TANDBERG Television announced with business partner Balum Ltd. that its IPTV video headend and MPEG-4 AVC encoders have been selected by EPM Telecommunications UNE to deploy the first IPTV service in Colombia, South America. As a leading provider of Internet, VoIP and television services to this market, EPM's new IPTV service will be part of its competitive triple play package. The company will leverage the TANDBERG iPlex Video Headend Platform to provide Colombian viewers with more than 100 real-time channels and video-on-demand movies.

"We chose the iPlex high density encoding solution for our groundbreaking IPTV rollout due to its scalability and cost-effectiveness," said William Franco, ICT CEO, EPM. "Using advanced MPEG-4 AVC technology by TANDBERG Television enables us to deliver the highest quality of IPTV entertainment services to our Colombian consumers for the first time. This is a revolutionary achievement for the Colombian television industry."

A key component of EPM's IPTV service offering is its use of the iPlex Video Headend Platform that includes a modular design built to offer flexibility and ease of operation for ultra-dense MPEG-4 AVC video compression. The iPlex platform delivers the best range of video processing tools on a common platform from SD to HD video compression, transrating, transcoding and IP streaming.