In 2005, Envivio Inc. sold more than 300 channels of encoding systems for IPTV installations in China and is now the leading provider of broadcast quality MPEG-4 video headends in the country. At present, four independent China-based IPTV trials and services are using the 4Caster Broadcast Series encoders to power IP applications for live television.

Market research firm In-Stat notes that because the installed base of TVs is so much higher than that of PCs in China, IPTV services such as TV Gaming and TV Education may help drive Chinese families toward widespread use of IPTV. An additional finding by In-Stat indicates that the Olympic Games being held in China in 2008 may also contribute to substantial growth in IPTV services, increasing China's subscribers to an estimated 4.5 million IPTV users by 2008.

"Chinese telecom carriers are laying the foundation for offering IPTV services throughout the country. As the industry experts in MPEG-4 encoding and decoding systems and solutions, Envivio and its partners are on-hand to assist operators in China and around the world as they introduce both basic and enhanced services," said Julien Signes, President of Envivio Inc. "Envivio continues to deliver the highest quality video at any bit rate for any network with our advanced MPEG-4 SD and HD encoding platforms. It's an honor to have been chosen for these pioneering deployments of IPTV in China."

Last year, Envivio won an unprecedented number of bids from service providers and integrators in the IPTV, mobile, broadcast and enterprise market sectors. The company more than tripled the number of encoding systems shipped in the previous year to deliver over 1,000 encoders in 2005. In September, Envivio reached an industry milestone by shipping its 1,500th encoding system. A first in the industry, the number was reached by shipping actual working MPEG-4 encoders, as opposed to shipping MPEG-2 encoders that are capable of upgrading to AVC/H.264.