CONNECTIONS Europe features Technicolor keynote & executives from ADB, HbbTV, IBM, NDS, Omniphone, OpenTV and more

The speakers for CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit: Monetizing Connectivity and User Experiences, announced today by Parks Associates, offer unique executive insight into business strategies for digital content, value-added services, connected CE, and advanced video devices and services. International research firm Parks Associates will host the Summit on April 27, 2010, at the Mövenpick Hotel in Amsterdam.

Benoit Joly, Vice-President, Home Network & Applications, Technicolor, will present the opening keynote. Other speakers:

-- Jonathan Beavon, Director, Segment Marketing, NDS

-- Paul Bristow, VP Strategy, Middleware & Consumer Experience, ADB (Advanced Digital Broadcast)

-- Ronald Brockmann, Managing Director, Europe, ActiveVideo Networks

-- Rob van den Dam, Global Telecom Sector leader IBV, IBM

-- Klaus Illgner-Fehns, Managing Director, HbbTV

-- Trond Neergaard, Founder and Managing Partner, Cloudberry Associates

-- Steve Oetegenn, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Verimatrix

-- Rolf Uwe Placzek, CEO, Acetrax

-- Kurt Scherf, VP, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates

-- Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates

-- Andrew Wajs, CTO, Irdeto

-- Olivier Wellmann, VP, Product Management, OpenTV

-- Speaker TBA, Omnifone

For information or to register, visit http://www.connectionseurope.com.

Technicolor reaches 100 million digital set-top box milestone

Technicolor, formerly Thomson, a worldwide leader of services to content creators, has reached the milestone of delivering 100 million digital set-top boxes over multi networks since it entered the market in 1994.

Technicolor’s success is largely thanks to the contracts it has won with major clients in a global marketplace. In North America, Technicolor’s first digital satellite STB customer, DIRECTV remains a loyal customer today. In Latin America, Technicolor provides set-top boxes to key players including DIRECTV Latin America and Sky Brazil and Sky Mexico, while in Europe, it has nurtured relationships with leading names including UPC Broadband and News Corp. affiliates such as BSkyB, as well as HOT, in the Middle East, and Astro of Malaysia and Tata Sky in the Asia-Pacific.

For many of its global customers, Technicolor has established long-term relationships and garnered repeat business thanks to its ongoing product evolution for all technology platforms, including digital cable, satellite television, terrestrial broadcasting and IPTV.

For the full press release, click here.

CONNECTIONS SUMMIT Speakers Announced

The CONNECTIONS SUMMIT will be held January 7, 2010, in Room S225 in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The one-day event features commentary, insight, and debate on successful market strategies and deployment for “digital living” products and services.

Bill Ablondi, Dir., Home Systems Research, Parks Associates
Timo Bauer, SVP & GM Americas, NewBay Software
Joly Benoit, Dir., Connected Home Applications, Thomson
Tom Carroux, Director, Sales & Market Development, Irdeto
Susan Cashen, VP, Control4 Energy Systems
Steve Cashman, Chief Strategy Officer, Exceptional Innovation
Brian Chamberlin, Manager, Interactive Projects, NDS
Jayant Dasari, Research Analyst, Parks Associates
Chris Deutschen, Sr. Mgr, Innovation & Bus. Development, Direct Energy
Jaime Fink, CTO, 2Wire
Hope Fulgham, CEO/CMO, Piazza Advertising
Ted May, VP, Strategy & Business Affairs, Synacor
David Sandford, VP, Marketing & Product Management, TiVo
Kurt Scherf, VP, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates
Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates
Simon Tidnam, VP, Sales & Marketing, Hdlogix
Harry Wang, Dir., Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates
Heather Way, Research Analyst, Parks Associates
Paul Woidke, SVP and GM, Advanced Advertising, OpenTV

More info at:
http://www.parksassociates.com/events/connections/summit/2010/agenda/agenda.html

Thomson WiFi 802.11n broadband gateways comply with newly ratified IEEE Standard

Thomson, a worldwide leader of services to content creators, has welcomed the formal ratification of the 802.11n wireless technology standard by IEEE. Its new generation of WiFi-enabled cable gateways are fully compatible with the ratified standard.

In 2009, the company launched a new range of 802.11n gateways, certified by the WiFi alliance as draft 2.0, allowing service providers to offer multiple services to the networked home including high quality video over wireless. This new ratification by the IEEE guarantees that future home networking equipment will be compliant with these devices.

