Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. and Alticast have signed a new, multi-year, interactive program guide patent license agreement. Under the agreement, Alticast has the right to use Gemstar-TV Guide's interactive program guide (IPG) patents for IPGs developed and owned by Alticast for cable, satellite and telco providers in South Korea. Alticast is a leading provider of solutions for the creation, delivery and reception of interactive digital television applications for cable, satellite and IPTV platforms.

Envivio Inc. will introduce the newest member of its 4Caster Broadcast Series real time MPEG-4 encoders at IBC2005 in its stand #1.351. Ideal for applications from contribution to distribution, the 4Caster B3 encoder delivers the most complete implementation of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression techniques available in hardware today.

Modulus Video, Inc., unveiled details of a comprehensive demonstration of MPEG-4 AVC encoding solutions that will be on display at the International Broadcasters Convention, RAI Centre, Amsterdam, Stand 1.144, as well as at partner booth's located throughout the show. Solutions from Modulus Video enable satellite, telecommunications and cable providers to deliver new HD digital television services with the highest quality high definition (HD) video using the least amount of bandwidth.

BitBand announced that it was selected by B2 (Bredbandsbolaget) for deploying VOD services in Sweden. B2 has recently launched triple play services delivered over its high capacity network to homes in Sweden, offering telephony services, broadband Internet access, TV and VOD.

B2, Sweden's second largest broadband supplier, has a growing network that currently reaches 70 locations all over the country. BitBand's solutions employed with B2 are BitBand Maestro(TM) content distribution and server management suite and BitBand Vision(TM) servers. Coupled with B2's high capacity network (up to 100 Mbits/s), BitBand preserves the high quality of content viewed by subscribers, resulting in greater subscriber satisfaction and increased revenues.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. announced a new line of photodiode products for the resurgent optical communications market. The first two products in the family, the VSC7750 and VSC7780, are designed for use in the optical receiver side of both the Small Form Factor (SFF) and its pluggable counterpart (SFP). These modules are being used in the growing Ethernet and multi-rate Fibre Channel markets as well as for Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) applications. The VSC7750 and VSC7780 provide a cost model not achieved to date in the industry while enabling customers to reduce design cycles by as much as 14 weeks when combined with Vitesse's proven reference designs. These products support both long (1310-1550 nm) and short (850 nm) optical wavelength applications, respectively.

Terayon Communication Systems, Inc. announced that its DM 6400 Network CherryPicker® digital video networking platform supports the MPEG-4/AVC format and is the first product to enable standards-based digital program insertion and splicing of programming in the MPEG-4/AVC format. Terayon is demonstrating the world's first ad insertion and real-time splicing of MPEG-4/AVC video streams at the IBC Conference (stand 8.510), September 8-13, 2005 in Amsterdam.

TANDBERG Television announced that it has signed a contract with Siemens to provide Dutch telco KPN with a flexible EN5930 encoding system which can simultaneously transmit both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC standard definition television. KPN is adding IPTV to its existing communication services and plans to introduce digital television over its DSL network for the first time this year. Internet Protocol means it is possible that television, telephone and internet will eventually be provided over a single DSL connection.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) announced that it is collaborating with Sigma Designs, Inc. to offer a new Linux platform based on the highly integrated Toshiba TX4938 MIPS-based TX System RISC microprocessor, and the Sigma EM8620L digital media processor. The Toshiba/Sigma platform will provide customers with a quick-time-to-market decoder solution for a range of digital multimedia appliances, including DVD players, IP set-top boxes and digital media players.

As the delivery of high-definition (HD) video broadcast becomes more and more prevalent worldwide, products featuring Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) digital signal processing technologies are deploying to the market today. Worldwide TI customers, leveraging the company's commitment to providing flexible, high-performance digital signal processing (DSP) solutions to both the standard-definition (SD) and high-definition broadcast markets, will display their cutting-edge wares at the annual International Broadcasters Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam, September 9-13. For more information, see http://www.ibc.org.

Alcatel has been selected by the Principality of Asturias, Spain, to deploy a Fiber to the User - FTTU - network in the mining valley of Asturias. The network will provide thousands of residents of regions near the Caudal, Nalón and Narcea river basins, access to high speed Internet and bandwidth-intensive applications.

Alcatel is the turnkey provider of this 19 million euro project, with full responsibility for the network design and planning, as well as for its deployment, service roll out and maintenance, for the Asturias' local authority.

Alcatel announced that it has been awarded a contract with Uralsviazinform, one of the leading Russian regional operators, for the deployment of a broadband access solution in Uralsviazinform's network in the Ural region. Alcatel will also provide comprehensive business consultancy services.

Allegro, the Digital Video Technology company focused on the H.264/AVC standard, will demonstrate its AL1000 Audio/Video Real-Time Encoder for broadcast applications at next IBC 2005 in Amsterdam.

The AL1000 performs H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level 3 (Standard Definition) broadcast quality real-time encoding without any frame drop, with bitrates ranging from 1.5 Mbps to 2 Mbps. It can be used for both VBR operation (e.g. for satellite multiplexing) and CBR operation (e.g. for IPTV).

Orca Interactive, a global market leader in developing applications for TV over IP, announced that the company will attend IBC2005 Sept. 9-13 at the RAI Exhibition and Congress Centre in Amsterdam and demonstrate advanced services for IPTV.

Highlights of the Orca exhibition at IBC (Stand #2.230) include:

Tut Systems Inc., an industry leader enabling the delivery of next-generation data and video services over broadband networks, announced that it is accelerating its international expansion strategy with a new office in Paris, France. In addition, Tut Systems will participate at the upcoming International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, The Netherlands from September 9-13, 2005 (Stand 3.110).

Alcatel has signed an agreement with Eurosport, a leading producer and distributor of sports-related contents and programming. Thanks to this agreement, Eurosport will contribute to Alcatel's turnkey new media enablement activities by supplying a wide variety of expertise and professional services, focused on live sporting events.