Digital Fountain, Inc., a leading provider of advanced
standardized solutions for digital media delivery, today announced
that Tele2 Nederland, the first IPTV provider in the Netherlands, has
selected ToughStream Solution to further improve their IPTV service.
After successful trials, ToughStream is now live and operational on
Tele2´s IPTV network, providing protection against "glitches," or
visible errors that naturally occur when delivering real-time media
over IP networks.
ToughStream is a software solution that eliminates video and audio
degradation caused by packet loss, latency or out-of-order delivery.
These effects are normal and prevalent conditions on all IP networks
because IP is, by design, a "best effort" delivery protocol. Because
it is a software-based solution, ToughStream is highly configurable,
and easy to deploy on any IPTV network. An extraordinarily scalable
solution, ToughStream has negligible hardware requirements while
providing high QoE including fast channel change times.
"If you want your IPTV customers to start looking around at cable,
satellite or DVB-T, give them a poor picture. Nothing drives high
churn rates more than a TV image which is worse than your neighbors´.
IPTV operators are starting to realize that video quality is THE
issue, not channel change speed, or new EPG interface, not even price.
It´s video quality," said Peter White, principal analyst with
Faultline, Rethink Research´s digital media service. "There are three
ways to drive up video quality. You can resend IP packets, or use
extra bandwidth, but both of these are expensive options. The first
thing to look at is a leading edge error correction system like
ToughStream."
ToughStream is powered by Digital Fountain´s DF Raptor(TM)
technology. DF Raptor has been adopted by several IPTV standards,
including DVB-IPTV (Digital Video Broadcasting - IPTV) as well as
several mobile multimedia standards including 3GPP MBMS and DVB-H.
Other standards bodies are currently evaluating DF Raptor as a best
practices standard for high-quality IPTV and mobile multimedia service
delivery.
"Digital Fountain is committed to solving the inherent problems
that surround all IPTV deployments, and ensure consumers are delivered
the highest level of quality of experience and service," said Charlie
Oppenheimer, CEO of Digital Fountain. "We are pleased that one of the
most successful IPTV service providers has selected ToughStream to
provide the very best viewing experience and quality of service to
their subscribers."
About Digital Fountain
Digital Fountain is a leading provider of advanced standardized
solutions for digital media delivery, even in the most challenging
network environments. Digital Fountain solutions are currently
deployed in advanced IPTV, CDN, and mobile delivery applications
throughout the world, and have been adopted by leading global
standards bodies, including DVB, and 3GPP. Many other standards bodies
are currently evaluating DF Raptor as a best practices standard for
digital media delivery. Partners and customers include leading global
companies such as Cisco Systems, Sumitomo Electric Networks, Northrop
Grumman, KDDI, SK Telecom, Sirius Satellite Radio, XM Radio, Sony,
Nokia, and many more. For more information, please visit
www.digitalfountain.com.