TVWorks allies with Softel-USA

Jeff Baumgartner, CED

TVWorks, the Comcast Corp. [1] and Cox Communications [2] interactive television (iTV) joint venture, has joined the Softel-USA [3] MediaSphere Alliance Program.

TVWorks marks the tenth member of the Alliance. Membership is designed to ensure that TVWorks' Enhanced Television Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) user agent interoperates with Softel-USA's MediaSphere DSMCC object carousel.

The combo aims to enable enhanced television (ETV) applications that are synched with live programming.

TVWorks and Softel-USA noted that their joint solution has been demonstrated successfully at recent ETV interop events conducted by CableLabs [4].

"As a Comcast and Cox joint venture, TVWorks is developing highly-valued new
services for North American cable," said Greg Thomson, SVP of product management & business development for TVWorks' applications division. "With key partners such as Softel-USA, we are able to extend these solutions farther back in the production and operations chain. We look forward to taking the technology to the next level with them."