Liberate Partners With Hardware Vendors, Broadcasters, and Content Developers to Showcase First OnRamp to OCAP Services
May 04 2004 - 8:55AM
PR Newswire (US)
Liberate Partners With Hardware Vendors, Broadcasters, and Content
Developers to Showcase First OnRamp to OCAP Services The Weather
Channel, Buzztime Entertainment and MetaTV Sign Up to Develop
Applications on Liberate TV Navigator(TM) 5 NEW ORLEANS, May 4
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Liberate Technologies(R) (LBRT) announced
today it is teaming with industry leading hardware vendors,
broadcasters and content developers to roll-out the first cable
services built for the "OnRamp to OCAP" specification (JSR 242 of
the Java Community Process, awaiting completion). Liberate is
demonstrating applications from the Weather Channel, Buzztime , and
MetaTV running unchanged on both Motorola DCT-2000 and
Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 2000 class set-top boxes, as well as on
forward-looking OCAP compliant boxes from Pioneer and ADB. Liberate
TV Navigator 5 provides the industry's first implementation of the
JSR 242 specification allowing cable operators to embrace the OCAP
standard on the set-top boxes they have already deployed. As seen
in Liberate's OnRamp demonstration, content developers can now
author applications that will run unchanged on any existing North
American set-top box as well as on next-generation OCAP devices.
"By working with Liberate to build OnRamp compliant applications,
we can now reach a much larger subscriber base with our OCAP
application," said Lisa Shankle, vice president of ITV and VOD at
The Weather Channel. "Liberate TV Navigator enables us to deploy
multiplayer games today that will last into the OCAP-generation of
set-tops of the future," said Tyrone Lam, president and COO of
Buzztime Entertainment. "Our relationship with Liberate makes our
development efforts more efficient." "OCAP helps us provide cable
operators with cost-effective and competitive applications," said
Irv Kalick, President and CEO of MetaTV. "Now Liberate's OnRamp
solution lets us deploy those same applications everywhere. With
our application system now running on TV Navigator 5, cable
operators and networks can deploy many applications across all
markets and set-top box platforms rapidly." A number of Liberate
partners have endorsed the OnRamp standard and intend to develop
applications for current and future generations of cable set-tops.
"By building OnRamp compliant applications, Concurrent supports
cable operators' goals of simplifying integration of on-demand
content with a variety of interactive services," said Steve
Necessary, president of Concurrent's VOD Division. "We are excited
about Liberate's OnRamp solution as it provides our customers a way
to reach the legacy digital cable market with applications that
have been authored with our multi-platform on-Q Authoring
solution," said Dalen Harrison, President and CEO of Ensequence.
"We truly believe that driving industry standards is crucial in
this inflection point year for iTV and are excited to be a part of
the OnRamp initiative," said Scott Newnam, CEO of GoldPocket
Interactive. "Navic has long been a supporter of the OCAP
initiative," said Chet Kanojia, CTO Navic Networks. "As such, Navic
is working with Liberate to deliver OnRamp compliant
implementations of our own data transport technology and revenue
generating applications." "OnRamp to OCAP helps us leverage our
experience bringing iTV applications to mobile phones," said Craig
Dalton, Director of Business Development at Proteus. "OnRamp is
expected to be a great bridge between current and future
technologies," said Rebecca Lim, Director, Interactive Television
Technology at Starz Encore Group. "In this environment we can
potentially run interactive SVOD services with a consistent
interface and code-base on a wider range of set-tops." Liberate is
demonstrating TV Navigator 5 for customers, partners, and press
during the NCTA trade show. Liberate will be showing third-party
OCAP applications (such as those from The Weather Channel and
Buzztime) running unchanged on both OCAP and legacy Motorola and
Scientific Atlanta set-top boxes. The demonstration is located in a
Wyndham Riverfront suite (near the NCTA show), and will be
available from Monday through the end of the show. To reserve a
time to see the demonstration, please contact Sylvia Acacio ().
Additional information is available at
http://conference.liberate.com/. About Liberate Technologies
Liberate Technologies is a leading provider of software for digital
cable systems. Based on industry standards, Liberate's software
enables cable operators to run multiple services -- including
High-Definition Television, Video on Demand, and Personal Video
Recorders -- on multiple platforms. Headquartered in San Mateo,
California, Liberate has offices in Ontario, Canada and the United
Kingdom. NOTE: Liberate and the Liberate design are registered
trademarks of Liberate Technologies. Other product names used in
association with these registered trademarks are trademarks of
Liberate Technologies. Contact: Paul Dawes Senior Vice President of
Sales and Marketing Liberate Technologies 650-645-4007 Blair Beebe
Director of Marketing and Communications Liberate Technologies
650-645-4010 DATASOURCE: Liberate Technologies CONTACT: Paul Dawes,
Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, +1-650-645-4007, or ,
or Blair Beebe, Director of Marketing and Communications,
+1-650-645-4010, or , both of Liberate Technologies Web site:
http://www.liberate.com/
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