Orange unveils its new Livebox

Orange unveils its New Livebox and its latest innovations for the Internet of Things at the 4th “Show Hello”

PARIS — At the Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, 900 decision-makers, industrial partners and journalists gathered to discover the latest innovations by Orange. In the Show Hello’s 4th edition, key highlights included important partnerships that will enrich the services of connected objects and a major innovation, the launch of the new Livebox, available by summer of 2016 in France. Stéphane Richard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orange, greeted the group’s guests with “Orange is a compass, a landmark in the map of digital life.”

The New Livebox, digital heart of the house

The New Livebox from Orange features optimized speed for both ADSL and Fibre. Its extended Wi-Fi ac range guarantees a constant network throughout the house, clocking speeds of up to 1 gigabyte per second with a fibre connection. Orange combines an Airbox Confort box with the New Livebox Internet service, enabling Internet access via a mobile network while waiting for the fibre or ADSL connection to be operational.

With a 1 Terabyte (TB) hard disk, the new Livebox Storage enables remote access to any file saved in shared or personal secured spaces.

All the power of the network is marshalled to deliver an amazing experience through the new Ultra HD Decoder. Ultra HD means pictures are four times sharper and more defined than an HD picture, to which the new decoder can add the deep, enveloping Dolby Atmos® sound. These new quality standards can be tested as soon as the New Livebox is available through a catalogue of content that includes live events, sports and more than 300 titles on demand in Ultra HD:

• dozens of movies on Orange VOD, exclusive releases 10 months after their theatre releases with OCS Go, the family show channel OCS Max, and the new live channel AB Ultra Nature;
• exclusive partner programs via Netflix, including Breaking Bad, Da Vinci Code, Daredevil, Bloodline, Chef’s Table, Narcos, and the new French series Marseille; the Canal+ channel with League 1 (football) and Top 14 (rugby) matches, movies and shows;
• 8 UEFA Euro 2016 matches in Ultra HD on TF1 and M6 exclusively for Orange TV customers (the opening match, the 4 quarterfinals, the 2 semi-finals and the final).

Recognizing that open innovation is essential, Orange supports high-potential start-ups via investments or through its Orange Fab acceleration program. As part of this co-innovation initiative, Orange joins forces with start-ups to offer even richer services to its customers. For instance, Orange enriched its Orange TV application with new functionalities: actor facial recognition from the start-up Reminiz (for access to detailed information on actors while watching a movie) and voice recognition using know-how from the startup Nuance. Orange TV is also adding the social sharing functionality to share excerpts of live content on the social networks almost instantaneously.

The presentation of the New Livebox also gave the opportunity to unveil the new “design by Orange” approach. Orange designs and produces objects following a design approach that responds to the need for simplicity, elegance and ease of use that everyone wants. The new boxes, the remote control, the Allure and the NeoRetro telephones are expressions of that approach.

More and more connected services through key partners

Orange allies major partners in an ecosystem that revolves upon its Datavenue platform for connected objects to help them develop new services, such as: enriched personalized culinary recommendations with Seb; solutions to put vulnerable people in touch with competent professionals with Harmonie Mutuelle; solutions of post-ambulatory follow-up or for patients suffering from chronic diseases with equipments connected by Visiomed; a catalogue of certified connected objects with Axa; and a connected spa cure application with Thalasso Blanco.

Orange also offers a comprehensive set of connected services for the home by enriching its Homelive services: telemonitoring by EPS; Wiser multizone thermostat control from Schneider Electric; control of energy bills with EDF’s e.quilibre service; but also by connecting multiple objects developed by its partners: Awox, Cabasse, Fitbit, Garmin, Netatmo, Parrot Flower Power, Philips Hue, Somfy, Sony Lifelog and Withings.

Orange adopted an innovative approach for denser deployment of its Internet of Things (IoT) network based on LoRa® technology (Long Range): up to 5,000 Orange employees will receive a LoRa® Lamp which serves as an additional network relay. The lamp can also locate beacons linked to selected objects (keys, the car, etc).

As a trusted operator and intermediary, Orange developed Data Share, an interface enabling the user to view his/her own data, and decide which of them to share and to associate with one or more objects. In addition, Orange created the Trust badge to keep control of personal data to be shared in applications.

A 360° immersive virtual reality experience inside the New Livebox

Wrapping up the Show Hello with a illuminating technological performance, a guided tour was given of the inner workings of the New Livebox in the form of a plunge into virtual reality.

In the showroom, attendees wearing the HTC Vive, the first virtual reality headset allowing 360° detection of the user’s movements, dove into the Into the box film developed especially for the Show Hello, interacting via two joysticks for the most immersive VR experience available today.