Optibase, Ltd., a leading provider of advanced digital video solutions, announced that it will provide its advanced video technologies to VCOM and China NetCom, IPTV providers of rural informatization to Henan province.

Zhengzhou VCOM Electronic Technology Limited Company, a leading professional IPTV system and terminal provider, content integrator and operator, is partnering with China NetCom in Henan and intends to expand their application to an additional nine provinces in northern China.

Espial IPTV, a leading provider of IPTV middleware and applications, announces support for the first wave of High Definition (HD) set-top boxes. On display at the Tilgin booth (4.299), Espial's Evo service platform is running on Tilgin's new High Definition IP STB, the Mood 400. The Evo service platform allows operators to offer to subscribers a superior HD quality of experience that is graphically-rich, fully skinnable, turbo-fast, and truly open and customizable.

Responding to service provider needs for a robust, multi-play IPTV offering, IP set-top box (STB) and client application software provider Softier is launching its second-generation IP set-top box, the WAVE-400. The WAVE-400 H.264 IP-STB platform with single-chip implementation is based on Texas Instruments' (TI) DaVinci technology and provides the fundamental combination of hardware and software to enable cost-effective multi-play service delivery.

Orca Interactive, a global market leader in developing middleware and applications for IPTV, announced that its new Interactive Alliance IPTV partner program is gaining momentum with the addition of eight new companies.

Continuing to pioneer technological advancements by providing developers the flexible and extensive development foundation they need to grow their market presence, Texas Instruments Incorporated will demonstrate at the International Broadcasters Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam, September 8 - 12, a converged platform running on a single digital signal processor and targeting multiple end equipments including video telephony, internet protocol set-top boxes (IP-STB), media centers and portable multimedia players. For more information, see http://www.ti.com/convergedplatform.

NDS has integrated its Synamedia Metro IPTV solution with the new IPTV set-top box from Samsung Electronics.

The powerful combination of the NDS Synamedia Metro middleware and DRM capabilities, coupled with the Samsung IP set-top box, brings a complete IPTV solution to the telecommunications industry. A demonstration of the integrated technologies can be seen at IBC on the NDS Stand, 1.171.

Widevine Technologies, the leading provider of content protection and forensic watermarking solutions for IP video, has embedded its protection capabilities into Texas Instruments Incorporated DaVinci technology-based digital media processors to facilitate secure consumption of broadcast and VOD content on a wide range of consumer devices.

In this collaboration, the patented Widevine Cypher Virtual SmartCard will secure content processed by TI's DaVinci technology.

Understanding the New World of Television 'Broadcasting'

IPTV, short for Internet Protocol Television, is a new method of delivering and viewing television programming using an IP network and high speed broadband access technology. More than simply a new distribution and playback method, IPTV is poised to create an entirely new mindset about the television experience. Whereas current terrestrial broadcast television is the same content sent continuously to all consumers’ homes, IPTV removes the fixed television schedule. Similar to how information on the Internet can be downloaded and viewed at any time, IPTV enables television programming to be available whenever each individual consumer demands it. In this way, each household can create their own custom content and viewing schedule.

There are vast amounts of personal digital content – photos, audio and increasingly video files – that exist in homes around the globe. Billions of these types of files are in stored computers, but rarely shared or seen due to the inconvenience of gathering people around a computer. However, several factors are converging to fundamentally change this paradigm. Increasingly, more and more consumers will find it just as easy to show digital photos to friends, play audio files and download television programming in their living room. Enabling this reality is Networked Digital Television (NDTV). Very simply, NDTV is a television able to accept digital broadcast formats, decode multiple audio and video file types, and connect to a personal computer or the Internet through a wireless or wired network connection.

Alcatel - Shareholders of Alcatel, at the annual ordinary and extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting, today approved all proposed resolutions related to the merger with Lucent Technologies, Inc..

Lucent - Lucent Technologies today announced that its shareowners voting had overwhelmingly approved the Agreement and Plan of Merger with Alcatel, dated as of April 2, 2006, at the Special Meeting of Shareowners held earlier today. Final results of the shareowner vote will be disclosed in an upcoming filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Juniper Networks, Inc. announced the expansion of the RESIP (Resilient IP) laboratory in Munich to include testing, certification and demonstration facilities to ease the deployment of IPTV and multiplay service offerings. Previously focused on next-generation network Voice over IP (VoIP) applications, the RESIP laboratory now accommodates full-meshed core and edge routing, access and aggregation solutions, IPTV and multiplay applications, and the underlying infrastructure, at scale. The RESIP laboratory is working closely with the IPTV and Multiplay Center of Excellence Laboratory in Westford, Massachusetts, which is also a resource designed to help assure readiness for providers' production service deployments.

DaimlerChrysler rolled out what is believed to be the first interactive advertisement featured on the IPTV network Now TV based in Hong Kong. The 45-second advertisement for Daimler's luxury Maybach brand asks viewers to press a button on the remote for more information on the auto. The viewer is then taken to a multi-page informational site with customer service information and contact details for a Hong Kong dealer.

For more information, click here.

Broadbus Technologies, Inc. announced the latest version of its award-winning on-demand video platform. The release extends Broadbus' carrier-class on-demand solution with enhanced support for IPTV applications and new reliability features.

The Broadbus B-1 Video Server and Stream Commander management software have been updated to provide video service providers with new on-demand functionality including support for H.264/MPEG-4, improved security, support for IPTV-based advanced video services such as nDVR and Time-Shifted TV, as well as enhanced fault tolerance and reliability.

SecureMedia, the technology leader in content protection software for secure video and multimedia delivery over IP networks, and Amino, leading IPTV platform supplier, announced that SecureMedia has fully integrated its widely deployed Encryptonite ONE System with Amino's AmiNET130, AVC HD STB for home entertainment.

IntAct, an Amino Technologies public limited company, announced that its software has been ported onto a set-top box (STB) designed by leading Taiwanese original device manufacturer (ODM), Wistron NeWeb Corp. (WNC). NXP is the newly independent semiconductor company founded by Philips and the STB design is based on NXP Semiconductors' STB810 reference design integrating the IntAct software stack with NXP's Nexperia home entertainment engine-PNX8950. WNC's STB will allow Telcos in the emerging markets to license IntAct software and to deploy standard definition (SD) IPTV services at minimum cost. By embedding the software from IntAct, already deployed in more than 700,000 STBs worldwide, WNC can offer its customers a product which is based on industry-proven technology.