Octoshape announced a partnership with INVISO to deliver Internet TV contribution services throughout Latin America.

"At INVISO, we seek the most innovative and high quality products to serve our customers through the brands we represent,” said Jose Luis Reyes, Vice President for Sales and Operations, INVISO. “In the case of Octoshape, we found a company and a product that bring these qualities to our supply chain, sales and service.”

Octoshape offers an innovative cloud-based solution that provides instant infrastructure for the distribution of both linear and video on demand content. The Octoshape Infinite Uplink service provides point-to-point distribution of TV signals over the Internet for source signal acquisition to traditional IPTV and cable headends as an alternative to traditional methods like satellite and video fiber.

Global market research firm IMS Research has updated its Online TV Set Shipment Database with new information regarding TV shipments split by technology, iDTV demand, and TV households split by reception platform in 68 countries. The update reveals that Latin America is projected to be the fastest growing TV market over the next several years. Additionally, IMS Research expects a change in the demand for several key TV types, including LCDs, OLEDs and iDTVs.

Pace has signed a deal to expand its two year partnership with NET, the largest multi-service cable company in Latin America. Under the deal, Pace will develop new platforms to enable NET to deploy advanced digital services to its customers. Pace has also reached a significant milestone by shipping one million of its SD Zapper set-top boxes to NET.

With their extended partnership, NET will work with Pace, the leading developer of digital TV technologies for the payTV industry, to roll-out three new platforms for 2011. These will include the SD set-top box, a HD interactive set-top box and a HD PVR. These platforms will support NET's transition to complete digitised television services for its subscribers through an HD interactive set-top box. The Pace design means that users can quickly and easily upgrade to PVR capabilities by simply inserting a hard disk drive into their existing device.

Mariner announces that Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago is deploying Mariner's xVu IPTV service monitoring solution to support the expansion of services and the maintenance of service quality for its Blink Entertainment TV service.

The xVu service is used in conjunction with Advanced Digital Broadcasting TR-69 software and enables proactive customer support. This is done by providing complete visibility of customers' TV viewing experiences, effectively monitoring in real time the video and audio performance across the entire network, including in the home, and making that critical customer usage and service performance information readily available.

Calix announces that Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago is leveraging the Calix Unified Access portfolio, Calix Professional Services, and Calix Compatible partners to deliver Blink Entertainment, the twin island republic’s most advanced IPTV service. The Blink Entertainment service, featuring packages that can deliver over 100 HD and SD channels, VOD, PPV, DVR, and other interactive features, provides TSTT with a powerful new service to deploy across its broadband infrastructure, and new ways to expand its broadband relationships within the country.

UTStarcom announces a Reseller Agreement with DESCA. The Agreement will help accelerate UTStarcom's expansion into 14 markets in Central and South America with the support from DESCA's team of more than 700 sales, service delivery professionals and customer service agents.

This new relationship between UTStarcom and DESCA allows both companies to leverage the collective sales force, customer base and hosted managed service offerings for new and existing sales programs. Both companies will collaborate on infrastructure and solutions integration to help ensure the deployment of high-quality products and services with a strong emphasis on the customer experience.

ZTE Corporation will integrate Optibase’s advanced Media Gateway IPTV encoding platforms in its end-to-end ZTE Eye-Will IPTV solution for deployment by CANTV in Venezuela. This IPTV solution allows CANTV to offer first ever IPTV services in Venezuela, with over 140 channels to 67,000 subscribers. CANTV’s service will feature video-on-demand, live TV pause, personal video recorder capabilities and time-shifted TV and is expected to launch at the end of 2009.

Verimatrix announces CANTV as the latest Americas customer to select the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System for IPTV. Through a reseller partnership with ZTE, VCAS for IPTV has been integrated with ZTE's ZXBIV IPTV Eyewill solution for the CANTV deployment. In this initial deployment phase, CANTV plans to offer IPTV services with 140 channels to 67,000 subscribers, which is considered the largest IPTV project in South America. The Venezuelan state-owned operator CANTV is targeting 1.26 million IPTV customers within the next six years.

ZTE recently clinched a large-scale commercial IPTV contract from CANTV in Venezuela. Considered as the largest IPTV project in the whole South America region, CANTV is investing about $400 million in line with its aim of developing 1.26 million IPTV subscribers in the next six years.

Despite it being early days in the IPTV market, service providers are lured by the technology’s offer of an interesting entry-door to triple play. IPTV is rapidly emerging as the buzzword in Latin America’s telecommunications industry, as a host of operators has either started testing the waters or intends to do so soon.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Internet Protocol Television Services Markets in Latin America, finds that IPTV service is beginning to see widespread deployment in the region, as traditional telecommunications service providers try to complete a triple play offer.

KIT digital has been selected by RCN Television to provide a variety of online video and audio solutions for their television and radio assets. RCN is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ardila Lülle Organization, a leading regional, diversified conglomerate based in Bogotá, Colombia. KIT digital has contracted with e-nnovva, the recently created new media division of RCN, to provide proprietary technology to host live streaming, video-on-demand, and live audio content in both short and long formats for RCN's network of TV and radio stations. KIT digital's "VX " digital asset management platform will provide RCN with best-of-breed customer-facing functionality as well as wide-ranging capabilities for RCN to proactively create new channels and sub-channels, geo-blocking features, advertising integration, and other interactive marketing programs.

Unión Electrica has deployed the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System for IPTV within its platform solution for the UNE-EPM Telecomunicaciones IPTV deployment. UNE-EPM will be formally launching its IPTV service in Medellín and Bogotá over the next few months. Verimatrix joins partners Orca, Sagem and Bitband for this groundbreaking IPTV deployment in Columbia.

UNE-EPM's IPTV service will include 103 broadcast TV channels and will offer VoD and PVR functionality later in the year as it expands into other operating regions When fully deployed, the service will be available to as many as 1.6 million existing UNE-EPM phone and cable subscribers.

Telsur has selected Zhone’s multi-service access platform to expand the company’s IPTV footprint. Telsur is a leader in the telecommunications market in Chile and recognized for advanced IP convergence throughout Latin America.

With Zhone’s MALC, Telsur can immediately provision high-speed data and IPTV services over traditional ADSL and provision GPON fiber to the home services using the same platform and standard TR-069 Automatic Configuration Server.

UTStarcom announces its first IPTV win in Latin America for its industry-leading RollingStream end-to-end IPTV solution with the launch of Brasil Telecom's Videon IPTV service. This is the telecom operator's first video offering to its customers.

Brasil Telecom, one of Brazil's leading wireless and fixed-line communications providers, has deployed UTStarcom's RollingStream solution as the sole end-to-end technology platform for its new Videon video-on-demand IPTV service in Brasilia with plans to expand the service to additional cities in the country's South and Midwest regions in the coming months. In addition to supporting the current subscriber base in Brasilia, the RollingStream system designed for Brasil Telecom maintains an additional capacity of 50,000 subscribers for the expansion.

UNE-EPM Telecommunications has selected Orca’s advanced RiGHTv middleware to enable the first IPTV service rollout in Colombia. The IPTV deployment will be carried out by Union Electrica S.A., Orca’s partner and system integrator in the project, providing a seamless, end-to-end solution. UNE-EPM Telecommunications’s IPTV service is expected to be available in major cities across Colombia in the first quarter of 2008.