Tuesday, January 3, 2006

BellSouth Tests SES AMERICOM's IP-PRIME Video Distribution

BellSouth will trial SES AMERICOM's IP-PRIME centralized, satellite-centric video distribution solution for its upcoming IPTV service.



Specifically, SES AMERICOM will provide BellSouth with video aggregation, encoding, monitoring, and transport over the IP-PRIME platform, which is based at the SES AMERICOM IPTV Broadcast Center in Vernon Valley, New Jersey. The IPTV solution will be delivered over the AMC-9 satellite. The open architecture of IP-PRIME enables plug-and-play integration with a broad range of infrastructure platforms, including Microsoft IPTV middleware and conditional access systems, which are being tested by BellSouth.



BellSouth has initiated a technical trial of IPTV in conjunction with Microsoft and plans to expand it to market trial participants using the additional MPEG4 encoded programming channels delivered by IP-Prime.

http://www.sesamericom.com

  • The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) signed a multi-year agreement with SES AMERICOM to offer IPTV services to nearly one thousand independent and local telcos across the U.S. using SES AMERICOM's "IP-PRIME" distribution platform.


  • The centralized, satellite-delivered IPTV solution originates from SES AMERICOM's IPTV Broadcast Center in Vernon Valley, New Jersey, where high-end video programming and content is received, processed, and then transported by SES AMERICOM's AMC-9 satellite to authorized video hubs nationwide. The NRTC IPTV offering is an end-to-end solution to the IP set-top, which includes conditional access and middleware and greatly reduces headend and video operations and equipment costs.


  • The AMERICOM-9 (AMC-9) satellite, which was launched in June 2003, is a hybrid C/Ku-band satellite based on Alcatel's Spacebus 3000B3 platform. The C-band payload features 24 - 36 MHz transponders, while the Ku-band payload features 24 - 36 MHz transponders.