Pace Introduces Next Generation IPTV Digital Home Gateway for Telecom and Broadband IP Networks

Business Wire, Nov 12, 2001

Business Editors/Technology Writers

BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 2001

New IP500 Gateway Designed to Reach More Customers with More

iTV Services, Generating Additional Revenue Streams

Pace Micro Technology Americas, the world's largest dedicated developer of digital home gateway technology, announced today the introduction of its IP500 next generation IPTV digital home gateway (set-top box) for broadband IP (Internet Protocol) network operators and telecom service providers.

Pace's existing DSL4000 IP-based home gateway, which will continue to be available, has been delivered to more than 120 customers and partners worldwide for deployments and trials, enabling the delivery of high-quality video and interactive TV services over existing IP networks. A major new advancement with the IP500, available in Q1 of 2002, is the support for new streaming protocols to address the limited bandwidth issues inherent with the larger RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Company) in delivering multichannel video service. The architecture for the IP500 was designed to support all broadcasters who are exploring IP-based interactive TV distribution systems regardless of distribution medium (cable, telco, satellite, fiber to the home).

According to a new study by market research firm Cahners In-Stat Group, the set-top box market is poised to explode. The study predicts that the number of set-top boxes purchased worldwide will jump from 41 million in 2000 to 108 million in 2005.

"The IP500 is a revolutionary concept born from pent-up demand coming from an emerging and rapidly growing IP-based world - a world that is crossing all platforms of content distribution," said Neil Gaydon, president, Pace Americas. "There's an enormous amount of existing infrastructure that supports IP, and a product such as the IP500, which is based on a range of open standard protocols, will allow network operators of all kinds to offer new interactive TV services."

IP500 Key Benefits

Reach more customers - support for low bit-rate streaming protocols enables network operators to unicast or multicast video streams at a very reasonable 500-800 Kbps. MPEG-4 and other popular low bit-rate video codecs reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to carry a movie to the home. As a result broadcast-quality video content can be delivered to customers at more remote locations where the network speeds are lower. This increases the number of potential revenue generating households that can be reached. The IP500 also supports MPEG-1 and MPEG-2.

Connecting a second TV - By connecting a second television to the IP500 gateway, operators can deliver services to more people within the home. Offering different services to two TVs from a single home gateway provides more viewing options to the consumer, while increasing the revenue potential of each household without an increase in customer equipment costs.

Network services around the home - By integrating a modem into the IP500, the gateway is transformed into a multimedia hub. With full routing capability together with implementations of networking protocols such as DHCP, NAT, and standards-based quality of service (QOS) management, voice, video, and data can be networked to anywhere within the household using Ethernet 10/100 BaseT, with future versions supporting wireless standards including 802.11b.

Protecting content - Unrivalled security features within the IP500 gateway ensure that content is secure from unauthorized access and copying. The IP500 includes third-party conditional access and digital rights management (DRM) solutions use smartcard technology, hardware based triple-DES encryption, and Macrovision(TM) copy protection to deliver superior security systems. Additional security features include a network firewall and secure software upgrade schemes, making the IP500 the most secure IPTV home gateway on the market.

Support for hard disk drive - Network operators who are bandwidth constrained can use the internal disk drive to feed content from the network to the set-top box during off-peak hours (trickle-down). This capability also allows network operators to push content from the consumer, which can open up additional revenue streams from different on-demand services such as VOD.

3D graphics- Both online and offline games are set to present one of the major revenue opportunities of the future. The IP500 includes a 3D graphics engine and a high-speed processor using the Linux operating system. This powerful combination, together with industry standard OpenGL and Broadcast CL application programming interfaces (APIs), ensures the delivery of state of the art games. These superior graphical capabilities can also be used to create advanced electronic program guides (EPG) and applications.

Quick and easy application development - Using a comprehensive set of software development tools, developers can quickly and easily implement electronic program guides, conditional access, digital rights management systems, games, device drivers and middleware.