Individualized IPTV – Harmonic and Fraunhofer FOKUS develop new IPTV solutions

Harmonic, a leading provider of professional video processing and delivery technologies for cable, satellite, broadcast, IPTV and internet TV service providers, will be integrating their latest IP-based headend and advertisement insertion technologies in the Fraunhofer FOKUS Media Interoperability Lab (MI Lab).

Based on the extensive IPTV and rich media infrastructure of the laboratory, Fraunhofer and Harmonic will develop new solutions for individualized TV services. Joint development will concentrate on the simultaneous delivery of personalized media and targeted advertisements including delivery to mobile devices where TV programs are adjusted to suit the end device.

The focus is on seamless integration of different media sources and their preparation for the distribution channel. Furthermore, the integration of Harmonic’s content management solutions and tools for distribution planning in Next Generation Networks (NGN) based IPTV environments will be examined.

“Harmonic brings significant experience in streaming multimedia data for mass markets to the Media Interoperability Lab,” commented Dr. Stefan Arbanoswki, executive of the FOKUS Competence Center Smart Environments. “This experience, alongside the latest ad insertion and digital video mosaic technologies from Harmonic, will help us to develop personalized media services for converging media ecosystems.”

“Harmonic is pleased to have been selected as the lead technology provider by Fraunhofer in the growing convergence and targeted advertising space. Telco operators are now moving into the 2.0 version of their IPTV service and companies like Fraunhofer and Harmonic will be providing key enabling technology solutions,” said Thierry Fautier, Director of Telco Solutions for Harmonic.

One focus of the collaboration will be the development of the individualized advertisement formats and services in IPTV environments. Fraunhofer FOKUS, in cooperation with the media group RTL, presented the first personalized advertisement formats to the audience at the International Radio Exhibition (Internationale Funkausstellung) 2008 in Berlin. The cooperation with Harmonic will allow similar solutions for the distribution of new advertisement formats in real communication environments based on highly scalable streaming technologies.