Tuesday, 21 August 2007

HBO to Deliver 26 High-Definition Channels with Motorola

Motorola said yesterday that it will implement a 26-channel, high-definition (HD) MPEG-4 AVC encoding system for 24-hour pay television service, Home Box Office (HBO).

Offered as part of Motorola’s Home and Networks Mobility Business, the system compresses, encrypts, modulates, and receives the HD signals within a single integrated transmission system to allow HBO to expand its HD offerings to subscribers.

"Motorola has made a long-term commitment to the advancement of digital video technology. As such, we are very pleased to work with HBO on this important industry project," said Doug Means, corporate vice president and general manager, Motorola Home and Networks Mobility.

According to Motorola key technologies are being integrated to deliver high-bandwidth HD channels through increased capacity.

Compliance with HBO’s video quality standards will be achieved by using MPEG-4/AVC encoding technology allows Motorola to ensure compliance with HBO’s video quality standards. Additionally, Motorola’s new multi-format Integrated Receiver/Decoder (IRD) will deliver HD channels in both MPEG-4/AVC and MPEG-2 formats.

"Motorola's implementation of the highly efficient MPEG-4 encoding standard provides the quality that we require and that our customers expect,” said Bob Zitter, executive vice president, technology and chief technology officer, HBO.

"We expect this project to change the way programmers approach large-scale, high- and standard-definition content distribution,” said Means.