Digital Set-top Box - Albis Technologies

Digital Set-top Box
High definition by Albis Technologies

Growing Demand – Increasing Competition
Customized products and services
O CUSTOMIZED
QUALITY
ENVIRONMENT
PARTNERSHIP
Network operators face an ever more
competitive market. Their customers demand
progressively higher and higher bandwidths
and superior levels of customized support – all
at a lower cost.
Global Coverage
Serving over 40 countries
Albis Technologies has gained many
years of experience in the field of
telecommunications network-access
and has expanded its presence to
key markets in the world, covering
both business and residential solutions.
To meet this tough challenge, network
operators must strive to reduce complexity.
A prime focus in this context is the ability
to bundle a maximum number of services
and applications in one single network.
Versatility is the key
Albis Technologies is a powerful partner
in this fast-moving market. The company
supports the demand for higher network
performance with a broad portfolio of
versatile telecommunications products that
meet stringent global technology standards.
Extensive, open and successful partnerships
with traditional and alternative providers
demonstrate Albis Technologies‘ proven track
record of experience and competence in the
global telecommunications market.
Customized solutions are supported by
local representatives backed by Albis
Technologies’ Research & Development
centers in Switzerland and partner centers
in Taiwan, as well as by partner manufacturing
plants in Switzerland, Germany, Romania and
China.
Albis Technologies focuses on customer
satisfaction.

Solution Portfolio
INTERACTIVE
TV
DIGITAL VIDEO
BROADCASTING MEDIA SHARING
Albis Technologies is a pioneer in H.264 IPTV
set-top box, plus has a strong foundation and
deep knowledge in the end-to-end aspects of
IPTV solutions. Together with a high performance
chipset and high quality, Albis Technologies
provides an attractive cost to performance ratio.
Today the latest generation of STB is available
and addresses enhanced requirements for
over-the-top (OTT) content delivery and user experience
expectation. In addition to IPTV STB, the
hybrid DVB models enable new service offerings
and interactive applications.
The Albis Technologies flexible software framework
provides open APIs for integration with
native or browser based middleware clients and
applications.
For integration with today’s internet media offerings,
the software framework can be extended
with a flexible media engine allowing de-multiplexing
and decoding of the most popular container
and codec format including flash video. In
addition DLNA based media sharing is available
for applications, to allow in-home streaming or
multi-room concepts.
We work closely and partner with application
vendors, to build sophisticated STB clients
for standalone and interactive services. Albis
Technologies supports partners and application
vendors to develop and strengthen their applications.
Together with our optimally performing
hardware and strong partner support, our solutions
address customer expectations.
Philosophy and Strategy
Stable and field proven software for quality services
- Reliable Partner
Maintaining one API guaranteeing backwards compatibility
and migration to new hardware platforms
- Securing today‘s and tomorrow‘s investments
Focus on software performance on embedded systems and
a robust hardware design
- Satisfied customers and user acceptance
Flexible and reactive to customer requirements
- Differentiation
Open for discussions
- It‘s not just about «boxes»

IPTV Services
Presenting compelling set-top boxes, offering
HD decoding and picture quality as well as
various options like PVR, WLAN and DVB hybrid
features.
The STB product family:
IPTV with or without PVR
IPTV/DVB hybrid with or without PVR
The SceneGate family provide the most relevant
interfaces while delivering high definition (HD)
decoding and display quality up to 1080p with
60 Hz via an HDMI 1.3 interface. Therefore
high definition content services like Video on
Demand (VoD) and linear TV can be brought to
the user with unique quality.
Our focus on detail makes the difference. Seamless
Pause and Play without picture slip; or no
black screens during playback of recordings or
Time-shift TV are examples of how we improve
the user’s experience.
Our Key Offerings
Optimized STB for performance
Open API for middleware integration
Flexible software framework for new service offerings
Extensive end-to-end network know how
Skilled engineering and consulting services
With our Time-shift TV implementation CPU
load is reduced up to 35% as compared to common
implementations, leaving more processing
power for the application. This also insures and
improves application behaviour and therefore
usability.
Albis Technologies has made exceptional efforts
to optimize the system and graphic performance.
Despite the fact that the availability of
processing power has continued to increase on
set-top boxes, optimally using system resources
on an embedded system is relevant.
Media Sharing
IPTV SVG
Hybrid DVB

