Hewlett-Packard Co.’s (NYSE: HPQ) Christina Schneider says her company wants to be a systems integrator for IPTV network build-outs. HP supplies the servers for an end-to-end solution. Its partners -- Kasenna Inc. and Widevine Technologies Inc. -- provide the software, while Amino Technologies plc adds set-top boxes, and Castify Networks glues the whole kit together with its middleware.

Scientific-Atlanta Inc. (NYSE: SFA) demonstrated its D9032 Dual Pass Encoder, which it says can help operators include more than ten channels in the 38.8-Mbit/s video stream. Espial Group Inc.’s Evo client TV middleware was also on display with Scientific-Atlanta's set-top boxes at the company's booth (see Espial Shows Its TV Middleware).

In the parking lot outside the convention center, Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) built a whole house to demonstration its IPTV/DVR system running over the coaxial cable in the home. Using the Motorola system, every TV in the house had DVR features, even though there was only one DVR device in the whole house. The home also featured an "enhanced audio" chair, "The Buttkicker." Sound comfy?

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) had a booth as big as a small apartment building, housing not only its own content creation and end-to-end IPTV distribution products but also those of numerous “Microsoft Partner” companies. Microsoft was pitching the idea of a “home communications server,” as a new iteration of the desktop-bound PC of today. As such, Microsoft is developing or partnering to play in as many parts of the distribution network as possible.

Harmonic Inc. (Nasdaq: HLIT), for instance, trotted out its newest encoders and the company demonstrated in real time what it says is the first headend-to-set-top box system for distributing VC-1 files over IP. VC-1 is a compression standard developed by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE).

Thomson Broadcast and Media Solutions showed its new Windows Media-9 set-top box for IPTV delivery, and also a new compression and streaming device, the IPS 1200, which the company says is designed especially for telecom carrier networks. Its output is to Gigabit Ethernet, supporting stream speeds of up to 700 Mbit/s for DSL and FTTH networks.

Inlet Technologies Inc. and Tandberg Television displayed new Windows Media-9 encoders. Tandberg says its EN5980 encoder already has been chosen by a number of major telcos for trialing IPTV service delivery.

One huge concern of broadcasters is the digital rights management (DRM) functionality, which sets the rules for how, when, and where content may be viewed. “Content security is the lynchpin of the entire system of delivering IPTV,” says Widevine Technologies CEO Brian Baker (see IPTV Security: Content Is King).

The delivery of broadcast and video content to wireless devices, especially cell phones, was a hot topic both on the show floor and in the sessions. thePlatform Inc. demonstrated a Windows-based download manager that enables content owners and service providers to transcode, package, and set business rules around video content for delivery to cell phones. The systems support MPEG-2 and Windows Media-9 files.