Sigma Designs, Digisoft.tv and Novabase bring VOD to South Africa

Sigma Designs Collaborates With Digisoft.tv and Novabase to Bring Discover Digital’s Subscription and Transactional VOD Services to South Africa

MILPITAS, CA — Sigma Designs® (NASDAQ: SIGM), a leading provider of intelligent system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for Smart TV, Smart home and IP-based set-top-boxes (STBs), announces a collaboration with Digisoft.tv and Novabase on a unique solution designed to streamline the secure delivery of digital video content to viewers in South Africa.

Consumers can use the Discover Digital service to rent video-on-demand (VOD) content at conveniently located public kiosks, with the content delivered via USB memory stick and played by using a low-cost STB. The cost-effective yet high performance Sigma 8674 Secure Media Processor™, along with Digisoft.tv software, is utilized in the Novabase set-top box. In addition, the set-top serves as a 3G/LTE home gateway that can provide Internet connectivity for over-the-top (OTT) services as well as receive free-to-air content in DVB-T2 format. The Sigma 8674 processor was selected for this solution because of its secure content processing capability, price/performance competitiveness, and built-in conditional access system (CAS) support.

“The innovative transactional and subscription VOD service model is ideal for emerging markets, to enable consumers to enjoy high value video content on a pay-as-you-go basis, while also reducing piracy and security concerns for content owners,” said Mustafa Ozgen, vice president and general manager home multimedia at Sigma Designs. “The collaboration between Digisoft.tv, Novabase, and Sigma Designs allows Discover Digital to implement a low-cost set-top-box for this application while still providing outstanding content and a high-quality experience for consumers.”

“We have acquired various types of media assets, including sports and movies, to provide viewers in South Africa with compelling video content that they can affordably enjoy, whether or not they have a paid TV subscription,” said Steven Watson, executive director of Discover Digital. “The underlying technology from Sigma Designs, Digisoft.tv, and Novabase are key components of our successful service. The security and performance capabilities of the set-top box gateway are outstanding.”

Digisoft.tv is a leading global provider of set-top box software for the cable, satellite, terrestrial, and telecommunications industries. Novabase is an international leader in solutions and infrastructure implementation for the telecommunications industry with customers on four continents — Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.

“Our collaboration on this new and flexible system for content delivery helps to meet the demand for VOD services in South Africa,” said Fearghal Kelly, CEO of Digisoft.tv. “Our software development in conjunction with the optimized hardware processing capabilities of the Sigma Designs processor and the Novabase set-top box is a perfect combination.”

“This solution is ideal for markets such as South Africa with a high percentage of consumers who do not have fixed broadband or a full-service pay TV subscription,” said Michael Pauli, general manager of Novabase. “Responsiveness and the ability to provide a working solution for the unique requirements of this project were key. The combination of Sigma Designs, Digisoft.tv, and Novabase met the needs for reliability, feature sets, and cost.”

Visit Sigma Designs’ stand #BM7 at IBC 2014 in Amsterdam, September 12-15, and to see the kiosk solution demonstrated at IBC visit Digisoft.tv in Hall 14 at stand #14.E27.