Weekly Pix

Tandberg Wins Award Tandberg Television nabbed an award from the International Engineering Consortium (IEC) earlier this week. Tandberg was presented with an InfoVision Award during a ceremony at the Broadband World Forum Asia 2006 in Hong Kong. The company’s High Definition Intelligent Compression Engine (HD-ICE) for MPEG-4 AVC and SMPTE VC-1 won in the "Enabling Silicon and Component-Level Technologies" category. Sunrise Telecom Delivers Test Module VDSL IPTV Customers On the testing front, Sunrise Telecom announced the release of its SSMTT-41 module. Sunrise said the multi-function test tool is the only unit available to support VDSL line verification function and inside wiring tests in an integrated system. The SSMTT-41 includes a VDSL modem, HPNA analyzer, RF signal level meter, spectrum analyzer, and wiring test features in a single unit and is designed for VDSL-based IPTV customers. T-Online Hungary Picks Alcatel, Microsoft for IPTV pilot T-Online Hungary, a group member of Deutsche Telekom and Hungary’s largest Internet access provider, announced that it has selected Alcatel and Microsoft TV as the suppliers for an IPTV pilot project, based on the combination of the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform and Alcatel’s services integration solutions. The pilot project comprises three phases: a technical lab trial, two field trials and a public market trial. The technical lab trial was successfully concluded at the end of January. The first field trial (which included 18 broadcast TV channels, VOD and PVR) was recently evaluated, and based on the results, a second extended field trial (with 500 users, enhanced quality and more TV channels) was started and is ongoing. The third phase, a public market trial, is scheduled to begin this summer. Verimatrix’s Watermarking Integrated with Broadcom’s Chip Set Verimatrix, a developer of IPTV content protection systems, said that its VideoMark user-specific forensic watermarking technology has been integrated with Broadcom‘s set-top box reference design platform, the BCM97398. Using this platform, Verimatrix has integrated its Verimatrix Content Authority System (VCAS) VideoMark watermarking technology with Broadcom’s BCM7038 and BCM7411 dual-chip High-Definition AVC/VC-1/MPEG2 set-top box System-on-Chip solution. Will AT&T’s BellSouth Buy Spark Cable Consolidation? UBS Analyst Aryeh Bourkoff writes in a report that AT&T‘s $67 billion acquisition of BellSouth could start a consolidation wave in the cable industry. "Time Warner Cable could be poised to spark a wave of consolidation in the cable sector, and we believe potential candidates include Cablevision and Insight Communications," Bourkoff wrote. "We believe that Time Warner Cable could be in an acquisitive position following the close of the Adelphia transaction, expected by mid-year, at which point the company will have a publicly-traded cable currency."