Telcos Tune into SES
Americom's IPTV Solution
(19 June 2007) SES Americom, an SES
company, today announced the commercial availability of its Internet protocol
television (IPTV) solution, IP-Prime, the most comprehensive end-to-end and
turnkey IPTV solution for telecommunications companies.
After
extensive and successful technical trials with large, medium and small sized
telcos across the United States, IP-Prime is now available to any North
American telco looking for a fast, cost-effective means to offer their
customers a world-class television service.
SES Americom's IP-Prime
gives telecommunications companies the ability to compete and win new
subscribers by offering television together with their other services. Adding
television service can be complex and expensive, yet it is a necessary
undertaking for telcos to complete their triple play portfolio of voice, data
and television services. Telcos of all sizes will find IP-Prime minimises the
risk of a complex technical integration, simplifies difficult program
acquisition challenges and lowers their financial risks for launching a
television service.
SES Americom, with more than thirty years of
experience in delivering television signals from programmers to cable and
broadcast networks, has architected a solution that gives telcos and private
network operators everything they need to deliver a fully-featured television
service over existing network infrastructures. IP-Prime delivers a complete
array of programming channel options, a carrier-grade headend, a choice of
consumer set top boxes and multiple middleware solutions that make it all work.
Customers benefit from SES Americom's expertise in television distribution,
helping ensure that customers select a proven technical solution, thus reducing
both the technical risk and financial cost of deploying a new video service.
The IP-Prime solution not only delivers high-quality video, it also saves
customers millions of dollars of capital and operational expenditures when
compared to the costs of building their own service.
"SES Americom has
utilized our decades of experience to build an IPTV solution that is the
closest thing to flicking a switch to turn on service," said Bill Squadron,
senior vice president of media partnerships at SES Americom. "We invested tens
of millions of dollars and over two years developing IP-Prime, and put the
solution through extensive testing so we can be sure we're offering our
customers the most complete, easiest-to-deploy and most cost-effective path for
them to offer their subscribers television service. The result of our efforts
is that SES Americom is the first company to bring an end-to-end,
satellite-based television service to market built completely on the new MPEG-4
video standard."
The entire solution is based on the MPEG-4 digital
video standard that offers improved video quality together with greater
bandwidth efficiency over the MPEG-2 standard. The MPEG-4 standard makes
IP-Prime particularly ideal for enabling networks to accommodate numerous
applications and features, as well as accommodate the explosive growth in HDTV
channels.
The IP-Prime ecosystem employs open, standards-based
technologies from multiple world-class technology partners. SES Americom tests
and qualifies each third-party technology or middleware component before
integrating it into IP-Prime. By using open standards and ensuring
interoperability, SES Americom is providing customers with options, and
ensuring that their service is leading edge today and well into the
future.
IP-Prime comes with existing transport agreements for over 275
television channels and over 100 digital music channels, giving customers the
easiest way to offer a broad range of diverse programming. This program line up
includes over 20 HDTV channels, as well as pay per view programming and the
ability to offer video-on-demand service. Customers can pick and choose which
channels to include in their line-up, and can easily integrate local
programming.
"Because of SES Americom's years of leadership and
technical innovation in broadcast television, we selected IP-Prime as the
exclusive end-to-end IPTV service for our rural telco members," said Steve
Bing, senior vice president of the National Rural Telecommunications
Cooperative (NRTC). "Our members tell us that IPTV service will be a critical
component of their service portfolio, and SES Americom is giving them the
easiest path to a very comprehensive service. With IP-Prime, NRTC members will
have the fastest path to bring to market a complete and technically advanced
television service."
IP-Prime is commercially available as of
today.
About SES Americom
The largest supplier of satellite
services in the U.S., SES Americom is recognised as a leading innovator of
global satellite communications services. The company today operates a fleet of
15 spacecraft in orbital positions predominantly providing service throughout
the Americas. As a member of the SES family, SES Americom is able to provide
end-to-end telecommunications solutions to any region of the world via a fleet
of more than 36 satellites. In addition, Americom Government Services, a wholly
owned subsidiary, is dedicated to providing satellite-based communications
solutions to both civilian and defence agencies of the U.S. government. With
its combined operations, SES Americom serves broadcasters, cable programmers,
aeronautical and maritime communications integrators, Internet service
providers, mobile communications networks, government agencies, educational
institutions, carriers and secure global data networks with efficient
communication and content distribution solutions.
(source: SES
Americom)