ANT's Fresco browser in new Pace IPTV set-top-box chosen by SaskTel
Cambridge, 6 December 2004
ANT Limited, the leading provider of user interface software for TV and consumer electronics today announced that its Fresco browser is being used by Pace Micro Technology in its latest high-specification DB220S internet protocol TV (IPTV) set-top box. The DB220S, which was demonstrated by Pace at IBC 2004 in Amsterdam, has been chosen by SaskTel, a full-service communications company in Canada, for the next stage of its service roll-out. The SaskTel IPTV offering is the largest deployment of TV over ADSL broadband in North America.
SaskTel began its first deployment of video-on-demand (VoD) and interactive TV services in October 2003 and has rolled-out services to a customer base of approximately 225,000 homes passed. The Pace DB220S is an advanced digital broadband media set-top box for delivery of MPEG-2 digital video over broadband IP networks, and is targeted at telecoms companies delivering broadcast television, on-demand and interactive services.
"IPTV services have proved very popular with our residential customers," noted Mike Anderson, SaskTel Vice President of Marketing. "The DB220S offers faster processing of data and the Fresco browser is critical for content rendering and control, and it also allows us to customise the appearance of the interface, presenting a branded and logical means of navigating the numerous services and programmes available to our subscribers."
David Gillies, director of technology at Pace commented, "We have a well-established relationship with ANT and have worked with them on many occasions to include the Fresco browser in our products." He continued, "By exploiting the capabilities of ANT's proven and reliable user interface software for increasingly complex IPTV services, Pace has been successful in making the DB220S an attractive product for our telco customers."
"IPTV is now considered a mainstream rather than niche technology with more companies working to provide broadcast TV and VoD services over DSL networks," explained Paul Jensen, VP Sales for The Americas, ANT Limited. "The new Pace DB220S set-top box is a high-specification product using our powerful Fresco browser to give SaskTel's customers a high quality and responsive user interface with intuitive access to the different broadcast channels and VoD movies."
ANT's Fresco browser enables manufacturers of consumer electronics devices to efficiently develop standards-based, customised user interfaces, and to incorporate digital-content presentation and control into their products. Being the most widely deployed embedded browser in the broadband TV market and the browser of choice for the world's leading middleware providers, ANT Fresco is intended for use in appliances such as set-top boxes, digital TVs and DVD players.
About ANT Software Limited
ANT plc (www.antplc.com) is a leading provider of digital TV client and consumer electronic software solutions. ANT's unique client solutions allow robust and consistent delivery of digital-media, user interfaces, interactive services and applications to the TV and portable media devices. ANT enables service providers to efficiently create and deploy successful solutions to the market that deliver high value and clear differentiation.
ANT's products are pre-integrated with many industry-leading solutions and are based upon open standards, enabling low-risk, cost-effective roll-out of services, while ensuring flexible client hardware choice with efficient bill of materials. ANT software has been extensively deployed by customers throughout the world including Chunghwa Telecom, Foxconn, France Telecom, Humax, LG/Nortel, Philips, Sagem, Samsung, SaskTel, Telecom Italia and Thomson.
ANT plc's shares are listed on AIM, a London Stock Exchange regulated market, under the ticker ANTP (Reuters: ANTP.L, Bloomberg: ANTP.LN).
Trademarks
ANT, the ANT logo, Galio, Fresco and PurePlay are all trademarks or registered trademarks of ANT Software Limited. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
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