Scientific Atlanta announces T-HT Croatia has selected its Model IPP330HD IP set-tops for the rollout of T-HT Croatia's IPTV service. T-HT Croatia is deploying these next-generation set-tops to deliver advanced services, including high-definition television to help expand its subscriber base and provide greater differentiation for its service portfolio and even greater value for its customers.

Scientific Atlanta's IP set-tops integrate MPEG-4/H.264 and MPEG-2 compression capabilities, as well as support for high definition and other advanced services. This provides a flexible, powerful IP set-top platform that is ready to support today's services as well as those that will emerge in the future. T-HT's IPTV services delivery network incorporates Cisco 12000 Series Routers and Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches.

ABI Research's newest study of the IP-STB market has revealed some noteworthy new dynamics. The report includes a SWOT analysis of the major IP-STB vendors worldwide which highlights Motorola's recent emergence as a strong and prominent player.

"Motorola already had a good pedigree with STBs in general," says principal analyst Michael Arden. "When Motorola acquired Kreatel — itself an IP-STB leader — it gained much greater entrée into the European market and others outside its traditional North American base. In addition, the company owns proven technologies from its own and others' video platforms."

Motorola's involvement with the ongoing rollout of telco TV services by Verizon has helped as well. Although AT&T is starting to picking up steam, Verizon will be the market driver in North America, which means Motorola is very well positioned in a rapidly growing market. This trend will accelerate over the next few months, as Verizon pushes its network into new regions.

Zodiac Interactive announces the availability of its Java Middleware solution, PowerRamp. PowerRamp is Zodiac’s high-performance, small footprint Java middleware solution for legacy set-top boxes that can not support a full OCAP (OpenCable Application Platform) environment. Zodiac will be performing private demonstrations of PowerRamp in its booth #4272 during National Cable Television Association’s. The Cable Show ’07 on May 7-9 and attendees may also view PowerRamp at the OCAP Developers Conference on May 6-7. Both events will be held in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

PowerRamp, which is based on the JSR 242 specification and an optimized Sun Microsystems CLDC-HI JVM, provides a solution for these legacy set-tops. It allows high-value Java client applications to run on relatively low powered boxes that have limited memory and processing power. It is designed to provide forward compatibility and portability to future OCAP enabled set-top boxes.

Command Audio Corp. announces that Scientific Atlanta has purchased a license to use Command Audio’s patented PVR (personal video recorder, also known as digital video recorder, or DVR) technology.

Under terms of the agreement, Scientific Atlanta acquired a license to use Command Audio’s patented technology in all of its PVR set-top box products. The worldwide agreement runs for the life of Command Audio’s patents. No financial terms were disclosed.

Command Audio previously has licensed its patents and technology to industry leaders in the consumer and automotive electronics fields, including Motorola, ReplayTV, Sony, XM Satellite Radio and iBiquity Digital’s HD Radio.

Pace Micro Technology announces it has integrated its newest set-top boxes - Pace’s Tahoe TDC775 HD-DVR and Pace’s Vegas TDC575 SD-DVR – with TANDBERG Television’s OpenStream Digital Services Platform.

The TANDBERG Television OpenStream Digital Services Platform allows operators to easily deploy on-demand services using VOD servers, applications, billing systems and other system components of their choice. OpenStream's unique, open architecture extends the cable head-end beyond VOD to support television's next generation of interactive services. The platform today delivers on-demand streams to more than 80 U.S. markets reaching more than 15 million digital subscribers.

Amino's IntAct IPTV software stack will be ported on to the new Intel CE 2110 Media Processor.

Based on Amino’s IntAct IPTV software stack and the new Intel SoC media processing platform, operators will be able to offer attractive services such as advanced interactive TV, web browsing, video calling and communications applications, thus enhancing consumers’ home entertainment experience.

