Pace squares up to Canal’s Le Cube

Pace has confirmed that it has been awarded an exclusive contract to deliver the next generation satellite/IP hybrid receiver to Canal+. News of the involvement of Pace France emerged at IBC 2008, where the satellite/IP solution could be seen on the NDS stand, a short distance away from the set-top developer’s own stand.

“As sole supplier for this product, Pace is proud to have been chosen by Canal+ Group to enable its latest generation of set-top box, using the expertise in the Pace engineering teams in terms of technology, services and design, to introduce new features such as near-silent operation and an innovative gyroscopic detector for the multidirectional LCD, while supporting services including Multiroom and VOD,” said Mathias Hautefort, President, Pace France.

Supplies of Le Cube began shipping on November 4 and represent Canal’s first HD PVR. Le Cube’s hard disk has been optimised by Pace for low audibility, the whirring hard drive noise being a regular criticism of PVR devices, the 320GB allows 100 hours of HD recording.

In addition to Ethernet port, this product supports USB and HDMI and has Dolby Digital audio outputs. The IP connection allows progressive download of VOD whereby content is buffered onto the HDD.
Pace France, the former Philips set-top box division has a long relationship with the French pay-TV platform having previously supplied products including Mediasat; Mediasat Max and DUALS.