Looking to capitalize on the growing momentum behind IPTV deployments, Microsoft has opened a new Interoperability and Qualification Lab (IQ Lab) on its Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View, CA. It has invited third-party digital video encoder manufacturers to test their respective products for compliance with Microsoft TV’s Mediaroom IPTV platform. All IQ Lab-compliant encoding vendors automatically become recommended Microsoft Mediaroom partners for new IPTV services and infrastructures.
Several of Microsoft TV’s encoding partners, including Envivio, Harmonic, Motorola, TANDBERG Television and Thomson, have already signed up for the IQ Lab. Each of these companies has completed the qualification of one or more encoders, which are now in
use in real-world trials.
Joe Seidel, director, Global Partner Ecosystem, for Microsoft TV, said that after learning a few lessons from earlier versions of the software, the Microsoft Mediaroom platform is gaining momentum around the world. Customers that have deployed Microsoft Mediaroom include AT&T, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Magyar Telekom, Portugal Telecom, SingTel, Slovak Telekom, Swisscom, TDC, T-Online France and Ya.com.
Seidel said in the new IQ Lab, encoding partners will be able to capitalize on this growth by enabling their solutions to seamlessly integrate with the platform to deliver fast and smooth service provider deployments.
The IQ Lab gives encoding vendors the opportunity to test their products in a controlled IPTV production environment, with set-top boxes from several vendors. The program also provides support, training, access to the testing and qualification lab, test tools and consulting services. This induces access to test kits and Mediaroom software and A/V consulting expertise to support future versions of the software platform.
For Microsoft Mediaroom service provider customers, the IQ Lab helps enhance encoder product quality and gives them an opportunity to work with a broad array of encoding vendors as they deploy a variety of digital TV services.
A growing list of vendors are now developing products for the Mediaroom platform, including Alcatel-Lucent, Agilent, AMD, Cisco (Linksys & Scientific-Atlanta), EMC, Harmonic, IBM, IneoQuest, Intel, HP, JDSU, Modulus, Motorola, Juniper, Philips, Pirelli Broadband Solutions, Sigma Designs, Spirent, STMicroelectronics, Sun Microsystems, TANDBERG, Tatung, Thomson and 2Wire.
For more information, visit www.microsoft.com/TV and www.microsoftmediaroom.com/.
