Pace announces its groundbreaking App Café platform is ready for deployment throughout the Americas. The Pace App Café offers cable subscribers access to popular Web-based applications via their set-top box for the first time, increasing the range of entertainment available via the television set.

The Pace App Café is a unique service allowing cable operators to harness the potential of online applications within an integrated managed TV service. It offers applications in a storefront format for subscribers to download directly to their set-top boxes, enhancing their entertainment experience and solidifying the service provider's position at the heart of the home.

Pace App Café enables payTV operators to offer a range of social networking, gaming and Video on Demand applications. In addition, the company has worked with web-based TV technology platform, Clearleap, to offer IP-based video services delivered through customizable, white-labelled applications. This provides operators with a cost effective method of delivering unlimited hours of on-demand content to consumers over the high speed data path.

Pace has also partnered with Universal Electronics to integrate its UEI Velocity remote control with QWERTY keyboard and UEI QuickSearch remote control setup application, enhancing the usability and navigation of the App Café and applications.

The Pace App Café will provide subscribers with access to high-profile and popular online services including:

• Popular social networking services
• Internet radio and music
• Online photo and video sharing
• Weather
• Personal finance
• Sports scores
• Operator service and support

The Pace App Café will be customised with each operator's unique brand and allows them to create custom applications. Operators will have administrative control over the available applications in their library, which they can then package as part of their existing service or make them an additional offering.

The applications can pull their data feed from any Internet connection in the home or from the DOCSIS modems embedded in nearly all Pace set-top boxes.

The onscreen presentation of each application is designed to work alongside the existing electronic program guide and VoD applications. Many of the applications have the ability to coexist with live or recorded television programming, so subscribers can get constant, real-time information updates while watching television.

The Pace App Café is based on Pace's Engineware software platform and is underpinned by a standards-based Flash Lite Engine and published Software Development Kit.

Pace will be demonstrating the App Café on its booth at The Cable Show in Chicago (# 649).