SkyLife Enhances HD Services With TANDBERG Television MPEG-4 AVC

Full upgrade of next-generation video head-end increases HDTV offering and strengthens TANDBERG Television’s market lead in provision of advanced compression systems

HONG KONG — TANDBERG Television, part of the Ericsson Group (NASDAQ:ERIC), today announced that it is upgrading the satellite head-end system of Korea Digital Satellite Broadcasting Co. Ltd., more universally recognized under its ‘SkyLife’ brand name. The enhanced MPEG-4 AVC system will allow SkyLife to expand its high definition (HD) TV services. As Korea’s only satellite broadcast operator, SkyLife is at the forefront of the country’s television landscape and is aiming to offer more channels and continue its improvement of advanced services to its subscribers. Following a review of its existing video head-end system, SkyLife selected TANDBERG Television’s advanced solutions because they meet the operator’s needs today, and provide a flexible platform for the future.

“As Korea’s only satellite broadcaster, we continually seek to provide enhanced, next-generation services to our subscribers. Increasing the number of HD channels enables us to improve our offering and provide an even greater consumer experience,” said Sung Yong Woo, CTO, SkyLife. “We are pleased to have furthered our relationship with TANDBERG Television in order to achieve this goal. The company’s vast industry experience and expertise has enabled us to seamlessly upgrade our head-end system to roll out more advanced services across our network.”

SkyLife’s full commercial broadcast service was launched in 2002 and since then has acquired 2.25 million subscribers. It offers over 150 specialized channels including movies, education, children’s programming, sports, news and music. Since its launch, it has introduced services such as electronic program guide (EPG), interactive broadcasting and HD transmission of high profile sporting events, such as the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

“As SkyLife grows and develops its service offering, it recognizes that TANDBERG Television’s next-generation advanced solutions can enable it to achieve this progression,” said Dario Choi, VP and general manager of TANDBERG Television Asia Pacific. “Having already provided SkyLife with HD encoding equipment in the past, we are now pleased to be fully upgrading its MPEG-4 AVC head-end system to increase the amount of channels it can provide on limited satellite bandwidth.”

TANDBERG Television will provide SkyLife with a range of its market-leading head-end equipment, including the next-generation EN8090 MPEG-4 AVC high definition encoder, which enables an increased number of HDTV channels to be distributed over SkyLife’s satellite network. In addition, TANDBERG E5770 encoders will provide the best standard definition (SD) MPEG-2 real-time encoding and enable SkyLife to deliver high quality SD pictures quality, as well as maximizing bandwidth.

The company will also provide its award-winning TANDBERG RX1290 Multi-Format Professional Receivers, which are able to receive both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC HD and SD services, and SM6600 series satellite modulators, a highly flexible product range with a set of leading features that provides feature rich modulation solutions whilst maintaining ease of use and control. TANDBERG Television has also supplied its nCompass Control management system for configuration, system monitoring and redundancy.