REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- BigBand Networks, Inc., a leading provider of broadband multimedia routing systems for broadcast television and on-demand services, today announced the establishment of its Asia-Pacific office, and the appointment of industry veteran Richard Chau as vice president and general manager for the region. Chau is responsible for leading local marketing, sales, business development and customer support.The Asia-Pacific region has more than half of a billion television households. BigBand Networks is entering this market at a time of increasing popularity of pay television and digital services and content. The company is establishing a regional headquarters in Hong Kong, and is actively building relationships with strategic partners that are proficient in local cultures, that understand the specific needs of various broadband network operators, and that provide complimentary products and services.“BigBand Networks’ entry to the Asia-Pacific market comes at an opportune time as this region adopts digital media formats and expands content and service offerings,” said Richard Chau. “BigBand Networks’ positioning resonates well in the fast growing markets here due to its highly scalable and agile platform and applications that can be economically customized to meet network operator needs. I am excited to work with BigBand Networks, as it seizes an important role in the Asia-Pacific region’s digital video expansion, and in the advance towards more sophisticated services such as VOD.”Richard Chau brings 16 years of experience in broadband networking and rich media services to BigBand Networks. He joined digital video technology supplier, DiviCom, as Asia-Pacific managing director in 1997, and assumed that position for broadband equipment vendor Harmonic when it acquired DiviCom in 2000. Chau established operational infrastructure, regional headquarters, and several in-country branch offices and annually grew sales to regional operators in telecommunications, broadcasting, cable, satellite and Internet service. Prior to joining DiviCom, Chau was with US Sprint in a variety of engineering and sales roles in the United States and China. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from George Washington University.BigBand Networks Inc.