Alcatel Partners with iMagicTV, nCUBE, Oracle to Provide Broadband TV Solution
BusinessWire, 06/6/2000 12:36
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 6, 2000--Alcatel (NSYE: ALA), a world leader in end-to-end voice and data communication solutions, and Alcatel Access Partnering Program (AAPP) members iMagicTV, nCUBE and Oracle Corporation will demonstrate their Broadband TV solution for delivery of broadband services to the home.
The demonstrations in Alcatel's booth No.6039 at SuperComm 2000 in Atlanta will include broadcast over Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) and Video-on-Demand over ADSL.
The AAPP is an innovative program focused on demonstrating and delivering revenue-generating communications applications that service providers can deploy today in their local access networks. The Broadband TV solution integrates technology from iMagicTV's DTV Manager software and nCUBE's MediaCUBE 4 hardware platform running Oracle(R) Video Server software (OVS) - all delivered on Alcatel's Litespan platform, the world's most widely deployed Next Generation Digital Loop Carrier (NGDLC) platform. Such an added value service illustrates the capacity of the Litespan to be a key component in next generation networks and to support a variety of multimedia services on top of traditional voice services. "Alcatel is pleased to partner with iMagicTV, nCUBE and Oracle to deliver broadcast over ADSL and video over ADSL solutions," said Michael Donahue, director of Business Development, Alcatel Wireline Access. "We're excited to expand the Alcatel DSL product offering to include high value services for our carrier customers and their customers."
iMagicTV's leading edge television delivery and management software, DTV Manager, enables service providers to increase revenues and reduce costs by providing digital TV services to consumers over broadband networks. DTV Manager supports the delivery of a range of services including interactive television, Video on Demand (VOD) and Internet TV. As an open-standards based application, DTV Manager supports the multi-vendor environments required by telecommunications networks worldwide.
"By joining forces, these four companies bring a complete, end-to-end solution to carriers, allowing them to meet a growing consumer demand for a full service suite that includes digital television, enhanced television and media on demand in addition to Internet and traditional telephone services," said Gerry Verner, vice president, Marketing and Finance, iMagicTV.
Interactive television services require a reliable, scalable and fault tolerant video streaming software solution. Oracle Video Server meets these requirements and is a key part of successfully deploying ITV solutions. Oracle Video Server's enhanced feature set simplifies operational business requirements and offers compelling consumer features including visual scan capabilities, personalized video streams and user-controlled "Live TV." Additional features of Oracle Video Server include a patented real time software Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) solution, Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) playout and IP multicasting capability. Oracle Video Server is integrated with Oracle's market-leading database Oracle8i(TM) that provides the basis for a highly scalable software solution.
The nCUBE MediaCUBE 4 platform is able to scale from under 500 Megabits per second (Mbps) to 132 Gigabits per second (Gbps) of sustained video delivery. It is capable of delivering 44,000 simultaneous, broadcast-quality video streams with no content replication, reducing the number of hard disks required for large-content libraries. A single MediaCUBE 4 can deliver 516 Mbps streams and occupies only five standard rack units. One 19" rack can house eight MediaHUBs and provide over 4 Gbps of sustained video delivery.
According to Terry Richardson, director of Business Development for Interactive Television Division, Oracle, "Together with Alcatel, iMagicTV, and nCUBE, we look forward to taking advantage of advances in networking technologies to implement the delivery of high bandwidth interactive television."
About iMagicTV
iMagicTV is an innovative software company providing digital television solutions to service providers worldwide. The company has developed DTV Manager software that helps them deliver digital TV to consumers over their high-speed broadband networks including ADSL and VDSL technologies. Established in 1998, iMagicTV maintains its headquarters in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada and has offices in Cambridge (United Kingdom), Denver (Colorado) and Atlanta (Georgia). For more information on iMagicTV and its innovative and unique television solution, visit www.imagictv.com.
About nCUBE
Founded in 1983, nCUBE is a privately held company and the world's leading supplier of scaleable, broadband, streaming media systems. nCUBE's expertise and unique system scalability have made it the video server of choice in the world's leading video-on-demand trials and deployments.
nCUBE acquired SkyConnect, a premier supplier of digital advertising insertion systems to the cable television industry. Together, nCUBE and SkyConnect have shipped more than 24,000 MPEG video streams in many of the world's largest CATV and telecommunication MPEG server systems. nCUBE is solidly positioned to meet the demands of a rapidly expanding interactive CATV, telecommunication and Internet marketplace. The company is based in San Francisco, Calif., with offices worldwide. More information about nCUBE is available on the Internet at ncube.com or by calling 1-800-654-2823.
About Alcatel DSL
The world's leading supplier of DSL systems with market leadership in its Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Subscriber Access Multiplexer (ASAM) and Litespan(R) family of products, Alcatel has been supplying industry-standard end-to-end Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) solutions since 1996. Alcatel's Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) access solutions are available on a variety of service platforms, including the Alcatel ASAM family; the Litespan Next Generation Digital Loop Carrier (NGDLC); and environmentally hardened Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) packages optimized for digital loop carrier deployment. The Alcatel ASAM holds over 55 percent of the worldwide central office ADSL market share. Alcatel's Litespan multi-service access platform, an integrated NGDLC/DSLAM, has a global embedded footprint of 57 million subscribers and growing.
All Alcatel DSL platforms are commonly managed through a single access element management system. Alcatel's ASAM is NEBS (New Equipment Standards) (Level 3) compliant, enabling the ASAM to integrate seamlessly into service provider networks. The Alcatel DSL family is fully scalable and supports a wide variety of service packages, including asymmetric and symmetric offerings and can be easily deployed in service provider networks, including collocation environments, providing excellent density, efficient power utilization, and high performance. Alcatel's ADSL solutions support full-rate discrete multi-tone (DMT) ADSL as well as reduced rate G.lite ADSL on a single line card, maximizing a carrier's service options while minimizing costs. Alcatel's DSL technology is also offered in an advanced range of customer premises equipment, including the Alcatel Speed Touch(TM) family of DSL modems, routers, and integrated access devices supporting multi-line voice and data service over a single telephone access line.
Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data communications solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales of EURO 23 billion in 1999, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet at alcatel.com |
