A set-top box (STB) or set-top unit (STU) is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the source signal into content in a form that then be displayed on the television screen or other display device. They are used in cable television, satellite television, and over-the-air television systems, as well as other uses.
In telecommunications, a customer-premises equipment or customer-provided equipment (CPE) is any terminal and associated equipment located at a subscriber's premises and connected with a carrier's telecommunication circuit at the demarcation point ("demarc"). The demarc is a point established in a building or complex to separate customer equipment from the equipment located in either the distribution infrastructure or central office of the communications service provider.
Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming video delivered over the Internet. Streaming TV stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable television, and/or satellite television systems.
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the source media continuously. As a result, a client media player can begin playing the content almost immediately. This is known as streaming media.
Kreatel Communications AB was a Swedish technology company, based in Linköping, that provided set-top boxes and software platforms for IPTV systems. It launched its IP-based set-top box (IP-STB) system in September 2000 and first delivered it in volume to Italian broadband operator FASTWEB in Spring 2001. In early 2006, the company was purchased by Motorola.
StarHub TV is the sole cable television operator in Singapore. A subsidiary of StarHub Limited, when StarHub acquired Singapore Cable Vision (SCV) in 2001, and now assumes ownership over the S$600 million broadband infrastructure built across the country by 1996.
Humax (휴맥스) is a consumer electronics company. Founded in South Korea in 1989, it manufactures set-top boxes, digital video recorders and other consumer electronics. It is publicly traded on KOSDAQ.
Oregan Networks Ltd is a global software and services company, providing an embedded middleware platform for delivery of multi-network Digital TV services to hybrid broadcast receivers.
Virgin TV is a digital and analogue cable television service in the UK, owned by Liberty Global. Its origins date from NTL and Telewest, two of the largest cable operators in the country which merged on 6 March 2006. All services were rebranded under the Virgin name in February 2007. Virgin TV is the largest cable television provider in the country.
TelVue Corporation is a digital media company that develops broadcast solutions for multiple platforms including television, over-the-top content, Internet streaming, and mobile devices. TelVue has deployed broadcast systems and cloud-based services to media companies, professional broadcasters, and a network of municipally owned public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable TV channels. In addition, TelVue provides systems and services to colleges, universities and K-12 institutions. TelVue Corporation is a 100% employee-owned company.
Ericsson Mediaroom is a collection of software for operators to deliver IPTV (IPTV) subscription services, including content-protected, live, digital video recorder, video on demand, multiscreen, and applications. These services can be delivered via a range of devices inside and outside customers' homes, including wired and Wi-Fi set top boxes, PCs, tablets, smartphones and other connected devices – over both the operator's managed IP networks as well as "over the top" (OTT) or unmanaged networks.
Singtel TV is a 24-hour pay television service introduced by Singapore Telecom. It is transmitted through SingNet's broadband network via an IPTV platform which uses Ericsson Mediaroom as its end to end software platform. It is a service that allows multimedia content – including linear channels and on-demand content – to be viewed on any television set. The internet protocol television service utilises IP set-top boxes (STBs), connected through Singtel optical fibre broadband service. The Singtel TV IPTV network currently has more than 425,000 subscribers. Singtel TV is Singtel's integrated gateway for home users upon which the company is delivering multiple IP based communication services.
Technicolor SmartVision is the latest update of the SmartVision service platform software, intended for use for a converged media service for set-top boxes, mobileTV and PCs to access content in a time-delayed, on-demand or linear manner. The content is delivered agnostic to the network, but adapted to different terminals to enable a full convergent user experience. The latest version deployed is SmartVision 2.6.3. It was released end March 2008. Thomson SmartVision has been adopted by a number of tier 1 Telco operators, of which France Telecom is worth mention. As part of this deployment, SmartVision is the most widely deployed commercially available IPTV platform.
Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) is both an industry standard and promotional initiative for hybrid digital TV to harmonise the broadcast, IPTV, and broadband delivery of entertainment to the end consumer through connected TVs and set-top boxes. The HbbTV Association, comprising digital broadcasting and Internet industry companies, has established a standard for the delivery of broadcast TV and broadband TV to the home, through a single user interface, creating an open platform as an alternative to proprietary technologies. Products and services using the HbbTV standard can operate over different broadcasting technologies, such as satellite, cable, or terrestrial networks.
TV Genius was a United Kingdom-based software company that specialized in TV search engines, TV recommendation engines, and EPG development. It was acquired by Red Bee Media in August 2011, themselves acquired by Ericsson in July 2013. TV Genius became an integral part of the RedDiscovery portfolio with its core work related to TV solutions provided across TV, mobile, web, set top boxes, and devices like PlayStation and Nintendo Wii. The company worked with television operators in pay TV, IPTV, TV listings publishers, and mobile TV providers. It was known for its 3-screen TV search and for developing the Facebook-integrated EPG.
Ruwido is an Austria-based broadcast electronics company that manufactures input devices for television, specialising in universal remote controls, set-top boxes, IPTV platforms and keyboards that use multi-touch navigation and infrared technology to operate digital television and digital media through a central user interface. It is known for developing a fingerprint recognition system to give users access to personalized TV content via the remote control.
Select-TV is a Malaysian based company specializing in the IPTV technology for the hospitality and telecommunication sectors. Since its inception, it has delivered several IPTV projects to the Middle East and South East Asian region. Although the current company was incorporated in 2007 after a group restructuring, its development of IPTV for hospitality began since 2000. The company originally used Microsoft Windows platform for its set top boxes during its initial stage of product development. However, due to costs, it later developed the second version on Linux.
G-cluster is a Finnish cloud gaming provider. It was founded in 2000, but has been a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank since 2004. It uses IPTV set-top boxes for their service. Their target audience is gamers who already have gaming consoles and has a game selection consisting of casual games as well as high-end titles.
TVN Fabula is a Polish TV channel launched April 16, 2015.
