Microsoft has rebranded its IPTV software platform as “Microsoft Mediaroom”, and added several new multimedia capabilities, including in-home personal music and photo sharing, dynamic MultiView (multiple picture-in-picture) capabilities, Multimedia Application Environment for development of interactive services and advanced applications, and digital terrestrial television (DTT) support.
A Microsoft Mediaroom Application Development toolkit has also been released to help service providers and third-party developers create TV-based applications that run on the platform.
Microsoft IPTV already supports enhanced digital video recording, video on demand, high-definition television and instant channel zapping. New capabilities of Microsoft Mediaroom include:
- Personal media sharing. This enables consumers to listen to digital music and view digital photographs stored on PCs elsewhere in the home on the television.
- Multimedia Application Environment. The environment offers richer support for Web services and applications, enabling service providers to deploy advanced features such as dynamic video-on-demand portals, casual games and interactive TV services.
- Enhanced MultiView capabilities. These allow consumers to see multiple channels, programs and camera angles on one screen.
The launch of Microsoft Mediaroom also marks the general availability of DTT capabilities on the platform, allowing service providers in regions with DTT programming to offer fully integrated, seamless IPTV services.
Microsoft said it now has 17 service provider customers for the IPTV platform.
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