Motorola acquires Linux-based IPTV STB vendor

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Jan. 20, 2006

Motorola has agreed to acquire a Swedish provider of Linux-based IPTV STBs (Internet protocol TV set-top boxes). Kreatel Communications supplies STBs to service providers throughout Europe, and will be integrated into Motorola's Connected Home Solutions business.

Kreatel has sold IPTV STBs for six years, to customers that include Telefonica (Spain), TeliaSonera (Sweden), and KPN (The Netherlands). Its products include some six IPTV STBs, including a 15xx series that supports MPEG2, and a 17xx series that adds support for H.264 and VC-1. Kreatel IPTV STB models ending in "-10" offer basic TV services, while "-20" series products add terrestrial digital video broadcast capabilities. A 1550 model adds support for HDTV, while a 1760 model includes PVR (personal video recording) capabilities.

Kreatel offers six IPTV STB models
Kreatel 1760

Kreatel's flagship product, the model 1760, is based on a MIPS SoC (system-on-chip) processor that includes on-chip TV processing, MPEG decoding, and 2D/3D graphics acceleration. It boots from 512KB of Flash (up to 32MB optionally available), and has 128MB of DRAM. It comes standard with an 80MB hard drive, with larger sizes available on request. It has a four-character alphanumeric display, IR receiver, smartcard reader, USB 2.0, and 10/100 Ethernet, along with a wealth of audio/video I/O, including Toslink optical digital 5.1 audio out, S-video out, and composite I/O.

The MIPS-based 1760 offers PVR capabilities

The 1760 supports PAL or NTSC video, as well as 4:3 and 16:9 video formats. Software features include support for IVOD (interactive video-on-demand), NVOD (near video-on-demand), picture-in-graphics, on-screen display, alpha blending, SSL and PKI (private key interchange) encryption, and optional Macrovision copy protection. The device measures 13.5 x 8.7 x 2.5 inches (340 x 220 x 60mm), and draws 25 Watts, Kreatel says.

Linux IPTV SDK

Kreatel additionally offers a Linux-based IPTV software development kit (SDK) comprised of:

Application development kit (ADK)
Application suite
Extension development kit (EDK)
Portal design kit (PDK)
Online guide toolkit (OGK)
Splash Screen Toolkit (SSK)

The ADK and EDK include HALs (hardware abstraction layer) supporting "selected set-top box" platforms, GNU cross-compiling toolchain, example code and documentation.

Kreatel's IPTV STB SDK has an extensible architecture

Motorola says demand for IPTV STBs is growing, and calls Kreatel's flexible STB platform a "natural complement" to its digital video solution. Motorola sells CPE (customer premises equipment) and infrastructure products for cable, xDSL, and FTTP (fiber-to-the-premise) networking environments, it says.

Dan Moloney, president of Motorola's Connected Home Solutions division, stated, "Combining Motorola and Kreatel's strengths is immensely attractive to green field video networks around the world."

Kreatel CEO Lars Bengtsson stated, "Current Kreatel customers will now achieve the benefits of working with a global leader in digital video. Motorola has an unmatched heritage of deploying and supporting video networks worldwide, and will enable more service providers to utilize the benefits of the Kreatel platform."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in Q1, 2006, according to Motorola.

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