Marconi Corporation plc announced a new IPTV solution for the U.S. Federal Government and the availability of the ViPr Media Center, which is based on H.264 standards. Marconi's IPTV solution enables federal service providers to immediately offer an IPTV service over their current infrastructure. Both of these new video solutions will be part of the demonstrations taking place at AFCEA (Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association) TechNet Asia Pacific 2005 conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, December 6-8, 2005.

IPTV has the potential to open up substantial new markets for video content provisioning, but this requires that quality levels are acceptable in order to gain consumer confidence. Using multicast protocols, the Marconi BXR5000 or BXR1000 ensures Quality of Service (QoS) to each video stream, with on-time delivery to the end TV tuners. Because the Marconi BXR performs multicast functions in hardware (not software), it can easily transport the video stream even while other traffic is flowing through the router at the same time. Utilizing the BXR product family and by partnering with a video headend encoder and set-top box provider, Marconi will demonstrate at AFCEA TechNet (Booth #810) how the BXR can transport multiple broadcast video streams.

Marconi Federal is targeting service providers' federal business arms as well as federal agencies with this solution, which would allow those providers to immediately begin providing IPTV services with more features and higher video quality to thousands of consumers, such as military personnel stationed at bases throughout the Pacific and elsewhere in the world.

Marconi Federal will also showcase the newly released ViPr Media Center. ViPr is a Session Initiation Protocol- (SIP) based video telephony and multimedia system that works across Defense Department and intelligence networks (Ethernet or ATM), including Type 1 encrypted networks. ViPr empowers users (up to 15 parties) with a rich mix of communications capabilities, including Virtual Share, a package of optional collaboration tools that allows conferees to share documents and applications like electronic white boarding. Other optional components expand meeting capabilities and enable conferees to view and discuss live broadcast TV, prerecorded video, or closed circuit TV (CCTV) during a ViPr call. The ViPr SIP Firewall, powered by BorderWare, provides application layer security that extends beyond conventional perimeter firewalls and session border controllers to protect against threats from across public or private networks.

With more emphasis on group conferencing, the new ViPr Media Center suite has two group conferencing product lines (VMC5000 and VMC6000 series), along with the new ViPr Media Center personal product line (VMC4000 series). Based on the H.264 standard, ViPr high-quality video conferencing provides DVD- quality video and CD-quality audio at bandwidths ranging from 384 Kbps to 3 Mbps, and interoperates with traditional H.323- and H.320-based video conferencing.

"Marconi has a long standing reputation for expertise in delivering video solutions to our government customers. The new Marconi IPTV solution with the BXR5000 or BXR1000 provides our Marconi Federal service provider customers with flexibility for remote locations without Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) or IP capabilities, and enables them to deliver Video over IP services over current infrastructures," said Ralph Havens, President of Marconi Federal. "IPTV will provide exciting new revenue opportunities for government service providers while allowing end users more features and higher video quality."