BRIX Networks and HWACOM Systems Deliver industry’s first STV with Integrated Service Assurance


February 27th 2007 CHELMSFORD, Mass. -- Brix Networks, the leading provider of converged service assurance solutions, and HwaCom Systems of Taipei Hsien, Taiwan, Republic of China, today announced the integration of Brix Networks' IPTV Quality Agent into HwaCom's HC-100 set-top box (STB) that gives service providers the unique ability to collect valuable video performance information and metrics on an unprecedented scale, and provides crucial, at-home visibility into providers' IP television (IPTV) services.


HwaCom's STB with the Brix IPTV Quality Agent lets service providers monitor IP video and network quality -- including highlighting the performance of the IPTV and multicast infrastructure, performing continual or on-demand diagnostics of the STB, and quantifying the user channel change experience -- for operational, troubleshooting, and customer care applications.


Brix Networks is exhibiting at next week's IPTV World Forum show, being held March 5-7, at the Olympia in London, in booth 123.

"Visibility into service performance and quality beyond the service delivery infrastructure is essential to the success of IPTV," said Gary Chen, president and CEO, HwaCom Systems. "By integrating Brix Networks' converged service assurance technology into our STBs, we can now provide carriers the operational capabilities that are necessary to gain visibility into IPTV service performance and quality -- in the last mile, residential network, and even within the home -- to improve service quality, expedite troubleshooting, and ensure customer satisfaction."


Brix is also now part of HwaCom's IPTV ecosystem, which includes system elements from headend, middleware, video servers, network equipment, and set-top-boxes with software applications. Additionally, the companies plan to develop other comprehensive IP video quality testing solutions for HwaCom's STBs in the future.


According to Steve DesRochers, vice president, solutions, at Brix Networks, "Providers have undertaken very costly infrastructure additions and upgrades to support new IPTV services, and are now under enormous pressure to ensure successful IPTV rollouts. As a result, having visibility into endpoint devices like HwaCom's STBs allow service providers to verify installations, continually improve operational efficiencies, reduce troubleshooting resolution times, validate performance and quality levels, and ensure the overall success of their IPTV services."

Centillium's Next Generation Gigabit EPON Chipset Unleashes Triple Play Capabilities Into the Home


FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 20 -- Centillium Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTLM - News), a leading provider of broadband access solutions, today announced the release of its innovative next generation Mustang(TM) 300 system-on-chip (SoC), expanding the company's end-to-end fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) semiconductor portfolio. This highly-integrated and low power FTTH solution is ideal for service providers deploying Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON) in customer premise equipment (CPE), enabling the delivery of premium Triple Play services such as bandwidth-intensive IPTV. 


According to Steve Rago of iSuppli, fiber will start to make its presence felt starting this year, with FTTH becoming a major broadband deployment initiative globally as consumers demand new capabilities for television entertainment, including interactivity, integration with voice and data communications, personalization and value-added services. Steve continues that in response to this burgeoning demand for bandwidth, it is 

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expected that service providers will ramp up their deployments of PON in 2007, driving a dramatic increase in demand for optical networking equipment and FTTH solutions. iSuppli forecasts that by 2010, the total number of FTTX PON subscribers worldwide will grow to more than 29 million. 


"OFN collaborates with Centillium in the development of its Mustang 300 system-on-chip because it enables the delivery of Triple Play services by harnessing the power of EPON technology at the highest quality of service," said Takao Tashiro, Director of Technology Planning at OFN. "Mustang 300 delivers the flexibility we need, coupled with a robust feature set on a single chip that leads to lower cost, greater performance and a quicker time to market." 


Raising the bar on performance, the Mustang chipset supports traffic management, classification and filtering for up to 256 multicast groups, and up to eight different service types, the highest in the industry. Mustang 300 has achieved the highest level of integration available by integrating all packet buffer and program memories in a compact package, reducing the ONU bill of materials (BOM) to just five components: optical transceiver, Gigabit PHY, FLASH, power supply, and Mustang 300. 


"The next generation Mustang, combined with Centillium's Colt(TM) Optical Line Terminal (OLT) SoC and Zeus 2 burst-mode transceiver strengthen the company's market position as the only silicon vendor with complete, end-to-end EPON solutions for the 'last mile'", says Didier Boivin, vice president of marketing for Centillium. "Furthermore, by integrating these optical SoCs with the award-winning Arion(TM) VDSL2 and Atlanta(TM) VoIP technologies, our solutions help system vendors and service providers reduce costs and operational complexities and achieve rapid time to value." 


