service operators a more efficient and cost-effective IPTV solution that can be quickly and easily deployed to enable advanced IPTV services, such as MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC), digital video recorder, pay-per-view and video on demand.

Entone's Hydra IP video gateway enables service operators to distribute video signals throughout the home without the costs or installation complexities of putting a set-top box in every room or rewiring the home. Hydra dramatically improves the business case for IPTV services by reducing the CAPEX and OPEX associated with IP video deployment.

Entone's award-winning Hydra IP video gateway is being deployed by HickoryTech for its IPTV rollout in Minnesota. HickoryTech offers integrated communication products and services to business and residential customers over a regional fiber network. Their telecom sector, with facilities in Minnesota and Iowa, offers local voice, long distance, high-speed Internet, digital TV and IP networking services to residential and business customers. Their Enventis sector provides IP-based voice, data and network solutions to businesses across a five-state region.

TANDBERG Television provided a combination of compression products and managed services to NBC Universal for the launch of its new high definition channels, including Bravo HD, USA HD, Sci-Fi HD and CNBC HD, which premiered October 3rd. The deal enabled NBC Universal to expand its program offerings to cable, satellite and IPTV service providers throughout the United States.

TANDBERG Television supplied its DVB-S2 8PSK modulators with Prekor to distribute programming to service providers. The DVB-S2 modulation standard is designed to increase the throughput of a satellite transponder, or increase downlink margins for better reception. Prekor, which recently won the award for best satellite contribution/distribution/transmission solution at the Cable & Satellite International Product of the Year Awards during IBC 2007, optimizes the use of DVB-S2 8PSK modulation by pre-correcting for distortions that can greatly reduce the maximum transmitted bit rate.

Spirent announced the ability to conduct IP video quality testing on its Tech-X Plus. With this new feature, Spirent enables field technicians to verify IPTV subscribers’ Quality of Experience by measuring both the transport network and video content. This provides a more thorough service quality measurement and an accurate indication of the subscribers’ viewing experience.

Agilent Technologies announces a new software option for its handheld Ethernet performance tester, FrameScope Pro. The new option simplifies the deployment and troubleshooting of IPTV services and enables service quality tests at the residential gateway. Validating network integrity and transport quality of service are critical to ensuring a high quality of experience to new video-service subscribers. Technicians of telecom service providers who deploy Ethernet-based video need appropriate tools to analyze the network and service conditions at a residential gateway. Visual and aural inspections of the delivered content are less reliable methods to detect marginal network conditions; analysis of the transport stream and service transactions can reveal undesired network behavior before artifacts and drop-outs become visible and audible.

Calix announces the general availability of the 700G gigabit passive optical network optical network terminals. This expansion to the Calix 700-Series family of ITU G.984-compliant 2.5 Gbps GPON ONTs adds Gigabit Ethernet subscriber-side interfaces, enabling telcos to trump cable operators in terms of the bandwidth they can deliver to their customers. The 700G ONTs allow telcos to offer peak downstream rates of up to one thousand megabits per second, compared to 160 megabits per second for the as-yet-undeployed DOCSIS 3.0. Measured in terms of average or sustained bandwidth—a much more relevant comparison—telcos can deliver up to 80 megabits per second per subscriber in typical configurations versus a pedestrian 640 kilobits per second for DOCSIS 3.0-enabled cable operators using 250-home nodes. This represents an enormous 122-to-1 downstream bandwidth advantage for telcos with a similar differential in terms of increasingly important upstream bandwidth.

SeaChange is introducing another innovative new storage solution, this time addressing broadcasters’ requirements for massive amounts of video storage to fit within a dramatically low-profile footprint. The SeaChange Drawer of Drives supports up to 72 terabytes of storage (3,300+ hours of High Definition content at 50 Mb/s) in a remarkably compact 10-inch-high chassis, giving broadcasters a core storage system that can accommodate today’s demands, particularly as broadcasters shift to HD video workflows.

Tzero Technologies revealed today its new ZeroWire chipset (TZC7200), a WiMedia standards-based, ultra wideband (UWB) semiconductor solution optimized for real-time delivery of high-definition video, wirelessly and over wires. The chipset gives consumer electronics manufacturers the ability to create new classes of wireless video devices – HDTVs, digital video recorders, and more – that are easier and less expensive to install.

ZeroWire allows service providers to expand next-generation broadband and IPTV services. It delivers the performance and sustained throughput to support multiple high-definition video streams. Because it works over existing coax cabling, it significantly reduces the cost of installation.

Sun Microsystems introduces the Sun Streaming System -- the industry's first massively scalable and cost-effective video delivery platform for cable and telecommunications operators, which helps operators increase subscriber revenue by offering new video-based services and personalized, unique video streams to each consumer. Unveiled at the 6th annual Tribeca Film Festival in Lower Manhattan, a world-class venue for the international film community to demonstrate the power of film, the system leverages the Solaris 10 Operating System to deliver the highest video streaming capacity in the industry by enabling cost-effective personalized video delivery over existing optical network infrastructure -- consequently reshaping the economics and quality of video delivery services.

Ikanos Communications introduces the Fusiv Vx180, the industry's fastest integrated VDSL2 gateway processor. The Vx180 single chip, multi-mode VDSL2 gateway processor provides 2.7 GHz of processing power, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), multi-mode DSL and security, while supporting best-in-class Quality of Service and wire speed performance.

The Vx180 is designed to enable the development of a high performance, integrated residential gateway platform for multi-play applications. The Vx180 reduces space and power requirements by combining Ikanos' industry leading VDSL2 customer premises equipment PHY and its widely deployed Fusiv network processor architecture onto a single chip. Ikanos' field-proven physical layer technology supports VDSL2, ADSL2+, ADSL2, ADSL and VDSL standards, and supports IPTV and triple-play optimized features such as Dynamic Rate Repartitioning and Seamless Rate Adaptation, which are expected to be incorporated into future standards enhancements. The Vx180 also supports maximum interleaver and deinterleaver memory for high levels of Impulse Noise Protection, as well as on-chip Quality of Service and wire speed performance, all of which is intended to enable optimum viewing experience.

Comtrend announces that Oklahoma-based Pioneer Telephone Cooperative has selected Comtrend’s CT-5621 Multi-port ADSL2+ Router as the key residential premises equipment to support deployment of IPTV and broadband services to its customers.

IPTV is a major initiative for Pioneer, which covers 30 Western Oklahoma counties. The cooperative chose CT-5621 routers due to its superior feature set and proven performance record established by a wide range of telecoms.

Comtrend’s CT-5621 is a versatile router that supports a wide array of residential and SOHO services at high-speed ADSL2+ rates up to 24Mbps. The device has four Ethernet ports and a USB interface; it also functions as either a router or a bridge, allowing multiple computers to access the Internet simultaneously.

Conexant Systems, Inc. introduced a family of integrated VDSL2 customer premises equipment (CPE) system-on-chip (SoC) solutions. The new SoC family has been optimized to address a variety of triple-play voice, video, and data products ranging from VDSL2 voice-enabled CPE gateways to basic bridges. The SoCs feature a flexible architecture that supports all VDSL2 profiles up to "30a" for applications requiring 100/100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) operation, an integrated VoIP engine, and a powerful network processor. The chipsets also include advanced CPE technology that significantly improves VDSL performance by reducing interference on the copper lines, enabling operators to increase their subscriber coverage area.