Middle East – September 12, 2013 – Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) has been recognized by the United States’ National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with an Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering for its “Pioneering Work in Implementation and Deployment of Network DVR”, the digital video recorder technology that gives viewers complete control over how they watch television.
Network DVR enables content to be stored in the Cloud rather than in the hard drive of a traditional DVR or set-top box. This allows several shows to be recorded simultaneously and then accessed anytime, anywhere, and from any device – whether the traditional television in the living room, a smartphone or a tablet. The technology also enables a full array of time-shifted services, such as ‘start-over’, rewind and catch-up TV.
Alcatel-Lucent has been recognized for its long-standing commitment to developing Network DVR technology, along with fellow honorees Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems Corp. Alcatel-Lucent held one of the very first public demonstrations of the system in 2001 at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC). Alcatel-Lucent also provided one of the very first public deployments of Network DVR for Arcor (now part of Vodafone) in Germany in 2007. This technology now serves millions of TV viewers around the world, including Swisscom who has deployed its Replay service with Alcatel-Lucent, and most recently Telecable. At IBC 2013 in Amsterdam, from 12 September, Alcatel-Lucent’s commercial Network DVR solution, known as Cloud DVR, will be on show.
Paul Larbey, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Video business, said: “We are extremely proud to be recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for our contribution to enhancing the way we all watch TV. Alcatel-Lucent was one of the first companies to recognize the potential for using Cloud and IP networking to replace the traditional set-top box or finding a DVR recorder in order to give viewers far greater freedom in how they watch TV, as well as enable Pay TV providers to develop innovative services at lower costs.”
Robert P. Seidel, chairman of the Technology and Engineering Achievement Committee, said: “I want to congratulate Alcatel-Lucent for being recognized as one of a select few to be honored with the Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering for 2013. Your pioneering work in implementation and deployment of Network DVR showed excellence in engineering creativity and you join a distinguished history of honorees that are chosen each year by dozens of industry experts and peers.”
This is Alcatel-Lucent’s second Emmy award: Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs was honored in 1997 for work on digital television as part of the High-Definition TV (HDTV) Grand Alliance. Bell Labs also won an Academy Award® for Scientific and Engineering achievements back in 1937 for speaker design used for high-fidelity sound reproduction, and a Technical GRAMMY® Award in 2006 for outstanding technical contributions to the recording field.
