--Also Launches Set-Top Box for tru2way Developers
--Names New GM of its Americas Cable Unit, Secures Hungarian HD DVR Deal
At the NCTA Cable Show in New Orleans last month, Geneva,
Switzerland-based set-top box manufacturer, Advanced Digital
Broadcast (note: the company, generally known by the acronym ADB,
is the corporate stablemate of Vidiom and Osmosys), unveiled a new
HD set-top for the US market, the ADB-4820C, which it is billing as
one of the first set-top boxes to receive full tru2way certification.
According to the company, the product has been specifically designed
for use with flat-panel television sets and thus features a compact
design that allows it to mount to the back of a TV. It is fully integrated
with Vidiom's and Osmosys' implementations of OCAP/tru2way, ADB
says, and also features a DOCSIS return channel to support
high-bandwidth two-way communications for functionality such as
VOD and application downloads. It also supports HD and SD reception
for MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (H.264), and SMPTE-421M (WM9-AP), ADB
says. "ADB is dedicated to innovation and this latest product is
testament to our commitment to innovation within the digital cable
television market," Tim Schermerhorn, the newly appointed (see
below) SVP and general manager of ADB's Americas Cable Business
Unit, said in a prepared statement. "The fully featured 4820C has been
designed specifically to assist cable MSO's in the conversion to
advanced tru2way networks, as more consumers take advantage of flat
panel, HD television sets, the unit has been designed to provide
innovative, space-saving storage. We believe that it will prove to be a
hit with MSO's."
ADB also used the NCTA Cable Show to demo some of its other
set-top boxes, including: 1) the ADB-6882CX HD, an interactive media
center with DVR functionality that is targeted at US cable operators;
according to the company it allows users to watch one program and
record up to three programs simultaneously, and is DLNA-certified,
ensuring that it can act as a home networking server or client over
Ethernet and MoCA interfaces. 2) The ADB-6822 HD, which the
company says supports multiple tru2way applications and multi-room
home networking.
In other ADB news:
- The company has named Tim Schermerhorn as SVP and general
manager of its ADB Americas Cable business unit. Schermerhorn, who
according to ADB has over 18 years of marketing, sales, product
management and new business development experience in the cable
and telecommunications industries, will be responsible for growing the
company's US cable business and expanding its current range of
tru2way-ready cable set-top boxes. He was previously senior director
of Motorola's professional services business, and prior to that also
served as Motorola's senior director of emerging markets and as its
director of marketing for the EMEA region. Prior to Motorola's
acquisition of General Instrument, he was director of marketing for GI's
transmission networks business, the national account director for its
Comcast business, and its regional sales representative in Latin
America.
- The company has developed a set-top box, dubbed the ADB-7822C
HD, that is specifically targeted at tru2way developers. The box--which
ADB says is fully integrated with tru2way middleware from ADB
Group-subsidiaries Vidiom and Osmosys, to provide a complete
end-to-end software development kit--was used at the tru2way
Developer Conference that immediately preceded the NCTA Cable
Show and that represented a collaboration between CableLabs, the
NCTA and Vidiom. According to ADB, the box can be used both for
application software testing and for end-to-end tru2way lab testing, is
OpenCable Host 2.0-compliant, incorporates a Multi-Stream
CableCARD Host 2.0 Interface, and provides HD and SD support for
MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (H.264) and SMPTE-421M (WM9-AP).
- The company has secured a deal to supply cable and satellite HD
DVR's to Hungarian pay-TV provider, Hello Platform, in order to
support the latter's new HD service, HelloHD, which launched May 1st
and which is being delivered over both cable and satellite, using both
MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.264 AVC. The units are integrated with
Osmosys' MHP software and feature a push-VOD application from
Osmosys. According to ADB, they feature an advanced
microprocessor, which, together with the company's own operating
software, enables enhanced system performance, including fast channel
decoding, HDMI interface and swift rendering of on-screen graphics.
The Hello Platform deal is ADB's first in the Hungarian market.
