S-A caters to Europe/Asia iTV markets

By Susan Rush
From The September 11, 2002 Edition Of CED Broadband Direct

Why should the North Americans have all the interactive fun? Scientific-Atlanta Inc. has unveiled an interactive DVB system to assist cable operators outside of North America in rolling out digital broadcast and interactive TV services.

The interactive system, dubbed EyeQ, is designed to enable the rollout of interactive services such as on-demand applications, set-top- and network-based personal video recording, e-mail, Internet access and subscription-based games. EyeQ will include DVB headend equipment, a DVB-compliant conditional access system, interactive control computer, interactive DVB set-top boxes, middleware and an interactive program guide.

The EyeQ system will support open standards and published interfaces, which will enable the system to be compatible with several billing systems and to support third-party application developers and middleware systems such as Liberate Technologies, OpenTV and MHP, S-A said.

Based in part on a system installed in more than 270 cities in Japan and North and South America, the EyeQ system is scheduled to launch in December.