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MUMBAI:
Orange, Thomson and Sagem Communications have joined forces
to create a joint venture in the US.
This structure is aimed at creating a standard for the interconnection
of equipment within the multimedia ecosystem.
Soft
At Home is designed to facilitate the deployment and interoperability
of digital equipment in the home and make it possible to combine
it with enhanced and innovative services. For instance, it
enables one to access photos stored on a computer on the TV,
make a telephone call using the television remote control,
or even simultaneously save multimedia content, wherever the
digital equipment is located in the home.
Soft
At Home harnesses the technologies and experiences of its
founding shareholders. Its software solutions are being offered
to players in this sector, such as telecommunications operators,
third-party developers, OEMs and manufacturers.
Since
it was founded, the company has had development and sales
teams in France and Belgium, while Thomson and Sagem Communications
will be incorporating the Soft At Home software into their
offerings.
Soft
At Home will develop new features and applications and will
coordinate a network of developers. The company has a global
development ambition, and is looking to rapidly welcome new
partners into its capital.
The
parties say that Soft At Homem will allow operators to be
able to launch new innovative services more quickly, tailored
more effectively to their differentiation requirements. They
will also be able to increase the size of their provider base,
while maintaining a similar user-experience on all the equipment.
Soft
At Home will also make it possible for manufacturers to reduce
their development costs and increase their sales volumes,
freeing up the full potential of the home networking market
for their terminals and equipment.
In
this way, the next generation of residential gateways and
TV decoders that will be used by Orange in 2008 will be equipped
with Soft At Home software. Orange is already the European
market leader for broadband, serving over 6 million Liveboxes
and over 1 million subscribers for its IPTV package.
Thomson
is one of the world’s leading players on the market for
decoders (cable, satellite, IP) and residential gateways (DSL
and cable). Furthermore, the group’s SmartVision video-over-IP
platform is having great success, and now has more than 40
client operators offering IP and mobile telephone-based television
worldwide. This solution has the largest installed TV-over-IP
base, with over 1.2 million users.
For
its part, Sagem Communications is the world number one for
IP set-top boxes with about twenty roll-outs, and the number
one in Europe for triple play residential gateways.
From
the outset, Soft At Home has been positioning itself as one
of the pivotal global players for providing software for home
telecommunications equipment, and is able to deliver a perfectly
adapted and differentiating offering for all the operators
and equipment manufacturers that would like to benefit from
its solutions.
To
date, no players on their own have the key that will enable
them to unlock the opportunities promised by home networking,
whereas the stakes are massive: in Western Europe alone, the
Strategy Analytics research firm is forecasting that 65 million
homes will have a Wifi router in 2011, representing an average
annual increase of 25 per cent in relation to 2007. Strategy
Analytics is also forecasting that more than 600 million terminals
that can be connected up to these domestic networks will be
sold in 2012, giving average growth of 30 per cent a year
in relation to 2007.
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