Opera Software, a global leader in Web browser technologies, today announced its partnership with Industria, a leading broadband communication solutions provider and IPTV systems integrator. Iceland-based Industria will use the fast and feature-rich Opera 8.5 for Devices for its new IPTV software solution, called Zignal. Zignal, with Opera as a part of its package, will provide a wide range of revenue-generating IPTV services on set-top boxes (STBs).

Opera enhances Industria's Zignal solution by enabling the rapid development of Web- based solutions for IPTV. Zignal's IPTV services include digital broadcast TV, video- on-demand (VoD), personal video recording (PVR), digital radio and on-line gaming. Using open Web standards, Opera allows for easy portability and accelerates the pace for developing dynamic user interfaces and cutting-edge Web applications. Opera also offers Zignal the fastest rendering and JavaScript engines available on the market today.

"We have chosen Opera because of its superior performance and its support for the open Web standards on which Zignal is based," says Gudjon Mar Gudjonsson, CEO, Industria. "Like Zignal, Opera runs on most types of STBs, and proved itself to be faster than any other browser we tested."

"The combination of the Opera browser and Industria's Zignal IPTV creates a powerful solution for the rapid deployment of next generation, Web-based TV," says Scott Hedrick, Executive Vice President, Opera Software. "We are excited about our expanded partnership with Industria and believe that our solution will accelerate the industry's move toward the use of open Web technology in TV."

Opera 8.5 is available for the IPTV, consumer electronics, other device types.