Free adds 802.11n support to HD Freebox

April 10, 2008 – French ISP Free has updated its HD Freebox router by incorporating 802.11n WiFi support into the unit, as well as integrating the three (previously external) WiFi antennae.

North America reaches 2.91mn FTTH connections, according to study

April 10, 2008 – A new study by the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council has found that there are now 2.91mn homes in North America connected via end-to-end fibre, compared to 1.48mn in April 2007, giving an annual growth rate of 97% as the number of FTTH connections in the region continues to nearly double annually.

Alice France selects Pirelli to supply new AliceBox triple-play gateways

April 10, 2008 – Alice France, a division of Telecom Italia that supplies broadband services in France, has signed an agreement with Pirelli Broadband Solutions for the latter to provide broadband gateways to the ISP.

BBC iPlayer arrives on Wii

April 9, 2008 – The BBC has announced a deal with Nintendo that will bring its hugely successful iPlayer catch-up service to the Wii games console from midnight tonight.

SpeakerCraft introduces iPhone interface for MODE distributed-audio system

April 9, 2008 – US firm SpeakerCraft has unveiled an iPhone interface for its MODE distributed-audio system, allowing users to control the multi-room solution over their handset interface.

Online video market & the impact on advertising

By Harry Wang, Research Analyst, Parks Associates

If the 2006 online video market was still in the traffic-building stage, 2007 marked the beginning of the monetization stage. Because this new media platform engages a prime audience group for marketers, online publishers and their technology partners, large and small, were pressed hard in the last few years by these marketers for quality ad inventory, flexible and accurate ad serving technologies, and efficient ad campaign management tools. These demands were gradually being fulfilled in 2007.

BSkyB highlights multi-screen and on-demand credentials

March 25, 2008 - “Technology is not an end in itself - it is a slave to the experience.” That was the key message from BSkyB at this year’s IPTV World Forum, where the company was speaking about its multi-screen strategy and the importance of online video via its Sky Anytime service (reports John Moulding).

Virgin Media outlines new thinking required once 50Mbps is deployed

March 25, 2008 - Virgin Media has achieved 50Mbps downstream broadband speeds during its DOCSIS 3.0 trial in Kent and has run into some interesting side-effects of the enhanced service (reports John Moulding).

IPTV World Forum 2008 receives record attendance and 85% of exhibitors re-book on-site for IPTV WF09

March 25, 2008 - This month's IPTV World Forum 2008 was an unprecedented success, with the show attracting over 5,500 attendees across six conference streams and a joint exhibition.

Peter Barrett on user-generated content: you cannot recreate a Botticelli

March 25, 2008 - There is ample evidence that user-generated content will be integrated into the pay TV environment as a way to earn subscriber loyalty (especially among younger viewers) but Peter Barrett, CTO and General Manager of Engineering at Microsoft TV earns the 'Quote of the Show' award from IPTV World Forum for his dismissal of UGC as a revenue earner.