Evolution Digital and Conax Awarded Multi-Stream CableCARD™ Qualification

CENTENNIAL, Colorado, and OSLO, Norway — Evolution Digital LLC, a leading supplier of digital solutions for bandwidth reclamation and next generation advanced set-top boxes, and Conax, a global provider of content security solutions, have partnered to develop a Multi-stream CableCARD™ (M-Card™) specific to the North American cable market and were recently awarded qualification by CableLabs®.

The newly qualified M-Card™ is designed to meet OpenCable™ CableCARD Interface 2.0 Specifications and will be marketed specifically as the Evolution M-Card™ powered by Conax Content Security. Conax, Evolution’s security partner for the US market, has worked closely with CableLabs to achieve this qualification and already has content security deployed in nearly 30 million smart cards worldwide. Owned by the Telenor Group, who is among the largest mobile operators in the world, Conax has a global footprint including over 350 customer operations in 80 countries. Evolution Digital, LLC, is a division of Evolution Broadband.

“Embracing a long tradition based on Open Standards technology, Conax is pleased to be awarded a Multi-stream CableCARD™ qualification from CableLabs for the American market together with strategic partner Evolution. The M-Card™ will be marketed under the Evolution brand through an exclusive OEM partnership with Evolution,” says Geir Bjørndal, EVP Sales & Marketing, Conax. Conax believes that the Latin American market could also benefit from a similar Open Standards solution,” says Mr. Bjørndal, Conax.

The M-Card is interoperable with any CableCARD device certified by CableLabs. Today these devices include televisions and set-top boxes. The Evolution M-Card powered by Conax Content Security is an alternative solution for small to medium size independent operators looking to deploy a security solution as they go all-digital and launch more premium services to their subscribers. When plugged to a host device of their choice, consumers will gain access to high-value premium digital content offered by their cable operator.

“Our focus as a company has been to provide low-cost digital solutions to the North American independent cable operators,” explains Brent Smith, president of Evolution Digital. “By embracing key world technology partners, like Conax, who adhere to open standards, we are able to offer operators and consumers low-cost, standards based, FCC approved, CableLabs qualified products.”

The CableLabs qualified Evolution M-Card, powered by Conax Content Security, is an important piece of Evolution’s end-to-end digital turnkey solution. The solution offers 230+ MPEG-4/2 SD and HD programming, using Avail Media Satellite Transport and requiring less than 140 MHz of Bandwidth. Solution highlights include a fully integrated and installed Headend with IRD’s, Conax Content Security, MPEG Encoders for local programming, 8VSB converters for Off-Air DTV reception and QAM Modulators. Evolution offers a full range of set-top boxes, including low-cost MPEG-4/2 SD and HD boxes and advanced TiVo HD DVR’s now with CableLabs qualified M-Cards.

Conax Content Security is available in Evolution full line of set-top boxes, including Evolution’s line of Digital to Analog Converters (DTAs). Evolution’s SD DTA offers the only FCC product waiver allowing operators to deploy using embedded security. Through the waiver, Evolution provides independent cable operators an inexpensive alternative to both protect their content and uphold their programming contracts by deploying extremely low-cost DTA’s including Conax’s full encryption content security. The latest product launch in the Evolution DTA line is the MPEG-4 HD DTA-D, which allows operators to future proof their systems by installing the very small, sub $100 HD DTA-D’s that convert digital to analog in subscriber homes.

The introduction of Conax’ open standards for content security to the American market and the qualification of the Multi-stream CableCARD™ packaged together with Evolution’s end-to-end digital turnkey solution offer the potential for providing an important break-through in the American market for promoting open standards solutions within digital TV services.