Amino’s IntAct IPTV software stack enables IP STB platforms to be created in a flexible and dynamic way to support a wide range of IPTV middleware and conditional access systems. STB vendors can therefore concentrate on their core business such as design and engineering while Amino provides the most cutting edge processor ecosystems. Third-party application software can also be ported to add new features for IPTV service providers, thanks to the open software platform architecture.

Samsung, STMicroelectronics, and Metalink are collaborating to launch a new set-top box, which supports high-definition TV quality based on 802.11n wireless IPTV standard.

The product, the Samsung SMT-H6155, is specifically designed for the delivery of HD IPTV over wireless LAN. It is equipped with an STi7109 chipset providing the HD video decoding technology from STMicroelectronics, and Metalink's 802.11n WLANPlus chipset enabling the wireless delivery of multiple HD video streams throughout the home.

The release date for the new set-top box was not disclosed.

Thomson will be unveiling its NexGuard forensic marking solution for set-top boxes at CEBIT 2007 and NAB2007. A streamlined "open architecture" solution, the NexGuard video watermarking technology will work with standard and next generation compression codecs: MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and VC-1.

NexGuard for STBs has been integrated into the STx7100 family of System-on- Chips (SoC), manufactured by semiconductor supplier STMicroelectronics. It will be available to all STB companies, conditional access system (CAS) vendors, and Video-on-Demand (VOD) and push-VOD operators, summer 2007.

Brix Networks and HwaCom Systems of Taipei Hsien, Taiwan, announced the integration of Brix Networks' IPTV Quality Agent into HwaCom's HC-100 set-top box that gives service providers the ability to collect video performance information, metrics, and provides at-home visibility into providers' 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.

Switzerland's first Fibre-To-The-Home IPTV service went live February 15th as Sierre Energie launched its IPTV service. Amino will supply its AmiNET100 series of set-top boxes to enable the viewing of 90 channels.

The triple-play deal will initially offer a broadband connection, fixed telephone and IPTV services. It will also offer video on demand and its catch-up TV service. The complete triple-play services package will cost SFr. 57 (USD 46), or customers can purchase individual services for SFr. 25 (USD 20) each per month.

Time Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd., an IPTV service provider in India, and Amino Communications Ltd have announced a commercial deal to manufacture AmiNET125 H.264 AVC (MPEG-4, Part 10) compliant Set-Top Boxes (STBs), for the Indian market, through Time Broadband's overseas associate company, Dimensions Broadband UK. The substantial contract, with initial Fixed License fee & on-going Royalty arrangement with Amino, marks their expansion within emerging markets of the Indian sub-continent.

Officials with Eagle Broadband, Inc. announced that the company has been awarded a new patent on its advanced set-top box technology that ensures secure delivery of digital television content.

The company's recently patented technology (U.S. Patent 7,159,044) virtually eliminates the risk of unauthorized network access and theft of digital content in hotels, condominium buildings and local cable companies that provide IPTV cable television services. Television programming and access to a main network can be "unlocked" by an in-room set-top box only if both the proper software and hardware (set-top box) are operating normally.

Light Reading discusses the potential impact of the Xbox 360 on the set-top market with views from Scientific Atlanta in "Should the Xbox Be Your Set-Top?"

TechnoConcepts, Inc. announced that its Jinshilin Techno Ltd. subsidiary in China completed its first milestone by shipping set-top boxes to the Shanghai Forests Information Technology Co. Ltd. and the Television and Broadcast Bureau of the Henan Province. The units shipped Friday will be integrated into an IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) demonstration network being built by Shanghai Forests in cooperation with Alcatel Network Support System Company Inc. for the Bureau's project to supply in-home television service to the rural residents of the Henan Province.

NDS and Amino announced that the NDS Synamedia Metro middleware solution has been integrated into the AmiNET130 advanced IPTV platform. The integration of Synamedia Metro with the AmiNET130 provides telco operators with a second generation IPTV solution for a fast and economical deployment of next-generation IPTV services.