SES AMERICOM announces that it will showcase its industry-leading IP Prime MPEG-4 IPTV service with thirteen exhibitors that have been important contributors to the development of SES AMERICOM’s platform, at the TelcoTV Conference and Expo being held October 23 to 25 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA. SES AMERICOM, the only company delivering MPEG-4 IPTV service to telecommunications companies and other operators, will locate a fully-functioning IP PRIME headend at the conference site using the same equipment used by IP-PRIME customers. This headend will receive television signals beamed to the conference over the SES AMERICOM satellite network from the company’s IPTV broadcast center in Vernon, Valley, N.J.

IP-PRIME offers the best quality high definition television in the IPTV industry which has been consistently demonstrated in side-by-side comparisons against cable and direct-to-home satellite services. The IP-PRIME demonstration at TelcoTV will include an array of HD and standard definition channels. In addition to SES-AMERICOM, which will be displaying IP-PRIME in Booth 821, the following technical contributors will showcase IP-PRIME in their booths:

• Advanced Media Technologies (Booth 521)
• Amino Communications (Booth 437)
• CISCO – Network (off the floor)
• Dascom Systems Group (Booth 925)
• Entone Technologies (Booth 107)
• Globecomm Systems, Inc. (Booth 831)
• International Datacasting (Booth 941)
• NDS (Booth 214)
• Nokia Siemens Networks (Booth121)
• National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (Booth 921)
• Occam Networks (Booth 721)
• RGB Networks (Booth 122)
• Verimatrix (Booth 137)

In June of this year, after completing extensive and successful technical trials with large, medium and small sized telcos across the United States, IP-PRIME became commercially available to any North American operator looking for a fast, cost-effective means to offer their customers a world-class television service. By September both BEK Communications in North Dakota and West Kentucky Rural Telephone Cooperative in Kentucky were delivering IP-PRIME channels to subscribers’ homes. SES AMERICOM’s IP-PRIME gives telcos the ability to compete for and win new subscribers by offering television together with their other services. Adding television service can be complex and expensive, yet it is a necessary undertaking for telcos to complete their triple play portfolio of voice, data and television services.

Telcos of all sizes will find IP-PRIME minimizes the risk of a complex technical integration, simplifies difficult program acquisition challenges and lowers their financial risks for launching a television service. In addition to being fully customizable to suit the specific needs and desires of its customers, IP-PRIME is also a true white label service that provides customers brand protection, allowing the television service to marketed and sold under the operator’s own brand.

IP-PRIME delivers over 285 television channels, including over 28 of the best-quality HDTV channels in the IPTV industry, and over 100 digital music channels, giving customers the easiest way to offer a broad range of diverse programming. Customers can pick and choose which channels to include in their line-up, and can easily integrate local programming.