Equator and Liberate to Deliver TV Navigator on a Chip
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 2002--SUPERCOMM, Georgia World Congress Center, Booth # 23918--Equator Technologies Inc., a leading provider of high performance, programmable System-on-a-chip processors for video streaming and image processing applications and Liberate Technologies (Nasdaq:LBRT - News) today announced that they will collaborate to develop a next-generation set-top box reference platform based on Equator's recently announced Tetra(TM) Hardware Platform powered by the BSP(TM)-15 processor.
The new platform will give cable, satellite, telco, and terrestrial digital television operators access to new digital video streaming technologies, greatly reducing the bandwidth necessary for broadcast and point-to-point Video On Demand services. By providing a completely programmable solution, the new platform architecture will enable more affordable set-top products and will accelerate the introduction of new video solutions and on demand services.
"Broadcasters and network operators are looking to deliver video to their consumers with greater choice and flexibility," said Herve Utheza, Vice President of Product & Solutions Marketing, Liberate Technologies. "The Equator solution enables operators to harness the latest in video streaming technologies without having to upgrade their existing set-tops."
"Indeed, the Equator platform will enable the latest industry standards, such as MPEG-4, to be brought to market with hardware acceleration. This suddenly opens up the way an operator thinks about their bandwidth allocation, cost structure, and range of video services offering," said Avi Katz, President and CEO of Equator Technologies, Inc.
Equator's business model is to license its reference designs to leading OEM manufacturers and other chipset vendors, with the assurance that Liberate software will be pre-ported and pre-certified to accelerate time to market. The new reference design will integrate Equator's Tetra Hardware Platform with the Liberate TV Platform(TM) software to enable emerging interactive applications such as interactive television, Electronic Program Guides, all forms of Video On Demand services, as well as Personal Video Recording (PVR) and e-Commerce.
Taking full advantage of the BSP-15 chip as a video centric system-on-a-chip, the Tetra CPU board is a single-processor design that not only delivers video, but will also run operating systems and the Liberate TV Platform software, thereby eliminating the need for additional processors in the system and lowering the overall system cost. In addition to collaborating on technology development, Equator and Liberate will pursue joint marketing and sales initiatives to build and support market demand for the new set-top box platform.
The Liberate TV Platform software enables cable, satellite and telecommunication companies to deliver applications that integrate the Web's interactivity with the richness of TV-based content. Using open Internet and international broadcast standards, Liberate provides an efficient client (Liberate TV Navigator(TM)) and server (Liberate Connect(TM)) platform that combines the best of both the Internet and television into one compelling, interactive medium - enhanced TV. Liberate enables a range of services and applications from interactive advertising and gaming, to chat and email, to enhanced programming.
