New digital broadcasting platform at Ultravision secured by content protection specialist Conax

Monday, April 14th, 2008
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LAS VEGAS — NAB Show — Ultravision, a leading Mexican telecommunications company is expanding their repertoire of broadcasting offerings by adding a digital-tiered broadcasting platform. The new digital head-end platform employing content security solution, Conax CAS7, is being implemented by Conax partner, BroadCAS Inc.

Ultravision currently serves approximately 190,000 customers in 18 cities throughout Mexico over an analog MMDS network.

MMDS, a multichannel multipoint distribution service otherwise called wireless cable, is a wireless telecommunications technology used for general-purpose broadband networking or as an alternative method for cable television programming reception. MMDS is commonly used in, among others, Mexico, the United States and Canada.

“Ultravision chose a conditional access solution from Conax based on its own strict business requirements for security, reliability, scalability, and quality for a broadcasting platform – the primary elements that secure our core business and revenues. Conax CAS7 is a market-proven solution. We are confident Conax will exceed our expectations for reliability, excellent support and quality”, says Patricio Zorrilla, Vice president of Ultra Telecom, the group holding Ultravision.

“We are looking to use the success of the Conax CAS7 solution at Ultravision as a benchmark for other MMDS, cable and satellite prospects in Mexico. The sheer number of smart cards and head-ends associated with this project opens up a lot of doors for Conax in the Mexican market. Additionally, the cooperation with our partners for this project has been highly successful”, says Charles Little, VP of Sales, Conax North America.

Business benefits of the new solution include the services provided to users, such as basic subscription services, messaging and EPG for over 70 channels. Technical benefits of the new platform are the deployment of master head-end in Puebla with Conax CAS7 conditional access, Data playout, EPG SI and ECM/EMM servers, as well as plans for head-ends at additional locations to be deployed at a later date. The seamless integration of billing services provided by Magnaquest, DCM 9900 from Scientific Atlanta for muxing and grooming, and Arris D5 for scrambling and QAM Modulation, have together created a strong end-to-end solution.