UK playout technology vendor Softel has been chosen by Canoe Ventures to help deliver Interactive Television (ITV) services. Founded as a joint venture between leading cable television companies in America, Canoe has created a national, interactive platform reaching more than 22 million digital cable households spanning multiple operators.
Softel has been working with Canoe since 2008 to advise on ITV playout and help deploy its MediaSphere platform. MediaSphere enables development, deployment and testing of ITV applications including Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) and all other major interactive formats. Softel’s MediaSphere system has been deployed by different broadcasters to playout EBIF applications in support of Canoe's RFI campaigns, and the system will support in-program interactivity via Canoe's Polling and Trivia products.
The system enables parallel playout of multiple middleware applications (such as EBIF and tru2way) from a single unit, compatible with most U.S. and international interactive standards.
