DirecTV Starts Home Media Center Trial

DirecTV has started field trial testing for its DirecTV Home Media Center. It will ultimately provide customers with a ‘receiver-less’ solution for many TVs in their homes.

The launch of field trial testing for DirecTV ‘s model HR34 RVU-enabled server, the heart of the DirecTV Home Media Center, marks a major milestone both for the RVU technology and the new DirecTV platform, which the company plans to begin rolling out nationwide to customers in October 2011. RVU is a client/server-based technology that allows the television viewer to experience a consistent, pixel accurate server-generated user interface on various consumer electronics devices.

DirecTV has around 19.4 million subscribers in the United States.

SES Astra Boosts European Astra2Connect Speeds

SES Astra is increasing the speed of its broadband service being offered in Europe.

It will increase the download speed for Astra2Connect to beyond 10 Mbps by providing additional capacity from its 28.2 degrees East orbital position. With Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat satellite having just entered into commercial service, SES Astra has responded by improving the quality of its own offer to potential customers.

In June, SES Astra will start to provide higher download speeds of up to 6 Mbps in its existing Ku-band offerings. All new terminals deployed are ‘Ka-band ready’ allowing end users to easily migrate to Astra’s Ka-band services once they will become available in 2012. In September 2012, SES Astra will start to bring Ka-band capacity at 28.2 degrees East into use supporting download speeds of 10 Mbps and more.