Microsoft adds Mediaroom Partners

Microsoft announced that it added three new system integration partners, HP, Tech Mahindra, and 180Squared. These companies are in addition to Alcatel-Lucent, which is Microsoft's only end-to-end system integrator as well as its only reseller.

Microsoft also stated that Mediaroom is not supporting more than 2 million TV sets worldwide.

This is interesting because it may indicate some weakening of the Microsoft/Alcatel-Lucent arrangement. Alcatel-Lucent offers two middleware software systems as well as Mediaroom. Whether or not this is true, Microsoft's service provider customers can benefit from the incremental skills that these three new partners bring. HP has a strong server hardware base. Tech Mahindra has strong back office skills, and 180Squared provides applications and the ability to support smaller deployments.

The 2 million TV sets does not mean 2 million subscribers. AT&T in the U.S. provides multiple set-top boxes per home. In any case, Microsoft is experiencing strong growth in homes served.

Sun Sets Up IPTV Lab in India

Sun Microsystems India and Tech Mahindra along with AMD will jointly set up an IPTV lab at the Tech Mahindra facility in Pune in India. Tech Mahindra is already engaged with various service providers to offer IPTV solutions in various geographies.

The IPTV lab at Tech Mahindra will include solutions from companies such as Digisoft, Envivio, Harmonic, I-Make, Verimatrix Mototech, and Sun’s Streaming System. The lab will demonstrate a pre-integrated end-to-end IPTV system for tier1, tier2 and tier3 service providers.

This looks like a good move for Sun. There is significant potential for IPTV in the Indian market as well as in other Southern Asia countries.

IPTV Kid Tracker

DigiSoft.tv, a provider of IPTV Solutions, and Tech Mahindra, a provider of telecommunications IT services solutions, announced the release of DigiTracker™. This application will allow TV viewers such as parents to see the current location of their children's mobile phone on their TV screen. It will also allow text or SMS messages to be sent to that phone. DigiTracker uses integrations to Location Based Services and mapping systems to enable the plotting of a mobile location on a map and displaying it on the TV.

This is an example of an attractive service that TelcoTV operators add to their IPTV services. Verizon Wireless offers a mobile phone tracking service already. Adding a display capability to FiOS TV would be a nice adjunct.

Of course, a smart kid will leave his phone at a friends house if he is going to leave his prescribed area. It will probably take his parents a while to figure that one out.

I wrote about this in a report that I did for the Multimedia Research Group last year on IMS and IPTV. It is nice to see somebody doing something about it.