Ventures News: Packetvideo and Kapsch Carriercom Complete Commercial Mobilemedia Deployment for Mobilkom Austria

18.02.2003 | Wirtschaftspresse

Austria’s leading mobile provider plans wireless multimedia services using pv3 Mobilemedia System


Cannes - GSM World Congress - 2.18.2003


Responding to customer demand for innovative new wireless services, PacketVideo, the world leader in mobilemedia software, and Kapsch CarrierCom AG, Austria’s leading system innovator, today announced that they have deployed wireless multimedia on mobilkom austria’s newly launched UMTS network.


The new multimedia service is based on PacketVideo’s pv3 Mobilmedia System™, including pvAuthor™, pvServer™ and pvPlayer™ products. This advanced technology end-to-end solution enables a large variety of applications and services to mobile handset users, including delivery of pre- recorded video clips, music videos, and movie trailers. In addition, live camera content can be streamed to mobile customers, on demand.


“It’s very exciting to see new video-based mobile services launched in Europe,” said Dr. James Brailean, PacketVideo chief executive officer. “We are honoured to add Kapsch CarrierCom and mobilkom austria to our growing list of commercial systems deployed throughout the world. It’s a tribute to all three companies that we have successfully created a compelling and satisfying new form of visual communications for mobile users in Austria.”


“This is the work of leading companies working to complement each other,” said Thomas Schöpf, Kapsch CarrierCom chief sales officer. “Video streaming and downloading are seen as important steps to making GPRS and UMTS successful. We are very pleased to have worked with PacketVideo to introduce their technology to mobilkom austria.”


mobilkom austria’s new service is based on PacketVideo’s pv3 Mobilemedia System, which is compliant with the 3GPP packet switched streaming standard in 3GPP R4,including MPEG-4 video and the GSM- AMR and AAC audio codecs. The PacketVideo encoder, pvAuthor, together with the pvServer and pvPlayer provides enhancements over and above the 3GPP standard to produce better video quality when transmitting over error prone wireless networks (e.g. GPRS and UMTS).


pvServer, the main system component of the mobilkom austria streaming infrastructure, is responsible for streaming the content from the live source (pvAuthor) or content database to pvPlayer, which does the final playback in the mobile handset. pvServer also provides all interfaces and mechanisms to integrate the platform into the existing infrastructure of mobilkom austria. The tools offered by pvServer for provisioning, authentication, authorization, billing, and other interfaces to external platforms and services are based on existing web standards such as Java, SOAP/XML, HTTP and SMTP.


Kapsch CarrierCom extensively tested and enhanced the pvServer to provide the functionalities desired by mobilkom austria, including interfaces to mobilkom austria’s user and session databases, authentication and authorisation, generating of customized billing records as well as pre-paid billing integration. Furthermore, the pvServer provisioning facilities have been enhanced broadly to provide subscription services as well as integrating the mobilkom austria user database. A Kapsch-developed web-based provisioning tool offers complete control over the content and the subscriptions. Kapsch CarrierCom provided the facilities to access streaming content from both Web and WAP Browsers, which is an important feature for a secure and user-friendly streaming service that supports a broad range of mobile devices.




About Kapsch CarrierCom


Kapsch CarrierCom is the leading service provider within the Kapsch Group for telecommunication systems from many different manufacturers in the service provider/carrier market, including Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Marconi. The company's know-how covers optical transmission equipment, voice switching systems, GSM/GPRS/UMTS mobile networks and data equipment for ATM, frame relay and IP. Kapsch CarrierCom therefore covers the entire value added chain from consultation, design, development, installation and integration to the maintenance and operation of complete networks.




About mobilkom austria


mobilkom austria was founded in 1996, and since then has remained Telekom Austria Group’s most successful venture. In the third quarter of the year 2002, mobilkom austria group counted more than 4 4 million customers and 3576 employees – bringing in revenue of 509,8 million EUR. Third quarter of 2002 also saw a considerable EBITDA increase to 204,5 million EUR. mobilkom austria has passed another milestone – Europe`s first national UMTS network was launched on September 25, 2002.




About PacketVideo


PacketVideo is the world’s leading provider of carrier class mobilemedia software. PacketVideo’s standards-based software products enable the creation and distribution of one- and two-way video, high-quality audio, animation and rich graphics over wireless networks to mobile devices such as phones and PDAs. PacketVideo’s pv3 Mobilemedia System™, including pvAuthor™ 3, pvPlayer™3, pvServer™3, and pvCamcorder™, delivers the highest quality media experience possible in every mobile environment. PacketVideo’s mobilemedia products enhance communication, productivity, security, information and entertainment, enabling the delivery of an enriching and productive mobile experience. For more information, visit www.pv.com


PacketVideo’s investors include AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL), Comverse Technology (Nasdaq: CMVT), Credit Suisse First Boston, GE Equity (NYSE: GE), Infineon Technologies (NYSE: IFX), Intel Capital (Nasdaq: INTC), Kyocera (NYSE: KYO), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Philips (NYSE: PHG), QUALCOMM (Nasdaq: QCOM), Siemens’ Mustang Ventures, SAIC, Sony Corporation of America (NYSE: SNE), Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), and others.




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