PRESS RELEASE

SBB-Telemach Group Selects Cisco Personal DVB Set-Top Box Series

International service provider selects Cisco technology to deliver next-generation television services

IBC, Amsterdam, Netherlands - 7 September 2012 – SBB-Telemach Group, the largest pay TV platform in southeast Europe providing television, Internet, and telephony services, has selected the Cisco Videoscape™-capable Personal DVB Set-Tops (PDS) Series and Cisco® Integration Services to deliver next-generation television services.

The comprehensive, flexible technology platform will enable SBB-Telemach Group to deliver high-definition (HD) and Internet Protocol (IP) television services – including browser-based, intuitive user interfaces, video on demand (VOD) and new services like catch-up and time-shift TV. These advance services leverage the service provider’s existing infrastructure based on the Cisco Videoscape Distribution Suite (VDS).

Highlights:

• SBB-Telemach Group is one of the region’s leading providers of television, Internet and telephony services, with approximately 1.5 million subscribers across the markets of former Yugoslavia.
• The PDS Series is designed to deliver the next generation of consumer experiences with TV services such as VOD and time-shift TV, over-the-top video, social TV, advanced content search, recommendations, and second-screen adaptability when connected to the service-provider-managed IP network.
• The PDS Series, which consists of both the PDS2000 and PDS3000 models, can be adapted to support cable, terrestrial, wireline, satellite and hybrid IP video infrastructures worldwide. The open platform is capable of supporting various conditional access and middleware options, including Cisco PowerKEY® and NDS VideoGuard®.
• The PDS Series offers subscribers the latest enhancements in cable television and unicast/multicast IP network viewing. The series features MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video processing and provides digital broadcast, digital interactive and digital video recording (DVR) services
• The PDS Series is fully compliant with EU energy consumption standards, continuing Cisco's track-record of leadership in energy efficiency in networked products. 
• Cisco Services was selected as the systems integrator for the program, taking responsibility over all necessary third-party components and guaranteeing service launch velocity and quality of experience. Cisco Services built on the previous successful deployment of the head-end and complete VOD solution, including the video back office and a content delivery platform.
• Lab testing is currently under way with Serbia Broadband, with deployment expected to begin in autumn 2012. SBB-Telemach Group will be deploying the PDS2000 Series models with Cisco PowerKEY conditional access to deliver high-quality, next-generation television services.

Supporting Quotes:

Dragica Pilipovic Chaffey, CEO, Serbia Broadband, commented:

“Next-generation television services are a major focus as we look to build our growing subscriber base, both in Serbia and internationally. When we were looking for a technology partner, Cisco’s track record of working with partners to successfully launch video services in multiple markets, combined with the company’s commitment to an open-standards software architecture, made it the obvious choice. I am confident that this solution will allow SBB-Telemach Group to deliver world-class television services.”

Edwin Paalvast, senior vice president, Service Provider Group, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia, Cisco, commented:

“Consumers are increasingly expecting cable operators to deliver more than just traditional television services. The growth of online video and changing viewer behaviours mean that advanced services such as intelligent user interfaces, on-demand content and social media integration are becoming ever more important. The Cisco Videoscape platform will help SBB-Telemach Group bring innovation to television services faster and more cost-effectively, which will benefit consumers in Serbia and across South East Europe.”

Supporting Resources:

• Cisco Service Provider:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns341/networking_solutions_service_provider_home.html
• The Connected Life at Home:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns934/networking_solutions_market_segment_solution.html

Tags/Keywords:

Cisco, Service Provider, PDS, broadband, video, VOD,Catch-Up TV, StartOver TV, time shift TV, Systems Integration, set-top, PowerKEY, VDS, M-PEG 4, on-demand, television, social networking, app stores, advanced search, recommendations

RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html

About SBB-Telemach Group

SBB and Telemach form the leading regional Pay TV platforms in South East Europe, offering cable television, Internet, telephony and DTH services to approximately 1.5 million subscribers across the markets of former Yugoslavia.  With unmatched reach via cable and DTH in the region, the group companies have established the reputation for the most attractive content on their respective markets available across all devices and formats.  Good deals and bundles are supported with an innovative and reliable technology. The group companies also offer data and voice services for small, medium and large companies.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is provided by Cisco Systems International B.V. and Cisco International Limited, wholly owned subsidiaries of Cisco Systems, Inc.

