Canal Digital is first customer of Pace's new MultiDweller™ head-end equipment

MultiDweller platform rollout enhances TV-experience and opens up for new services

Leading developer of digital TV technologies, Pace plc (LSE:PIC), announced today that Canal Digital (Oslo:TEL), the leading television distributor in the Nordic market, is the first customer of its new MultiDweller™ technology. Canal Digital will use Pace’s MultiDweller equipment to enhance its pay TV operations in the Scandinavian market. MultiDweller will also simplify the delivery of high definition (HD) and other advanced television services, helping the operator to increase its reach across hard-to-reach multidweller-subscribers in the Nordic market.

Pace Networks has been collaborating with Canal Digital on the development of the MultiDweller for the past two years as a means for the operator to expand the availability of pay TV services to more users.

Trym Hillesøy, CPO, at Telenor Broadcast said, “Telenor Broadcast is concerned about maintaining a high-end infrastructure in cable networks. We have considered several options based on the need to ensure HDTV, and high-end quality for our end users, and we are satisfied with closing this agreement with Pace. The MultiDweller will initially be implemented in the Norwegian market. The Nordic digital and pay-TV landscape is highly evolved, nearly all Nordic regions having completed shut-down of analogue terrestrial broadcasts by the end of 2009.” Canal Digital is part of Telenor Broadcast, the leading provider of television and broadcasting services to households and enterprises in the Nordic region.

The Pace MultiDweller platform is a last-mile technology solution for the distribution of digital TV and broadband. The platform reduces the need for modifications or cabling upgrades, making it a cost-effective way of creating high-speed, bi-directional networks out of any existing wired TV distribution infrastructure.

Neil Gaydon, CEO Pace commented: “Millions of people the world over live in multiple occupancy buildings, representing an enormous market opportunity for providers that find a way to overcome the technology barriers. The advent of MultiDweller is a hugely exciting step forward in the delivery of premium TV services such as HD to a previously untapped audience. Canal Digital’s deployment illustrates how operators can utilise this technology to rapidly extend their customer footprint and generate additional revenue streams.”

Commenting on this new contract Peter Balchin, General Manager Pace Networks added: “Scandinavia has a large number of smaller cable networks, meaning that the Pace MultiDweller provides a natural fit for Canal Digital in this market. Using the platform, Canal Digital will be able to easily and cost-efficiently deliver new services including HD programming to previously disenfranchised users.”

Designed to offer complete cross-platform flexibility for operators, MultiDweller is compatible with satellite, cable, terrestrial and IP. It overcomes the challenges associated with MDUs by receiving input signals from these sources and switching them onto local distribution networks to reach end-user devices. It then uses existing infrastructure to permit multi-play services to be carried over co-axial cables without labour intensive and costly infrastructure modification.