Helsinki, Finland / Munich, Germany, August 29, 2005
Sofia Digital Ltd and Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH are joining forces on marketing their jointly developed very cost-effective solution for MHP service management and playout. The solution integrates Sofia Digital’s Sofia Backstage® Manager and Author with IRT’s DVB Playout Server, in order to provide an end-to-end solution for MHP service creation, testing and playout.
IRT offers with its DVB Playout Server a professional, PC-based play-out system for direct interfacing with a variety of ASI output devices and modulator cards, and for the creation of various types of DVB transport stream files, including the generation of DSM-CC object carousels. It further features the automatic analysis of transport stream files and the option of recording ASI input streams. IRT’s DVB Playout Server is ideally suited for testing MHP applications and set-top boxes. It serves as a complete DVB playout solution for live broadcasting in playout centres, and also for demo purposes, e.g. at trade fairs.
Sofia Backstage® Manager is a widely deployed solution among broadcasters and operators for MHP service management. Sofia Backstage® Manager acts as the integration point for other Sofia Backstage servers, such as Sofia Backstage® Author, allowing a wide variety of MHP services to be integrated directly to broadcast playout. The cooperation with IRT allows Sofia Digital to deliver a cost-effective MHP testing and development environment on a single PC. Built-in integration of Sofia Backstage® Author allows content providers, operators and broadcasters to start their MHP-based service creation easily.
Mr. Olli Väätäinen, CEO of Sofia Digital, stated that: “The cooperation between the companies allows Sofia Digital to offer a cost-effective solution for MHP playout which complements Sofia’s own products. Sofia can now provide MHP solutions that range from laboratory use to full production.”
“In the frame of a series of MHP Interoperability Workshops conducted by IRT and participated by more than 110 international companies and broadcasters IRT’s Playout Server was field-tested in large scale which at the end led to this fully-developed and well-proven product”, said Dr. Klaus Illgner-Fehns, Managing Director of IRT. “We were developing the DVB Playout Server from the very beginning in 2002 in-line with the everyday demands of application developers, broadcasters, and network operators. Sofia Digital is a perfect partner to IRT for jointly developing and marketing such unique and cost-effective DVB playout solutions”.
The MHP end-to-end solution is show-cased at the IBC 2005 convention in Amsterdam, September 9-13, at Sofia Digital’s booth 2.101. IRT is welcoming you at booth 10.639.
About Sofia Digital
Sofia Digital develops and sells products and services that create, manage, and deliver interactive media services available to consumers on TV, Mobile Devices and Internet. Our customers are broadcasters, content providers, operators, and manufacturers.
Sofia Digital is a unique player in the TV Industry that offers a safe migration path from analog to digital television in terms of interactivity, content, and business. Sofia Digital’s customers include Antenna Hungaria, Czech Telecom, Helsinki Television, Mediaset, MTV3, Channel four Finland (Nelonen), Nokia, Nordea Bank, ST Microelectronics, SUN Microsystems and Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE).
About Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH
The Institut für Rundfunktechnik, founded 1956 as a private company, is the central research and development establishment for the public broadcasting organisations in Germany (ARD, joined by ZDF in 1964, and DLR in 1993), in Austria (ORF, 1990 ), and in Switzerland (SRG/SSR, 1989).
The main focus of IRT’s work is the improvement of existing and the development of new, particularly digital, systems and their standardisation. IRT works mainly for its associates and increasingly also for third parties through the business areas “Collaborative Research” and “R&D Services”.
More Information:
Sofia Digital Ltd
Vesa Jaakkola
Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH
Franz-Josef Lehbruner
General Manager R&D Services
http://www.irt.de
