Digital Rapids a leading developer of systems for content ingest, encoding, transcoding, protection and delivery announced today that Digital Rapids (India) Pvt Ltd. has finalized an order with The New Media Group for a major IPTV project based around high brand value content for diaspora communities around the globe. Initially, Digital Rapids is providing StreamZ media encoding and streaming systems for 28 channels, with further expansion following the launch of the service.
The launch will take place in September, with the service comprising 24 linear channels including the content of News Corporation, Taj Sports, and others; four wholly-owned Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) channels; and 200 hours of Video on Demand (VOD). The initial IPTV offering will be community-oriented and focus on the Subcontinent communities living and working in Japan, South Korea and Australia, and the French-speaking and Arabic-speaking communities in those markets. Content will be delivered from around the world to The New Media Group's headquarters in Japan by traditional distribution methods, where it will be streamed live to the Japanese, Korean and Australian markets.

StreamZ encoding solutions combine powerful hardware for video and audio capture and pre-processing with the intuitive Stream software interface, delivering high-quality, multi-format media encoding and streaming for demanding applications such as IPTV and VOD. The advanced, hardware-based video processing features enable optimum quality and the most efficient use of bandwidth in the compressed result.

"Our mission is to provide high brand value content to communities that are underserved, and IPTV is the exact right way to do that," said Randy McGraw, President of TNMG. "Our providers, our customers, and consequently our company, have high quality standards that must be met by our product and the equipment that's behind it. Have a look at our service and see."
"We bench-tested a number of different encoders, and found Digital Rapids StreamZ to be our best choice," said Ahamed Mohideen, COO of The New Media Group. "The ease-of-use and feature richness of StreamZ make it a good value for us."

"The delivery of television over IP networks continues to gain momentum, as content owners increasingly take advantage of the new revenue opportunities that it enables," said Brick Eksten, President of Digital Rapids Corporation. "The launch of this service, on top of the hundreds of existing Digital Rapids powered IPTV channels, exemplifies the growth we‚re seeing in this market. IPTV is an ideal distribution platform for expanding the reach and availability of community and cultural content, and we‚re pleased to have been chosen by The New Media Group for their new service."

The complete line of Digital Rapids products, including StreamZ, will be showcased at IBC 2006 on stand number 7.641.

www.digital-rapids.com