VOD and interactive TV technology provider, SeaChange International, says that its customer, Tokyo-based OnDemand TV (note: the latter, which is a joint venture between ITOCHU Corporation and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation West, began offering service in March 2005), is launching what it claims will be the world's first IPTV-based VOD service to offer HDTV programming encoded in the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video compression standard (note: the latter allows operators to deliver HD video streams in less than half the bandwidth required by MPEG-2): starting next month, FTTH-equipped OnDemand TV subscribers in Tokyo and Osaka will be able to access libraries of high-definition movies, sports programs and other programming. By using H.264, OnDemand TV will be able to deliver HD programming (together with Advanced Audio Coding surround sound) on-demand in 8Mbps of bandwidth. It will continue to deliver standard-definition programming in MPEG-2. OnDemand TV's new MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 capability is enabled by Tandberg Television's Mediaplex 20-based video headends (note: Tandberg acquired the Mediaplex technology via its purchase of SkyStream Networks earlier this year--see [itvt] Issue 6.58 Part 1). The operator is deploying Tandberg-powered MPEG-4 AVC transcoding in its Mediaplex-based headends in Tokyo and Osaka: each headend will process transcoded MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 AVC content and deliver it to NTT's broadband customers. OnDemand TV is also adding two new Mediaplex headends to its existing installation of Mediaplexes to transcode the MPEG-2 content to MPEG-4 and to provide more redundancy.
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