Pace, a company specializing in digital TV technologies, today announced it’s been selected as the launch partner of MultiChoice South Africa's high definition (HD) service.

 

MultiChoice South Africa, a pay TV operator, announced its plan to offer selected Olympic events in high definition (HD) on MultiChoice’ DStv platform, using its recently launched HD PVR decoder.

 

Pace, as a launch partner for HD service, is supplying its TDS850IMC HD personal video recorder (PVR) for the launch of MultiChoice’ HD service, said the company. TDS850IMC integrates OpenTV's Core 2.0 middleware and PVR 2.0 software, together with content security from Irdeto (News - Alert).

The TDS850IMC PVR features a hard drive that can record up to 50 hours of HD content or 150 hours of standard definition (SD) content, said Pace officials. The PVR features a quad-tuner system. Two of the tuners are dedicated to program recording. The third tuner enables users to view a third channel simultaneously with full PVR functionality even while the other tuners are engaged.

 

The fourth tuner is dedicated to electronic program guide (EPG). It helps users to access complete program information even when all the other tuners are being used. The fourth tuner performs an additional function of delivering HD and SD push-VOD content to the consumer, according to Pace.

 

“MultiChoice is launching one of the most advanced HD platforms available today, with a highly specified Pace product,” said Richard Slee, Pace president for EMEA and APAC, in a statement. “Our early investment in high definition recording technology has resulted in a number of high profile service launches for us around the world. This is the first HD PVR deployment in Africa and we are excited to enable MultiChoice subscribers to get this product to launch in time to witness one of the most spectacular sporting events of the decade in high definition quality.”

“Pace is a leader in the field of both high definition and personal video recorder technology, which made them the natural choice for us as a key partner to work with on the launch of our HD service,” said Nolo Letele, chief executive officer at MultiChoice Africa, in a statement.

 

MultiChoice’ HD Olympic broadcast starts with the opening ceremony Friday on the dedicated HD channel 170. It plans to offer more than seventy hours of selected Olympic events such as swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, cycling, soccer and boxing.

DStv customers will also be able to view more than 1000 hours of live Olympic events, magazine programs, interviews and highlights on existing SuperSport channels 5, 6, 7 and 10.