Orange teams up with AirTies for Spanish set-top deal

Orange Spain has partnered with set-top box firm AirTies Wireless Networks to deploy an advanced STB platform offering.

AirTies said the hybrid product development will combine traditional broadcast technologies with the advanced features of IP and OTT technology, using Microsoft Smooth Streaming and PlayReady DRM.

“Orange TV customers now have a seamless interface for both OTT and DTT channels alongside services like catch up TV, video on demand and multi-screen access,” said the firm.

The deal follows AirTies deployments by firms including Digiturk, Swisscom and BSkyB.

“Our expansion into Western Europe has been going excellent. We’re growing the revenues last year versus this year by over 70% and it’s mostly on the strength of the wins that we have in Western Europe,” AirTies’ executive chairman and co-founder, Bulent Celebi, told DTVE.

“In many ways, we think that Orange, from a pay TV architecture perspective, is a landmark deployment,” he added. Orange Spain is deploying a single headend using OTT technologies – combining smartphones, tablets and the main TV into one integrated system that is independent of the broadband network.

“It doesn’t matter if the consumer is using the Orange broadband network or a competitors network. So long as they have internet access, they are able to get a very high-quality, feature-rich pay TV service. I think this is probably one of the first times that a mainstream pay TV service has been deployed using adaptive bit-rate technologies using the unmanaged internet,” said Celebi.

AirTies was founded in 2004 and makes broadband internet devices and internet based television set top boxes. It claims to have an install base of more than 10 million devices worldwide.