With successful IPTV trials well underway and an impressive lineup of premier programmers committed, SES AMERICOM, an SES GLOBAL company, today announced it will integrate a middleware system powered by Myrio, a Siemens company, into its open IP-PRIMETM IPTV content distribution platform. The deal follows several months of joint testing and pre-integration work on the innovative IP television solution.

Siemens is the first middleware to be selected as part of SES AMERICOM’s turnkey IPTV offering, which enables telcos and other broadband carriers to bypass integration headaches and cost-effectively deliver broadcast quality television programming to consumers through a variety of set top boxes.

“Siemens is the first of several middleware options we have selected to offer as part of the complete, turnkey IP-PRIME IPTV distribution solution,” explained Alan Young, chief technology officer for SES AMERICOM. “The Siemens IPTV operating system is backed by the focus on quality and vast resources at Siemens. With Siemens’ middleware and NDS’s conditional access and content protection technology now in place, IP-PRIME will enable IPTV service providers to deliver a secure and enjoyable viewing experience to consumers nationwide.”

The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), which serves rural and independent telephone companies in a market of more than 10 million homes, is currently testing IP-PRIME in several communities. Initial trial success has NRTC executives and members citing IP-PRIME for its one-stop-shop IPTV distribution solution that enables small telephone companies to bypass barriers to entry.

“With Siemens middleware, IP-PRIME is a true end-to-end IPTV distribution solution that allows hundreds of small and medium-sized telephone and communications companies to easily and cost-efficiently meet the growing consumer demands for more choices in service and on the screen,” said Steve Bing, senior vice president of video services, sales, and marketing, NRTC. “SES AMERICOM has leveled the playing field, making it simple and affordable for rural and independent communications companies to enter and compete in the delivery of broadcast quality television services.”

Siemens middleware joins an impressive list of technology partners aboard the IP-PRIME platform, including NDS, selected to provide end-to-end IPTV content protection and conditional access. Scientific-Atlanta is providing the MPEG-4 encoding system and its ROSA Network Management System. Globecomm is providing the overall design and integration services as well as the major components for SES AMERICOM’s IP-PRIME IPTV Broadcast Distribution Center in Vernon Valley, New Jersey, where content is aggregated and processed for delivery to telephone company video hubs and direct to consumer set top boxes.

IP-PRIME’s fully managed solution is scheduled for commercial launch later this year, with hundreds of standard and HD television channels available for telco subscribers across the U.S. IP-PRIME’s headend solution has been delivering content to support BellSouth’s IPTV trial since November 2005.