NAB: Tandberg says indies looking at own headends once more

LAS VEGAS -- Tandberg Television, an Ericsson unit, today announced that North State Communications, an independent telco based in High Point, NC, will deploy a Tandberg iPlex IPTV video processing platform in its new IPTV headend.

The North State deal is part of a surprising strong start to IPTV sales in 2009, admitted Craig Knudsen, director of product marketing for Tandberg. "We were worried about a down year because of the economy; we thought it would be rather soft, but IPTV is moving full forward, and we are seeing more headend sales," Knudsen said. Some of that may be attributed to the SES Americom pullback from its wholesale offer to independent telcos, he said, but nonetheless, first quarter IPTV sales have been "surprisingly strong."

Those comments echo earlier remarks from Minerva, a competitor of Tandberg parent company Ericsson, now that Ericsson launched its own middleware.

"We have seen lots of engagements around the head end and Ericsson's new middleware," Knudsen said. One reason more independent telcos are looking again at owning their own headends, rather than outsourcing them, is that costs have come down, enabling the companies to earn a payback on their investment much faster, Knudsen said.

"It's still more expensive [than outsourcing], but the payback period is much shorter," Knudsen said. "What cost $5 million to $7 million to deploy five years ago only costs $2.5 million to $3 million now, and that's including HD. North State will launch with 50 channels of HD. And with new ultra-compressed encoding, it is beautiful HD."

Independent telcos also have greater control of their own content when they own their own headend, Knudsen said. In a prepared statement, Royster Tucker III, president and chief operating officer of North State, said control over programming "is extremely important to us, and that required us to deploy a full headend. We selected the Tandberg Television solution because of its superior picture quality, high density and leading technology position among headends."

North State serves a 600-square-mile area in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, including High Point, Thomasville, Archdale, Randleman, Jamestown, Trinity and portions of Greensboro and Kennersville.

Value-added reseller Dascom Systems Group played a pivotal role in the sale, Knudsen said, providing engineering, design and deployment help.