# # #

Why the Web Lacks Authoritative Reviews of Doctors

Excerpt from an article in

The New York Times

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Why the Web Lacks Authoritative Reviews of Doctors

By RON LIEBER

For all the debate about which Web sites have the best model for reliable reviews — paid or unpaid, anonymous or real name, Angie’s List or Yelp or TripAdvisor — one thing is certain: a robust ecosystem exists online for restaurant and hotel reviews that has changed those industries for the better.

So it is puzzling that there is no such authoritative collection of reviews for physicians, the highest-stakes choice of service provider that most people make.

Sure, various Web sites like HealthGrades and RateMDs have taken their shots, and Yelp and Angie’s List have made a go of it, too. But the listings are often sparse, with few contributors and little of substance.

What we have here is a demand and supply problem: many people want this information, and more consumers would trust it if the sites had more robust offerings. But not enough people take the time to review their doctors. And fixing that problem means figuring out why.

Companies have tried to collect reviews of doctors since the early days of the Web, and RateMDs.com has gathered more than most. The founder, John Swapceinski, was inspired to create it after his success with a site called RateMyProfessors.com, which is well known for the “hotness” rating that college students assign (or not) to their teachers.

“Anything that people spend time or money on ought to be rated,” he said. RateMDs now has reviews of more than 1,370,000 doctors in the United States and Canada.

But getting in the faces of the previously untouchable professional class has inevitably led to legal threats. He says he gets about one each week over negative reviews and receives subpoenas every month or two for information that can help identify reviewers, who believe they are posting anonymously.

News Release from Symantec

Autodesk Selects Symantec’s Clearwell eDiscovery Platform

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Mar. 6, 2012 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced that Autodesk, Inc., a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, has selected Symantec’s Clearwell eDiscovery Platform for in-house eDiscovery. Autodesk’s legal and IT teams will use Clearwell to gain greater control over the eDiscovery process, leveraging the solution to streamline eDiscovery procedures from legal hold through review and production in order to significantly reduce the time, resources and costs of eDiscovery.

Click to Tweet: Autodesk takes #eDiscovery in-house with @Symantec’s @Clearwell eDiscovery Platform: http://bit.ly/xLYZ8j

“With Symantec’s Clearwell platform, we are able to achieve significant cost savings and gain greater control over our eDiscovery processes,” said Lisa Turbis, senior corporate counsel at Autodesk. “We selected Clearwell because it provides the unique ability to handle many of our requirements in a single platform. This eliminates the complexity often associated with eDiscovery procedures while reducing the time and resources needed to implement a successful eDiscovery strategy.”

Symantec’s Clearwell eDiscovery Platform is the leading enterprise eDiscovery solution that helps organizations manage legal and regulatory matters with a single application. Using Clearwell, Autodesk can fully meet legal obligations by implementing a defensible legal hold workflow, then focus the collection of potentially relevant data across the organization through federated search-enabled keyword collection. Collected data is further reduced using the platform’s intelligent processing and culling capabilities. Autodesk’s legal team can significantly accelerate early case assessment with Clearwell’s sophisticated analytics including Transparent Search and discussion threads, as well as achieve cost-effective and defensible review through the solution’s comprehensive review capabilities. As a result, organizations like Autodesk can defensibly streamline the end-to-end eDiscovery process. The Clearwell eDiscovery Platform is further complimented by Symantec’s suite of intelligent information governance solutions, enabling organizations to bridge the gap between business, legal, and IT to reduce their risks and costs and work freely in a connected world.

“eDiscovery can be a complex and expensive process for any organization but particularly for large global enterprises experiencing today’s growth in electronically stored information on a magnified scale,” said Kurt Leafstrand, director of product management, Symantec Corp. “To proactively prepare for this emerging need, companies like Autodesk are implementing Symantec’s Clearwell eDiscovery Platform in-house to automate collections, perform strategic early case assessments, and gain greater control over the eDiscovery process. Symantec is pleased to help Autodesk build an in-house eDiscovery process and benefit from significant return on investment.”

Related

• Solution Page: Symantec’s Clearwell eDiscovery Platform
• Solution Page: Symantec Enterprise Vault
• Symantec’s Transparent Predictive Coding
• Symantec’s Intelligent Information Governance

Connect with Symantec

• Follow Symantec’s eDiscovery 2.0 Blog
• Follow Symantec on Twitter
• Follow Symantec Enterprise Vault on Twitter
• Join Symantec on Facebook
• Subscribe to Symantec News RSS Feed
• View Symantec’s SlideShare Channel
• Visit Symantec Connect Business Community