Pace Reveals Digital Home at IBC 2010

Industry leader drives debate for pay TV’s Journey to Convergence

SALTAIRE, England — IBC2010 — At IBC 2010, Pace plc (LSE:PIC) (Hall 1, B 19), the world’s leading provider of digital set-top box technologies, will showcase its full range of products and services for the global payTV industry. Demonstrations will include Pace’s best-in-class set-top box solutions, as deployed by many of the world’s leading payTV operators, its new capability in residential gateways and the latest advances in ‘whole home convergence’.

Neil Gaydon, CEO of Pace, comments: “Our industry is facing a set of complex decisions as operators develop their convergence roadmaps. In our IBC 2010 theme – The Journey to Convergence – we recognise this challenge. Through our work with many of the world’s most successful payTV operators we have built a unique vantage point on the opportunities for converged digital services in our markets. Alongside our expertise in payTV delivery and strong technology roadmap, this makes us ideally placed to work with our operator customers to navigate through the crucial choices they need to make.”

Pace’s Digital Connected Home area will offer operators the opportunity to explore how they can capitalise on TV-led interconnected home entertainment and broadband services. Through a series of demonstrations, including Pace’s Home Content Sharing solution and Converged Residential Gateway, visitors will be able to explore how payTV devices can move video, voice and data content around the home and extend their service opportunities. The Home Content Sharing demonstration will include a new portability of content function, using the Apple iPad as an example of how content will move around the converged home.

Key set-top box demonstrations will present Pace’s strengths in PVR, high definition, hybrid and HD 3D platforms, highlighting the Group’s commitment to driving payTV technology evolution and why it is the partner of choice for over 160 operators around the world. Pace will also reveal its latest hybrid platforms, blending traditional broadcast services with IP broadband content delivery that will enable operators to harness the potential of online OTT applications within an integrated managed TV service.

Pace’s new gateway capability will be on show with a full range of IP (DSL) and cable (Docsis 3.0) VoIP residential gateways following the Group’s recent acquisition of Bewan Systems SA. In addition, Pace will include residential gateway hardware-agnostic software that can reduce cost and optimise value added service launches such as home automation and video surveillance. Pace’s gateway capability will be further enhanced when the proposed acquisition of US gateway specialist 2Wire closes, which is expected to be later in the year.

Gaydon continues: “We recognise that for every operator their journey to convergence will be different. In the exclusive connected home space on our IBC stand we will demonstrate the support we can offer at every stage of an operator’s journey to maximise and monetise the potential of their service, wherever they are in the evolution of their platform, whatever their location and whatever their end-user and technical requirements.”