SkyStream announced that Heartland Communications has selected SkyStream's Mediaplex-20 digital headend to provide IPTV services to its subscribers throughout Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois. Heartland now offers its subscribers the triple play of video, voice and data services, including 120 video channels through its IPTV service, using a hybrid MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Mediaplex headend.

"SkyStream's unique ability to protect 100 percent of our initial headend investment was a key factor in our decision to use the Mediaplex for our IPTV service," said Todd Heinrich, chief operating officer for Heartland. "With other headends, we'd have to invest in MPEG-2 today and completely replace the MPEG-2 portions of the headend -- making our initial investment worthless and associating a much higher cost with our video delivery. SkyStream's able to protect our investment for MPEG-4 migration, so we're able to make the move when we're ready without being pressured by concerns over loss of investment and high cost to migrate."

While Heartland wanted to deploy MPEG-4 video compression from the start, it wasn't able to fully invest in an MPEG-4 headend in the initial stages of its video deployment. Heartland needed equipment that would easily migrate from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 in the future, while allowing it to maintain 100 percent of its headend investment. SkyStream was able to provide Heartland with a hybrid MPEG-2/MPEG-4 headend system, allowing Heartland to do real-time MPEG-4 encoding and MPEG-2 transrating today and easily migrate to complete MPEG-4 in the future. The Mediaplex's unique submodule architecture allows Heartland to convert its MPEG-2 transraters into MPEG-4 transcoders and add additional media processors to support real-time MPEG-4 transcoding in the future -- maintaining 100 percent of its original headend investment.

"Service providers recognize that MPEG-4 compression is the direction telco TV is headed, but not all carriers are able to make the leap to investing in a full MPEG-4 headend in the initial phase of their video rollouts," said Andy Lovit, vice president of worldwide field operations for SkyStream. "We're able to provide a clear migration path to MPEG-4, while protecting our customers' original headend investment -- allowing them to deploy video services today with the knowledge that their equipment can easily and very cost-effectively be upgraded to even more advanced video compression standards."