Cisco and Avail Media announce an agreement that will help enable service providers to easily, quickly and cost-effectively offer IPTV services to their subscribers using an innovative solution that combines the Cisco IP Next-Generation Network and IPTV platform with Avail Media’s IP-based video service.

The solution is designed to help service providers meet the challenges of transforming themselves from voice and data providers into "experience providers" that can offer any-play services anywhere, anytime. By taking advantage of Cisco and Avail Media technologies, partnerships and experience, service providers can add IPTV to their portfolios and converge all their services over a single Internet Protocol network. This capability enables service providers to gain significant cost efficiencies, generate new revenue, and establish long-term competitive advantages. Key Facts:

• The Cisco and Avail Media end-to-end offering processes content and television programming and distributes it via satellite to telecommunications companies and their IPTV consumers nationwide.
• Systems integration from both companies and their respective partners is an integral part of the offering.
• Unique to the solution, the IPTV services are fully managed through Cisco’s National Control Center, eliminating the need for service providers to hire staff for headend management.
• MPEG-4 content distribution is provided via Avail Media’s Avail Connect service. The service, combined with the Cisco IP NGN architecture and IPTV solutions, creates a complete end-to-end IPTV service with encoding, encapsulation, middleware and digital rights management, scrambling and descrambling, satellite receivers, conditional access, set-top provision, service management, systems integration services, and program management for video hub office components.