Canal+ Technologies and Envivio Expand Interactive Possibilities with New MPEG-4 Technology
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Paris, France, September 12, 2002 -- Envivio, a leading provider of end-to-end ISO MPEG-4 broadcast and streaming solutions, and Canal+ Technologies, a leading international provider of interactive TV software solutions, today announced a strategic partnership to develop future MPEG-4 functionality within Canal+ Technologies’ middleware portfolio.
MPEG-4 is the new ISO standard for the delivery of compelling multimedia and streamed content, such as advanced gaming, and promises to expand the possibilities of the next generation of interactive television entertainment.
“We are delighted be working with the leading provider of interactive software solutions, developing an optimised, standards based platform to enable an ever-growing range of interactive services,” said Julien Signes, President and CTO of Envivio.
This prototype of an MPEG-4-based digital TV solution is being showcased for the first time at IBC 2002 Hall 1, booth 451. Integrated to Canal+ Technologies’ MEDIAHIGHWAY middleware system, the Envivio solution hosts feature-rich, MPEG-4 interactive applications, accessed directly via a digital set-top box.
Canal+ Technologies and Envivio have agreed to work together to offer, in the future, a complete commercial PAY-TV solution, delivering rich and innovative multimedia content over IP, satellite and wireless connections to a global audience.
“We needed a partner capable of providing an end-to-end MPEG-4 solution to spearhead our future Pay-TV platform and Envivio's innovation and industry expertise provided the ideal solution,” said Jean-Marc Racine, Executive Vice President Marketing, Canal+ Technologies. “Not only was Envivio first to market with its MPEG-4 solution, but its top-quality MPEG-4 product portfolio is recognised as the most comprehensive in the industry. By providing a higher compression rate, the MPEG-4 encoding solution will enable network operators to use less bandwidth, thus lowering their operating costs,” Racine added. “This is aligned with our strategy to offer cost-saving, state-of-the-art solutions to our customers worldwide.”
About Envivio
Envivio is a leading provider of complete MPEG-4 solutions consisting of a rich set of integrated streaming media tools and systems: high performance audio and video, two-dimensional graphics and animation, providing a rich interactive user experience. The company has established itself as the most experienced creator of high-quality MPEG-4 - solutions that enable broadcasters, network operators and content developers to build new revenue streams and utilize the efficiencies of delivering content to the full range of MPEG-4 capable devices.
The Envivio Solution includes various components to create, encode, protect and distribute MPEG-4 content: the Envivio Encoding Station for offline encoding and protection of MPEG-4 audio and video, the Envivio Broadcast Studio for authoring complete MPEG-4 applications, the Envivio plug - in to the RealSystem Server, to distribute MPEG-4 content over the Web and broadcast networks, and the EnvivioTV™ plug- in to the RealOne Player, RealPlayer, QuickTime, and Windows Media Player to retrieve and playback MPEG-4 content. EnvivioTV™ is also being customized for various set-top box manufacturers.
About Canal+ Technologies
CANAL+ TECHNOLOGIES is a leading international provider of interactive TV software solutions offering a range of flexible open standard solutions to broadcaster and digital operators around the world. CANAL+ TECHNOLOGIES powers more than 14 million set-top boxes which are deployed on every continent on cable, satellite and digital terrestrial networks. Over 30 digital operators and broadcasters have already deployed its interactive TV middleware MEDIAHIGHWAY and the conditional access system MEDIAGUARD, including CANALSATELLITE in France, SureWest in the United States, Astro Measat and ZeeTV in Asia, to deliver true interactive applications to subscribers via interactive applications. CANAL+ Group, Sun Microsystems, Sony, Thomson multimedia and Sogecable are equity and strategic partners in CANAL+ TECHNOLOGIES. For more information: http://www.canalplus-technologies.com
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Media Contacts:
Envivio
Barry Strauss
bstrauss@envivio.com
+1 650 243 2718
Canal+ Technologies
Marie-Vincente Pasdeloup
T: + 33 1 71 71 56 32
M: +33 6 20 46 00 14
E: mvp@canal-plus.fr
