Oberhausen, Germany, 7 September 2018 − ACCESS CO., LTD (stand #1.D11) and Castoola today announced a collaboration to provide broadcasters and operators with a future-proofed HbbTV solution. Demonstrations of the new partnership will be held at IBC on the EKT stand #1.D11, and at Beenius stand #14.H06. 

The solution has been developed to address the interoperability challenges between client and server products for multiscreen from both companies and aims to reduce the time and costs spent developing and testing solutions for multi-platform delivery. Based on the HbbTV standard, the solution can be easily deployed to provide high quality multi-platform experiences.

Consisting of the Castoola HbbTV platform combined with ACCESS’ NetFront™ Browser BE, the joint offering simplifies the development, testing and deployment of HbbTV services to speed up time-to-market.

“Despite having the potential to offer consumers richer and more interactive viewing experiences, HbbTV has been held back by the industry’s slow progress,” said Dr Neale Foster, CEO of ACCESS Europe. “Fortunately, our collaboration with Castoola addresses this by providing broadcasters and operators a cost-efficient solution that allows consumers to access the high-quality experiences they deserve. We couldn’t be prouder of working with Castoola to put HbbTV firmly back on the route to becoming one of the most influential standards for digital TV.”

“Beenius and Castoola are industry leaders who always strive to adopt new technologies and be one of the firsts to implement them on the market. HbbTV is no exception, and with our HbbTV & Addressable TV platform, we are looking to deliver the highest possible added-value for our customers, which is not possible without complementary technical solutions that help us to deliver end-to-end solutions. Tests have shown that Castoola HbbTV platform and ACCESS HbbTV browser are working perfectly together and are interoperable. Cooperation helped us to upgrade our relationship to a partnership. We strongly believe that our collaboration with ACCESS is the one that will enable us to provide future-proof solutions that are based on the HbbTV standard, so we are very happy to walk this path together with them,” said Mr. Filip Remškar, CEO at Beenius and Castoola.

Since its inception in the 1980s, ACCESS has continually demonstrated its commitment to supporting industry standards throughout its product porfolio. Today, the NetFront™ Browser family and ACCESS Twine™ solutions support HTML5, HbbTV 1.5, HbbTV 2.0.1, BML, Hybridcast, UK Freeview Play 2017, YouTube on TV and uPnP, as well as device operating systems such as Linux, iOS and Android. With additional developments in the automotive and IoT spaces, ACCESS continues to develop solutions for the ever-changing connected entertainment industry.

Note to editors: for more information about this announcement, or to arrange a briefing with an ACCESS spokesperson at IBC, please contact Platform Communications: ACCESS@platformcomms.com, or +44 (0) 207 486 4900.

About ACCESS
Since 1984, ACCESS CO., LTD. (Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Index, 4813) has provided advanced IT solutions centered around mobile and network software technologies to telecom carriers, consumer electronics manufacturers, broadcasting and publishing companies, the automotive industry and energy infrastructure providers around the world. The company develops mobile software solutions that have been installed on over 1.5 billion devices, and network software solutions that have been used by over 300 telecommunication equipment manufacturers. Utilizing its network virtualization technology skills and knowledge, the company is currently focusing on the development and commercialization of Internet of Things (IoT) and media solutions that combine embedded and cloud technology. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the company operates subsidiaries and affiliates in Asia, Europe and the United States to support and expand its business globally. Learn more about ACCESS at www.access-company.com

About Beenius and Castoola
Beenius is a media system integrator and a developer of a proven and easily integrated platform for heterogeneous operator environments. It supports IPTV, OTT and hybrid services with a number of possibilities to offer TV content anytime, anywhere on every device. Beenius provides consulting services for E2E solutions, designing, integrating, building, and maintaining turnkey solutions.
With Castoola platform, Beenius offers solution for TV industry, based on HbbTV technology and is applicable for broadcasters, TV operators and advertisers. Besides helping broadcasters and TV operators to make their TV channels and networks interactive, it is a new media channel for digital advertising. Learn more about Beenius at www.beenius.tv and about Castoola at www.castoola.com

© 2018 ACCESS CO., LTD. All rights reserved.
ACCESS, the ACCESS logo, and NetFront are registered trademarks or trademarks of ACCESS CO., LTD. in the United States, Japan and/or other countries. DLNA is a registered trademark and DLNA Certified is a trademark of the Digital Living Network Alliance. Digital Living Network Alliance is a service mark of the Digital Living Network Alliance. All other trademarks, logos and trade names mentioned in the document are the property of their respective owners.