Falcon Communications of Malden, Mo., is launching a turnkey IPTV service based on several Thomson products. The service, IP/Complete, will aggregate around 200 channels delivered via satellite for small phone companies that want to offer Internet Protocol television without building a headend.
The model is similar to IP-Prime, the SES Americom MPEG-4 service scheduled for launch by early next year. With the turnkey systems, a telco can do IPTV by simply erecting one receiver dish and installing a few racks of equipment rather than building an entire dish farm.
IP/Complete will comprise Grass Valley NetProcessor headend gear; Grass Valley ViBE MPEG-4 encoders for local station insertion; and the Thomson SmartVision content management platform. Thomson IP-MPEG-4 SD/HD set-tops will also be deployed to eventual subscribers.
The beta test was carried out at BPS Telephone in Bernie, Mo., where the service is expected to officially launch this month.