The Mustang 300 simplifies service provider deployments by being fully interoperable with a variety of vendor solutions and supporting a full range of protocols and relevant standards including IEEE 802.3ah to 

ensure error- free, low latency, bandwidth efficient data transmissions over EPON networks. Furthermore, the chipset is accompanied with a robust software package and API that can be used 'right out of the box' to build a full-fledged ONU. This alleviates the need for systems vendors to develop customized software, leading to significantly lower development cost and an accelerated time to market. 

Netris Announces Successful Integration of its IPSoft iVision IPTV Middleware with Advanced Digital Broadcast's High Definition, IPTV Set-Top Boxes


February 16, 2007 Netris, a leader in IP-communications software development and system integration in Russia, announced today that it has successfully integrated its IPSoft iVision IPTV Middleware with Advanced Digital Broadcast's (www.adbglobal.com) hybrid, IPTV set-top box the ADB-3800W - ADB is a leading supplier of technology to the global digital television industry. 


ADB's award-winning unit was the world's first hybrid, high definition, single-chip IPTV set-top box, equipped with Advanced Video Coding (AVC), to be deployed in volume. The solution is now 

available for IPTV operators using the IPSoft iVision IPTV Middleware on their networks.This advanced and readily deployable solution, incorporating IPSoft iVision and ADB's advanced set-top boxes, enables operators to deliver a wide range of innovative television and interactive services to their subscribers.

 
"We always pay a special attention to IPSoft iVision IPTV Middleware interoperability with other IPTV solution components, and together with ADB we have worked hard to ensure that our customers will gain all possible benefits from the latest IPTV set-top box technology", Mikhail Grachev, Netris CEO, said. "We believe that 2007 is the year for world wide growth in high definition television and our integrated solution is ready to allow operators to present their subscribers with new and innovative services including high definition television channels and Video on Demand content". 


The ADB-3800W is an advanced digital set-top box incorporating standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) television reception based on MPEG-2 and H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC). The unit enables operators to optimise their broadcast bandwidth, whilst presenting consumers with the highest quality in sound and vision. 


"ADB prides itself on being first-to-market with new technology", highlighted Philippe Lambinet, CEO of ADB. "We were very happy to support Netris in their integration activities and in providing IPTV operators with access to a new combination of hardware and software that is available for commercial deployment". 
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Industry Group DVB Adds Dolby Digital Plus to IPTV Specifications 


Wootton Bassett, 14 February 2007-Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB) today announced the decision by the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), an industry consortium committed to designing global standards for digital TV, to include Dolby® Digital Plus audio technology as an option in the latest version of its Internet protocol television (IPTV) specifications. 


These specifications (TS 102 005) outline how IPTV digital television services may be delivered to home receivers over Internet protocol connections. DVB specifications are used by the broadcast industry as a basis for designing compatible transmission products and home receivers. 


"Viewers of IPTV services want home cinema-style sound, just like they get on DVD and other digital TV services," commented Jason Power, Market Development Manager, Dolby Laboratories. "With Dolby Digital Plus now included in the DVB specifications, telecom operators can deliver the full Dolby surround sound experience at a data rate that's practical for IPTV." 


Dolby Digital Plus (technical name: E-AC-3) is an extension of the Dolby Digital format, an audio standard for DVD-Video players worldwide, and the choice for many existing digital TV broadcasts around the world. Dolby Digital Plus provides IPTV 

operators with a flexible and efficient multichannel audio solution that maintains many of the advantages of Dolby Digital, such as connectivity to millions of home A/V receivers, while offering lower data rates and added features. Support for the technology is being built into the current generation of chipsets for IPTV. 


Dolby Digital Plus has been included in the DVB specifications at the request of operators and electronics manufacturers within the consortium. The Dolby Digital (originally known by its technical name, AC-3) format has also been included. According to the specifications, either technology may be implemented as the sole audio format in an IPTV system. Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital are already also featured in DVB specifications for digital cable satellite and terrestrial transmissions (TS 101 154) and have been selected as audio formats for HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc. 


