News Release
TANDBERG Television Announces Expanded Video-On-Demand Rollout With Charter Communications
Flexibility of OpenStream Digital Services Platform Enables Seamless Integration with Multiple Vendors
ATLANTA, Georgia – December 6th, 2005 – TANDBERG Television (Oslo: TAT.OL), an open digital services platform provider, today announced that Charter Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:CHTR), has expanded its deployment of the TANDBERG Television OpenStream® Digital Services platform to support a national rollout of digital on-demand services.
Charter has now deployed OpenStream in multiple markets within seven states, including Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin with multiple server vendors, billing systems, and set-top box manufacturers.
"OpenStream's flexibility and ability to interoperate with multiple digital networks, video on demand (VOD) servers, billing systems, and on-demand applications is a key reason why we chose TANDBERG Television to support our VOD deployments across the country,” said Pragash Pillai, Charter Vice President of Advanced Engineering, Digital Video. “Having the flexibility to deploy one OpenStream system to service multiple markets in each state has resulted in significant cost efficiencies over traditional proprietary-based systems.”
“Charter is a front-runner in deploying next generation services, and we're excited to continue expanding our relationship,” said Reggie Bradford, President, TANDBERG Television, Inc. “Our customers are realizing the benefits of open, flexible solutions that can scale to meet their future needs, and OpenStream's open architecture is unique in extending the cable headend beyond VOD to support television's next generation of interactive services.”
The TANDBERG Television OpenStream platform enables cable companies to easily deploy on-demand services using VOD servers, applications, billing systems, and other system components of their choice. The flexibility of the platform allows it to be configured to suit cable operators' on-demand requirements, whether it is on a regional level, a national level or both. OpenStream offerings may include:
- Enterprise Session Resource Manager (eSRM): enables customers to centrally and securely share network resources between multiple services such as cable VOD, IP video, high speed data, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), television commerce, and other interactive services.
- Small Market Solution: A special configuration of the OpenStream platform that allows management from a central site that can be a headend or a data center. This central site can also act as a local site to serve customers directly.
- 24 x 7 Network Operations Center (NOC): Ensures rapid resolution of system and product issues and currently supports over 1500 VOD systems.
The OpenStream platform has been widely deployed in North America and has recently been made available worldwide. The platform currently delivers on-demand streams to more than 60 markets reaching over 15 million digital customers. OpenStream was also selected as the platform of choice for the small to mid-size market by National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC), which represents over 1,000 independent cable operators serving more than 15 million customers nationwide.
About TANDBERG Television
TANDBERG Television's (Oslo:TAT.OL) open standards-based technology solutions enable new business models in the digital media market through the provision of high quality live, on-demand and interactive content. The company's customers include many of the major content owners, distributors and network operators around the world. For more information visit: http://www.tandbergtv.com
On November 15th 2005 TANDBERG Television completed its acquisition of GoldPocket Interactive, a leading provider of interactive television solutions based in Los Angeles, California. For more information visit: http://www.goldpocket.com
For further information, please contact:
Dwight Witherspoon
Tel: 678-812-6319
E-mail: dwitherspoon@tandbergtv.com