TANDBERG Television's iPlex IPTV video processing platform has been selected by North State Communications for its new IPTV headend. In order to maintain full control of its content North State Communications elected to build a full headend and receive television programming directly from broadcasters for MPEG-4 AVC encoding or transcoding. At launch, the TANDBERG headend will deliver over 250 channels of SD and HD programs to North State subscribers. The complete MPEG-4 AVC IPTV solution yields significant bandwidth savings by delivering content at the highest image quality and the lowest possible bit rates.

Tianjin Broadcast & TV Network has deployed a fully redundant cable headend built on the award-winning TANDBERG iSIS 8000 solution, including encoders, multiplexers, and QAM modulators. The system is the first deployment of TANDBERG Television’s next generation MX8400 IP multiplexer in China, and will enable Tianjin Cable to harness the efficiencies of IP as it expands its cable Pay-TV business.

Envivio's Convergence Series video headend has been selected for Türk Telekom’s IPTV project in Turkey. Türk Telekom will use Envivio 4Caster C4 SD and 4Caster HD30 HD MPEG-4 AVC encoders and the 4Manager NMS, to deliver an extensive line-up of standard and high definition channels for its new IPTV service. Envivio will highlight its complete Convergence Series video headend at IPTV World Forum 2009 in London, March 25-27, Booth 312.

Net Insight has received an order for an IPTV virtual head-end distribution network in the US. The Nimbra platform is a versatile transport solution with several unique features for virtual head-end solutions, including redundant head-end protection switching. IPTV operators deploying virtual head-end services based on the Nimbra platform not only get a network but a multi-service transport infrastructure that opens up new business opportunities, including video-on-demand, games-on-demand, and e-commerce.

Net Insight delivers the world´s most efficient and scalable optical transport solution for Broadcast and Media, Digital Terrestrial TV, Mobile TV and IPTV/CATV networks.

SK Broadband is deploying a TANDBERG Television IPTV head end, which includes HD and SD MPEG-4 AVC encoding. This solution will enable SK Broadband to launch linear broadcast television services in 2009, following the recent granting of regulatory approval for Korean IPTV providers to introduce broadcast services to complement existing video on demand content. SK Broadband, intends to introduce 30 standard-definition and 10 HD channels initially.

KT has selected a TANDBERG Television IPTV head end to support the continued growth of its Mega TV IPTV service. Mega TV has over 700,000 subscribers and provides interactive and pay per view services, including movies on-demand. KT will use TANDBERG Television’s market leading EN8090 HD MPEG-4 AVC and EN8030 SD MPEG-4 AVC encoders to expand its linear broadcast TV services.

Midwest Video Solutions has selected Motorola's MPEG-4 Network Encoder for deployment by the end of the year. This upgrade to the Motorola multi-channel MPEG-4 AVC network encoder family will enable MVS to migrate two diverse MPEG-2 headend platforms at separate locations to a single consolidated MPEG-4 platform, streamlining the delivery of content while accelerating the delivery of personalized media experiences and increasing programming choice for customers.

MTS Allstream has selected Harmonic’s MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) HD and SD video processing solutions for an IPTV service expansion. The upgrade will enable MTS Allstream to deliver equivalent MPEG-2 quality at half the bandwidth and a broader HD and SD channel line-up to its customers in Manitoba, Canada, further enhancing MTS Allstream’s advanced and differentiated multi-service offering.

Tiscali has signed an agreement to supply Cisco Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture and Cisco IPTV headend equipment and technology for the Tiscali.tv IPTV service. The comprehensive portfolio of Cisco video headend products, supported by the company’s long-standing expertise in IP-based video delivery and the systems integration skills of Cisco SciCare Services, provided the headend solution to support Tiscali’s new SD digital video service.

