ADB Selected By Yes For HD Launch

GENEVA, Switzerland and IBC, AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Advanced Digital Broadcast, a leading supplier of digital TV systems and software solutions for interactive television announced today that it has been selected by ‘yes’, a subsidiary of Bezeq (TASE: BEZQ), to supply its ADB-7820S set-top boxes (STBs) for the digital satellite operator’s launch of high definition (HD) services in Israel. This latest agreement comes as a result of the close relationship forged between the two companies spanning some five years.

“We are delighted to have secured this new agreement with ‘yes'”, commented Karl Tempest-Mitchell, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, ADB. “ADB has supported ‘yes’ in supplying state-of-the-art digital television equipment for over 5 years and having worked closely to launch a significant number of set-top boxes into the market, we believe that these new units will enable ‘yes’ to successfully develop its digital satellite television business, accessing revenues afforded by premium quality services such as high definition and video-on-demand”.

The ADB-7820S is an advanced high definition STB incorporating MPEG-2 and H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) allowing digital television operators to offer higher bandwidth services, such as HDTV, cost effectively. The unit enables operators to optimise their broadcast bandwidth through AVC, while presenting consumers with the highest quality premium services such as HDTV. The product includes state-of-the-art hardware features such as a single-chip microprocessor and HDMITM interface – ADB’s unique operating software ensures enhanced system performance including fast channel decoding and swift rendering of on-screen graphics and applications. The unit includes an Ethernet interface allowing consumers to access value-added broadband services such as Video-on-Demand and has been integrated with the operator’s choice of conditional access system and middleware.

“We are very pleased to collaborate with ADB on this new high definition project”, commented Itzhak Elyakim, VP Engineering and CTO, ‘yes’. “We believe that these advanced set-top boxes will allow us to optimise our digital television operation through features such as advanced video coding, while at the same time enhance our service portfolio by allowing us to access new revenue streams by offering new premium services such as high definition television. We have worked very closely with ADB to ensure that we are able to offer our consumers a feature-rich product that enables them to access the very best in digital entertainment”.

The products will be launched later this year.