Thomson, which claims to be a worldwide leader along the entire digital video chain, strengthens its position within the arena of broadcast television over ADSL with its participation in two projects launched by the TF1 group and Monaco Telecom.

An official release informs that through these deployments, Thomson demonstrates that ADSL represents an essential growth opportunity for content owners, enabling them to reach a new category of clientele, as well as for telecommunication operators, allowing them to provide their subscribers with new digital entertainment services.

Nextream, a joint venture between Alcatel and Thomson who possesses significant expertise in the field of video stream compression, has developed a new-generation real-time MPEG2 encoder that enables the low bit-rate compression required to broadcast TV content over ADSL. Thanks to this encoder, the quality of video programmes distributed over ADSL is equivalent to the quality achieved with satellite transmission, while reducing the bandwidth requirement (bit rate below 2.5 Mbps), a critical success factor for TV over ADSL. The release states that a satellite version (DVB-S) of this encoder is already in use by numerous broadcast operators, enabling them to decrease the number of required transponders. This results in substantial economies in transportation costs.

Programme reception represents the final downstream link in the video chain, for which Thomson also provides modems and set-top boxes. The latest generation of modems with embedded software (SpeedTouch(TM) 500 series), enables both the interface with TV services over ADSL for the decoder and high speed Internet access for the PC.

In addition, Thomson has developed the DSL 1500 set-top box that allows TV programme reception over ADSL networks. Due to its optimised user friendliness and interactivity, this decoder also enables access to complimentary services such as Video On Demand, thereby extending the ADSL market which has been thus far restricted to PC users the release states.

Thomson also plays a key role in the TF1 group project, named "Dream TV" which encompasses 200 households located in Boulogne Billancourt (France) and in the 15th arrondissement of Paris who can receive an array of 24 TV channels over the ADSL network. By providing an integrated equipment system to the TF1 group, Thomson claims to have positioned itself as a primary player in ADSL technologies that enable TV programme distribution. This end-to-end distribution system includes MPEG2 encoders developed by Nextream, and ADSL set top boxes and modems developed by Thomson. This offering represents the natural evolution of equipment already developed for satellite, cable and terrestrial networks by Thomson.

The architecture of this pre-deployment guarantees the quality of service required for the broadcast of programming and will subsequently enable the delivery of services such as Video On Demand and digital networked Personal Video Recorder the release states.