TANDBERG Television Joins with NBC to Deliver MPEG-4 AVC HD Olympic Gold

| Aug 5, 2008 | Digital Media Infrastructure | Competitive Update

| Analyst: Ron Westfall

Current Perspective: Positive
Vendor Importance: High
Market Impact: Moderate

Event Summary

August 4, 2008 – TANDBERG Television, part of the Ericsson Group, has been selected to provide TANDBERG MPEG-4 AVC video processing solutions to NBC during the network’s coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics from Beijing, China August 8-24. This is the first Olympics where MPEG-4 AVC will be used for HD content contribution and NBC will deploy a variety of TANDBERG Television products at the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Beijing and in the US, including HD encoders, professional receiver/decoders, multiplexers, modulators, IP adapters and other control equipment.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on TANDBERG Television landing NBC’s endorsement for the company’s EN8090 MPEG-4 AVC encoders to exclusively deliver HD broadcast of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing (August 8-24). The NBC win gives TANDBERG Television, and parent company Ericsson, a high-profile win to generate sales and marketing buzz during August – a month that typically presents difficulty in creating genuine sales and marketing buzz.

• Vendor Importance: High to TANDBERG Television and Ericsson as TANDBERG Television needed to secure the NBC/Olympic deal to maintain its reputation as a forefront innovator in the area of “visionary” television technology. Now TANDBERG Television can add the first broadcast of the Summer Olympics in HD to accompany its long line of industry breakthroughs including the development of the first MPEG-4 AVC HD encoder itself.

• Market Impact: Moderate on the encoder/video headend (VHE) market segment as some of Ericsson/TANDBERG Television’s rivals have already leveraged and plan to further leverage the Beijing Summer Olympics to showcase their digital media solutions in areas such as IPTV technology, although they will be hard-pressed to specifically counter Ericsson/TANDBERG Television in the area of MPEG-4 AVC HD encoding innovation.

Recommended Competitor Actions

• Major video networking rivals such as Alcatel-Lucent, Microsoft, Nokia Siemens Networks, Cisco, Motorola, ZTE, Huawei, Thomson and UTStarcom need to remind the market that when not partnering with TANDBERG Television, they remain just as capable as Ericsson/TANDBERG Television in delivering strategic video networking solutions to all their customers, including major broadcasters.

• China-based rivals such as Huawei, ZTE, and UTStarcom should continue touting their ongoing efforts to deliver key networking solutions to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, including end-to-end networking solutions (e.g., Huawei, ZTE) and IPTV innovations (i.e., UTStarcom’s IPTV-based viewer selected multi-screen angles).

• Video Headend/encoding rivals such as Motorola, Cisco, Thomson, ZTE, Optibase, Envivio, and Harmonic need to put increased marketing efforts on their respective MPEG-4 AVC HD development and deployment efforts to reduce Ericsson/TANDBERG Television’s near-term marketing gains from securing NBC’s endorsement for the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

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Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

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