Interactive TV Company, itaas, Opens New Office in Ontario, Expands Operations in Atlanta, India

itaas--an Atlanta-based company which provides a range of software development, integration and testing services for interactive TV (including ETV/EBIF, tru2way and IPTV solutions), and which last month announced 1) that it had ported the EBIF user agent of Comcast-subsidiary, TVWorks, to Cisco set-top boxes, and 2) that it had signed an agreement with Charter Communications that includes licensing, installation and support for the TVWorks ETV platform (see the articles published on itvt.com, May 11th)--said Monday that it has opened a new office in London, Ontario and expanded both its US headquarters and its offices in India.

The company's new London, Ontario operation includes a handful of former employees of TVWorks' recently shuttered office in that city (note: for more on the closure of TVWorks' Ontario office, see the article published on itvt.com, May 5th). The expansion of itaas's US headquarters, meanwhile, is designed, according to the company, to accommodate an expansion of its lab and testing facilities, a growing employee headcount and customer-focused work areas; and the expansion of its Indian offices--the third such expansion in three years--is intended to accommodate "growing resources" and larger lab and testing facilities, the company says. "Our continued investment in the expansion of our facilities and resources worldwide demonstrates our commitment to the ITV industry," itaas COO, Jaspal Bhasin, said in a prepared statement. "As we continue to broaden our portfolio of services, we are committed to adding best-in-class resources and infrastructure to support our customers' needs. Our core team of experienced engineers at itaas' Canada offices will initially focus on providing support services for both US and Canadian customers for the deployment of ITV solutions which include technologies such as EBIF, tru2way and IP. With increased industry demand related to next-generation technologies like media gateways, home networking, IP platforms, EBIF, tru2way and wireless, itaas is committed to providing expertise to its customers for multiplatform solutions. This expansion is indicative of itaas' commitment to the growth of the digital media industry."

itaas describes itself as offering a full range of software design, development, integration and support services for MSO's, programmers, application developers and technology providers. The company also operates an "istart" developer program that offers SDK's and support for Time Warner Cable's MDN, ODN and MAS software, Cisco's SARA/PowerTV and OCAP Axiom, FourthWall Media's EBIF user agent and the TVWorks ETV platform. The company recently announced that it supported the ability to make enhancements to the SARA guide platform and to test DTA devices in anticipation of deployment.