| MHP Service Platform for Sun Microsystems in Italy |
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Sofia Digital has delivered Sofia Stage® Browser Platform to Sun
Microsystems Italia. The Platform includes, Sofia Stage® Browser for
viewing XHTML content in MHP receivers, Sofia Backstage® Publisher for
Content Publishing and Tools for Content Development. By the end of March 2004, Sun Microsystems Italia has started an experimentation of interactive digital television with a selected group of households and businesses located in the Turin area. Thanks to a set top box, users are able to access a variety of services delivered through interactive applications; interaction with the Public Administration is ensured through several kinds of network connections, ordinary telephone access, broadband return channel, wireless GPRS. The user friendly interface of the portal delivers maximum interactivity through services such as job postings, a digital version of the Employment Office of the Turin Province and, at a later stage, education modules developed by local Universities and delivered according to the most innovative approach to distance learning: T-learning (Television Learning). A reservation application and an integrated Messaging client (Mail, MMS, etc.) complete the set of basic applications developed in this context. The experimentation has been designed as a network reference model for the Public Sector: the same infrastructure and decoder can be used to deliver services to other local administrations. "MHP will enable a new way to provide various governmental services in television. We are glad to partner with Sun Microsystems in Italy in providing the necessary technology platform for Service Providers to start providing new interactive services on MHP", states Petri Martikainen, CEO of Sofia Digital. Giuseppe Facchetti, EMEA Technology Office, Sun Microsystems, said: "Digital Television is an excellent opportunity for rapidly increasing the creation of innovative services for the general public. We partnered with Sofia Digital because they provide state-of-the-art technology for an open, convergent MHP platform for TV content". |
