Thomson supports HD rollout of cable provider HOT in Israel

PARIS, France — Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS), a worldwide leader of services to content creators, today announced that it has extended its relationship with HOT, the leading cable provider in Israel with 900,000 customers.

Thomson will deliver new set-top boxes to support the operator’s move to high definition television. The Group will also provide professional services to accompany the migration of currently installed set-top boxes to a single conditional access system from NDS Group, NDS VideoGuard®.

“We are delighted to continue our relationship with HOT, which has been very close for nine years,” said Georges Laplanche, Senior Vice President of the Connect Division at Thomson. “This contract demonstrates the benefits of such a long-term relationship, through being able to support legacy equipment in the field as well as offer forward-looking new products.”

Deliveries of HD cable set-top box (DCI704) already started

To guarantee the success of the launch of its HD services, HOT has once again selected Thomson, as a supplier. Thomson currently provides an interactive set-top box, supporting both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 compression, and including a built-in DOCSIS data modem, allowing HOT to offer high-speed broadband data for internet access alongside the digital cable television service. The set-top box also gives access to HOT’s comprehensive offering, including interactive services and games. The box supports Open TV middleware for interactive applications with an embedded NDS EPG and NDS VideoGuard conditional access.

Supporting major upgrade programme for legacy set-top boxes

Thomson will support the migration of HOT’s entire service to VideoGuard conditional access from NDS by providing support through its professional services team.

Thanks to the Thomson-run project, which includes the tracking of technical details on all the installed set-top boxes, some of which are now nine years old, the 900,000 subscribers with legacy set-top boxes will be able to keep them, the necessary upgrade at the consumer end is accomplished simply by changing the smart card.