A Cork-based internet television player has struck a major retail deal that will see its set-top boxes deployed across 10,000 stores in Thailand and China.
Digisoft, which in the last 18 months has struck up key partnerships with some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including EDS, Sun Microsystems, Tech Mahindra and Harris, has struck a deal with Win Multimedia (WM) to deploy the company’s DigiHost Service delivery platform and IPTV services to the Thai and Chinese markets.
WM plans to launch its IPTV service across 10,000 retail outlets in Thailand and China over the next year and will include advanced applications such as electronic programme guide, video on demand, mobile phone tracking, news and weather services and karaoke, in addition to multi-language support.
WM, a subsidiary of Win Win Net Corporation in Thailand, is a vertically integrated media company operating in the film and record entertainment, sports events production, licensing and distribution industries. WM is operating in Thailand and plans to expand into the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and India.
“Digisoft’s Service Delivery Platform and IPTV Middleware provide WM with a carrier-class platform that enables us to rapidly launch new and differentiated services to the marketplace,” said Sitichai Nuanmanee, chairman of WM.
“A key factor in the selection was to select a complete solution that gave us the flexibility to quickly offer new and advanced revenue-generating services to consumers,” Nuanmanee said.
Digisoft’s advanced Java middleware solution for IPTV set-top boxes enables service providers to rapidly launch feature-rich, revenue-generating, high-definition (HD) services such as video and music on demand, karaoke, home shopping, network-based recording (NPVR)/time-shifted TV, games and more on a wide range of IPTV set-top boxes with H.264 HD and SD video. Also supported is the latest encryption and watermarking technologies.
“Companies such as WM require open and scalable platforms that enable them to launch high-quality services using high-definition to meet customer demand across large client bases,” said Tom Higgins, chairman of Digiweb.
“Our IPTV solution offered it the highest levels of flexibility to achieve this.”
Cork-headquartered DigiSoft employs 45 people and has sales offices in Sydney, Denver, Singapore, Christchurch in New Zealand and Manchester in the UK. In 2005, Riverdeep founder Pat McDonagh invested €2.5m in the company along with 4th Level Ventures, the venture capital arm of investment firm Dolmen Securities.
Last month DigiSoft revealed that so far it has achieved over 1.5 million licence sales of its Sun Java-based IPTV middleware.
By John Kennedy
