TelcoTV Conference & Expo Announces 2009 Vision Awards Winners

TelcoTV 2009, the premier meeting place for the convergence of the entertainment and communications markets, has named the winners of the 2009 TelcoTV Vision Awards. For the second year in a row, AT&T won the Service Provider's Innovation Award, this year winning for its U-verse TV Multiview Interactive TV application, which lets customers watch up to four channels at one time. AT&T claims it's a faster way to view TV programming lineups than channel surfing.

"This year's TelcoTV Vision Awards amply demonstrate that creativity and innovation are still driving the service provider video market," said Joe Braue, Senior Vice President and Group Director for Light Reading, which produces the TelcoTV conference and exhibition. "Our knowledgeable judging panel of service providers, journalists, and analysts has indicated that these winners are the most important video products for carriers to check out and evaluate in the coming year."

  The other winners by category were:

  -  Innovation in Broadband Access Networks: Zeugma Systems for their
     SmartBoost
     Zeugma's SmartBoost enables communications service providers to allow
     their subscribers the ability to instantly self-provision temporary
     bandwidth increases for computers, TVs, and smart phones.

  -  Innovation in Conditional Access: Nagravision for their NAGRA Media
     ACCESS ELK conditional access system
     The NAGRA Media ACCESS ELK conditional access system (Embedded Link
     CAS) is a security platform designed to protect live video content over
     "always on" managed IP networks.

  -  Innovation in Customer Premises Equipment: Ericsson for their Connected
     Home Gateway
     The Ericsson Connected Home Gateway provides a secure connection
     between consumers' digital home networks and the telecommunications
     network, and a single point of entry for IPTV and communication
     services, such as multimedia telephony.

  -  Innovation in Encoding: RGB Networks for their Video Multiprocessing
     Gateway
     RGB's Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG) combines multiple video
     processing functions with the ability to process more than 1,000 video
     streams simultaneously.

  -  Innovation in Middleware: Nokia Siemens Networks for their
     Interactivity Markup Language (IML) Framework
     The IML framework is an open platform comprising an XML toolbox for
     applications development, a rendering engine in the NSN IPTV middleware
     client running on the set-top box, and enhanced metadata and
     interactivity billing support.

  -  Innovation in Test & Measurement: Mixed Signals for their Sentry
     product
     Sentry is a comprehensive, real-time digital content monitoring
     solution that gives video service providers visibility into network
     anomalies at the IP and MPEG layers to quickly identify and repair
     errors that degrade video/audio quality.

The 2009 TelcoTV Vision Awards winners were announced before an audience of service providers, analysts, and technology and business press at TelcoTV on Wednesday, November 11, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., immediately following the Heavy Reading consumer research presentation "Are Consumers Tuning In to Telco TV?"

About TelcoTV 2009

TelcoTV provides a comprehensive overview of the changing telecom video landscape, with presentations delivering meaningful insight into, and analysis of, the evolving world of entertainment convergence, plus more than 125 exhibitors showcasing the latest solutions and products for the IPTV and video markets. It is a joint production of Light Reading, a division of TechWeb, and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA). This year's event is held November 10-12, 2009, at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Fla. For further details visit: http://www.telcotvonline.com/.

About Light Reading

Founded in 2000, Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) is the leading online media, research, and focused event company serving the $3 trillion worldwide communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation.

Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most

comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces almost 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Expo London, The Tower Summit@CTIA, and Optical Expo, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005, and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

About TechWeb

TechWeb (www.techweb.com/aboutus) the global leader in business technology media, is an

innovative business focused on serving the needs of technology decision-makers and marketers worldwide. TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed media brands in the business technology market. Today, more than 13.3 million* business technology professionals actively engage in our communities created around our global face-to-face events Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat, and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek.com, bMighty.com, and The Financial Technology Network; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek, TechNet Magazine, MSDN Magazine, Wall Street & Technology magazines. TechWeb also provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation performance marketing, integrated media, research, and analyst services. TechWeb is a division of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

*13.3 million business decision-makers: based on number of monthly connections

About United Business Media Ltd.

UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetisation of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities - from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists - with integrated events, online, print, and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/

About NTCA

The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association is the premier association representing more than 580 locally owned and managed telecommunications cooperatives and commercial companies throughout rural America. NTCA provides its members with legislative, regulatory, and industry representation; meetings; publications and educational programs; and an array of employee benefit programs. Visit us at www.ntca.org.

  CONTACT:
  Cathi Lane
  The Zonic Group
  (831) 480-2312
  (818) 519-8869
  clane@zonicgroup.com

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: peterson@lightreading.com

SOURCE: TechWeb

CONTACT: Cathi Lane of The Zonic Group, +1-831-480-2312,
+1-818-519-8869, clane@zonicgroup.com, for TechWeb

Web Site: http://www.techweb.com/aboutus