North Americans soon will be able to purchase and view Asian-originated TV programs and movies—previously only available in VHS tapes or DVD—within days, not months, of broadcast or release. GlobeVISION, a content aggregator and service provider specializing in offering content to North American Asian subscribers, and thePlatform, a leading provider of digital audio and video publishing solutions, announced that GlobeVISION chose thePlatform Media Publishing System (MPS) to deliver personalized television and movie programming to GlobeVISION's subscribers.

Orca Interactive, a global market leader in developing applications for TV over IP, announced that the company will attend IBC2005 Sept. 9-13 at the RAI Exhibition and Congress Centre in Amsterdam and demonstrate advanced services for IPTV.

Highlights of the Orca exhibition at IBC (Stand #2.230) include:

Tut Systems Inc., an industry leader enabling the delivery of next-generation data and video services over broadband networks, announced that it is accelerating its international expansion strategy with a new office in Paris, France. In addition, Tut Systems will participate at the upcoming International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, The Netherlands from September 9-13, 2005 (Stand 3.110).

Amino confirmed that Cavalier Telephone, a US CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) with 180,000 residential subscribers has chosen Amino's AmiNET124 set-top box as part of its IPTV (IP Television) services development. The AmiNET124 is Amino’s first single-chip IP set-top box which supports the new MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video compression standard. The contract is part of a substantial multi-year agreement and deployment will commence in October 2005. Further details of the contract, including value and quantities, have not been disclosed.

The Manatee County Commission today voted for consumer choice and competition in the cable-TV market by awarding a far-reaching video franchise to Verizon for its FiOS TV product, to be delivered via its new, all-fiber network.

This is the largest population to be served by a Verizon franchise agreement so far. Manatee joins Temple Terrace as the second municipality in Florida to grant a franchise to Verizon as the company continues its campaign to be permitted to deliver television services to customers in its service territory.

To further promote standards-based solutions within the IPTV market, the Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) has formed an IPTV workgroup. The goals of the workgroup are to monitor developing standards or specifications for deploying an IPTV system, to create an interoperability conformance program for IPTV and to promote solutions that pass conformance testing.

Alcatel has signed an agreement with Eurosport, a leading producer and distributor of sports-related contents and programming. Thanks to this agreement, Eurosport will contribute to Alcatel's turnkey new media enablement activities by supplying a wide variety of expertise and professional services, focused on live sporting events.

Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. (MTS), Canada's third-largest national telecommunications company, has launched on-demand programming to over 40,000 television subscribers in Winnipeg. Using the world's most widely deployed on-demand software and servers from SeaChange International, Inc., the popular and growing MTS TV service now includes Hollywood blockbusters, kids' programs and other fare with on-demand control and convenience.

Privately-held SkyStream, the leader in IP video delivery, announced that it now has 20 MPEG-4 AVC customers worldwide for its Mediaplex^TM and iPlex^TM video headend systems.

"We have secured orders for hundreds of channels from MPEG-4 AVC customers, tripling our advanced codec business in the last month, and we expect to see increasing IPTV operator migration to MPEG-4 this year," said Jim Olson, president and CEO, SkyStream. "These numbers confirm that the combination of the high quality and high density of our MPEG-4 encoding and transcoding systems appeals to customers seeking cutting-edge technology and strong value."

B2 will deploy VDSL2 technology to deliver Triple Play services - Internet, IP Telephony and IPTV - over a High-Performance Broadband architecture based on IP/Ethernet technology. The VDSL2 system is planned to be in operation in October this year.

Verizon announced separate content agreements with The America Channel, Blackbelt TV, Expo TV, LIME and the Pentagon Channel, giving future Verizon FiOS TV viewers more choices of entertainment and informational programming.

Under the agreements, Verizon will carry the channels on Verizon FiOS TV when it launches later this year. They will complement other major cable and network channels available to Verizon subscribers.

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) announced a partnership with CMP Media, as sponsor and producer of the EE Times Great Minds, Great Ideas Zone and conference program at the 2006 International CES, the world's largest tradeshow for consumer technology. The 2006 International CES will take place January 5-8, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Optical Solutions Inc., the market leader in next-generation GPON access networks, announced that Public Service Telephone Company of Reynolds, Ga., has selected the FiberPath GPON system for a greenfield FTTP deployment in a new subdivision of Lizella, approximately six miles west of Macon.

Path 1 Network Technologies Inc., a leading provider of video gateway products that enable thetransmission of broadcast-quality video over IP networks, announced that LBiSat, an international satellite communications contracting and consulting firm, has deployed Path 1 IP video gateways in a variety of applications involving terrestrial transport networks for video content contribution. LBiSat is using the Path 1 equipment to aggregate live and file-based content from its customers by transporting their video feeds over long-haul IP networks and backhauling the content to multiple teleport facilities across the United States. Additionally, LBiSat will use Path 1's video gateways to interconnect its own teleport facilities terrestrially to improve the cost and efficiency of delivering IP-based video across LBiSat's own network.

Pixelworks, Inc., a leading provider of system-on-chip ICs for the advanced display market, announced the first demonstration of the AMD co-designed Sailfish II platform, which will be shown at the upcoming IFA 2005 consumer electronics show in Berlin beginning September 5, 2005. The reference design based on the Pixelworks PWBSP-16 Broadband Signal Processor IC and the AMD Alchemy Au1550 processor enables 'triple-play' set-top boxes (STBs) integrating broadband video, voice and data access into a single device.