UK firm Miniweb has teamed up with Metrological Media Innovations, a Dutch provider of middleware and reference designs, to deliver a reference design for a set-top box which offers converged broadcast and broadband-delivered services, based on an Intel media processor.

Miniweb is providing the service management platform to enable interactive, Internet-delivered services which can be integrated seamlessly with the television experience, while Metrological is providing its Metroconnect operating system for the platform, based on the Intel CE 3100 Media Processor.  The white-label platform will initially be marketed to broadband service providers seeking to offer a hybrid broadband and broadcast proposition, as well as to traditional platform operators aiming to integrate Internet-delivered services with their existing broadcasts.

“We believe that extending Intel architecture into consumer devices is one of the best routes to providing consumers with the high quality entertainment experiences that they crave,” said Eric Kim, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Digital Home Group at Intel.  “We look forward to working with Metrological and Miniweb to provide consumers and operators with what they need and the business models to support a next generation TV experience.”

The solution is intended to be deployable on a range of consumer electronics devices based on the Intel processor, including satellite, cable and terrestrial set-top boxes and integrated digital TVs, and will be ready for deployment with service providers in a "matter of months".