Overon Selects TANDBERG Television For European Distribution Of National Geographic Channel HD
SOUTHAMPTON, UK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TANDBERG Television, part of the Ericsson Group (NASDAQ:ERIC), today announced that it is providing an MPEG-4 AVC high definition (HD) encoding system to Spanish-based broadcast solutions provider Overon for the delivery of National Geographic Channel HD to broadcasters and TV service providers across Europe. The TANDBERG Television solution will provide a bandwidth efficient satellite distribution service of National Geographic Channel HD, further increasing its presence on networks throughout Europe.
National Geographic Channel HD (NGC HD) is part of National Geographic Channel International (NGCI) and it is distributed worldwide by Fox International Channels, the multimedia company, part of the media group News Corporation, dedicated to the implementation of pay TV channels and digital services all over the world. NGC HD brings compelling stories with stunning visuals and credibility that people have come to expect from National Geographic. NGC HD showcases top rating programs spanning wildlife, science, technology, culture and natural phenomena. With world-class scientists and cutting-edge filmmakers, viewers are taken to some of the most visually stunning places on earth with incredible clarity, breathtaking color and superior sound quality.
NGC HD's innovative factual programming will be distributed to broadcast head-ends across Europe via satellite using the TANDBERG Television EN8090 encoder. This award-winning MPEG-4 AVC solution enables a substantial reduction in the bandwidth required for distributing HDTV services.
"TANDBERG Television's experience and expertise in developing market-leading HDTV head-end solutions left us in no doubt that we could deliver National Geographic's fascinating content using extremely reliable encoding technology. In addition to the excellent bandwidth saving capabilities, one of the major advantages of selecting TANDBERG Television's EN8090 was the versatility of its audio inputs with advanced multi-channel audio encoding support which provides the flexibility that we required," said Ramon Caro, Technical Director, Overon.
Overon's catalog of products and services is utilized extensively by major national and international broadcasters, production houses and corporations with the need for global connectivity.
"We are pleased that our encoding technology continues to be chosen for the delivery of pioneering content. National Geographic brings a whole new world of sights, colors and sounds to the viewer at home, brought even more to life through high definition," said Eric Baron, President of TANDBERG Television EMEA. "We are delighted to be enabling the further roll-out of this fascinating content across Europe. Our EN8090 solution provides extraordinary picture quality and significant bandwidth management for higher performance encoding."
TANDBERG Television leads the market in deploying MPEG-4 AVC HD encoders. The EN8090 is the award-winning next-generation MPEG-4 AVC HD encoder and uses TANDBERG Television's Intelligent Compression Engine technology featuring Clarus™ video pre-processing, with enhanced noise reduction, artifact removal and improved filtering. It redefines the economics of HD transmission and provides major improvements in picture quality, offering crisp, vibrant video at extremely low bit-rates. New image-enhancing techniques such as single-slice video processing architecture, multi-pass analysis and forward-looking encoding also improve efficiencies and reduce bandwidth usage. Combined with TANDBERG Television's Reflex™ statistical multiplexing, the EN8090 can achieve significant efficiency improvements over previous generations of MPEG-4 AVC HD.
About National Geographic Channels International
National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) invites viewers to re-think the way they see television - and the world - with smart, innovative programming. A business enterprise owned by National Geographic Television (NGT) and FOX Entertainment Group, NGCI contributes to the National Geographic Society's commitment to exploration, conservation and education through its five channels: National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Channel HD, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Adventure and Nat Geo Music.
Globally, National Geographic Channel (including NGC U.S. which is a joint venture of NGT and Fox Cable Networks Group) is available in 270 million homes in 166 countries and 34 languages. For more information, please visit www.natgeotv.com.
About Fox International Channels (FIC):
Fox International Channels (FIC), a Fox Entertainment unit launched in 1993, is the multimedia company subsidiary of News Corporation that distributes and develops pay TV contents, digital services, on line ad sales and New Media support worldwide through Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. FIC develop, produce and distributes entertainment, factual, sports and movie brands such as Fox, Fox Life, Fox Crime, FX, Fox Sports, Speed Channel, Cult, Next, Fuel, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Wild, Adventure One, Voyage, The History Channel, NG Music, Utilissima and Baby TV. FIC also distributes homologue TV channels in HD and for mobile phones: Fox Life HD, Next HD, National Geographic Channel HD and Fox Mobile. The company has more than 350 million subscribers in 29 languages.
About TANDBERG Television
TANDBERG Television, part of the Ericsson Group (NASDAQ:ERIC), delivers the multimedia technology and expertise that is moving digital video forward. Whether it's advanced compression systems, on-demand or content distribution, the company's award-winning solutions are used by the world's leading broadcasters, operators and programmers to deliver new viewer experiences and advertising opportunities. With a broad suite of open, standards-based products, TANDBERG Television offers the highest quality solutions for Digital TV, HDTV, VOD, and IPTV. For more information, please visit www.tandbergtv.com
About Ericsson
Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. The market leader in 2G and 3G mobile technologies, Ericsson supplies communications services and manages networks that serve more than 195 million subscribers. The company's portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, and broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and developers. The Sony Ericsson joint venture provides consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.
Ericsson is advancing its vision of ‘communication for all' through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 70,000 employees generated revenue of USD 27.9 billion (SEK 188 billion) in 2007. Founded in 1876 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm and NASDAQ.
For more information, visit www.ericsson.com or www.ericsson.mobi.
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