Croatia's Optima Telekom chooses end-to-end solution from SmartLabs

Croatian Optima Telekom and SmartLabs Collaborate to Deliver Next Generation Interactive TV Services

ZAGREB, Croatia — SmartLabs announces that, in partnership with the Optima Telekom, Сroatia’s 2nd largest fixed line, Internet and Pay-TV provider, they have upgraded the OptiTV service and deployed a next generation end-to-end SmartLabs Interactive TV Solution.

More than 20 companies took part in the Optima Telekom tender process and after completing an extensive and detailed selection process, an end-to-end solution from SmartLabs was selected. The SmartLabs solution included a service delivery platform (SmartTUBE SDP), video infrastructure (SmartMEDIA), an advanced user interface (SmartTUBE UI) and the SML-482 STBs.

Whilst the SML-482 STB has been selected for new customers, a critical feature of the project was the migration of existing Optima Telekom customers from the legacy interactive TV platform to the new service, built on the SmartLabs solution, without changing their STBs. The new solution has been rapidly implemented and the customer migration process is now underway and legacy STBs, from STB providers Telsey and Albis, are fully supported on the new platform.

Ensuring support for legacy STBs enabled Optima Telekom to substantially reduce the capital expenditure involved in deploying a next generation Interactive TV solution whilst providing its valued existing customers a completely new TV viewing experience with the minimum amount of fuss.

The SmartLabs solution now offers Optima Telekom customers access to linear TV channels, VOD, Pay-Per-View services, radio stations, YouTube and Facebook and they can also play user generated content from external devices. All services are accessed using a state of the art, visually appealing and functionally agile user interface. In later phases of the project, new features such as multi screen services will be introduced enabling customers to view content and control their STB using smart phones and tablets.

Mikhail Grachev, SmartLabs CEO, stated, “We are delighted to collaborate with Optima Telekom to work with them to deliver their far reaching and fascinating plans for the OptiTV service. We believe that this ambitious project will bring out the full potential of our products and allow SmartLabs to demonstrate our capability to implement and support state-of-the-art national interactive TV services.”