Envivio (News - Alert), a major player in solutions for video-over-IP delivery, has delivered a complete DTH video headend as part of the "Headend in the Sky" project of Argentina's Red Intercable, a video service provider and content aggregator servicing more than 240 cable operators in Argentina.

Officials with Envivio said that the project features end-to-end satellite optimization integration by the company and has enabled Red Intercable to augment its existing cable services by blanketing the entire country with high fidelity HD and SD TV and on demand services delivered via satellite.

Company officials said that the all IP-based headend installed at Red Intercable's operations center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, combines 32 SD channels and 32 HD channels encoded by Envivio 4Caster C4(2) using the Envivio Extreme codec to ensure the highest quality video is delivered using the least possible bandwidth: less than 1.6 Mbps for SD content and 4 Mbps for HD programming.

According to company officials, Envivio also provided its 4Manager video headend management system, ASI-IP interfaces, routing, and integration with Red Intercable's transponder.

"The addition of the Envivio video headend has enabled us to immediately begin delivering the most desirable programming, like the 2010 FIFA World Cup, to millions of customers who don't have access to our cable system," said Jose Toledo, president of Red Intercable, SA, in a statement.

Toledo said that most importantly, the company is able to provide rural customers with levels of video quality that have never before been available to them.

“Now we can bring the very best service to everyone," he said.

Company officials said that Envivio headend solutions provide optimized satellite TV operators with the flexibility and capability they need to compete in an increasingly diverse marketplace.

Advanced compression liberates bandwidth, enabling operators to increase the variety of HD and SD channels they deliver over their existing network infrastructure.

Envivio Convergence (News - Alert) headends are a solid foundation for expansion, providing support for delivery of high quality video to mobile phone and Internet-connected devices. The complete Envivio solution was introduced and installed at Red Intercable by AVS (News - Alert) of Buenos Aires.

"With our Convergence headends, Envivio eliminates the barrier of limited bandwidth, allowing content providers to deliver to more subscribers a great TV viewing experience," said Boris Felts, vice president of marketing, Envivio.

Felts said that Red Intercable's new DTH service perfectly demonstrates how Envivio solutions can be applied to any delivery platform to optimize the use of available bandwidth and create new opportunities for service providers.