Sofia Digital has delivered Sofia Stage® Browser Platform to Sun
Microsystems Italia. The Platform includes, Sofia Stage® Browser for
viewing XHTML content in MHP receivers, Sofia Backstage® Publisher for
Content Publishing and Tools for Content Development.
By the end of March 2004, Sun Microsystems Italia has started an
experimentation of interactive digital television with a selected group
of households and businesses located in the Turin area. Thanks to a set
top box, users are able to access a variety of services delivered
through interactive applications; interaction with the Public
Administration is ensured through several kinds of network connections,
ordinary telephone access, broadband return channel, wireless GPRS.
The user friendly interface of the portal delivers maximum
interactivity through services such as job postings, a digital version
of the Employment Office of the Turin Province and, at a later stage,
education modules developed by local Universities and delivered
according to the most innovative approach to distance learning:
T-learning (Television Learning). A reservation application and an
integrated Messaging client (Mail, MMS, etc.) complete the set of basic
applications developed in this context.
The experimentation has been designed as a network reference model
for the Public Sector: the same infrastructure and decoder can be used
to deliver services to other local administrations.
“MHP will enable a new way to provide various governmental services
in television. We are glad to partner with Sun Microsystems in Italy in
providing the necessary technology platform for Service Providers to
start providing new interactive services on MHP”, states Petri
Martikainen, CEO of Sofia Digital.
Giuseppe Facchetti, EMEA Technology Office, Sun Microsystems, said:
“Digital Television is an excellent opportunity for rapidly increasing
the creation of innovative services for the general public. We
partnered with Sofia Digital because they provide state-of-the-art
technology for an open, convergent MHP platform for TV content”.
