Premiere Taps Selects Pace to Deliver High Definition Television In Germany

SALTAIRE, England, Feb. 2/Satnews Daily/ — As part of its plan to bring high definition (HD) television to German viewers, Premiere has selected Pace Micro Technology plc to supply an MPEG-4 set-top box that will enable the country’s digital TV operator to be among the first in Europe to offer the revolutionary viewing experience.

The new service, Premiere said, will incorporate Pace's DS810 set-top box that uses new advanced codec technologies to deliver superb quality pictures and make most efficient use of available broadcasting bandwidth.

Premiere, which commands over half the six million digital TV households in Germany and Austria as subscribers, will deliver all the features of its current satellite service as well as the operator's new, dedicated high definition channels for sport, film and documentaries. The new Premiere service is expected to begin broadcasting towards the end of 2005.

Pace said the DS810 has been designed specifically for Premiere, marking another significant development in the long-term relationship between Premiere and Pace. Only last month, Premiere announced that it would be using Pace's cutting edge personal digital recorder set-top boxes to roll out Germany's first personal payTV video recorder service.

Pace said it developed the DS810 to provide HD MPEG-4 coding and featuring new technologies such as DVBS2 and 8PSK that will enable a 30 per cent bandwidth saving.

"HDTV is television in a new dimension. With the scheduled launch of our own HDTV-channels, Premiere will start a new TV-age similar to the change from black and white to colour television", said Premiere-board member for strategy and development Dr. Friedrich-Carl Wachs.