Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue. "The Digital Set Top Box Market: Global Demand Remains High".

Worldwide digital set top box unit shipments are on track to reach 191 million in 2009, a total that highlights the importance of the set top box in today's consumer electronics industry.

Telstra Corporation selects Netgem to supply set top box device and software for the T-Box service. Telstra is introducing a set top box called T-Box. T-Box for the first time brings Telstra’s content from its BigPond brand along with Australian terrestrial free-to-air high definition and standard definition television channels seamlessly together on a home television.

Motorola is accelerating the delivery of personalized media experiences for Farmers Telephone by supporting the delivery of IPTV services with Microsoft Mediaroom. Motorola will provide Farmers with its VIP1200 Series of IP set-tops and Microsoft’s Mediaroom video services platform, as well as systems integration professional services support.

Optibase announces that a leading cable news network has selected Optibase EZ TV advanced IPTV solution for in-house video delivery. The EZ TV system will serve hundreds of employees in the network’s headquarters and remote sites, enabling them to view and monitor in real time and on demand the network’s internal and production channels as well as incoming feeds.

While the global recession has dampened growth in digital STB in 2009, the market remains a tremendous opportunity for STB manufacturers and technology providers, reports In-Stat. From 2001 to 2008, the overall digital set top box market grew from 37 million units in 2001 to nearly 190 million units in 2008. Growth turned mixed across STB markets in 2009, with cable set top box shipments declining, while satellite, IP and digital terrestrial segments continued to see unit growth.

Sky announces an agreement with IP Vision to make its online TV service, Sky Player, available via IP Vision’s Fetch TV devices. From early 2010, the deal will allow customers to receive some of Sky’s most popular channels, including Sky Movies, Sky Sports and a range of general entertainment channels, through Fetch TV’s broadband-enabled set-top boxes. These boxes also offer access to Freeview channels and the BBC iPlayer and can be used across any broadband service provider.

Amino has demonstrated an IPTV STB that is powered by the new Intel Atom Processor CE4100 (formerly codenamed “Sodaville”). The Intel media processor is the first 45nm consumer electronics system-on-chip based on the Intel Atom core and popular Intel architecture.

This new generation of Amino products will address growing consumer demand for TV-based entertainment from any source – including broadcast, on-demand and open Internet “Over-the-Top” services. Using the new Intel Atom Processor CE4100 will enable Amino to develop new types of hybrid/OTT devices that offer unparalleled flexibility and functionality.

AccessKey IP detailed some of the highlights and technical developments of their set top box project. AKYI Vice President of Technology Craig Erickson stated, "We have pioneered solutions and cutting edge technology for tomorrow's demands. The system that we have developed is unique in the IPTV industry and exists nowhere else. AKYI's STB combined with our secure, patent pending USB conditional access key will take IPTV delivery to the next security level and also enable STB type operations on your PC." According to Erickson, "This system combination does not rely solely upon MAC & IP addressing, which can be spoofed (faked). Instead, it uses 1024bit RSA intercommunication and unique key IDs for user verification, supplanting the conventional reliance on MAC+IP address for user ID. It also enables forensic watermarking to be embedded in each user stream, using specific AKYI key IDs for added content security. Our conditional access keys provide a virtual 'lockbox,' over and above any current content distribution system in use today."

Amino have ported Espial's IPTV Middleware, the Evo TV Service Platform, to its HD range of STBs including the recent new models, hybrid compatible A532 and A132. This means that Amino have once again increased their ecosystem presence with another industry leading pre-integrated solution.

Amino has partnered with beeTV to develop and deliver a recommendation-based personalised TV experience, via Amino’s award-winning range of STBs. The PCC uses a set of proprietary contextual recommendation algorithms that identify the viewers’ habits, taste, viewing history, personal viewing context and up-to-date general trends. The PCC, which resides on the STB, gathers suitable recommendations from all content sources including broadcast TV, subscription TV, VoD, PVR/Catch-up and pushes it to each individual viewer as an entertaining, personalised channel that leverages on the richness and impact of visual television images. The solution requires no “catalogue” textual description, no channel surfing nor red and green buttons.

S3 has been selected as a Microsoft Mediaroom testing partner to provide STB testing services. This means that S3 will undertake testing work for Original Equipment Manufacturers to test new and derivative STB models for deployment by Mediaroom customers. S3 is in a position to increase testing capacity for Mediaroom, enabling faster time-to-market for OEMs and more choice of STBs for Mediaroom operators.

Tilgin announces interoperability with Amino Communications’ IPTV STBs. Tilgin’s remote management solution enables operators to manage the STB remotely, allowing them to expand their IPTV offering whilst effectively managing operating costs.

Tilgin announces a new release of its Service and Device Management software, VCM. Tilgin’s remote management solution enables the operators to expand their service offering of triple play services while keeping operating cost under control. The new VCM 5.6 introduces Remote Management of IPTV Set Top Boxes while also further improving its performance and High Availability characteristics.

In line with the global phenomenon of switching over from analog to digital TV services, set-top boxes now have a more crucial role in the home for accessing of entertainment and information services provided by television service operators. This is especially apparent in mature high-speed Internet economies where service providers strive towards providing interactive bi-directional television, thereby leading to the growth of IP set-top boxes. According to new set-top box market data from ABI Research, IP STBs will generate a market value above $3 billion by 2014.

Sigma Designs announces a partnership with 4Home to expand the range of additional services in the home through Sigma’s STB reference designs. As a result of this partnership, Sigma will be able to offer set-top box suppliers an integrated home control solution, based on 4Home’s innovative software platform and the complete Z-Wave ecosystem of RF-based home control devices. The reference design is being unveiled at CableLabs Summer Conference, August 10 - 11, in Keystone, Colorado.