Since the industry consortium was created in 1993, the DVB specifications for digital television have been adopted throughout Australia and Europe, and in parts of Africa, North and South America, and Asia.


SIVOO, Inc. Partners with Avenue A/Razorfish, WebTrends and 24/7 Real Media to Aid Growth of Internet TV Network


PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (February 6, 2007) - SIVOO, Inc. (OTC: BDRH.PK), the first Internet TV network of multicultural on-demand 

entertainment programming, today announced partnerships with three leading innovators in online advertising: Avenue A/Razorfish, WebTrends and 24/7 Real Media. 


SIVOO will leverage the expertise of Avenue A/Razorfish, the largest interactive marketing and technology services firm and its Avenue A� unit, the largest buyer of online media and search, to help raise visibility of the SIVOO Web site. In addition, SIVOO will tap the firm's analytic services to optimize site performance and functionality as part of SIVOO's ongoing commitment to enhance the user experience. 


"The SIVOO Internet TV Network offers a significant opportunity for advertisers as its on-demand multicultural programming serves some of the most attractive and connected demographics in the U.S. - Spanish, Chinese and Hindi-speaking Americans - and allows ads to be targeted in either English or a native language," said Chris Myers, SIVOO's chief operating officer. "We've built a solid technology foundation and look forward to working with these leading advertisers to help them effectively target their campaigns on SIVOO through banner and streaming advertisements, among other formats."


SIVOO selected WebTrends for its pioneering Web analytics solution - WebTrends Analytics� 8 - which it will use to help monitor viewers' behavior while on the SIVOO Web site. SIVOO's goal is to better understand viewers' preferences and content selections as background for the ongoing development of new features and content channels. 
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In addition, SIVOO will use 24/7 Real Media's Open AdStream 6 Applications for Publishers to serve, track and manage multiple advertising campaigns, partners and aggregators as they serve ads - both banner and streaming media - at www.sivoo.com. This breakthrough platform is based on a new generation of award-winning Open AdStream� 6, which integrates ad serving, analytics, behavioral and other targeting- and yield-management technologies. The technology is easily implemented with ready-to-use, out-of-the-box applications. 


Symmetricom Announces Carrier Class Network Time Protocol (NTP) for Next Generation Telecom Networks


San Jose, Calif. - Feb. 7, 2007 - Symmetricom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYMM), a worldwide leader in precise time and frequency products and services, today announced its new carrier class, high performance NTP plug-in server card supporting QoS for Next Generation applications such as IPTV, Billing Record Management, QoS Measurement Systems and IP Service Level Agreements (SLA) Monitoring. The new carrier class NTP server card is fully integrated into Symmetricom's TimeHub Building Integrated Timing Supply (BITS) system. Carrier class NTP meets QoS requirements of Next Generation Networks (NGN). 

 "Carriers are finding that 'best effort' enterprise class NTP is not sufficient for QoS assurance in packet networks and advanced services, such as IPTV and billing record management," commented Barry Dropping, senior director product line management for Symmetricom.

 "With the introduction of Symmetricom's high performance NTP servers on a card, the BITS platform can now deliver carrier class NTP to meet demanding NGN packet timing requirements, providing performance, scalability, availability and security for delivery of advanced services." 


Telecommunication carriers have typically deployed enterprise class NTP servers in central locations to provide coarse time stamping for applications such as billing records and time correlation of alarm events. NTP that was in the domain of the data center could be distributed widely across the network since accuracies of half a second were generally adequate, and transaction rate loading was low. However, NGN applications such as IPTV are highly dependant on carrier class NTP. Time coordination of massive amounts of digital content in the head end serving locations is reliant on accurate and secure NTP timestamps. 


Symmetricom's NTP server cards are fully integrated into the TimeHub BITS system. NTP cards can be installed as single servers or redundant pairs in any available master or expansion shelf output slot. Already in large scale deployment with major North American carriers, the TimeHub 5500 is the next generation BITS designed for carrier class networks. It is a modular, fully redundant timing distribution system that tracks incoming timing references and qualifies the signals against network timing standards. It then filters and distributes precise timing to all equipment in the central office. 

National Lambdarail Network and OSTN Unite to Provide IPTV to U.S. Institutions


CYPRESS, CA - FEBRUARY 06, 2007 -National LambdaRail (NLR) today partnered with Open Student Television Network (OSTN) to deliver IPTV programming to its members, including 150 universities and research institutions with more than 10 million end users. OSTN is the leading provider of educational and foreign language IPTV content and student-produced programming. 


