Amino Communications will showcase a range of enhanced IPTV set-top boxes at IBC 2011 offering OTT capability to deliver a richer, more dynamic entertainment experience for consumers.

All Amino devices – from its Freedom media centres offering OTT functionality to the cable, satellite and terrestrial markets through to the Aminet IPTV range – will now provide operators with the ability to offer a compelling mix of broadcast, on-demand, and content from the open Internet including social media, gaming and applications.

The IPTV devices will utilise both HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) and HTML5 to deliver the new layer of OTT content. An adaptive streaming technology, HLS is designed to deliver content over open and unmanaged networks by selecting optimum network speeds to guarantee a continuous quality user experience. It can also enhance content choice by delivering video-on-demand and live TV from aggregated and cloud-based services without additional investment in network infrastructure.

HTML5 provides a standardized framework for video and audio playback inside the browser, and will further enrich the viewing experience by allowing operators to create a rich walled garden of OTT content for their customers.

Amino CEO Andrew Burke said: “Extending our market leadership in OTT across our IPTV range now means we can deliver the most compelling entertainment experiences for a wide range of customers. While our Freedom products can target new or existing cable, satellite or terrestrial deployments, our new Aminet range can now deliver an exciting OTT content layer to the IPTV market – a feature our customers now see as critical for the next phase of service deployment.

“The key technology features to enable OTT – including HLS and HTML5 – are specifically designed to improve the user experience with a raft of new services which in turn will help our customers to reduce customer churn and drive new revenue streams.”

The new enhanced range also includes HTTP upgrade capability allowing set-top boxes to be remotely upgraded automatically with the latest firmware further minimising operator support costs.

The OTT-enabled Aminet set-top boxes include the A129, A140 and A540 PVR and the H140 hospitality device.