Cabletime evolves

Cabletime, developer of the MediaStar range of IPTV distribution solutions will showcase new enhancements to its MediaStar Evolution range of MPEG encoders, LAN-Casters, Digital Media Decoders (DMD’s) and Media Manager software at IBC this year.

What you can expect to see:

Support for CEC standard Consumer Electronics Control, the industry-standard protocol, is now fully supported on all MediaStar Evolution 780 DMD’s enabling them to turn screens on and off via the interconnecting HDMI cable.  This lets users have programmed power-saving control over lower cost commercial grade screens that don’t have built in RS232 connectivity.

Support for direct IR / IP / IR Routing from screen to head-end Signals from any IR remote control can now be received by a MediaStar Evolution 780 DMD at the screen location and then routed back through the IP network to drive the encoder’s IR blaster function.

Users can control remotely located source devices such as DVD players, satellite receivers and cameras, as well as enabling “red button” functionality at the screen.  Routing capability can be restricted to single or multiple screens and can route to either a single encoder on a fixed address or, in “follow channel” mode, to the encoder streaming the user’s currently selected channel.

Media Manager Software offers ACD, stream failover mode and IP Jump commands The Evolution Media Manager enterprise software gives drag-and-drop control of all Evolution IPTV system hardware and screens, as well as enabling system managers to configure and schedule play-out of their digital media, video and signage assets. Cabletime will demonstrate a range of new enhancements, including improved hardware discovery, simplifying installation and system expansion and automatic channel discovery which places content directly into the media library.

Also new is the stream failover mode which, in the event of a primary-stream source failure, will switch automatically to secondary content, and IP jump commands which will allow for the immediate simultaneous display of video and messages to multiple screens or zones.

Speaking about its participation at IBC, Nick Bradford, managing director at Cabletime, said: “Many of our customers will have experience of Media Manager but the new features provide added functionality, improved performance and fantastic value to the solution.”

The MediaStar range includes TV/AV and multimedia delivery products for use over Cat-5/UTP and IP infrastructures, providing solutions for live TV, corporate communications, multicasts, music TV, training and digital signage.