COMSTAR-Direct is expanding its IPTV head-end to support MPEG-4 AVC encoding and transcoding. The Moscow-based ISP is a long-standing customer of TANDBERG Television’s MPEG-2 encoders for its standard definition television service. The upgrade means COMSTAR-Direct can benefit from the higher bandwidth efficiencies of MPEG-4 AVC encoding, which is ideally suited for video over DSL networks. The addition of TANDBERG Television’s single module iPlex transcoding means the operator can ingest widely available MPEG-2 feeds and convert them to MPEG-4 AVC without the need to decode and re-encode. This one-step approach to transcoding is cost-effective, helps preserve picture quality and makes it considerably easier to re-synchronize video with subtitles. Visitors to IBC can see TANDBERG Television’s iPlex transcoding in action in Hall 1.D61.

Symmetricom announces the Q-1200 digital/IP video headend analyzer, a scalable, multichannel video headend monitoring device, which is scheduled to be generally available in September. The Q-1200 identifies video impairments to ensure a high quality delivery of advanced digital video for telco and cable operators, enabling reduced operating costs and customer churn.

Performing comprehensive audio/video analysis on 400 video streams simultaneously and content analysis for up to 100 channels, the Q-1200 accurately identifies video impairments from basic service issues to sophisticated video artifacts, such as channel audio and/or video dropout, black/blue screen, major blockiness, and more. The Q-1200 also measures video / audio with a user configurable sampling period for I frame / audio data for each channel.

Harmonic announces that SKY Italia has deployed Harmonic’s market-leading compression and IP-based statistical multiplexing solutions for its direct broadcast satellite service. Serving 4.5 million subscribers, SKY Italia is Italy’s leading payTV operator and the fifth largest satellite provider worldwide. The new headend architecture encompasses Harmonic’s industry-leading DiviCom Electra 1000 standard definition MPEG-2 encoders, the ProStream stream processing platform with DiviTrackIP distributed statistical multiplexing, and NMX Digital Service Manager.

Harmonic’s high performance compression solutions are deployed by seven of the ten largest satellite providers around the globe, reaching nearly 50 million subscribers. As demand for video, particularly HD, continues to grow, operators such as SKY Italia need to implement more bandwidth-efficient compression technology to reduce bit-rates and improve video quality.

TANDBERG Television's new RX8320 ATSC Broadcast Receiver is the recipient of a 2008 STAR Award presented by the editorial staff of TV Technology magazine at the NAB2008 convention.

The STAR Award is designed to celebrate and showcase the outstanding technological innovations available to the broadcast industry. A panel of judges consisting of TV Technology editors and columnists reviewed a variety of products, examined the technical applications and their overall contribution to the industry, and then submitted their award nominees.

As local terrestrial broadcasters in the US begin to phase out their analog broadcasts, the cable, telco and satellite operators who receive these local channels as content feeds need to deal with the transition to an all-digital ATSC environment. TANDBERG Television's RX8320 ATSC Broadcast Receiver with 8-VSB input is specifically designed to enable a simple, reliable solution to the ATSC broadcast transition for these operators.

Harmonic announced that SES AMERICOM has certified the use of the DiviCom Electra 7000 HD MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encoders and the Ion AVC SD encoders for compression of local channels in the IP-PRIME IPTV distribution platform. The multi-channel encoding systems from Harmonic offer a cost-effective solution for telcos across the United States utilizing the IP-PRIME service to seamlessly add high quality, low bit-rate local broadcast SD and HD TV channels for distribution to subscribers.

Harmonic and CANALSAT have expanded its ADSL video service with MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) based digital video solutions from Harmonic. The DiviCom Electra 7000 HD and Electra 5400 SD high density encoders enable CANALSAT to provide viewers with superior quality video at ultra-low bit-rates. Using the Harmonic solution, CANALSAT can enhance its service portfolio to meet increasing demand for HD programming, expand the SD channel lineup and increase the number of households that have access to its ADSL video service.

The CANAL+ Group distributes more than 300 television channels to viewers in France via multiple platforms, including digital terrestrial television, direct-to-home satellite, ADSL and mobile phone subscription services. CANALSAT is one of the world’s largest aggregated DSL service providers, delivering programming to consumers through several major telecommunications operators’ networks.