The latest happenings from around the world of IPTV

IPTV Americas turns to TANDBERG Television
IPTV Americas will launch the first MPEG-4 IPTV solution made available to Latin American telecommunications providers using TANDBERG Television compression technologies. By the third quarter of this year, IPTV Americas' centralized digital head-end in Miami will enable telephone companies to offer affordable television services and complete their triple play offering.

Telcos in Latin America have extensive land line coverage with broader reach than existing cable networks, so the ability to offer triple play services presents a tremendous opportunity for the telcos to build additional customers and revenue and to reduce churn.

For more information, visit www.iptv-americas.tv and www.tandbergtv.com.

LYCOS, PermissionTV launch Update Hollywood service
LYCOS and PermissionTV have launched Update Hollywood on LYCOS Entertainment, giving LYCOS viewers free access to the latest movie trailers, film clips, behind-the-scenes footage, DVD releases and exclusive celebrity interviews.

For more information, visit www.lycos.com and www.permissiontv.com.

CDNetworks turns to Force10 Networks
South Korean content delivery network provider CDNetworks is increasing the scalability of its high-performance network with the Force10 Networks TeraScale E-Series family of switch/routers.

With the Force10 TeraScale E-Series anchoring its content delivery network, CDNetworks enables its customers to gain the economic efficiencies of localized content and provides end users with faster access to high-bandwidth applications, such as streaming audio and video files.

For more information, visit www.force10networks.com.

Deutsche Telekom reaches IPTV distribution agreement with ARD, ZDF
Deutsche Telekom has reached agreements with broadcasters ARD and ZDF to distribute their programming via its IPTV services. The German telecommunications giant will transmit the channels via VDSL.

mPhase joins Oracle network
mPhase Technologies has joined the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) as a systems integrator, gaining the right to be included in the OPN solutions catalog and other benefits of network affiliation.

The alliance is a key milestone in mPhase’s IPTV program because it provides the company with the software tools to scale up the ability of its mPhase TV+ system, said Ronald Durando, mPhase president and chief executive.

Nortel, Broadstream team on IPTV
Nortel is teaming up with IPTV content transport and management services provider Broadstream Communications to provide a complete end-to-end IPTV solution that now includes both video infrastructure and television programming.

The addition of Broadstream to Nortel's IPTV ecosystem brings more than 200 channels of IPTV-ready video content that can be transmitted directly to any service provider location in the United States. Nortel's IPTV solution enables service providers to deliver a unique video service over an IP infrastructure, with features such as on-screen instant messaging, mobile-to-TV picture sharing and on-screen caller ID.

For more information, visit www.broadstream.com and www.nortel.com.

Vodatel selects Amino STB for Croatian IPTV deployment
IPTV set-top box (STB) supplier Amino announced that it has been selected by Vodatel for Croatia's first IPTV deployment.

The IPTV offering will provide subscribers with full triple-play (telephone, broadband Internet and television) service. Vodatel will provide its triple-play service via fiber to the home (FTTH), a broadband telecommunications system.

For more information, visit www.aminocom.com.

McCaskill joins Ascent Media Consulting
Allen McCaskill has joined Ascent Media Consulting Services as senior manager with a primary focus on the implementation of multi-platform distribution strategies.

McCaskill, an IPTV expert with previous experience at iTV/IPTV software product vendor Mindhouse, will provide both broadcast and non-broadcast clients with real-world experience, knowledge and analytical capabilities.