Widevine will demonstrate its content protection solution to protect experiences powered by Microsoft Silverlight. Widevine's cross-platform content security technology is a Hollywood studio approved DRM standard in use today by several major content providers and studios to encrypt and protect premium content offerings which now can be delivered in Silverlight. Widevine will demonstrate its Cypher for Digital Media solution in the Microsoft booth at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas.

According to industry sources, Telecom Italia has left Microsoft's IPTV platform collecting dust on the shelf. Suspected reasons for this are that Telecom Italia needed to launch its triple-play IPTV service quicker than Microsoft could provide. Telecom Italia decided to move away from the Microsoft platform because of indecision's, repeated delays, and their Telefónica investor.

Harmonic's new DiviCom Ion AVC standard definition encoder has successfully completed encoder conformance testing for the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia software platform. The test was administered by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft Mediaroom Interoperability and Qualification Lab program, which is intended to enable the ongoing interoperability and compliance of encoders used in deployments of Microsoft Mediaroom. A Microsoft Mediaroom ecosystem partner, Harmonic powers the video headends for a majority of Microsoft’s IPTV customers. Harmonic delivers over 5,000 broadcast video channels around the world to more than four million IPTV subscribers, and counts more than 100 telco operators as its customers.

Swarmcast has joined the Microsoft Silverlight Partner Initiative, a program that creates a universal language for media applications. The Swarmcast open video platform integrates seamlessly with rich-media platforms such as Silverlight to enable high quality, cost-effective video delivery over the Internet. Swarmcast is joining the Initiative to further its mission of providing content providers and rich-media developers with the tools to engage global audiences with high-quality video.

The Silverlight platform enhances user experience with interactive Web applications by enabling content providers to combine video and animation, while helping control costs. The offering also provides extended Web audio and video streaming and playback capabilities via Microsoft Windows Media technologies.

Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia platform is delivering video entertainment experiences to more than 1 million set-top boxes worldwide and its service provider customers are adding two new IPTV subscriber households every minute. The Mediaroom platform is on pace to reach 1 million subscriber homes in the first quarter of 2008. These milestones demonstrate the growing consumer demand for IPTV and connected television experiences that go beyond traditional pay-TV offerings. Helping to lead this connected TV revolution, Microsoft Mediaroom is transforming the way viewers experience television, movies, music, photos and games in their own homes.

Microsoft announces the availability of DVR Anywhere on the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia platform, giving DVR consumers the flexibility to watch their recorded TV programs on any TV in their home, further enhancing the platform's powerful connected TV capabilities. In addition, Microsoft also announced it is working with leading programmers, including Showtime Networks Inc. and Turner Broadcasting System Inc.'s TNT and CNN networks, to showcase new connected TV applications and scenarios that are enabled by the extensible Microsoft Mediaroom platform.

With DVR Anywhere, viewers could begin watching a movie in the living room, resume viewing it on the kitchen TV during dinner, and finish watching the same movie from the comfort of their bedroom. In addition, members of a household will never have to fight over the remote control again, due to the capability to watch the same or different recorded programs from multiple TVs in the home simultaneously while recording other shows to be viewed at their convenience.

The NBA will employ Microsoft Silverlight on NBA.com to further enhance the online video experience for NBA fans around the world. Microsoft Silverlight, a cross-browser, multiplatform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web, will also be utilized on WNBA.com and NBADevelopmentLeague.com.

NBA.com will feature a full-screen NBA photo gallery, offer video highlights and deliver additional interactive applications throughout the site using Microsoft Silverlight. Through the use of Microsoft Corp.'s new application, the NBA will be able to provide further access to its extensive digital video library, integrate the video experience seamlessly into the site, and ultimately provide fans with access to more online video features.

Reliance Communications and Microsoft announce a strategic partnership to deliver a highly connected, personalized TV experience to consumers in India through Reliance's IPTV service, which will be powered by the award-winning Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV software platform. Reliance Communications shall have the exclusive deployment right for the platform in India.

Microsoft released Silverlight 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering richer user experiences on the Web. In addition, Microsoft will work with Novell to deliver Silverlight support for Linux, called Moonlight, and based on the project started on mono-project.com.

Silverlight significantly reduces development and deployment costs and provides enhanced Web audio and video streaming and playback using industry-leading Windows Media Technologies. Microsoft unveiled new Silverlight customer experiences on “Entertainment Tonight,” HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment, and also launched the Silverlight Partner Initiative, a program designed to foster collaboration among solution providers, content delivery networks, tools vendors and design agencies.

The Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia platform allows consumers to see multiple channels, programs and camera angles on one screen.

Microsoft announces the availability of Microsoft Mediaroom, the latest update to its award-winning IPTV software platform, featuring several new multimedia capabilities, including in-home personal music and photo sharing, dynamic MultiView (multiple picture-in-picture) capabilities, Multimedia Application Environment for development of interactive services and advanced applications, and digital terrestrial television support. Microsoft also introduced the Microsoft Mediaroom Application Development toolkit, which provides service providers and third-party developers with tools to create compelling, revenue-generating TV-based applications that run on the platform.

With this latest release, Microsoft is renaming its IPTV platform Microsoft Mediaroom to better reflect the broader set of new connected entertainment experiences made possible today and the types of experiences anticipated in the future. In addition, the Microsoft Mediaroom name and identity are designed to be used by service providers as an ingredient brand to create a powerful competitive differentiator to support their consumer marketing activities.

At NAB2007 Microsoft announced additional top technology suppliers providing technologies that support the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform, which is being deployed by several leading service providers worldwide. The announcement illustrates the accelerating growth of the IPTV industry and Microsoft's commitment to work with a broad range of solutions providers to ensure ongoing industry innovation while allowing service providers the flexibility to choose from a variety of technologies to deploy IPTV services.

Microsoft announces the upcoming availability of Xbox 360 Elite, a new model of the video game and entertainment system that will include a 120GB hard drive, a high-definition multimedia interface port, a high-definition cable, and a premium black finish for the console, wireless controller and Xbox LIVE headset. Xbox 360 Elite has enough space for a library of Xbox LIVE Arcade games and thousands of songs, as well as downloadable high-definition TV shows and movies available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. The new 120GB hard drive also will be sold as a stand-alone accessory to give current Xbox 360 owners greater choice and flexibility in their games and entertainment experience. Additional Xbox 360 Elite accessories, such as the black Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, Xbox 360 Play & Charge kit and the Xbox 360 rechargeable battery, will be available separately. The Xbox 360 Elite and its accessories are expected to begin arriving in U.S. stores on April 29.

If you're still debating about whether Microsoft's IPTV software is full of bugs or production ready, the Register has a write-up with Microsoft's response to AT&T.

If you're wondering whether Microsoft's IPTV has the right feature set, Microsoft reveals the results of a 7,000 person survey asking what features viewers would most like to see implemented. "They want whole home DVR, multiview and VoD services and an easier program guide."

Additionally, T-Online France is full of praise for Microsoft IPTV and says "it has been ranked number one in features by both benchmarking organizations ip-label and Witbe, and voted as the system with the best features by Journal du Net."

The folks at GameVideos provide a good look at IPTV via the Xbox 360 and have a question and answer period with two Microsoft execs, Chris Satchell and Albert Penello.

Satchell and Penello discuss Microsoft's strategy for the Xbox 360 as an IPTV set-top box and their plans on utilizing it as a personal video recorder (PVR). Microsoft currently only provides a 20 Gb hard drive, which would only allow for a limited number of recorded movies or television shows. Clearly Microsoft will need to provide a hard drive with larger capacity to provide decent PVR capabilities. With that being said, Penello speculates about a different version of the Xbox or hard drive for a consumer with IPTV contrary to a retail consumer.

While Microsoft has only announced a single partnership with AT&T for use of the Xbox 360 with their IPTV U-verse service, Satchell says the company is talking to a lot of providers now.



Part two of the interview is here.

Like Apple with the iPhone, Microsoft has certainly caused a media frenzy with their IPTV over Xbox 360 announcement. There are articles abound either proclaiming the news or denouncing it as a distant dream.

Here are some interesting articles both pertaining to the Xbox 360 and not:

• Light Reading's Cisco & Microsoft: IPTV War Ahead? speculates whether the two behemoths may soon face each other as Cisco assembles their own IPTV "ecosystem".
• Next, jump over to Engadget who got to experiment with IPTV running over a Xbox 360 system. They also have quite a few pictures of the interface.
• Lastly, Engadget writes that Microsoft has partnered with AT&T for their IPTV over Xbox 360 service.

Lastly, check out the comments in the two Engadget articles as I often find them more entertaining then the actual article.