Tanberg TV get's another D* contract

[moonman]

TANDBERG Television wins second DIRECTV MPEG-4 AVC HD order for $7.5m
Date: 23 August 2005

Oslo, Norway, 23rd August 2005 - TANDBERG Television (TAT.OL) today announced that it has received a further order from DIRECTV, Inc., a leading digital television service provider in the United States, valued in excess of US$7.5m. The contract will see TANDBERG Television deliver the second phase of MPEG-4 AVC HD compression systems during the third quarter of 2005, in support of DIRECTV’s market-leading deployment of High Definition programming.

 

[DTV TiVo Dealer]

Look out boys here we come.

-Robert

 

[Stargazer]

Looks very promising, wonder what Dish Network is going to do?

 

[Smthkd]

So! It looks like the First batch of MPEG4 receivers are ready and D* is gearing up for the next group immediately after! " I foresee things getting ready to start happening!"

 

[ArtWIS]

So! It looks like the First batch of MPEG4 receivers are ready and D* is gearing up for the next group immediately after! " I foresee things getting ready to start happening!"

I agree! It sure seems that all the pieces are falling in place for a massive upgrade in D* services. I told the retention person Zack that I talked to when I upgraded to HDTV in May " I'm sticking with D* because the research I've done on the HD forums points to them having the best outlook and plan for the future". One must be patient (something that seems lacking in many today!) and while we would like everything right now it takes time to put everything together so it works properly and can be distributed as soon as it's ready. When the next new D* satellite gets up there things should be ready for the first stage of D*'s plans. Living in a rural area satellite is our only choice and I'm happy with D*. For those who prefer E* and are happy with it good luck but I think E* is going to be behind in a few months and I haven't seen a real hard future upgrade plan coming from them.

 

[sltmag]

Robert, just let us know when you get the receivers in and ship, ship, ship!

Oh yeah..Dishes too!

 

[vurbano]

Yippeeeee more compression coming soon. This is sure to make the picture look even better huh?

 

[f300v10]

I found more on this transaction. It sounds like D* is moving faster than Tandberg expected:

OSLO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Norway's Tandberg Television (TAT.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) signed a second deal to supply digital compression technology to U.S. broadcaster DirecTV (DIR.N: Quote, Profile, Research), boosting analysts' expectations for Tandberg's third-quarter earnings.

Shares in the Oslo-based company rose by over 8 percent to a six-week high after news of the $7.5 million contract on Tuesday.

"This is a very important deal for us as it shows DirecTV's deployment of High Definition Television (HDT) is more aggressive than first expected," Tandberg's Chief Financial Officer Fraser Park told Reuters.

DirecTV wants to beam higher quality pictures and more channels to its to viewers, but to do so the top U.S. satellite broadcaster must compress digital information before transmission.

It does by this using Tandberg's MPEG-4 AVC HD system.

In February, the two companies signed a similar $9 million supply contract. The second contract allows DirekTV to expand the technology to include more channels.

"DirekTV is planning 650 HDT channels, and what we have delivered is only an eighth of this," Parks said.

Tandberg can now beat forecasts for its third-quarter results, analysts said.

"We had expected the deal at the end of the year or in early 2006, so this is positive as it shows DirecTV are aggressively rolling out the HDT, which is very good for Tandberg," Ole Andre Hagen, analyst at ABG Sundal Collier, said.

By 1255 GMT Tandberg's shares traded at 90.50 crowns valuing the company at around 6.1 billion Norwegian crowns ($930 million).

 

[cfarm]

Like they have a choice?

Cable and the RBOCs are coming on like a freight train. If they don't get off their butts and get after the HD rollouts, they'll be placing catch up indefinitely.

Does this say anything indirectly about the release status of MPEG4 receivers? Hard to tell.

 

[ArtWIS]

Yippeeeee more compression coming soon. This is sure to make the picture look even better huh?

I guess we'll know when we get to see and use MPEG4 soon. I prefer to go through life with an optimistic attitude ( it makes my days so much more fun and interesting!) and think MPEG4 will work just fine for me.

 

[cfarm]

Yippeeeee more compression coming soon. This is sure to make the picture look even better huh?

Doesn't really matter who is supplying the hardware. It's still MPEG4 compliant and compression is tweaked regardless of who's hardware you're running it across.

It's not the tool. It's how you use it.

 

[Brewer4]

Here we come until the next delay. Lets see a unit!!!!

 

[fkostyn]

I think the units are done, ready to go, the dishes are done, ready to go, now all we need is the darn russians to get spaceway2 up.

 

[cfarm]

I think the units are done, ready to go, the dishes are done, ready to go, now all we need is the darn russians to get spaceway2 up.

Nobody has seen even a hint of MPEG4 receivers yet. There are too many people poking around and I'm sure a pic or a few details would have leaked if they existed even in beta level.