AMO.L Regulatory News (AMO)

29 Jan 2007 08:00

Time Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd. (TBSPL), the pioneering IPTVservice provider in India, and Cambridge UK based Amino CommunicationsLtd, world leading IPTV platform supplier, have formally announced acommercial deal to manufacture AmiNET125 H.264 AVC (MPEG-4, Part 10)compliant Set-Top Boxes (STBs), for the Indian market, through TimeBroadband's overseas associate company, Dimensions Broadband UK. Thesubstantial contract, with initial Fixed License fee & on-goingRoyalty arrangement with Amino, marks their expansion within emergingmarkets of the Indian sub-continent. £ This deal will enable TBSPL to execute mass deployments of its "MYTIME" IPTV Package with the dynamic middleware provided by Kasenna ofUSA, a very popular and successful product with open architectureworking on DHTML. Based on the opinions of the major Hollywoodstudios, TBSPL has selected Verimatrix of USA as their ContentProtection provider which invisibly provides session-based WaterMarking to enable forensic tracking of piracy, using highest securitylevels empowering the TBSPL recommended CDN stack. £ The AmiNET125 STB, which is designed on the "Da Vinci" SOC chipfrom Texas Instruments of USA, is integrated with both KasennaMiddleware and Verimatrix Content Protection enabling TBSL to usethese important elements in its state of the art IPTV ecosystemdeveloped around the H.264 AVC technology. This triggered theselection of Amino as the partner to provide IPTV software and thehardware design for the manufacture of STBs by Dimensions BroadbandUK, in the defined territories. £ Mrs. Sujata Dev, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer ofTBSPL explains "STBs play the most critical role in the IPTV business,empowering the customer to choose interactive digital content ondemand. This relationship with a leading industry partner like Aminowould further strengthen TBSPL in establishing the business matrix inthe Indian market, capable of providing a total end-to-end CDNsolution to Telecom Operator partners intending to launch IPTV". £ Time Broadband plans to leverage the combined power of Amino STBssupporting Kasenna and Verimatrix applications to offer its IPTVservices to customers across the Indian subcontinent, the Middle Eastand parts of East Africa; to revolutionise home entertainment. £ Bob Giddy, CEO of Amino Communications Ltd. stated: "Thisagreement gives Amino greater access to the tier-1 Telcos in India, acountry with a population of over 1 billion having potential to be thefastest growing IPTV market. We believe this deal validates ourlicensing model, enabling us to sell in key markets where large-scalemanufacturing in the local plants is critical to success. Ourinternational experience, and technical expertise with provensolutions, will enable TBSL to provide a globally benchmarked IPTVservice using Amino technology. We know that the sleek design and easeof operation of the AmiNET125 STB will delight customers of the TBSPL"My TIME" IPTV service." £ Sujata Dev added: "This landmark deal will allow Time Broadband totarget multiple telecom operators with a consumer base of over 60million; the objective is to maximise IPTV penetration in consumerhomes. To enhance consumer experience and delight, we chose Amino asour partner to provide the technology for STBs. This agreement givesus flexibility when manufacturing our own products, introducefuturistic technology at an economical cost while reducing the leadtime to enter all major Indian markets in 2007; which is hailed by theGovernment as the Indian year of Broadband". £ The recently signed deal covers a significant licensing contractfor which Amino has already been paid and for an initial supply ofAmiNET125 STBs for immediate Service roll-out. The agreement providesfor the licensing of the AmiNET125 STB design and Amino's IntAct(TM)IPTV software stack for the manufacture and sale of STBs in the Indiansub-continent and Middle-East markets. Within the framework of thesame agreement, Amino will receive stipulated royalties on locallymanufactured STBs and software in addition to the initial licence fee. £ About Amino Communications £ Amino Communications (www.aminocom.com) supplies the AmiNET(TM)series of set-top boxes, renowned for their low-cost and reliability.The AmiNET range materially reduces service operators' capitalexpenditure, whilst offering the full range of specification required;MPEG2 and MPEG4 encoding standards, standard and high definition TV,personal video recording and home networking. The high performancecoupled with the innovative design of Amino's set-top boxes, hasbrought the series industry accolades and the company a leadingposition within the IPTV market. £ The AmiNET series of IPTV set-top boxes has been used by more than600 customers in commercial deployments and trials in over 50countries worldwide. The set-top boxes have also been sampled by anadditional 800 customers. Amino Communications' principal customersare telecommunications, broadcast and hospitality service operators.Generally, AmiNET products are supplied with the IntAct(TM) IPTVsoftware stack pre-loaded. £ Amino Communications is a wholly owned subsidiary of AminoTechnologies plc. listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM, symbol AMO.Amino's HQ is based near Cambridge, UK, with offices worldwide. £ About Time Broadband (India) £ Time Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd. (www.timebroadbandindia.com) isa closely held company providing the a) IPTV Management of Customerinterface and Marketing of operator co-defined bundles b) ContentDelivery Network Technology Deployment & manpower support with inputsfrom top Techno-providers; c) Content Aggregation & digitalRe-purposing for Content-providers. TBSPL has entered into strategicalliances for syndication with several types of IPR holders in Indiaand abroad, with a target to reach over a million homes by 2010. £ TBSPL is presently involved in the business of providing IPTVcontent package on the cutting edge technology of H.264 AVC, after oneyear of testing different technology options for the CDN on the MTNL'sADSL2+ platform and working on interoperability issues between leadingsuppliers of CDN components and applications. £ 'My TIME'(TM), the service brand of Time broadband IPTV; waslaunched on 20th December 2006, in Delhi from our state-of-the-artNetwork operating centre, with 100 digital H.264 AVC multicastchannels with Time Shift TV, EPG, VOD and VAS as a versatile serviceto be soon available across India on broadband delivery platformsleveraging multiple last-mile technologies to enable interactiverich-media service roll-out on both PC and TV. Copyright Business Wire 2007