OTTAWA -- Espial and A2i today announced that A2i will deploy the LX-200 IP set-top box to customers in Korea and Japan, effective immediately. This STB is designed to meet the needs of the hotel and hospital market, but will also drive IPTV revenue for retail stores and IP-based VOD systems in Korea. After reviewing competitive solutions, A2i chose the Espial Escape browser framework because of its single code base architecture that allows easy customization for both the applications running in the browser and localization of the overall look and feel of the design. Espial is the leading provider of set-top box and mobile handset software, specializing in applications for IPTV design.

The A2i LX-200 STB has Espial Escape rendering:

· Hospitality applications like Video on Demand, and user menu screens

· portal content for display of walled garden content such as news, sports, local weather and community events

· full Internet browsing capabilities, including email

"We are proud to have the Espial Escape browser embedded in our design," says Sean Hong, marketing director of A2i. "Espial software helped us deliver a STB that is price competitive, easily customizable, portable and scalable and their professional services team walked us through easy integration with our middleware and VOD server choices. We achieved an impressive result without sacrificing cost or development time."

Espial Escape enabled delivery of the LX-200 set-top box with less development cost and faster than competitor solutions. Espial's integration to all popular middleware and VOD servers ensured A2i succeeded in a field trial service for a telco in Korea.

"A2i has chosen hardware, O/S and application solutions for the LX-200 that is a recipe designed for success," says Dr. Neale Foster, Director of Marketing for TV at Espial. "They have achieved industry-leading capabilities within a reasonable BOM cost and reasonable timeframe. A2i will achieve success in the IPTV market."

Espial Group Inc.