Acterna Delivers Analysis for Multi-Home Data Streams; Acterna's DTS-330 Solution Now Supports Analysis of MHP Data to Assure High-Quality Signal Transmission in iTV Service Provision.

GERMANTOWN, Md. & AMSTERDAM -- Acterna, the world's largest provider of communications test solutions for telecommunications and cable network operators, today announced that the company's DTS-330 digital broadcast test system has been enhanced to support the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) standard, allowing interactive TV (iTV) service providers to offer interactive services and provide multimedia applications on set-top boxes.

Acterna's complete suite of broadcast and cable network testing tools and solutions will be displayed at 2004 IBC Show stand 8.375.

The DTS-330's ability to conduct MHP standard analysis delivers easy and accurate testing for a critical aspect of broadcast content delivery. Today's content for iTV services may be supplied by a variety of providers and designed for different middleware systems. The MHP standard bridges this gap, allowing service providers to offer their applications to a broad audience without adapting to meet the requirements of individual hardware systems. Because it is an open standard, MHP fosters innovative content from a wider range of providers, improving the overall quality and diversity of iTV programming.

"iTV promises broadcasters a new era of services that represent significant revenue potential," said Kevin Oliver, vice president of marketing for Acterna's Cable Networks Division. "To capitalize on this opportunity, operators and equipment manufacturers need a way to ensure the proper transmission of MHP data within the MPEG streams. Acterna meets this need -- our DTS test solutions provide important analysis of this and other necessary MPEG data to ensure the quality delivery of new content to consumers."

The use of multiple applications on one TV set - such as, for example, simultaneous viewing of conventional programming along with interactive games - requires accurate testing to ensure broadcasts of the highest possible quality. Acterna's DTS product line measures and evaluates these increasingly popular iTV offerings by analyzing the object and data carousels passing through the MPEG streams of terrestrial, cable, telecom, or satellite television providers hosting multiple services for consumers on one set.

Acterna's DTS-330 digital broadcast test system offers multiple combinations of MPEG-2 (DVB and ATSC) transport stream generation, capture, stream creation and analysis to meet broadcasters' specific needs. In addition to analysis of up to five unique streams simultaneously across as many different interfaces, the DTS-330 supports up to seven different combinations of inputs and outputs, such as QPSK, DVB-T, QAM, ASI, SMTPE-310, DHEI, and full-bandwidth Gigabit Ethernet with both optical and copper interfaces. With the DTS-330 platform, cable providers, broadcast technicians and equipment manufacturers can enjoy the benefits of a more durable and robust chassis, along with the most up-to-date hardware and a significant increase in computing and processing power.

This is one of several broadcast industry related product announcements Acterna will be unveiling at IBC 2004 in Amsterdam. Learn more about Acterna's complete line of instruments, systems, software, services, and integrated solutions online at www.acterna.com.

Note to editors: All company or product names mentioned in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. For a digital image of the DTS-330, please use the following: ftp://GlobalComm:[e-mail]/corpcom/DTS330_B.jpg

About Acterna

Acterna is the world's largest provider of communications test solutions for telecommunications and cable network operators. A trusted communications test partner for more than eight decades, Acterna offers an unmatched portfolio of award-winning instruments, systems, software, and services that help its customers reduce network costs while improving performance and reliability. Headquartered in Germantown, Md. -- with European and Asia-Pacific operations based in Eningen, Germany, and Hong Kong -- Acterna serves nearly every major communications service provider and equipment manufacturer around the world through a skilled sales and support organization in 31 countries.

VISIT ACTERNA AT IBC2004 STAND 8.375