TANDBERG Television Enables Shanghai Oriental Cable Network to Deploy Network PVR Service

OCN expands VOD service with new real-time ingest system for TANDBERG’s OpenStream Digital Services Platform

Beijing — TANDBERG Television (TAT.OL) today announced that Oriental Cable Network (OCN) has selected its new real-time ingest system to roll-out an nPVR (Network Personal Video Recorder) extension of its video-on-demand (VOD) platform. The order builds on TANDBERG Television’s ongoing relationship with OCN, the operator of the world’s largest metropolitan cable television service that covers the entire area of Shanghai, delivering more than fifty TV channels to a subscriber base of over 4 million viewers.

The new TANDBERG real-time ingest (RTI) system is a critical component in enabling nPVR solutions and will be launched in Asia at the CCBN exhibition (Beijing ‘ 30th March-1st April ‘ booth #2501). The RTI is an extension of TANDBERG Television’s market-leading OpenStream’ Digital Services Platform, which was purchased by OCN last year for its Phase I VOD deployment. This open solution from TANDBERG Television enables OCN to provide advanced time-shifted television services without having to install expensive hard-drive based set-top boxes (STBs) or PVRs in its customers’ homes. The real-time ingest and catalog solution includes enhancements to TANDBERG’s Xport® Producer encoding and OpenStream platform, which enable OCN to deploy nPVR simply and quickly and to offer broadcast programs as VOD titles within seconds from the start of broadcast. Importantly, the solution requires no costly custom developments or guide integration and provides the fastest ingest and VOD access on the market today.

‘From the off-set, OCN was committed to building China’s most advanced digital entertainment offering. Having successfully launched one of the country’s most exciting digital media projects, OCN is again raising the bar. By enabling its subscribers to decide what to watch and when to watch it, OCN is providing a new level of on-demand service in China and giving consumers a very compelling reason to choose its digital TV services. With this TANDBERG solution, OCN can quickly and efficiently introduce time-shifted, personalized television to its customers and ensure that cable subscribers in Shanghai have access to a world-class TV experience,’ says Geng Liang, Sales Director of TANDBERG Television China.

The TANDBERG system enables multiple broadcast channels to be ingested in real time into the VOD system and can simultaneously provide many STBs with the capability of rewinding TV as it is being broadcast live. Expansion to support thousands of additional STBs can be achieved through a software upgrade. The nPVR system includes Xport Producer/Recorder/Slicer with newly developed software to support program selection and automatic CableLabs 1.1 compliant metadata, plus TANDBERG E5710 MPEG’2 encoders and TT1260 professional receivers.

‘We are delighted to be working again with OCN on this milestone roll-out of nPVR and the expansion of its on-demand services in China. The flexibility of our open VOD platform means that operators such as OCN can enter the VOD space at a lower cost, reduce their operational expenditures, and easily create dynamic on-demand environments that support future growth and meet changing consumer needs,’ says Graham Cradock, Executive VP and General Manager of TANDBERG Television Asia Pacific.

The order was placed through Shanghai Digivision Network Co. Ltd (Digivision), the system integrator of OCN’s Phase II VOD. Digivision will be closely working with TANDBERG Television and third party vendors to integrate its Catalog Server and STB into OCN’s nPVR system to provide an easy to use and convenient viewer experience.

The OpenStream Digital Services Platform

TANDBERG Television’s OpenStream platform allows cable operators to easily deploy on-demand and nPVR services using VOD servers, applications, billing systems, and other system components of their choice. OpenStream’s unique, open architecture extends the cable head-end beyond VOD to support television’s next generation of interactive services.