Orca Interactive Wins Contract for IPTV Services in India

Orca Interactive Wins Contract for IPTV Services in India

Orca??¿½?¿½s middleware selected by Atlas Interactive India, enabling Indian viewers to watch television over IP telephone networks

September 6, 2004
 
 

Orca Interactive Wins Contract for IPTV Services in India

Orca’s middleware selected by Atlas Interactive India, enabling Indian viewers to watch television over IP telephone networks

RA’ANANA, Israel – September 6, 2004 – Orca Interactive, a member of the Emblaze Group (LSE: BLZ) and global market leader in developing applications for TV over IP, announces today that it has signed a licensing agreement with Atlas Interactive India, a part of a US$350 million Atlas Group of Companies and a global telecom & media conglomerate (Atlas), for its suite of middleware applications (RiGHTv). The agreement will lead to the delivery of Interactive TV services over IP networks to subscribers of India’s largest Telecom Company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

The Atlas netTV project is scheduled to launch services under BSNL’s brand name of DATAONE with an initial 50,000 subscribers in the National Capital Region of Delhi by the end of 2004, enabling Indian viewers to watch television over IP telephone networks. Thereafter Atlas plans to rollout these services across 38 major cities in India, reaching BSNL’s millions of phone subscribers.

Atlas has set a target to sign more than one million subscribers within 24 months.

“We aim to quickly rollout a vast, TV-centric entertainment network, where the TV –over IP- is the center for all entertainment activities. We are about to provide many different applications such as broadband, video, music, games, video telephony and interactive applications and to make this possible, Orca is the natural selection as shown by their proven deployments,” said Anoop Varma, spokesman for Atlas Interactive India. “Orca’s RiGHTv offers a reliable, scalable infrastructure and flexibility to deploy the service quickly and cost-effectively.”

“India presents a tremendous opportunity to provide high quality and innovative entertainment services due to availability of fixed lines over which DSL can be provided. There is a rapid growth in demand for entertainment and communications services and the poor quality competing cable television services are unable to satisfy this demand,” said Haggai Barel, CEO of Orca Interactive. “We are delighted to be involved with this roll out of IPTV services in India.”

With Orca’s RiGHTv suite of middleware applications, Atlas can launch netTV within a few months and provide reliable, fast and attractive Live TV, Near Video On Demand and Video On Demand service to its customers. Orca’s RiGHTv applications are highly scalable solutions that facilitate the deployment of complete commercial iTV services. RiGHTv XVOD allows operators to supply subscribers with video content on demand and to incorporate advertisements and t-commerce features in an interactive TV service. RiGHTv XBIP allows operators to create and manage live TV and NVOD channels over broadband networks.

Orca’s platform is Telco-grade to ensure service high-availability and cost-effective scalability. The platform also supports multi-device service delivery to enable heterogeneous environments of set-top boxes as well as convergence by exposing some services to the PC and wireless devices.

About Atlas Group of Companies

The $350 million Atlas Group of companies provides a range of video, voice, data, internet services and interactive content to customers in over 70 countries. Atlas was founded in 1995, is privately owned, has proven highly entrepreneurial in capturing new and profitable market opportunities arising from market liberalization and new technologies. Atlas’ activities worldwide include:

  • Atlas Interactive: netTV project in India, Romania, Chile and Croatia. Development of content through its main operating subsidiary OneWorld Interactive that is going in for an IPO and listing at AIM stock-exchange London, provision of access and billing services for premium content delivered through voice, internet and SMS, and production of basic and premium content through Cellcast UK (a 50% joint venture)
  • Atlas Telecom: Provision of international call origination and termination facilities to other telecoms operators, using Atlas’ global telecoms network and also provisioning of innovative wireless local mobility services in Romania, using DECT technology. Atlas has just received funding of $52 Million for this project.
  • Atlas Systems: Provision of leading edge satellite-based high-speed services for the aeronautical sector. Atlas’ main customer for these services is the US Government. Atlas has also participated in several bids of the Indian Armed Forces recently and considers at India as an important market for its products and services.
  • www.atlastelecom.com
  • www.oneworldinteractive.com

About Orca Interactive

Orca Interactive, a member of the Emblaze Group (LSE: BLZ), is a leading provider of middleware solution to enable xDSL and FTTx operators to offer enhanced entertainment services such as broadcast TV, video-on-demand and interactive services. Our applications deliver compelling and differentiated services to maximize the revenue stream of the operators. Orca’s user-friendly, end-to-end applications enable delivery and management of VOD, TV channels, EPG, NVOD, Pay-Per-View and e-commerce for related merchandise. Orca Interactive has formed strategic partnerships with BitBand, GooMe, ECI, HP, Kasenna, Kreatel, Microsoft, nCUBE, NDS, Nokia, Optibase, Pace, Samsung and more. www.orcainteractive.com.

About The Emblaze Group (Emblaze LTD)

Emblaze Ltd. is a group of companies sharing a common vision to lead the market transformation to rich media personal communication: Emblaze Mobile, providing personalized and innovative mobile devices with enhanced user experience; Emblaze Transcoding, a global leader in real-time content adaptation for wireless operators and value added service providers; Emblaze Defense, a provider of real-time video solutions for military and homeland security markets and Orca Interactive, developing IPTV middleware for VOD and broadcast services, aimed at cable and xDSL operators. Emblaze Ltd. was established in 1994, went public in 1996 and is traded on the London Stock Exchange (BLZ). www.emblaze.com.

Enquiries

Emblaze Group
Doron Cohen, Hagit Gal
+ 972 9 7699831/ 339

Orca Interactive
Yosi Glick
+ 972 7699444

Corfin Communications
Harry Chathli, Neil Thapar
+ 44 207 645 2990

Atlas Interactive (India)
Anoop Varma
+91-124-506-7022
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Atlas Interactive (UK)
Anne-Sophie Cavil
+44 (0) 20 7258 8736
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