News January 6, 08:54 Eastern Time
MURRAY HILL, N.J. (Jan. 6) BUSINESS WIRE -Jan. 6, 1999--Lucent Digital Video, a wholly-owned venture of Lucent Technologies, today announced that it has sold three high-definition television (HDTV) encoders to Unity Motion, Inc., a leading satellite provider of HDTV programming and consumer equipment.
Each of Unity Motion's three channels of HDTV programming - HD-1, HD-2, and HD-3 carry movies, sports, and entertainment programs that are encoded with the Lucent MPEG-2 Digital Video System(TM) (DVS).
"The Lucent encoder makes HDTV a reality for Unity Motion's customers. Consistent, high-quality sound and images - that's what we require and Lucent delivers every time," said John Turner, president of Turner Engineering Inc., the designer and integrator of Unity Motion's HDTV operations, and a member of Unity Motion's Board of Directors. "It's fitting that the leader in HDTV broadcasting and programming should work with the leader in HDTV encoding."
The Lucent MPEG-2 DVS, sold to over-the-air broadcasters by Harris Corp. as the FlexiCoder(TM), is the most flexible encoder on the market, enabling satellite providers such as Unity Motion superior reliability and the highest picture quality.
"Direct broadcast satellite introduced viewers to the digital video entertainment experience, and now Unity Motion is bringing multiple channels of high-quality HDTV programming and equipment to consumers across the United States," said John Mailhot, vice president of engineering for Lucent Digital Video. "We are pleased to work with Unity Motion and Turner Engineering; they are true pioneers at the dawn of the HDTV era."
As of January 1, 1999, Lucent Digital Video (LDV) has sold more HDTV encoders to the broadcast, cable, and satellite markets than any other manufacturer. Through its alliance with Harris Corp., LDV has captured a majority share of the broadcast HDTV market. Together with Harris, LDV also conducted the first tests of HDTV receivers with (from Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Thomson, and Zenith) to ensure that signals from the FlexiCoder could be received successfully.
Lucent Digital Video's lead in the HDTV industry is also reflected by leading-edge programmers' choice of the Lucent HDTV encoder. In December, 1998, leading cable programmer MSG Network purchased two HDTV encoders from LDV for use in their state-of-the-art facility in Madison Square Garden, which encodes New York Rangers hockey games.
Unity Motion is the first company to broadcast high-definition television in both interlaced and progressive formats, and the first to offer HDTV viewing equipment capable of receiving both satellite and terrestrial high definition programming in all Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) formats. In June, 1998, Unity Motion was the first to air a national satellite broadcast in ATSC HD. On September 26, 1998, Unity Motion became the first company to broadcast HD programming via satellite 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Unity Motion designs, develops and markets innovative solutions for delivering HDTV technology and programming to consumers and businesses. It is the only company committed solely to facilitating the adoption of HDTV by viewers, and to the development of revenue-enhancing opportunities with partners in the hardware, programming content, broadcasting and advertising communities. Unity Motion operates America's first and only multichannel HDTV broadcast service and markets a High Definition Distribution System capable of receiving its own HD signal, as well as any terrestrial signal. For more information please visit www.unitymotion.com.
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 ventures formed by Lucent to help bring Bell Labs technologies to market. Leveraging decades of Bell Labs research and development, the group was formed to manufacture and market digital video products, including encoders.
|