Using one infrastructure capable of transmitting 10 billion bits of data per second (10 Gbps); NLR supports several distinct networks for the U.S. research community. NLR deploys operationally separate experimental and production networks existing side-by-side. While the production networks provide users with guaranteed levels of reliability and performance, experimental networks provide researchers with national-scale test beds.


"One of the challenges that visionary researchers face is transferring knowledge through education on their discoveries to researchers, students and the public," said Tom West, NLR President and CEO. "OSTN CableTV is undoubtedly going to increase opportunities to deliver high-performance packages of public, foreign language and entertainment channels over NLR and our members' regional networks, and provide an exciting new channel for educational programming online. I see this relationship as a prime example of the power of higher education working together. We are pleased to take 

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the lead in promoting and deploying this channel to our members." 


NLR is owned and governed by its members, who also own and operate 21 U.S. regional optical networks (RONs). NLR connects with international peers to create a global optical-network cyber-infrastructure. 


OSTN includes OSTN CableTV, the leading provider of educational and foreign language IPTV content, and OSTN Channel, which is the premiere outlet for student-produced programming around the world. 


OSTN launched in 2005 with the only 24-hour, seven-day global channel exclusively devoted to student-produced programming. In 2006, OSTN added CableTV, which delivers educational and foreign language TV channels to colleges and universities via NLR and other networks. OSTN now is delivered to 41 million users at 4,500 university member campuses and 36 countries around the globe. 


OSTN CableTV includes educational channels such as University of California Television (UCTV). The foreign language channels can include CCTV (Chinese), TV5 (French), RAI (Italian), ART (Arabic), TV 

 

Polonia (Polish), SBTN (Vietnamese), MBC (Korean), RTN (Russian), TFC (Filipino), TV Asia (South Asian), TV JAPAN (Japanese), CTI Zhong Tian Channel (Chinese), and C1R (Russian).

 
"We are pleased to partner with NLR, which allows members to leverage their investments in its advanced network connectivity to access education and foreign language and IPTV programming," said Prashant Chopra, OSTN Chief Executive Officer. "Every NLR-connected college, university and K-12 school now has unprecedented access to content from sources across the globe. Students now have the opportunity to submit content to OSTN, which will be delivered to millions of peers." 


NLR member Duke University joined OSTN in March of 2006, and NLR member Case Western Reserve University joined OSTN in December of 2005. OSTN partnered with Florida Lambda Rail (FLR), a member 

of NLR, in January of 2007 to deliver content to FLR's 10 member universities and more than 260,000 students, staff, and faculty.


Other NLR members include Cisco Systems, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, Cornell University/Northeast LambdaRail, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, Front Range GigaPop/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Lonestar Education and Research Network, Louisiana Board of Regents, Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership/the Virginia Tech Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oklahoma State Board of Regents, Pacific Northwest Gigapop, Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center/University of Pittsburgh, Southeastern Universities Research Association Southern Light Rail and the University of New Mexico (on behalf of the State of New Mexico).

Streaming21 and Zentek Deploy "Karaoke on Demand" for M2B World 

Singapore - February 2, 2007 - Streaming21, the world leader in broadcast-quality streaming solutions, and Zentek Singapore, the world leader in digital communications, have announced that they have successfully delivered Asia's most popular entertainment, Karaoke on Demand (KoD), for M2B World.


M2B World is a global broadband media entertainment leader, providing over 100 channels of interactive Entertainment-on-Demand, Education-on-Demand and e-commerce. Available over broadband channels, Internet portals and 3G devices, M2B World's services are offered internationally, in countries such as the US, China, Japan and Singapore. Residential Karaoke on Demand will be added to its impressive entertainment on-demand lineup and launched in January, following an intensive Singapore marketing campaign. KoD is a key factor in the continued penetration of the rapidly expanding Chinese broadband entertainment market.


Unlike other commercial Karaoke on Demand deployments which rely on expensive 

managed networks, Streaming21 and Zentek's joint-developed KoD service offers full-screen TV playback with intelligent personalization and interactive features over open broadband networks. Subscribers can easily order songs, follow moving lyrics on TV screens, and enjoy singing with family and friends in the privacy and convenience of their own homes. Choice of high-quality karaoke videos ranges from the latest hits to classic songs. 


