Numericable Builds True HD 3-D Video-on-Demand Platform With Cisco

French Cable Broadband Operator Continues to Innovate Its Video Service Offerings Based on Cisco Content Delivery System Platform

PARIS — Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced that France-based cable service provider Numericable is building one of the world’s first High-Definition (HD) 3-D video-on-demand (VOD) services based on the Cisco® Content Delivery System platform. The company originally deployed the platform to support VOD, catch-up TV and user-generated content services. The award-winning Cisco Content Delivery System provides Numericable with the innovation, flexibility and scale to expand its service offering as its 3.5 million TV customers start setting their sights on the third dimension.

Numericable’s new services will be some of the most ambitious and capable on the market thanks to its support of 3-D in high-definition resolution. Numericable will evolve its network into a powerful medianet — an all-Internet Protocol network optimized for rich media — which will allow the company to deploy a new HD 3-D VOD experience that surpasses any other 3-D service available today.

3-D TV is anticipated to be the next paradigm for home consumer entertainment. The media research company Screen Digest forecasts that 22 percent of TVs sold worldwide by 2014 will be 3-D capable. It is also anticipating that all major manufacturers of TV equipment will launch 3-D capable TV sets this year. True 3-D TV in high definition can require the transmission of the equivalent of two traditional 1080 line HD streams, consuming a minimum of 15 megabits per second of bandwidth, and Numericable’s fiber-optic cable network is well-equipped to support the demands of this service.

Facts:

• The new 3-D services powered by the Cisco Content Delivery System will be made available in Numericable’s footprint in late 2010. More information on availability and pricing will be published closer to launch.
• The Cisco Content Delivery System was originally deployed by Numericable more than a year ago with the support of the Cisco Advanced Services team. The Cisco Content Delivery System is a network-based platform for the delivery of personalized video services. It transcends traditional VOD and Internet streaming solutions by unifying the delivery of a broad range of services from different content sources to a multitude of devices, such as TVs, computers and mobile devices, anywhere, anytime. Services enabled include time-shifted TV, network personal video recording, targeted ad insertion, and wholesale content delivery networks (CDN), and now 3-D VOD.
• The Cisco Content Delivery System has unique technologies that enable Numericable to meet the bandwidth and quality-of-experience requirements of HD 3-D content delivery while optimizing bandwidth and storage consumption. Its distributed architecture offers a highly scalable design that allows for ingesting content once and distributing it everywhere in real-time, upon a subscriber’s request.
• The platform’s deep integration of video and Internet Protocol technologies support the delivery of the new service for Numericable with only marginal incremental investment in its infrastructure in advance of its consumer launch later in 2010.
• The Cisco Advanced Services team is providing Numericable with consultancy, network design and architectural perspectives as the company gears up its medianet to support these new services.
• The new service is being supported by the 3D-HD Alliance, an open collaborative group of television industry providers that share the objective of promoting and encouraging the development of high definition and quality standards for 3-D television. Cisco is participating in the initial work, alongside TV and set-top box manufacturers, software designers and distribution companies.