TANDBERG Solution at the Forefront of Seamless Video Integration Into Any Unified Communications Platform

Telepresence and video conferencing have been instrumental in helping businesses address the challenges of recent economic pressures, such as travel reductions and employee productivity. The ROI for both group and "personal" video will be further realized through seamless integration into a unified communications (UC) platform. The TANDBERG end-to-end solution delivers unrivaled H.323/Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) dual stack capabilities to bridge the world of existing telepresence and video conferencing solutions with VoIP and UC so businesses can make the most of their investments.

With the ability to support richer features such as presence, messaging, and advanced telephony features, SIP is the most widely used signaling standard to bring business tools together in a UC environment. However, with many video conferencing products using either H.323 or proprietary signaling protocols, integrating video with UC platforms and UC desktop video clients can be costly and challenging. TANDBERG has solved this issue with its Video Communication Server (VCS), which enables SIP and H.323 interworking without any investment in additional hardware or software. This allows seamless interoperation of all TANDBERG products with third-party vendors and tools such as Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and VoIP PBXes.

TANDBERG has long encouraged open standards supporting interoperability among all vendors' products and services. With this focus, the company has built the industry's broadest and easiest to use telepresence and video product solution set, which supports both H.323 and SIP protocols at the same time. This enables third-party, legacy, and future video products -- as well as other business critical tools -- to work together on a UC platform without a heavy investment in upgrade costs. With no hardware to replace for future upgrades, customers can be assured that the infrastructure they deploy today can remain in place to support future SIP deployments.

For more information, please visit www.TANDBERG.com.

RedMere's Technology Passes ESD Test

RedMere, the leader in high-speed chip and cable technology solutions, announces 15kV ESD results for active HDMI High Speed Cables with embedded RM1689 devices.

Testing up to 15kV was performed using the IEC/EN 61000-4-2 method which is a test method by immunity standards listed under the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive from the European Union. Testing active cables for ESD is important as kilovolts of static could cause damage to the cables.

RedMere is working with globally based customers to continually test active cables with other international standards.

Thomson takes a further leap forward with next generation interactive HD cable set-top boxes

Thomson, a worldwide leader of services to content creators, is demonstrating two new cable set-top boxes, based on its third generation technology and delivering high speed data as well as comprehensive digital cable services. The set-top boxes allow cable operators to offer broadband to the home at up to 100Mb/s with home networking and content sharing using the MoCA (Multimedia over Co-ax Alliance) standard.

The new DCI708 set-top box is ready for both standard and high definition television using MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 coding, including 1080 line progressive HD. It is based on a new system on a chip device, which incorporates full support for Docsis and EuroDocsis, including channel bonding to achieve internet access speeds of up to 100Mb/s. The DCI804 set-top box offers the same features and additionally includes an internal disk recorder, using fast and compact 2.5” disk drives for local recording, timeshifts and downloading data from the network operator.

The new boxes support multiple middleware and conditional access solutions. The integral high speed data connectivity gives the operator ready access for advanced interactive applications such as video on demand, and secure communications, as well as remote diagnostics and updates to minimise support costs. Where the home has existing co-ax cable connecting rooms, the implementation of MoCA allows a single set-top box to distribute content to multiple rooms within the home, allowing the users to take advantage of home networking.

For the full release, click here.

Telcordia Focuses on National Cyber Security Issues

As cyber threats and national security issues continue to capture the attention of the nation and the Obama administration looks to appoint the much heralded Cyber Czar, Telcordia Technologies, a leading architect of telecommunications software and services and a long standing contributor to advanced national communications systems, is amplifying its focus on critical issues surrounding the vulnerability and survivability of the nation's networks.

Telcordia, a chief architect of the telecommunications system in the U.S., has pioneered many of the telecommunications services used today. With more than 1800 patents issued, the company is renowned for developing groundbreaking communications technologies that have served as the connectivity tissue for most U.S. and foreign carrier networks.

National security issues and their impacts continue to intensify. The Department of Homeland Security reports the number of cyber attacks on government and private networks multiplied nearly 20-fold over the last four years. As fragmented systems thwart the secure exchange of information across government entities and companies, information blockage remains a national concern.

Following the divestiture of the Bell Telephone System, there was no longer one company responsible for architecturing, engineering and ensuring the integrity of the nation's communications network. At the same time, networks became markedly more complex with the onset of new competition, technologies and applications, further increasing the vulnerability and security risks of the network infrastructure. Previous administrations have attempted to reduce the vulnerabilities in the system, defend against the full spectrum of threats, and develop next-generation technologies to maintain a competitive edge but those efforts have fallen short.

For more information on Telcordia's security offerings visit www.telcordia.com/services/security/index.html.

Numericable and Nagravision launch a comprehensive widget TV solution and announce the introduction of multicast TV broadcasting technology

Numericable has chosen Nagravision's, a Kudelski Group company, widget platform for the launch of its "Widget TV" service on its network. Widgets will allow Numericable customers to interact with their TV and build a genuine social network as part of their TV experience.

The partnership between the Kudelski Group and Numericable will also translate into the introduction in 2010 of a new "SDV" technology enabling the use of an increasing number of channels thanks to the multicast broadcasting technology.

TV widgets symbolize TV 2.0. A widget is a small, easy-to-use software application that lets consumers interact with online information in a graphically appealing way. It creates a targeted and familiar environment with recommendation of relevant data for consumers making them more likely to return to a certain service of interest.

Numericable will in particular offer the "MyTV" widget that will make it possible to send program alerts to friends. Subsequently, Numericable subscribers will be able to choose widgets from a large gallery including live and on-demand recommendation widgets as well as widgets allowing them to share videos and track their updates from online social networks.

Nagravision's widget platform will allow Numericable to work together with content providers and software application developers in order to develop innovative services in relation with the content being viewed or addressing specific consumer needs. The widget platform will be open and will encourage external developments as does the Apple Store.

For the full press release, click here.