And it wouldn't be Cisco if there weren't some big-number stats to throw around: The vendor claims that more than 300 million homes worldwide have some part of their TV/video service delivered by Cisco technology. It also notes that, according to its Visual Networking Index projections, the volume of video running across IP networks is set to reach 88 exabytes by 2017, "with 914,100 minutes of video streamed or downloaded every second." Will anyone check back on that figure in 2017? (See Cisco's VNI: Stone Tablet or Debating Tool? and Cisco Scores With Video.)

That's not all the Cisco news… Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) is using the vendor's Videoscape Unity service delivery platform for its "Entertain to go" TV Everywhere service that is delivered to the PCs/laptops and smartphones/tablets of the German incumbent telco's IPTV customers. See this announcement for further details.

Cisco doesn't have the show floor to itself, of course. Arris Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRS) is there too, showing off its new expanded portfolio and boasting of recent contract wins in Europe. Check out this announcement for the details. (See Arris Gives Sling a Shot and Arris Shows Off New Mojo.)

Technicolor (Euronext Paris: TCH; NYSE: TCH) and the Kudelski Group 's digital TV division Nagra have teamed up to develop applications for the open TV middleware platform, OpenTV 5, using Technicolor's Qeo technology. Together, the partners believe they can help develop apps that will bridge "the mobile, smart home, communication, social media and video ecosystems." If you want to know more, check out this media statement.

Portuguese video technology developer Novabase is to use Sigma Designs Inc. (Nasdaq: SIGM)'s SMP8674 media processor for its new family of set-top boxes (STBs), which are designed for hybrid broadcast and IP service delivery. For more details, see this news release.

Portugal's ZON Multimédia is to deploy software-based headend technology from Envivio Inc. (NASDAQ: ENVI) for the delivery of pay TV and mobile video services. This press release has all the details.

Separately, Envivio has announced it is integrating content security capabilities from Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Civolution into Halo network media processor and Muse transcoders. The full complexity of what Envivio is doing is provided in detail here.

Amino Communications Ltd. has teamed up with Opera Software ASA for the creation of its new Amino TV App Store, which is offered as part of its Live Home Media Centre. Check out this press release for more.

DTH satellite TV player Sky Italia is to trial an ultra HD video service using the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) compression capabilities of the ViBE VS7000 encoding/transcoding platform from Thomson Video Networks . Try saying that after a few pints of Amstel! Read this press release if you're keen to know more.

Indian cable operator UCN Networks is to use the VCAS for DVB cardless solution from Verimatrix Inc. to secure its new digital services. Find out more by reading this news announcement.

Video transport vendor Nevion has unveiled a new media service assurance product, the TNS4200, which, the Norwegian company claims, can monitor hundreds of transport streams. See this press release for more details. (See Nevion Highlights IP-based Media Services.)

— Ray Le Maistre, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading