IntAct To Offer Opera Browser as Part Of Its IPTV Client; Opera's Browser Technology Now Available Through IntAct

WebKnowHow
Friday, July 14, 2006; 03:25 AM

IntAct announced an agreement with Opera Software that will enable IntAct to sub-license Opera's porting technology to its customers. This pre-integration extends the capability of the IPTV client solution available from IntAct, which already offers operators and manufacturers a robust solution after rollouts in approximately 700,000 IPTV STBs worldwide. IntAct is also providing the ability for operators and application developers alike to develop rich and compelling end user solutions, which can be ready for live deployment much more quickly and easily than before. To enable the development of such applications, IntAct will offer Opera specific IntAct Software Development Kits, targeted to give application developers the most complete tool to write interactive TV applications such as EPG, Infotainment, and messaging amongst many others.

Add to this the impressive range of integrations and deployed configurations IntAct already offers with key network system elements such as Middleware, Conditional Access and VOD servers, and this compelling combination brings developers and users the ability to substantially reduce the time to market and risks of development for deployment of a successful and rich IPTV solution and service.

"In sublicensing Opera's browser technology, IntAct can now offer an extension of its solution to allow developers, manufacturers and operators to purchase a pre-integrated turn-key IPTV STB client solution up to and including the presentation layers, allowing them to focus on the application itself and not worry about the lower levels of design." said Karthik Ranjan, VP Sales and Marketing for IntAct. " Not only that, but buyers can be very confident in the solution, which combines best of breed elements with the most widely deployed IPTV client stack in IntAct, together with the most widely deployed embedded browser in Opera."

Opera's API is a feature-rich, high performance interface that allows developers to integrate Opera with their customised user interfaces and graphical toolkits. "The combination of Opera and IntAct enables operators and STB manufacturers to deliver the most compelling end-user solutions to market more rapidly," said Scott Hedrick, EVP Opera Software. "The IntAct solution including Opera provides an integrated software package enabling IPTV enhanced with full Web surfing and high performance Web application support" he continued. Opera offers full Web browsing and is a powerful execution environment for AJAX, Web applications and dynamic user interfaces. Additionally, Opera features its Extensible Rendering Architecture (ERA) to adjust Web content to suit any screen size and spatial navigation with any input device to easily navigate Web pages.