Levering its expertise in the WiFi alliance for xDSL gateways, Thomson has developed a range of Wireless “n“ products in conjunction with DOCSIS 3.0 or EuroDOCSIS 3.0, resulting in a very fast and convenient solution for cable operators. The company’s product portfolio includes the TCW770 DOCSIS/EuroDOCSIS 3.0 wireless cable gateway and TWG870 wireless Voice gateway for the European market as well as the DCW775 DOCSIS 3.0 wireless cable gateway and DWG875 DOCSIS 3.0 wireless Voice gateway for the U.S. market.

For the full press release, click here.

Evolution of the “Digital Furnace”: Residential Gateways and Set-top Boxes

New trends such as cloud computing, green living, mobile connectivity, and hybrid Internet-TV services are reshaping the role of the set-top box. Carriers, squeezed by low subscriber revenues and the demand for more features, need a home hub that offers more capability for less capital.

The Evolution of the “Digital Furnace”: Residential Gateways and Set-top Boxes session explores:

-- The evolution of features that home hubs will support
-- Support for features such as home monitoring, energy management, and health monitoring
-- Network and hardware requirements for “future-proofed” home hubs
-- The role of retail-purchased consumer electronics as compatible nodes

Participants on this panel include:
Art Lancaster, CTO, Affinegy
Christer Larsson, CEO and Co-founder, Makewave (formerly Gatespace Telematics AB); VP EMEA, OSGi Alliance
Bill Stanley, Executive Director, Operations Solutions, Telcordia
Frederic Van Durme, Head of Product Management, Thomson
Andrew Wajs, CTO, Irdeto Group, Irdeto/Cloakware

Moderator: Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates

Connected CE key focus at CONNECTIONS™ Europe

Executive Summit features Parks Associates analysts and industry leaders, November 4 in Amsterdam

Parks Associates announced the speakers for its upcoming CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, which will detail the Roadmap for Connected CE.

The Summit, hosted by Parks Associates on November 4, 2009, at the Mövenpick Hotel in Amsterdam, will quantify consumer demand and analyze business strategies as Internet-capable devices are added to the network and create new opportunities in sharing content and expanding interactive services.

Connected CE changes the equation for the digital home, creating demand for more Web-based and on-demand content and applications on a variety of platforms. Revenues from online video and on-demand video content will exceed $16 billion in Western Europe by 2013, driven by connected devices and multiscreen content strategies. CONNECTIONS™ Europe explores the business opportunities created by connected products and services, including their impact on consumer expectations and the ripple effect to other devices and systems in the home.

Rob Timmer, Senior Director Net TV, BU TV, Philips Consumer Lifestyle, will deliver the Keynote Address for CONNECTIONS™ Europe.

Confirmed Speakers:
Richard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist, Rovi Corporation
Ronald Brockmann, Managing Director, ActiveVideo Europe
Bill Correll, VP, Marketing & Business Development, Eyecon Technologies
Brian Donnelly, VP, Sales & Marketing, Icron Technologies
Matthew Huntington, VP, Product Marketing, OpenTV
Art Lancaster, CTO, Affinegy
Christer Larsson, CEO and Co-founder, Makewave (formerly Gatespace Telematics AB); VP EMEA, OSGi Alliance
Wouter Leibbrandt, Manager, Advanced Systems Lab, NXP Semiconductors
Andy Nobbs, Chief Commercial Officer, Civolution
Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates
Neerav Shah, VP Business Development, Verimatrix
Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates
Peter Smyth, CEO, RedMere
Bill Stanley, Executive Director, Operations Solutions, Telcordia
Frederic Van Durme, Head of Product Management, Thomson
Andrew Wajs, CTO, Irdeto Group, Irdeto/Cloakware

Summit Sessions
Connected Europe: Trends and Numbers
Defining the New Video Experience
Evolution of the “Digital Furnace”: Residential Gateways and Set-top Boxes
Business Models for On-Demand Lifestyles
Enabling Technologies: Connecting It All
Wrapping It Up – Predictions for the Next Five Years

CONNECTIONS™ Global Sponsors are HD-PLC Alliance, DSC, NXP, Radialpoint, Rovi, ActiveVideo Networks, Affinegy, Icron, Irdeto, ProVision Communications, Telcordia, and Zilog. CONNECTIONS™ Europe Advisory Sponsors are Eyecon Technologies and CONNECTIONS™ Premier Sponsor RedMere.

