IBC will once again see TANDBERG Television setting the standard for the digital media industry as the company uses the 2006 event in Amsterdam to launch industry changing technologies for video compression, on-demand and interactive television. A significant highlight of the company's IBC stand (Hall 1:461) will be the unveiling of TANDBERG Television's next-generation high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) MPEG-4 AVC encoding solutions. The move continues the company's market leading momentum in the MPEG-4 AVC arena and brings a step change in digital video distribution by combining the broadest choice of density and enhanced encoding features with the industry's leading picture quality versus bandwidth performance through bandwidth improvements of up to 50% over currently deployed MPEG-4 AVC units.

TANDBERG Television's next-generation compression will launch simultaneously across the TANDBERG encoding family with the introduction of the new EN8030 MPEG-4 AVC SD and EN8090 MPEG-4 AVC HD/SD ultracompression broadcast encoders, alongside the introduction of new MPEG-4 AVC HD and SD ultracompression encoding modules for the Plex range of high density, multi-channel encoders. The new encoders enable HDTV services to be delivered at data rates below 6Mbits/s, with similar improvements to SD services, and are designed to enable operators to deliver HD and SD multi-channel and single channel services across cable, satellite, telco and terrestrial networks.

"We are excited to continue to deliver step-change improvements in advanced compression standards for the 5th IBC running with our next-generation MPEG-4 AVC encoders. These encoders establish new performance levels for the compression industry, coupled with unmatched flexibility, enabling broadcasters and operators to enhance their services across the entire video distribution chain," says Eric Cooney, President and CEO of TANDBERG Television.

"In addition, on-demand, interactive television is rapidly becoming a prerequisite for successful operators. Our integrated applications for next-generation television enable operators and content providers to launch and monetize on-demand digital video businesses across a wide choice of platforms, including cable, satellite, terrestrial, IPTV, wireless and the Internet."

At IBC 2006 visitors will be able to see live demonstrations of the new TANDBERG Television encoding products in satellite direct-to-home and IPTV demonstrations, as well as part of contribution and distribution networks. The new encoders are an integral part of the recently launched TANDBERG iSIS 8000 IP system, which will have its European debut at IBC this year. Designed to change the face of IP video head-ends in both contribution and distribution networks and in large and small scale DTH cable, satellite, terrestrial and telco platforms, the iSIS 8000 IP system is based on best-in-class MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and SMPTE VC-1 video encoding and transcoding. It includes IP multiplexers, multi-platform professional receivers and TANDBERG Reflex™, the most widely deployed statistical multiplexer in MPEG-4 AVC SD and HD, all brought together under a single control and management system, TANDBERG nCompass.

The TANDBERG Television IBC stand (Hall 1:461) will be divided into a number of demonstration zones that will include:

Satellite DTH - HD delivery will be a major focus of the satellite DTH zone as TANDBERG Television demonstrates the technologies and continuing commitment to innovation that has given it a tremendous market lead in global HDTV. With almost 1000 HD MPEG-4 AVC channels deployed to date, TANDBERG Television will show how its next-generation encoders take HDTV to a higher plain, delivering transponder cost savings and the opportunity to add in more HD channels. For example, a 36MHz transponder with DVB-S2 and QPSK can now fit more than 6 channels of full-resolution HD and with DVB-S2 and 8PSK more than 8 channels of full-resolution HD, a 3-4 times improvement on currently available technology.

IPTV - TANDBERG Television is a global market leader and has already helped over 135 IPTV operators deliver thousands of TV channels to more than 2 million subscribers world-wide. At IBC the company will show its interactive solutions for on-demand IPTV and the latest, high-density encoding performance from the new MPEG-4 AVC HD and SD ultracompression encoders, based on TANDBERG Television's next-generation compression platform which enables 2 full-resolution HDTV channels over ADSL2@2km. TANDBERG Television will also show its fully integrated IPTV head-end product line, packaged in telco or broadcast chassis form factors, which present the industry's widest selection of encoding and video processing technologies for streaming, transrating, transcoding, high density encoding and premium encoding with solutions that are shipping today for HD and SD MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and SMPTE VC-1.

Cable - IP will be a major feature of the cable demonstrations with advanced IP based head-end solutions and the iPlex providing a cost effective route to digital cable deployment for large and small operators. TANDBERG Television will also show its latest Edge QAM technology and its new RX5130 multi-channel transport descrambler which is set to create a new benchmark for turnaround in cable by enabling operators who want to turnaround digital content from off-air sources to remove conditional access scrambling from multiple services in a single space saving 1RU product.

On-Demand - TANDBERG Television will show complete systems for video-on-demand, advertising insertion and management solutions, and content distribution and ingest. Through the OpenStream Digital Services Platform™, TANDBERG Television provides a complete on-demand solution that spans content production, delivery and back-office management, ensuring the secure and timely delivery of content to on-demand systems.

Content Distribution and Delivery - The content distribution and delivery zone will demonstrate the new release of zBand 6.0. zBand software enables the largest consumer PUSH VOD systems in the world including the US based MovieBeam service that currently passes over 50 million homes with both HD and SD content. zBand's ability to efficiently multicast content to millions of subscribers or unicast targeted content to individual clients makes it the most flexible content distribution & delivery system available.

Interactive Solutions - TANDBERG Television will show its latest interactive solutions that combine its interactive and VOD technologies. These include interactive advertising, interactive broadband, and interactive T-commerce.

Content Exchange - The Content Exchange zone will demonstrate TANDBERG Television's latest end-to-end Contribution and Distribution solutions from low delay contribution links, to advanced compression solutions in both HD and SD using a range of transmission technologies including both satellite and terrestrial interfaces.

Making its European debut at IBC will be the RX1290 Multi-Format professional receiver, recently deployed by CCTV for distribution of FIFA World Cup 2006 content in MPEG-4 AVC HD from Germany into Beijing. Visitors can also see the first demonstration of a JPEG 2000 solution enabling a HD-SDI video feed to be partially compressed for carriage over IP networks.

Mobile Contribution - For IBC 2006, TANDBERG Television will be presenting the latest additions to the TANDBERG Voyager range of content acquisition systems. The show will see the European debut of groundbreaking HD digital satellite (EN5940) and electronic newsgathering solutions (EN5950) based on the TANDBERG Television award-winning MPEG-4 AVC HD compression engine. At the same time, TANDBERG Television will respond to the increase in demand for HD content with a number of bandwidth savings and cost reduction initiatives including the addition of DVB-S2 modulation to its DSNG range and support for the HDV format.