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To: Tim McCormick who wrote (35303)	8/20/1998 9:38:00 AM
From: Don Dorsey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Lucent Digital Video Ships First HDTV Encoder to Harris Corp. for Delivery to Broadcast Customer MURRAY HILL, N.J. (Aug. 20) BUSINESS WIRE -Aug. 20, 1998--Lucent Digital Video, a wholly- owned venture of Lucent Technologies, today announced the first shipment of its production-quality HDTV encoder to its strategic partner Harris Corp. The encoder, the first of many that are scheduled for delivery to Harris in the next two months, will be delivered to one of the U.S. television stations that have purchased equipment from Harris Corp. to begin digital television (DTV) broadcasting on November 1, 1998. Designed by Lucent Digital Video, the encoder - which is sold by Harris as the FlexiCoder - is the only MPEG-2 encoder that allows broadcasters to migrate from standard definition to high-definition video with the addition of a single video module. The encoder delivers crisp, clear pictures in either the 1080-line interlaced or 720-line progressive mode of HDTV transmission and also supports Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC)-compliant multichannel audio. "Lucent is an aggressive player in the transition to digital television. Today's shipment demonstrates our commitment to the on-time delivery of new products to our customers," said Andreas Papanicolaou, president of Lucent Digital Video. "This is the result of more than 10 years of digital video research and development from Bell Labs." U.S. television broadcasters are mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement DTV on a very aggressive schedule. The more than 1,600 U.S. television stations with DTV channels are required to be on the air with the digital service between November 1998 and May 2003. The Lucent HDTV encoder was designed and built by Lucent Digital Video, with key components supplied by IBM Microelectronics and Lucent Microelectronics. For more information on the Lucent MPEG-2 Digital Video System, visit the Lucent Digital Video Web site at www.lucent.com/ldv. Lucent won a Primetime Engineering Emmy Award in 1997 for its pioneering work in DTV as a member of the HDTV Grand Alliance. The company, which contributed to the original MPEG-2 specification, also built the world's first MPEG-2 and digital HDTV encoders. Lucent Digital Video is one of several new entrepreneurial business groups formed by Lucent to bring to market the best of Bell Labs technologies. Leveraging decades of Bell Labs, research and development, the group was formed to manufacture and market digital video products, including encoders. Lucent Digital Video markets its product line for cable, wireless cable, fiber optic and satellite back-hauling, DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) and other applications worldwide. In January, 1998, Lucent Digital Video announced a strategic alliance with Harris Corp. to market DTV equipment for the North American broadcast market.

To: Tim McCormick who wrote (35303)	8/20/1998 10:31:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

More Cable and Wireless. They are building their own box and platform................................ thestandard.net August 20, 1998 CWC Sinks $165 Million Into Digital Cable 'TV Mall' By Kristi Essick Cable & Wireless Communications PLC has made no secret of its plans to offer digital, interactive services to U.K. homes via its cable TV network, and today the company took a further step in defining those plans by announcing that it will develop its own set-top box platform. CWC plans to commercially launch digital cable set-top boxes offering up to 200 channels of digital TV and interactive programming guides in the second quarter of 1999, with a gradual rollout of interactive services and the addition of Internet access by the end of that year, according to Roy Payne, a company spokesman. The British company, which is sinking 100 million pounds (US$165 million) in the development of its set-top box offering, today gave some details of the services dubbed TV Mall. Users of the services will be able to order goods online, check bank account information, gather news and information, and book travel and entertainment tickets, CWC said. These services will become available sometime in the second half of 1999, with Internet access being added at the end of that year, Payne said. Partnering with CWC in the TV Mall project are Barclays Bank, British Airways, Littlewoods Home Shopping Group, Associated News Media and broadcast news group ITN. CWC said it is also talking to other potential partners, including retailers and consumer services companies. Digital cable set-top boxes work in conjunction with a regular or digital TV set; users can view Internet content, receive information and send e-mail, using the TV screen as monitor, at speeds much faster than those allowed by an analog modem. CWC's system will offer downstream speeds of 27M bits per second, and upstream speeds of up to 10M bps, Payne said. CWC's network is already 95 percent two-way coaxial cable, necessary for both sending and receiving information over the Internet, Payne said. Instead of adopting an off-the-shelf platform for digital set-top boxes, which the company has considered doing, CWC decided to create its own standards-based platform, Payne said. Network Computer Inc.'s DTI Navigator Web browser for set-top boxes, which CWC licensed last March, will play a key role in the platform, he said. Initially, the company said it would have boxes with Internet access available by the end of this year, with interactive services being launched in the first half of 1999. Now, however, CWC thinks it will be better to roll the services out slowly, to pique people's interest and not overwhelm them with everything at once, Payne said. And CWC isn't the only U.K. company with broadband plans on its agenda. Also set to enter the arena is British Interactive Broadcasting (BIB), a venture made up of British Sky Broadcasting PLC (BSkyB) and British Telecommunications PLC (BT). While CWC plans to tap into its cable network to deliver the services, BIB will rely on its satellite network coupled with BT phone lines. CWC sees BIB as its most formidable competitor, Payne said. Kristi Essick writes for the IDG News Service in Paris.