Broadbus Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of technology solutions for Television on Demand (TOD), and NDS, the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, today announced that NDS has selected the Broadbus B-1 Video Server as the first on-demand video platform for the NDS Synamedia Metro IPTV middleware. Synamedia Metro is an integrated IPTV middleware solution that enables telecommunications providers and broadband operators to quickly and easily offer the power of IPTV to their subscribers. The NDS solution will incorporate the Broadbus B-1 Video Server, a 100% solid-state, carrier-class solution for the delivery of IPTV and on-demand video services.

"NDS developed Synamedia Metro to offer telecommunications providers a turnkey IPTV solution, including security, middleware and electronic program guide functions, that enables next generation experiences today," said Nigel Smith, vice president of the NDS Broadband Internet Group. "NDS believe that Broadbus' open design, scalability and reliability are a good fit for telco customers."

Synamedia Metro IPTV middleware allows IPTV operators to offer attractive Electronic Program Guides (EPG), interactive TV applications (iTV), Video on Demand (VOD), digital video recorder (DVR) or network DVR capabilities and interactive games, in either standard (SD) or high definition (HD), all of which are built using the NDS MediaHighway middleware application development tools (MHDK). Synamedia Metro also protects premium content and revenue streams through NDS VideoGuard, the most widely deployed, robust and secure encryption technology for content protection, revenue protection and rights management.

"We're very excited to be leveraging our extensive on-demand video experience to deliver a powerful IPTV offering with NDS," said Tom Kennedy, Sr. Director of Marketing at Broadbus. "By combining Broadbus' carrier-class architecture with NDS's market-leading middleware and security, service providers get a rock-solid foundation on which to build a reliable and scalable IPTV infrastructure."

The Broadbus B-1 Video Server is the only 100% solid-state, carrier-class solution for the delivery of on-demand video services. The platform's compact, switch-based architecture completely eliminates the use of mechanical hard drives for video streaming and ingest, instead leveraging the intelligent management of massive amounts of random-access memory. The result is unparalleled performance, reliability, scalability for VOD and advanced on-demand services at less than one-tenth the footprint and one-eighth the power requirements of traditional systems.

By integrating the Broadbus B-1 Video Server into a single solution, the NDS Synamedia Metro architecture enables telco operators to deploy a single integrated IPTV system and reduce the time-to-market for new services. The solution is also standards-based, allowing telcos to choose their system components according to their current infrastructure needs.