By announcing the addition of AwoX, Rogers Communications, Rovi Corporation and Vestel Group as the latest companies to swell the ranks of the membership, the Forum continues to extend and reinforce its coverage in both technology and geography. In terms of industry relationships, the existing arrangements with DVB, DLNA and ETSI are further boosted with engagements with both the Broadband Forum and Home Gateway Initiative (HGI).
YunChao Hu, President of the OIPF, extended a warm welcome to the new members – “An important measure of the progress of the Forum, in addition to the continuing development of freely available specifications, is the steady growth of our membership. This growth follows naturally from an increasing awareness and recognition of our work in the marketplace, and with AwoX focused on network media solutions, Rogers one of the largest wireless and cable operators in Canada, Rovi’s strength in digital entertainment technology, and Vestel prominent in consumer electronics, these latest members bring domain-specific skills and experience which strengthen even further our ability to develop meaningful and relevant specifications”.
AwoX provides network media solutions for the digital home, ranging from embedded technologies to OEM/ODM internet-connected products. The company produces a suite of SDKs used by tier-one consumer electronics and system integrators to create devices designed to DLNA guidelines. Based on his own technology, AwoX manufactures connected consumer electronics device for content and service providers, allowing them to deploy premium services. AwoX is headquartered in Montpellier, France, with branches in Singapore & Hong Kong.
Rovi Corporation is focused on delivering solutions that enable consumers to intuitively connect to new entertainment from many sources and locations. The company provides industry leading interactive media and program guides; a vast catalog of entertainment metadata; advanced media recognition solutions and standard-based networking technologies for television, movies, music and photos to its customers in the consumer electronics, cable and satellite, entertainment and online distribution markets.
Vestel Group is comprised of 25 companies operating in manufacturing, technology development, marketing and distribution in the consumer electronics, IT, digital technologies and household appliances markets. Vestel has a turnover of EUR 3.7 billion and is the largest TV manufacturer in Europe, utilising a variety of TV technologies and accounting for 16% of the total TVs and 14% of the LCD TVs in the market, as well as producing 25% of the digital set-top boxes, including digital broadcast (terrestrial, cable and satellite) and IP variants. With its strong R&D team of 1000+ people located in Turkey, USA, UK, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Vestel has been transferring knowhow to European IPTV market with its Hotel TVs, Digital Signages, Hospital TVs and operator STBs for years now.
In concluding, Yun Chao Hu commented “These recent activities, closely following the availability of the Release 1 Specifications and Implementation Profiles, form the basis for further development of a truly global interoperable Ecosystem. We are now moving forward with the initial requirements and architecture on Release 2.”