Register at www.connectionseurope.com.

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.

Thomson unveils simple and seamless video integration solution between IP networks and 3G mobile services

Thomson, a worldwide leader of services to content creators, has brought its experience to bear on the growing market for video communications and announces the launch of the new Cirpack 3G Video Calls Gateway. With the new product, it is now simple for operators to set up multimedia services – including calls, video blogging and even live television access – and allow 3G mobile and fixed IP devices to share video.

The Cirpack 3G Video Calls Gateway connects mobile networks and IP/IMS based networks by integrating the 3G video protocol (H.324m) with the SIP voice over IP protocol. It also provides the bi-directional transcoding to serve the codecs each device requires. As well as point to point calls, the Gateway also offers access to server-based functionality such as push video, video blogging and video mail. With the appropriate equipment, a subscriber could establish video surveillance at home or place of business and view it on a mobile phone.

One of the barriers to 3G mobile video has traditionally been the considerable connection delay when placing calls, due to the need to exchange a number of messages to establish parameters. The Cirpack 3G Video Calls Gateway solves this by implementing the Windowed Numbered Simple Retransmission Protocol, which bundles all signalling into a single batch and dramatically improving call set-up time.

The Cirpack 3G Video Calls Gateway is part of the pre-integrated Thomson VoIP solution and fully interoperable with Cirpack softswitches and media gateways. It runs on standard, off-the-shelf IT platforms with full redundancy for high availability while retaining the best price/performance ratio. It is simply scalable to very large numbers of simultaneous video calls by adding software licenses rather than costly hardware.

For more information, visit www.thomson.net.

Thomson’s Innovations Enhance Comcast’s Offerings for the Digital Home

Thomson develops groundbreaking Advanced Cable Gateways for new broadband services and supports Comcast in the deployment of Digital Transport Adaptors (DTA) Paris, France

Thomson, a worldwide leader of services to content creators, announced an agreement with Comcast, the leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services in the U.S., to bring to market the next generation of broadband Internet and digital communications services with Advanced Cable Gateways devices.

Conceived as a home networking and communications hub, this platform allows Comcast to provide state-of the art digital voice and data services to its customers – including using enhanced cordless telephone handsets to view email, manage voice mail, read news, weather, and sports, and to click-to-call from a universal address book powered by Plaxo, business directory, or call logs.

Comcast and Thomson expect to start deploying the Advanced Cable Gateway in the third quarter of 2009. As a long-term supplier, Thomson also provides Comcast with a variety of residential broadband products including data and VoIP cable modems.

Thomson entered last year the US cable video market by developing Digital Transport Adaptors (DTA) for Comcast. These DTAs that Comcast will be rolling out in the coming weeks are one-way devices that enable cable operators to move quickly and cost-efficiently to all-digital infrastructures by delivering digital-quality video and audio service to existing analog cable customers. The DTA, conceived to be completely user-friendly (easy to use, small and “plug and play”), is one of the less expensive ways cable operators will be able to deliver standard definition programs following the broadcast digital transition.

Thomson is currently working on the second generation of DTA, which will be smaller than a PDA and fully environmentally friendly.

Thomson Launches its Scientific Council

Thomson, worldwide leader of services to content creators, announced Wednesday the creation of its Scientific Council. Its purpose is to reinforce technology leadership and drive innovation in the design of future products and services. The Scientific Council will issue recommendations regarding the Group’s technology strategy and help optimize the research projects portfolio.

The Scientific Council operates under the authority of Vince Pizzica, Head of Thomson Strategy, Technology and Marketing. Its members have been selected among the top experts worldwide in Thomson’s areas of excellence:

>> Internet security: Vern Paxson, Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley

>> Content coding and compression: Bernd Girod, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

>> Internet architecture: Jim Kurose, Professor of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

>> Internet applications and content search: Serge Abiteboul, Senior researcher, Institut National de la Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA)

>> Security: David Naccache, Senior researcher, Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) and Professor of Computer Science, University of Paris II Pantheon-Assas

>> Content production: Jim Mainard, Head of Production Development, DreamWorks Animation

This initiative marks a new phase in Thomson’s recent refocus on key Media & Entertainment industry technologies through three strategic research programs: Intelligent Media, Media Production and Media Distribution.