Humax, Saudi Telecom Company, JT Group join Open IPTV Forum (OIPF)
The Open IPTV Forum is pleased to welcome three new members – Humax, STC (Saudi Telecom) and JT Group (Jersey Telecom) – who will be participating in the Forum’s work to shape the future of Internet Connected TV.
Humax is one of the world’s largest Set Top Box (STB) vendors. On joining the OIPF, Bob Hannent, Senior Technology Manager, Humax said: “Humax has a strategy towards the use of open standards as much as possible with its next generation products, and, as such, it wishes to engage with the industry in order to facilitate the growth and adoption of these standards”.
STC, Saudi Telecommunications Company, is the largest telecom service provider in the Middle East region and was the first to offer (in 2010) a commercial IPTV service. With revenues of nearly $16bn, STC is also the OIPF’s first member in the Middle East. Sami Al Zomaia, Director of Data and Broadband Services at STC said
“STC joins the OIPF to be able to influence and network with related companies so as to learn, influence and contribute to IPTV technology and services in the future”.
JT Group are the leading Tier 1 Network Operator in the Channel Islands, currently deploying a ubiquitous FTTH network across the island of Jersey by 2015, giving every home and business on the island access to amongst the world’s fastest Broadband speeds. Dave Newbold, Chief Operations and Technology Officer at JT Group commented, “JT’s vision is to become the partner of choice for global telecoms innovation. As an example of what this means we are currently partnering with UTStarcom to host their European R & D function in our new facility known as JT Lab and so making use of the point-to-point FTTH network which we are currently rolling out in Jersey. IPTV forms another part of this and will clearly be enabled further with next generation of fibre broadband services. That’s why given our FFTH project we are delighted to now become members of the OIPF in order to be help contribute to its successful development and bring these exciting new products and services to our home market”.
Dr Nilo Mitra, OIPF President, announced the new members at the Forum’s 22nd plenary meeting in Montreal, hosted by Rogers Communications, Canada.
“We welcome Humax, JT Group and STC to the OIPF and look forward to their active participation in the work of the Forum. Each of these major players is a leader in its own way, with innovation in STB technology, with FTTH deployment and as a major operator in the Middle East region respectively. Having them on board reflects the growing understanding within the industry of the importance of Open Standards for a Global Mass Market for IP and Connected TVs”.
“These new members come at a critical time for the OIPF, as we plan the first trial deployments of OIPF technology in live networks. These trials follow the Forum’s latest successful lab trial, sponsored by Orange France Telecom, which concluded during May”.
As well as larger businesses and long established companies, the OIPF has been successful in attracting smaller business in the past few months, with new members including 3 Screen Solutions, Broadpeak, Digisoft.tv and Zenterio. This ensures that the needs and market requirements of all players in the value chain are reflected in the work of the OIPF, and that those companies can also benefit from an advanced and in-depth understanding of the forthcoming specifications that will enable a mass market for IPTV globally.
Large, small and medium size companies can propose themselves for OIPF membership today by contacting the Secretariat (join@oipf.tv) to initiate the membership process. A maximum 80% fee discount is offered to businesses with revenue under €10m joining now. For further information please contact:
Darren J Vogel (OIPF Marketing Director): djv@oipf.tv +44 7973 506398
OIPF Secretariat:press@oipf.tv +33 492 94 43 83
About the Open IPTV Forum
The Open IPTV Forum enables and accelerates creation of a mass market for IPTV by defining and publishing free-of-charge standards-based specifications for end-end IPTV services of the future.
Founding members Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Orange – FT Group, Panasonic, Philips (now TP Vision), Samsung, Sony Corporation and Telecom Italia, have since been joined by the following leading industry stakeholders:
Alcatel-Lucent, ANT Software, BBC, BesTV, Bouygues Telecom, Broadpeak, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Digisoft.tv, Dolby, DTS, D-Link, Fraunhofer, Gemalto, Huawei, HwaCom, Intel, Intertrust Technologies, IRT, ITRI, KDDI, Motorola, MediaTek Inc, Mstar Semiconductor, Nagra/Kudelski, Opera Software, Penki Kontinentai, PCCW, RAI, Rogers, Rovi, 3 Screen Solutions, SES-Astra, Sharp, Sigma Designs, Smartlabs, Technicolor, TeliaSonera, Testronics, TNO, Toshiba, Vestel, Verimatrix, Zenterio, ZTE and Zyxel.
Members of the Open IPTV Forum are working together on the development of open specifications because they recognise that combining the expertise of all parties involved will help to streamline and accelerate deployments of IPTV technologies. Their aim is to make the next generation of IPTV a mass-market service and to maximise the benefits of IPTV and Connected TVs for consumers as well as the industry.
As a collaborative industry body the OIPF has incorporated existing standards wherever possible – OIPF standards are also being adopted by complementary groups including HbbTV.
A forthcoming device certification and IOT program will see the OIPF logo appearing on numerous services and devices, aiding consumers, service providers and manufacturers as new technologies are delivered to retail, end user living rooms and across multiple mobile screens.
Potential new members are welcomed across the communications and entertainment industries, including network operators, content providers, service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and home and network infrastructure providers.
In 2012 a reduced membership fee has been introduced to encourage participation from smaller, innovative businesses and application developers who want to work with CE device vendors to agree common standards for enriched entertainment – email join@oipf.tv.
About Humax:
Humax is one of the largest suppliers of set-top boxes in the world, many of its recent products contain at least elements of web/IP technologies and some are entirely IP focused products.
About JTGlobal:
JT, is part of the JT Group Ltd, based in the Channel Islands, an innovative and progressive communications enabler, providing world-class products and innovative solutions to a diverse client base. Their product range as a Teir 1 operator encompasses all the products and services expected from a cutting edge provider with specialties in Gigabit Broadband – Fibre-to-the-Home, Data Hosting & Co-Location, Fixed & Mobile technologies and Wholesale solutions that further support their place on the global business stage.
JT Lab is also a part of JT Group Ltd – a new product concept which represents a revolutionary and unique opportunity for global technology businesses to access a commercially live ecosystem on which they can test products and services on real consumers, using JT’s fibre network. With a population and location enjoying infinite bandwidth and connectivity, it is therefore the ideal market to host, trial and test future concepts, products and services dependent on or delivering high speed broadband. JT position this as the ability to test real products in real time on real consumers.
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, just off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate Bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey.
About Saudi Telecom Company:
STC is the largest telecom service provider in the ME region and was the first to offer a commercial IPTV service (2010).
The Open IPTV Forum will be present at numerous upcoming industry events worldwide throughout 2012, including TV Connect (Dubai) and IBC (Amsterdam). The next plenary meeting, hosted by SONY, is in Tokyo – November 6th to 8th 2012.
See www.oipf.tv/events for our schedule of speaker engagements, we welcome speaker, meeting or interview requests via contact@oipf.tv.
