Verismo Networks Delivers System For High Quality Video Over Broadband Direct To TV -- Without A PC

Verismo's New ViPTV Platform is a Compelling Alternative to Rentals, Mail Subscriptions and Downloads

March 1, 2007

Verismo Networks, a leading developer of IPTV technology and infrastructure, announced today the availability of its ViPTV platform, a complete end-to-end system targeted at content providers and aggregators that enables their audiences to view video on demand with the simple click of a TV remote. Content providers including movie studios, TV networks, user generated websites and special interest groups can now utilize the full services of the ViPTV platform to deliver truly high-quality video content over standard broadband directly to a TV--without the use of a personal computer. With the ViPTV set top box customers can get movie content and much more on their big screen TVs from their living room couches--without driving to the rental store, waiting for the postman, or hunkering over their PC screens to see marginal quality video. Verismo's ViPTV offers a significantly better video delivery solution: more convenient, higher quality and more affordable movie access than current offerings from more traditional providers like Blockbuster, Netflix, and CinemaNow. In addition to delivering movies, the ViPTV system will enable delivery of user-generated video content from Websites like Google, YouTube, and Yahoo, streamed directly to the TV without a PC. "This is an exciting time in the market for content distribution, and our new ViPTV system takes content providers to the next step by delivering their high-quality video directly to the TV over the Internet," said Prakash Bhalerao, Verismo Networks' CEO. "We believe this is a much more compelling experience beyond the current download solutions that rely on a PC. The ViPTV platform equips content providers with a complete delivery system that includes Microsoft Digital Rights Manager for full protection of their downloaded content. It is comprised of an array of servers designed to handle the backend delivery of the content, and a highly functional set-top box to receive content at the client-side. The servers format content to Windows Media Video, perform pre-process filtering for noise reduction and image sharpening, create metadata, and insert chapters, subtitles, and advertising content. Additional servers contain the database for user profiling, payment gateway, a program ratings engine, and a search engine. Content downloads to users quickly and without loss thanks to the systems highly efficient bandwidth utilization and error recovery. The ViPTV set top box (STB) is a highly versatile device that accommodates system downloading directly to a TV. The 80-gigabyte hard disk in the STB can hold up to 100 hours of high quality video. Users can order, view, and manage content from the TV's user interface (UI) by simply using a remote. The STB is based on a video processor with download manager software that accelerates downloads, facilitates recovery from bad connections, and does post-process filtering to optimize video playback quality. Its progressive download feature allows playback during the download, so users need not wait for the entire video to complete downloading before viewing. And just in case the user has videos, photos, and music stored on a PC, the ViPTV STB also contains functionality similar to an Apple iTV box enabling the user to display this content on a TV. Verismo Networks has developed the ViPTV Platform in anticipation of this fast-growing IPTV subscriber market--one that IDC forecasts will reach more than 72 million by 2010. The ViPTV service is completing its beta testing, and is ready to be deployed for content providers. Verismo is in the process of expanding the infrastructure, so that providers can offer their content for monthly subscriptions and pay per view by the end of March 2007. Content providers and aggregators interested in creating IPTV channels on the ViPTV Platform should contact Verismo at sales@verismonetworks.com for more information.

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