Opera and Orca Interactive partner to enhance solutions for the IPTV market.

Oslo, Norway – March 7, 2006

 

Opera Software, a global leader in Web browser technology, today announced its partnership with Orca Interactive, a world-leading developer of middleware and applications for IPTV. Orca Interactive will now support Opera 8.5 for Devices with its RiGHTv(â„¢) open middleware platform for delivering and managing interactive TV services. Operators and service providers choosing Orca’s RiGHTv solution can now include the full-featured and fast Opera Web browser and its advanced support for Web technologies on their devices.

 

Orca Interactive selected Opera for its high performance execution of advanced Web applications, such as AJAX, and for its leading standards compliance to ensure interoperability and superior browsing speed on devices. As a complement to RiGHTv’s Service Delivery Platform architecture, Orca Interactive seeks to partner with best-in-breed solutions such as Opera to accelerate delivery of advanced IPTV applications and services and minimize integration overhead, thereby reducing the costs for operators building and managing services on their IPTV network.

 

“The combination of Opera and Orca is excellent for operators looking to deliver the highest quality end user experiences and accelerate time to market,” says Scott Hedrick, Executive Vice President, Opera Software. “Opera’s high performance, TV optimized support for the latest Web standards enables powerful and flexible IPTV set-top box solutions such as Orca’s RiGHTv.”

 

Opera for Devices was announced at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, and is currently being shipped in products from companies including Archos, NDS, Nokia, Thales and Amino. Opera for Devices 8.5 is based on the same core as the latest Opera version for desktop computers and has rich and fast support for the full Internet. Opera adds flexible TV-optimized rendering, remote control navigation support and other features to enhance the living room experience.

 

“By partnering with Opera we are simply giving operators and service providers more options for better solutions that increase subscriber loyalty and revenues,” says Yosi Glick, vice president of marketing and business development, Orca Interactive. “Our applications give our customers the necessary tools to offer a wide range of services that address varying trends and consumer needs. Opera’s fast performance and support for advanced Web technologies and applications will be an asset to RiGHTv’s capabilities.”

 

Availability

 

Opera 8.5 for Devices is available for evaluation for commercial products at http://www.opera.com/products/devices/.

 

About Opera for Devices

 

Opera provides and optimized implementation of Internet technologies for digital TV and other devices, with innovative and powerful features that seamlessly adapt the Internet experience to suit varying screen sizes and input devices. In addition to being a full Internet browser, Opera is a high performance execution environment for Web applications and dynamic user interfaces based on interoperable open Web technologies such as AJAX.

 

Read more about Opera for Devices

 

About Orca Interactive

 

Orca Interactive (LSE-ORCA) is a leading provider of IPTV middleware and applications for broadband network operators and service providers. Orca enables triple-play providers to deliver a full array of attractive video-over-IP services that generate new revenue streams and strengthen customer loyalty. Leveraging a flexible telco-grade middleware platform, Orca empowers operators to deliver broadcast TV, video ondemand (VOD), personal video recording (PVR), home media and other compelling interactive services. Orca’s SI-enabled solutions are designed for easy outsourcing of integration services by an operator’s preferred systems integrator. Orca has formed strategic partnerships with leading players across the IPTV value chain to ensure best-of-breed solutions with low total cost of ownership. For more information, please visit http://www.orcainteractive.com.