Kazuo Yoshimura, Managing Director of Zentek Singapore said, "As the digital home entertainment market continues to accelerate, Karaoke on Demand will be a key competitive differentiator for M2B to motivate more subscribers and drive more revenues." 


"Zentek believe the IPTV industries will be one of the main streams for many countries. We are confident that by integrating our expertise and worldwide sales channels plus Streaming21's proven track record of delivering IPTV solutions to broadband providers worldwide will create exciting future growth opportunities for both companies," Yoshimura-san added.


Dr. Joe Lin, President and CEO of Streaming21 said, "Streaming21's KoD solution creates new market opportunities with demonstrated growth potential, especially in Asia Pacific. We have built a reputation for providing carrier-grade IPTV solutions to numerous telcos in Asia and our award-winning solutions allow any Broadband ISPs, Mobile Carriers and xSP providers to quickly launch IPTV services with minimum capital investment. We are confident that KoD will be an exciting new service for consumers, and will generate new opportunities for innovation and growth in the IPTV industry."

The Karaoke on Demand solution is able to accommodate numerous karaoke titles with carrier-class stability. Intuitive EPG (electronic program guide), unique interactive features, convenient on-line payment and a powerful service management system offer immediate adoption of new home entertainment services. Additional interactivity features and services, such as online karaoke contests, on-line voting and more, are easily integrated into the iTV platform. Karaoke is an extremely popular form of entertainment in Asia. The joint efforts of Streaming21 and Zentek realize a dream of delivering Asia's most popular entertainment direct to the living room.

UTStarcom Partners With AKSH Optifibre to Deliver First IPTV Service in India With MTNL


ALAMEDA, Calif., UTStarcom, Inc. (Nasdaq: UTSI), a global leader in IP-based, end-to-end networking solutions and services, today announced a three-year contract through its partnership with AKSH Optifibre Ltd. to deploy its RollingStream(TM) end-to-end 

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IPTV solution with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) in India. The contract represents the first commercial IPTV deployment in India and AKSH Optifibre Ltd. is the first company to launch IPTV in India. AKSH is the pioneer in optifibre fiber and cable technologies and their main product is a Fiber-to-the-Home solution. 


"Consumers have come to expect sterling services that are both innovative and affordable from MTNL," said Shri RSP Sinha, chairman and managing director at MTNL. "We take the lead, yet again, in ushering in a true revolution in home entertainment with the country's first IPTV service. IPTV provides an interactive viewing experience and allows for multitude of exciting revenue generating applications to be deployed. Our existing presence in more than four million homes in New Delhi and Mumbai through our broadband service will give MTNL a tremendous headstart in changing the way people watch television." 

 The service, which will utilize MTNL's existing broadband network as the content delivery backbone, will consist of traditional broadcast television, video- and music-on-demand, videoconferencing capabilities and time-shifted TV, allowing users to access television content on any channel up to one week in the past. All MTNL broadband subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai are anticipated to have access to the service, which launched in December 2006. 


"By pricing the basic level of service at 125 rupees, we hope to attract a large number of our broadband subscribers to our IPTV service and drive revenue growth through the additional value-added services, like time-shift capabilities and video-on-demand, enabled by UTStarcom's RollingStream," Sinha added. 


"This contract is a testament to both UTStarcom's worldwide leadership in the IPTV industry as well as our dominant position as a provider of innovative broadband 

technologies to the Indian market," said David King, senior vice president of international sales and marketing. "UTStarcom's award-winning RollingStream IPTV solution is now deployed with leading service providers in China, Japan and India, which we believe proves UTStarcom's position as the leader in IPTV deployments worldwide." 


"The cooperation with UTStarcom ideally complements our know-how," said Dr. Kailash S. Choudhari, managing director at AKSH Optifibre. "UTStarcom's RollingStream offers an end-to-end IPTV solution enabling us to deliver broadcast quality TV and on-demand entertainment service programming over IP networks. This enables us to offer even more comprehensive solutions and services in the area of IPTV, now and for the next three years. The start of IPTV services with MTNL is clearing the way for deployment of Fiber-to-the-Home solutions at the subscriber's home."

Copyright 2007 Althos Inc.  All rights reserved.