DVB Hybrid Services
Enabling service providers with conventional
digital TV service (cable or terrestrial) and
interactive services, such as: on-demand, radio
channels, voting features and more. Albis Technologies‘
open APIs provide full control of DVB
functionality including SI data access allowing
to build rich EPG, Software update over the air,
NIT scan etc.
The hybrid concept is perfect for:
Service providers moving towards IPTV and
reusing investments in their DVB-C network
Thinking Green
Service providers wanting to offer interactive
services to their existing customers
IPTV or VoD service providers wanting to take
advantage of free-to-the-air DVB-T channels
OTT
Unified Media Framework
API
Standby power for SceneGate

Over-The-Top Services (OTT)
Complementing traditional digital TV services
with OTT content enables attractive potential
for differentiating services which further
engages the user with the TV screen. Bearing
this opportunity in mind Albis Technologies
has created a Unified Media Framework (UMF)
which supports the popular audio, video and
streaming formats from different sources,
enabling integration of new hybrid and OTT
service models.
Contrary to the well-defined DVB world, in the
Internet environment a wide range of different
audio, video-codecs and picture formats is used.
Further more, today’s high access bandwidths
for consumers allow the use of new streaming
technologies like HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) to
deliver contents over the top (OTT).
YouTube, HLS or HTTP based OTT video on demand
or hbbTV are examples of services which
can be realized using the capabilities of the
Unified Media Framework.
The table below depicts some examples of
possible services leveraging the Unified Media
Framework capabilities.
Albis Technologies open APIs provide an effective
way to open any source using the same
API functions, as used to open and play linear
TV sources. This makes it possible to create a
unique application and a consistent usability
across all media sources available for end users.
You Tube HbbTV 1.1 HLS based services
Delivery HTTP IP Multicast (UDP/TP)
IP Unicast (HTT, UDP/RTP)
Format MP4 MPEG-2 TS, MP4 MPEG-2 TS
HTTP (.m3u8 playlists)
Audio AAC, MP3 AAC, AC-3, MPEG-1 Layer II Typically H.264
Video H.264, H.263 (Sorensen Spark) MPEG-2, H.264 Typically AAC

In-Home Media Sharing
Digital media is present today in almost every
household. Albis Technologies Media Center
functionality for in-home media sharing enables
attractive value-add functionality for consumers
allowing them to enjoy their photos, music and
video via the set-top box.
The set-top box acts as a combined Digital Media
Renderer (DMR) and Digital Media Control
Point (DMC) playing back media stored on a
Digital Media Server (DMS) or on locally connected
USB stick. However, advanced use cases
using an external control point such as a PDA,
tablet PC or mobile phone are also possible,
allowing the user to conveniently control the
media player on the set-top box remotely even
without switching on the TV.
For superior audio quality the audio formats
FLAC and ALAC are supported, which are also
used by leading music stores on the internet
to provide audio quality beyond CD quality.
With such quality the STB also brings value to
audiophile users.
The Media Player leverages the powerful Unified
Media Framework capabilities to decode a
wide variety of audio and video formats.
Albis Technologies provides an open API to
control the Media Center and retrieve content
information. The interface can therefore be aligned
with the look and feel of the user interface
of the application or middleware thus creating
a unique solution embedded within other TV
applications.

Albis Technologies Ltd.
Telecommunications
Albisriederstrasse 199
CH-8047 Zürich
Phone +41 58 252 4777
Fax +41 58 252 4778
info@albistechnologies.com
www.albistechnologies.com