SmarDTV SmarCAM successfully completes CI Plus v1.3 certification

Thursday, August 9th, 2012
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  • SmarCAM CI Plus modules with CI Plus v1.3 enable features including Operator Profile (channel scanning) and Video-On-Demand
  • The SmarCAM-3.5 has been certified for CI Plus v1.3 by Digital TV Labs, the Approved Test Centre of CI Plus LLP
  • The SmarCAM-3.5 technology has been selected by Digital TV labs for the certification of CI Plus televisions and set top boxes

CHESEAUX, Switzerland — SmarDTV, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company, today announced that its latest generation of Conditional Access Modules, the SmarCAM-3.5, has successfully passed the CI Plus v1.3 certification. In addition, Digital TV Labs has made a custom development based on the SmarCAM for the official CI Plus Test Tool, which is used for the certification of CI Plus televisions and set top boxes.

“The successful development and certification of the CI Plus version 1.3 features is a major milestone in the history of our company. Building complex features such as operator profile and VOD into a CAM brings great benefits for operators and also leverages the powerful platform we have developed for our SmarCAM product line,” said Laurent Molac, Vice-President of Engineering at SmarDTV.

Through CI Plus v1.3, the latest Common Interface specification, the SmarCAMs will now offer new features including Operator Profile (the ability for an operator to enable specific channel listing according to privately defined mechanisms) and Video-on-Demand directly to iDTV. These new features bring large benefits to operators and are expected to drive the further penetration of CI Plus modules in the satellite and cable markets in coming years.

Laurent Molac continued “Channel ordering has been a particular concern for operators on satellite and cable networks who desire to have defined channel numbers – this is now solved via the new specifications and also the addition of Video-on-Demand has been a consistent request from the cable market in particular. We believe that these new features are very valuable to operators and we expect to launch modules in Q4 with such features. We have also collaborated with Digital TV Labs to ensure that the host testing tools are available to enable 2013 iDTV model testing.”

“For our new certification tool, we looked for a reliable module technology which is supported by a trusted partner and provides an efficient development environment, enabling us to build a dependable testing tool and a robust certification regime,” commented Keith Potter, CEO of Digital TV Labs. “Amongst the different platforms evaluated, the SmarCAM appeared to best fulfill these key criteria. Our CI Plus 1.3 certification services are now fully available to the TV industry.”

The members of SmarDTV’s Interoperability Partner Program (CI+ IPP) have already been supplied with SmarCAM-samples, ensuring that their TVs and STB are interoperable with the SmarCAM even before any field deployment. This partner program addresses a key difficulty of any new technical specification adoption.

The SmarCAM product line will be demonstrated at IBC 2012 to be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands on September 7th to 11th, Hall 1, Booth 1.C81.