Mediaroom and related announcements aim IPTV at smaller operators

I had announcements from Alcatel-Lucent and Sigma Designs this week regarding a Mediaroom-enabled solution aimed at smaller operators. The solution is aimed at supporting supporting networks of between 1,000 and 100,000 set-top-boxes. The solution not only provides high-quality television programming, but also enables new consumer media services through the blending and personalization of web and broadcasting content. This new offer, which uses a single equipment rack, supports more than three times as many households than previous versions of the Microsoft Mediaroom-based IPTV solution.

Alcatel-Lucent will be deploying the first instance of its Integrated Solution for Microsoft Mediaroom for Cinergy MetroNet to potentially 50,000 customers in Indiana beginning July 26, 2010. Using the Mediaroom-powered solution, Cinergy MetroNet plans to offer its customers multimedia services such as broadcast TV blended with web content and the ability to simultaneously record multiple shows while watching another.

Sigma Designs has established a new low-cost IPTV platform using the second-generation SMP8652 media processor to support lower-cost IPTV set-top box deployments.