SES AMERICOM, an SES GLOBAL company, announced today that BellSouth has signed an agreement to trial IP-PRIME ^TM, a centralized, satellite-centric video distribution solution that enables telcos to bundle and distribute hundreds of standard and HD television programming channels with voice and broadband services.

SES AMERICOM will provide BellSouth with video aggregation, encoding, monitoring, and transport over the IP-PRIME platform, which is based at the SES AMERICOM IPTV Broadcast Center in Vernon Valley, New Jersey. The IPTV solution will be delivered over the AMC-9 satellite. The open architecture of IP-PRIME enables plug-and-play integration with a broad range of infrastructure platforms, including Microsoft IPTV middleware and conditional access systems, which are being tested by BellSouth.

BellSouth initiated a technical trial of IPTV technology in conjunction with Microsoft earlier this year and plans to expand it to market trial participants using the additional MPEG4 encoded programming channels delivered by IP-Prime.

"SES AMERICOM enables us to make additional content available to BellSouth's IPTV trial participants as we continue our analysis of this technology," said Don Granger, president of BellSouth Entertainment.

"We look forward to working with BellSouth as it further tests IPTV through this trial. SES AMERICOM's IP-PRIME has been designed to serve all segments of the burgeoning telco TV market," said Bryan McGuirk, president of Media Solutions for SES AMERICOM.