Motorola has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Bitband, a provider of content management and delivery systems, specialising in video-on-demand for IPTV.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in Q4 2009. Bitband will be integrated into Motorola’s Home & Networks Mobility business.

Based in Netanya, Israel, Bitband is understood to have over 60 commercial IPTV deployments worldwide, including TELE2 (Holland), Fastweb (Italy), and Swyazinvest (Russia).

Motorola believes the acquisition will complement its existing on demand product line that includes the Adaptive Media Management framework for content management and streaming servers for centralised and edge-based on demand networks.

Harmonic has announced that Altibox (formerly Lyse Tele), a telecommunications service provider based in Norway, has deployed Harmonic’s StreamLiner video servers, Armada ‘intelligent asset management’, and ProStream 8000 digital mosaic solution.

The company informed the deployment will enable advanced IPTV video-on-demand (VOD) services and multi-channel mosaic viewing for Altibox subscribers across Norway and Denmark. Altibox is initially introducing this IPTV offering for Norwegian Elite Series football programming with plans to expand to additional sporting events in the future.

With this deployment, subscribers can watch a live football match and switch to on-demand viewing of important events in other matches using Altibox’s intuitive Electronic Program Guide (EPG).

In addition, the ProStream 8000 digital video mosaic solution generates the multi-channel mosaics that allow the subscriber to watch up to eight simultaneous football matches on a mosaic grid or in full-screen mode, and interactively link to the VOD content to follow highlights from all matches.

Alcatel-Lucent and Nordics operator Teliasonera have announced the deployment of the first 100Mbps VDSL2-based access network in Finland, enabling the delivery of a full-blown (high-definition) IPTV service offering across the country.

Teliasonera’s fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) architecture makes use of fibre cables that are trenched from the operator’s central offices to the basement of (apartment) buildings.

From there, the end-users are offered ‘very high-speed broadband applications’ over the existing, in-building copper wires. The architecture is based on Alcatel-Lucent’s 7354 ISAM FTTB Remote Unit – which has been designed for cabinet and multiple dwelling unit (MDU) deployments, the company informed.

Alcatel-Lucent also will provide a range of professional services related to the network roll-out project.

Alcatel-Lucent has signed a centralised purchasing contract with China Telecom, a telecom operator in China, to provide and maintain an IP/MPLS backbone across ten provinces (Guangxi, Hubei, Jiangxi, Ningxia, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Guizhou, Gansu, Xinjiang and Shanghai).

Upon completion in October, China Telecom hopes to deliver advanced broadband services with improved quality. The contract, which is part of the $700m framework agreement recently signed between China Telecom and Alcatel-Lucent, was awarded to Alca-Lu’s Chinese flagship company, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell.

Alca-Lu informed that it will deploy its 7750 Service Router (SR) and 7450 Ethernet Service Switch (ESS) providing the bandwidth, scale and service awareness required to support the market for more personalised, broadband offerings such as IPTV, WebTV, Virtual Private Networks, and 3G/4G mobile.

AT&T has extended Alcatel-Lucent’s contract for end-to-end multivendor network integration for AT&T U-verse.

The AT&T U-verse portfolio brings together U-verse TV, U-verse High Speed Internet and U-verse Voice services all delivered over AT&T’s advanced Internet Protocol (IP) network using Alcatel-Lucent’s Triple Play Service Delivery Architecture (TPSDA).

Under the latest agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will continue to provide end-to-end multivendor network integration for AT&T U-verse, including Microsoft Mediaroom Internet Protocol television (IPTV) software platform.

Alcatel-Lucent’s end-to-end multivendor network systems integration includes solution programme management, third-party management, network engineering, solution testing/validation and deployment services.

Ericsson hs signed a deal with operator Ucom to bring interactive TV to viewers in Armenia. Ericsson informed that it will deliver its IPTV solution including GPON technology.

IPTV allows viewers to experience the same type of interactivity on their televisions as they are used to on their PCs, with personalised features such as chat, e-voting, web TV and access to social media networks.

Ericsson noted that the IPTV solution for Ucom will also give viewers access to a flexible, customised portal that offers a range of broadcast channels, video-on-demand, an electronic programme guide and personal video-recording capabilities.

The IPTV services will be delivered via a fibre-access technology, known as Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON), supplied by Ericsson.

GPON allows the consumer to watch several HDTV channels, download large files from the internet and place voice calls simultaneously without service disruptions, the company explained.

Rollout will start in July 2009.

Alcatel-Lucent has been chosen by SK Broadband (formerly known as Hanaro Telecom), a service provider in Souh Korea, to supply and maintain its IP service routing solution to support the operator’s real time IPTV service.

Alcatel-Lucent said its IP/MPLS technology will enable SK Broadband to deliver advanced broadband services including real time IPTV services, high-definition television, video-on-demand, voice over IP and high-speed internet access, all with superior service quality. 

The company will supply a flexible IP/MPLS infrastructure, providing scalability, bandwidth on demand as well as increased service level guarantees. It will supply its 7750 Service Router (SR) in the core and aggregation levels of the network.

Alcatel-Lucent has announced its collaboration with Telefonica in an interactive IPTV advertising proof of concept pilot for its Imagenio IPTV customers throughout Spain.

Telefonica has relied on an application enablement solution from Alcatel-Lucent in a bid to bring increased interactivity and web 2.0 features to the TV experience of Imagenio’s IPTV platform.

Alca-Lu has informed that this service has enabled TV viewers to use their remote controls to access interactive content linked to a specific consumer brand product.

The company also informed that this advertising solution leverages Alca-Lu’s targeted and interactive advertising solution to kick off a new type of TV advertising business model that combined the advanced functionality of the service provider’s network with the Web creativity of the advertising world to offer high-margin high-value targeted interactive campaigns.

In this application Imagenio’s customers can interact with Web content in real time – accessing Web-based content such as games, additional information, competitions and more.

Envivio, a technology provider of IP video convergence encoding solutions from mobile to HD, has announced that its Convergence Series video headend has been selected for Turk Telekom’s IPTV project in Turkey.

Turk Telekom will use Envivio 4Caster C4 SD and 4Caster HD30 HD MPEG-4 AVC encoders and the 4Manager NMS, to deliver an extensive line-up of standard and high definition channels for its new IPTV service.

4Caster C4 from Envivio is a convergence encoder, providing video compression for all three screens of consumer video – TVs, PCs and mobile devices – on a single platform.

Envivio’s Convergence Series architecture allows MPEG-2 content downlinked from satellite to be delivered to the compression system directly over a local IP network. This all-IP, all-digital processing of content eliminates the need for traditional intermediate analog or digital video and audio interfaces between MPEG-2 decoders and MPEG-4 encoders, resulting in reduced cost and improved picture quality, the company said.

The Turk Telekom IPTV headend is being installed by Birtel the partner of Envivio in Ankara, Turkey.

NDS, a provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has announced that Comstar-United TeleSystems (Comstar-UTS), an operator of integrated telecommunications services in Russia and the CIS under the Stream brand, is deploying NDS Master UI, an intuitive user interface that seeks to transform the way content and features are presented on screen. Comstar-UTS has also selected NDS IPTV content protection, the company informed.

With NDS MUI, Comstar-UTS’ customers can choose their graphical theme or colour schemes and contrasts according to personal taste.

Full screen transparent animated overlays allow viewers to continue to watch full-screen TV as they browse for content and services. MUI also offers graphics designed for the visually impaired, the company added.

Comstar-UTS is a subsidiary of Sistema, a public diversified corporation in Russia.