International research firm Parks Associates, which is hosting CONNECTIONS Summit at CES today, predicts cloud media and expanded content and service options will be key to the long-term success of the connected tablets and Internet-connectable CE premiering at CES in 2011.

"Consumers are interested in the cloud for premium and personal content," said Kurt Scherf, VP, principal analyst, Parks Associates. "Annual sales of Internet-connectable TV devices will reach 350 million by 2015 by virtue of robust content options, which will trigger mass-market adoption."

The Boxee Box by D-Link, winner of more than 10 industry awards, has undergone significant improvements on both hardware and content partnership fronts. The latest whole-home entertainment hub features high-performance hardware and a huge content library thanks to several new major media partnerships and a continuing collaborative development effort with Boxee.

Boxee Box aggregates the best Internet content and locally stored media into an elegant on-screen interface for a "lean-back" couch experience. It's the best, easiest way to watch movies, TV shows and clips from the Internet on your TV. All you need is a TV with an HDMI input and an Internet connection. Boxee Box takes care of the rest. The hardware is equipped with an SD card slot, (2) USB ports, an optical digital audio connector, HDMI output, 802.11n wireless and an Ethernet port. There isn't much Boxee Box can't plug into.

KyLinTV announces the official launch of Guangxi TV International as part of its expanded Great Wall package in North America.

Launched in January, 2010, Guangxi TV International provides informational services related to economic and trade exchanges between countries within the recently formed China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Free Trade Area. With the brand positioned around the beautiful landscapes and the multicultural diversity while, at the same time, emphasizing the emerging trends in the region, Guangxi TV International introduces China and more specifically, Guangxi, the province best positioned to become the hub of the newly developing cross-border activity, to viewers in ASEAN countries and around the world. The programming lineup highlights the latest achievements as a result of the win-win cooperation between China and the various ASEAN member countries while displaying the colorful local and ethnic customs and culture of Guangxi and keeping up with the latest fashions in China.

WHO:
Verimatrix specializes in securing and enhancing revenue for multi-screen digital TV services around the globe. The next-generation Verimatrix Video Content Authority System 3 core architecture shifts the value proposition beyond content protection, towards the broader perspective of revenue security for cable, satellite, terrestrial and IPTV operators.

Steve Oetegenn, chief sales and marketing officer, has 25 years experience in the IT space on an international basis, having launched numerous high tech products to the global marketplace. He has specialized in digital security and anti-piracy since 1998, working with government agencies, Fortune 500 companies and major Hollywood studios.

Amino Communications is launching a new “companion” set-top box at CES 2011 aimed at network operators seeking to add OTT functionality to their established pay-TV and broadcast offerings.

The new device – the Freedom Jump – is designed to complement existing cable and satellite set-top boxes, working alongside them to offer access to the wealth of additional content available on the open Internet such as applications, movie-on-demand services, catch-up TV, music services and social networking.

Free has announced that it is deploying Movea's MotionIC technologies in next generation remote controls that will come with the new Freebox set-top box launched in late December 2010 in France. The combination of motion control and gesture recognition provide a more immersive, intuitive user experience that puts users in the driver's seat for new interactive IPTV services. With more than four million subscribers, Free has the largest subscriber base of any IPTV company in the world -- nearly double that of its nearest rival, according to Frost and Sullivan's July 2010 report, "Global IPTV Equipment Market and Provider Competition Analysis."

Sigma Designs will showcase at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, new products and award-winning solutions that bring the first studio-quality entertainment experience to the living room. For the first time, Sigma will demonstrate its new powerhouse SMP8910 and thin-client optimized SMP8670 Secure Media Processors. Also on display will be Sigma's recently announced G.hn chipset, the CG5110.

Sigma Designs set a new bar for advanced connected media players, Blu-ray players and IPTV set-top box SoCs with the introduction of its SMP8910 media processor. The SMP8910 is the first chip to integrate VXP studio quality video processing and the most flexible 3D video processing into a high-performance media processor.

The SMP8910 provides more than 6,000 DMIPS via a dual-core 1004K MIPS CPU -- achieving real-world performance never before possible on a STB SoC. The chip's unique distributed processing architecture features task-optimized CPU that manage key processes, including HD multi-format video decoding, 3D graphics rendering, content protection and security management and multi-format audio encoding and decoding. This highly optimized architecture leaves more than 3,000 DMIPS of available processing to smoothly run middleware, STB applications and the latest over-the-top applications.