Verismo Networks has announced the availability of its ViPTV platform, an end-to-end broadcasting system. The new service looks to be a competitor to solutions such as NewLion's iPTV service. Verismo Networks will supply a set-top box (no pricing as of yet) to consumers who can then download content to it over their standard broadband connection or stream video content from websites like Google, YouTube, and Yahoo.

The ViPTV service is completing its beta testing, and Verismo Networks is currently looking for content providers interested in creating IPTV channels via the service. Providers can offer their content for monthly subscriptions and pay per view by the end of March 2007.

The ViPTV platform includes Microsoft Digital Rights Manager for content protection, content delivery servers on the backend, and a set-top box to receive content at the client-side. The servers format content to Windows Media Video, perform pre-process filtering for noise reduction and image sharpening, create metadata, and insert chapters, subtitles, and advertising content. Additional servers contain the database for user profiling, payment gateway, a program ratings engine, and a search engine.

The ViPTV set top box contains a 80-gigabyte hard disk and can hold up to 100 hours of high quality video. Unfortunately, we were not able to find any detailed specifications via their website on the true quality of the encoding.

Users can order, view, and manage content from the TV's UI. The STB is based on a video processor with download manager software that accelerates downloads, facilitates recovery from bad connections, and does post-process filtering to optimize video playback quality. Its progressive download feature allows playback during the download, so users need not wait for the entire video to complete downloading before viewing. And just in case the user has videos, photos, and music stored on a PC, the ViPTV STB also contains functionality similar to an Apple iTV box enabling the user to display this content on a TV.

Content providers and aggregators interested in creating IPTV channels on the ViPTV Platform should contact Verismo at sales@verismonetworks.com for more information.