Latens in "Certified Integration" Partnerships with Interactive TV App/Widget Developers

Latens, a provider of middleware and software-based security solutions for IPTV and cable services, announced Wednesday that it has formed partnerships with interactive TV application/widget developers, Accedo Broadband, CloverLeaf Digital, Pleyo and Systemagic, allowing it to offer certified integrations of those companies' applications on its ECO middleware platform. The new partners offer portal-based information applications, games and various custom services targeted at IPTV and connected-TV environments.

According to Latens, the certified integrations will provide telco and cable operators that are developing IPTV services with "greater choice and scope of applications to deploy in their IPTV service, improving quality of user experience and differentiation of their TV offering." Latens bills its ECO middleware--which comes with pre-integrated software-only conditional access technology--as allowing operators that are seeking to launch advanced IPTV services to offer IP-based video control and transfer capabilities, such as OTT video and "TV Anywhere," while ensuring content security across multiple viewing devices. "These partnerships give Latens the opportunity to offer IPTV operators greater freedom of choice, allowing full customization of their TV service to fit their business model and give viewers what they want," Latens' product marketing director, Phil Cardy, said in a prepared statement. "This is a significant development for all telco and cable companies choosing Latens' ECO middleware for their IPTV. Not only can these operators be assured that both content and revenue are secure, but they can also incorporate new means of revenue generation into their service, safe in the knowledge that all of these applications are fully compatible with Latens middleware."

Accedo Broadband claims to offer "the largest available application store for IPTV and connected TV," containing, among other things, casual games, quizzes, puzzles, video art, and comics, as well as karaoke, lifestyle, niche sports, weather, social media and communications apps. CloverLeaf Digital offers localized "walled garden" news and information services, games (through a partnership with Accedo Broadband), and tools that allow local community organizations to post information on its walled garden services. Pleyo bills itself as a "Web enabler for CE devices," providing an embedded Web browser based on Webkit (Apple), with extensions such as a widget engine, 3D and HbbTV support, and a "comprehensive tool-chain of production for best Web-browser performance, quality and standard compliance"; the company, which also offers a widget farm "included into a device-aware Webservices platform," says that this "Web-ecosystem for CE devices" is available for hybrid or IP set-tops and TV sets, as well as mobile phones, portable media players and other connected devices. Finally, Systemagic offers a range of interactive TV games, as well as chat and email apps.