Nortel Networks Ltd. on Tuesday announced it is teaming up with Broadstream Communications, an IPTV content transport and management services company, to provide an end-to-end IPTV solution that includes both video infrastructure and television programming. This partnership follows Nortel’s recent partnership with Microsoft Corp. to deliver unified communications.
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 video service over an IP infrastructure with features such as on-screen IM, mobile-to-TV picture sharing, and on-screen caller ID.
"By teaming up with Broadstream to leverage their expertise in managed content services, Nortel can offer rural telcos a turnkey IPTV solution that helps enable more rapid and cost-effective introduction of these new revenue-generating services,” said Walt Megura, general manager of broadband networks solutions at Nortel.
Broadstream provides TV channels that are pre-packaged in an IPTV-ready format by pre-encoding them into MPEG-4 and delivering them via a single satellite to the telco video headend. Nortel then interconnects the content into their IPTV solution.
"By eliminating the telco's need to build out its own video headend to consolidate and convert media content into an IPTV-ready state, Broadstream can help telcos of any size significantly reduce the high cost of providing a new IPTV service," said Pete Bryant, vice president of business development at Broadstream. "Our work with Nortel provides telcos with a complete end-to-end path for IPTV content from the media source down to the set-top box."
Nortel provides a pre-integrated and pre-tested IPTV solution. It also offers post deployment support through its lifecycle management service, which protects customers’ investments and ensures systems remain operational as video upgrades occur over time.
Broadstream Communications Inc. www.broadstream.com
Nortel Networks Ltd. www.nortel.com
