–NDS Enables Interactive TV on New Romanian Satellite TV Service
News Corp.’s interactive TV and conditional access technology subsidiary, NDS, has teamed with Intel on a trial system for delivering pay TV using fixed WiMAX technology. The companies say that they also plan to collaborate on developing the market for such a system, via demo’s to service providers and other joint activities. The system, which has been installed at Intel’s Wireless Competence Center in Kista, Sweden, employs the WiMAX IEEE 802.16-2004 standard and the soon-to-be-ratified IEEE 802.16e standard. The companies’ demo of the system shows it delivering live TV, an EPG and VOD to a notebook based on Intel Centrino mobile technology over 802.15-2004 and 802.11. The current demo uses fixed pre-WiMAX equipment to deliver content to CPE and then WiFi to send content to the notebook: the companies say they plan to enhance the system to support 802.16e and to use NDS’s VideoGuard conditional access technology to protect content delivered over the system. "Demonstrating multicast TV to notebook computers articulates the way forward for mobile computing–extending the range of services offered by WiMAX to include broadband Internet access, VoIP and video," Anders Huge, the director of Intel’s Wireless Competence Center, said in a prepared statement.
In other NDS news: the company says that it has deployed an end-to-end system for Romanian satellite TV company, DTH Television Grup, that includes its MediaHighway middleware and EPG and its VideoGuard conditional access technology. The system is powering DTH Television Grup’s new pay-TV platform, BOOM TV, which will offer its subscribers a line-up of interactive TV services. "We’re delighted that DTH Television Grup has selected our proven solutions for their new service, BOOM TV," NDS chairman and CEO, Abe Peled, said in a prepared statement. "This is an important contract for NDS as Romania, which has a population of over 40 million, is a significant TV market with the highest TV viewing figures in Europe by a wide margin. It also signals our expansion into the high-growth Eastern European broadcasting market, which we will continue to develop over the coming months and years."
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