Speculation about the fate of hard disk drives in the wake of late-2011 floods in Thailand and recent data from major set-top box vendors are resulting in new predictions about digital video recorder demand in 2012. Last Friday, Technicolor, one of the world’s largest STB manufacturers, indicated in its financial reporting that reduced DVR shipments cut deeply into the company’s 2011 revenues. Pace PLC, the world’s largest set-top box manufacturer, has reshuffled top management and issued profit warnings in response to HDD supply contractions. Recent forecasts from IMS Research’s Online Set-top Box Database anticipate a 2012 DVR volume drop of more than 20 percent as operators rely on existing inventories and delay new DVR orders.

WTC has chosen the APMAX Middleware Solution from Innovative Systems as they transition their cable video plant over to IPTV.

According to Tom Lynn, WTC's Vice President, "With the many options and impact that middleware has on the customer experience, we wanted to check out references from existing providers. What we found was a number of references stating the simplicity of the Innovative product from a management standpoint and an aggressive roadmap for future functionality." Lynn added, "The deal breaker for us was the fact that these U.S references had previously used middleware from other vendors and were quite satisfied with their decision to switch to APMAX Middleware."

The new IPTV forecast from MRG indicates that the number of global IPTV subscribers will grow from 53 million in 2011 to 105.1 million in 2015, a CAGR of 18.7%.

The service revenue for the global IPTV market was US$21.8 billion in 2011 and is projected to grow to US$45.3 billion in 2015, a CAGR of 20%. By 2015, Europe and North America will continue to generate a larger share of the global revenue. New and innovative services of key Operators described in the report reveal that IPTV Operators are aggressively developing these new services to compete with other local Pay-TV Operators.

Envivio announces a new deployment with Maxcom, a leading integrated telecommunication services operator in Mexico. Maxcom selected Envivio’s 4Caster C4 Gen III encoders to power Yuzu, its new live and on-demand over-the-top streaming service. Yuzu currently offers 24 live channels and 1,300 on-demand assets to PCs, Macs, iPads and iPhones. Maxcom plans to nearly double the number of channels and video-on-demand assets by the end of this year.

Envivio offers the industry’s leading encoding/transcoding solutions developed specifically for multi-screen delivery. The versatile 1-RU 4Caster platform performs a variety of functions including: multi-profile encoding, transcoding, packaging, encryption and publishing within a single system that delivers broadcast-quality TV, HTTP streaming and 3GPP mobile video. The Envivio Muse software on the 4Caster platform allows Maxcom to easily add support for new devices and formats as they expand their services.

Specialist speakers from around the world are set to make this year’s IP&TV World Forum the most globally diverse programme yet. Top representatives in the IP and connected TV industry will share their experience and expertise on key topics in today’s market.

The event unites operators, broadcasters and content providers from a variety of platform backgrounds including Smart TV, OTT, cable, satellite and terrestrial TV, and has been specifically designed to meet the evolving market place. The increasingly international nature of this year’s show has attracted important and influential players in the broadcast and broadband space including; Simon Sutton, President of Content and Distribution at HBO International; Moeed Ahmad, Head of New Media at Al Jazeera; Julien Codorniou, Head of International Business Development at Facebook, France, and Emma Lloyd, Director of Emerging Products at Sky.

Sunrise Communications has selected Entone as its set-top box partner for the deployment of advanced IPTV services. Sunrise has long been an innovative provider of premium residential and business services that include fiber-based broadband Internet, mobile solutions, advanced IP services and wireline telephony. Due to its dedication to customer satisfaction and innovative vision, Sunrise is now the largest private telecommunications provider in Switzerland, with almost 3 million subscribers, and growing.

Swiss IPTV wholesaler Netstream is hosting a new IPTV headend platform based on Harmonic's portfolio of encoding and transcoding products. Swiss distributor Adrenio installed Harmonic Electra 8000 universal SD/HD MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC encoders, ProStream 1000 stream processors with ACE transcoders, and the NMX digital service manager, enabling Netstream to offer competitive IPTV services to major Swiss telcos.

The market-leading 1-RU Electra 8000 encoders deployed by Netstream significantly enhance bandwidth efficiency while delivering broadcast-quality video streams. Additionally, the encoders offer a rich feature set that eases operational requirements such as density and power efficiency, and will allow Netstream to launch additional value-added video services in the future.

S3 Group announces that Swisscom has chosen StormTest Development Center to ensure the accurate and speedy software testing on IPTV Set-Top Boxes. This deployment, focused on STBs running Microsoft Mediaroom Client, has instantly improved the accuracy of testing as well as turnaround time. Swisscom was previously utilizing manual testing which is often time consuming, repetitive and poses more room for errors.

