DirecTV to purchase $7M+ of MPEG4 HD encoders

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October 21, 2005 02:37 AM US Eastern Timezone

TANDBERG Television Wins Third DIRECTV MPEG-4 AVC HD Order for $7m+

OSLO, Norway--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 2005--TANDBERG Television (TAT.OL) today announced that it has received a further order from DIRECTV, Inc., a leading digital television service provider in the United States, valued in excess of US$7m. The contract will see TANDBERG Television deliver the third phase of MPEG-4 AVC HD compression systems during the fourth quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006. As DIRECTV accelerates its market-leading deployment of High Definition programming, it is using the TANDBERG MPEG-4 AVC HDTV video head-end which includes award-winning TANDBERG EN5990 encoders in a fully redundant system complete with Refle:mad:TM) statistical multiplexing software.


"DIRECTV is pioneering the mass-market roll-out of HDTV programming and is forging ahead with its consumer launch. We are delighted that our MPEG-4 AVC systems are playing such a pivotal role in DIRECTV's ground-breaking deployment and believe the investment DIRECTV has made in TANDBERG Television technology is a clear indicator of our strong position in the HD video compression market," says Eric Cooney, President and CEO of TANDBERG Television. "We look forward to HD compression continuing to grow as a proportion of our business, and continuing to lead the market in the availability and performance of our systems."

First to market with MPEG-4 AVC HD compression systems, TANDBERG Television has developed the award-winning EN5990 to enable broadcasters and operators to respond to the dramatically increased consumer demand for more HDTV programming. By using the power, flexibility and bandwidth efficiency of MPEG-4 AVC the bandwidth required for the real-time delivery of outstanding High Definition images can be halved compared to traditional MPEG-2 solutions. TANDBERG Television MPEG-4 AVC systems are also being using by BSkyB in the UK and Premiere in Germany for the roll-out of European HDTV services in early 2006, as well as by several other unnamed operators.

About TANDBERG Television

TANDBERG Television (Oslo:TAT.OL) designs and develops professional systems that enable new business models in the media and entertainment market through the delivery of high quality live digital video and on-demand content. For more information visit: http://www.tandbergtv.com
 
Yeah, it's about time one of the two finally tipped their hand. I feel sorry for the E* subs, I suspect they will have a long wait on equipment before production truly ramps up.
 
Hmm one has to wonder how much each MPEG4 encoder costs. Maybe $50,000 each? If they are in that ball park then $7 million is getting a lot of MPEG encoders for a lot of MPEG4 channels. :)
 
By using the power, flexibility and bandwidth efficiency of MPEG-4 AVC the bandwidth required for the real-time delivery of outstanding High Definition images can be halved compared to traditional MPEG-2 solutions

More channels and better quailty I hope.
 
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