StormTest Development Center allows automated software testing to be executed efficiently and effectively across multiple digital TV devices. Swisscom is optimizing the solution to test its customized Microsoft Mediaroom Client and TV apps. This simulates the customers' experience and reduces the amount of time required per test hence optimizing the productivity of its development in general. With the streamlining ability of StormTest Development Center, Swisscom can now benefit from a powerful automated software testing framework that is flexible enough to cover a wide range of scenarios -- an objective that was previously unachievable.

NXP Software has integrated Verimatrix ViewRight Web client security into the Android version of its LifeVibes QuickPlayer. ViewRight Web is a component of the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System, and its integration into QuickPlayer enables enhanced security for adaptive streaming content delivery on Android phones and tablets. This opens the door to new revenue streams for service providers such as broadcasters and IPTV providers to add premium (paid for) internet TV services.

Imagine Communications announces that its award-winning ICE Video Platform IPTV transcoder has successfully completed qualification testing for the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV platform. The test was administered by Tech Mahindra as part of the Microsoft Mediaroom Interoperability and Qualification Lab program, which is intended to enable seamless interoperability and compliance of headend equipment used in Microsoft Mediaroom deployments.

Available in a dense 1RU package or as a NEBS compliant Blade System, the Imagine ICE Video Platform is the ideal solution for IPTV service providers who need to deploy more channels with higher picture quality, and then rapidly and seamlessly add support for multiple devices such as tablets, PCs and smartphones. By integrating audio and video transcoding in the same platform as PIP creation, multiscreen transcoding and multi-format media streaming, the ICE Video Platform provides an all-in-one solution for quality, scalability and reliability.

IP&TV World Forum announces that Google will run the opening workshop at its TV App Hub. With social TV one of the most important emerging technologies, the TV App Hub which takes place on days one and two of the conference, will assess the monetisation opportunities presented by the convergence of television and apps.

Global Manager, Developer Relations and Developer Advocate at Google, Ossama Alami, will open the free developer-orientated gathering on 20 March, and run a two hour workshop. As the leader of global developer outreach and support efforts for Google TV, Alami will explore how the developer communities can embrace it as the next stage of Android development, particularly as 2012 looks set to be a pivotal year for the advancement of Google TV as a major platform.

Exterity announces that True Colours has been appointed as a distributor for Exterity’s product portfolio in the UK.

Following the success of the StreamForce partner program throughout 2011, which includes nearly 100 partners, Exterity needed to ensure it had the right distributor in place to service customers effectively. As part of the agreement, True Colours will use its scale, expertise and knowledge of the AV market to provide channel partners with the complete range of Exterity products. This includes Exterity’s AvediaStream Encoder, Transcoder and TVgateway families, the newly launched AvediaServer 4 and the complete range of AvediaPlayer Receivers and desktop clients.

This new distribution relationship enables partners to fully benefit from the high growth IPTV market. Continuing to defy the economic pressures being faced by other industries, Exterity’s IPTV solutions will help maintain strong revenue streams for channel partners.

Harmonic announced that Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative of McMinnville, Tenn., has selected the Harmonic ProStream 1000 with ACE high-density, real-time transcoder to power HD and SD video for its 200-channel HD and SD IPTV service.

The ProStream 1000 with ACE real-time transcoding solution provides Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative with "any-to-any, any-to-many" support for HD and SD, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video and audio transcoding of up to 20 HD or 60 SD channels, as well as ASI to IP multiplexing, in a compact and power-efficient one rack unit (1 RU) chassis. The platform's high density enables Ben Lomand to meet growing demand for digital TV services, while lowering capital and operating expenses through reduced power consumption and rack space.

EYE IO announces its first commercial license agreement with Netflix. With more than 20 million streaming members in 47 countries and territories, Netflix has revolutionized entertainment by providing instant and unlimited access to tens of thousands of hours of movies and TV shows. eyeIO technology helps Netflix deliver the high quality streaming experience Netflix members love.

eyeIO video encoding is fully compliant with existing standards, making high quality video available anywhere in the world, on any connected device. The technology can be deployed as either a cloud or local solution and the enhanced video can be viewed without a custom video player or equipment modification.

BeeSmart are proud to announce a BeeSmart iPhone application. This novelty represents easier access to services for end-users, which are now available from iPhone devices and numerous possibilities for service operators to upgrade their offering.

BeeSmart iPhone application works together with the BeeSmart TV middleware. It needs to be authenticated and linked with the subscriber account on the BeeSmart platform in order to function. The application enables users to watch live TV or on-demand content on their mobile device. A recording of TV shows is also supported, as well as managing TV settings and checking the program guide. Alternatively, a user can turn the iPhone device into a user friendly, intuitive TV remote control.