NDS, a News Corporation company and the leading provider of conditional access systems and interactive applications for digital pay TV, today announced it has launched the new Powered by NDS Certification Program to enable faster and seamless integration of NDS Open VideoGuard conditional access with Asian manufactured set-top boxes (STBs).

The programme, which started in Korea, also targets manufacturers in India, China and Taiwan, a company release says.

The first step of the two-stage certification programme reduces cost of integration and provides added convenience by providing a tool kit to enable the manufacturer to integrate the conditional access system prior to selecting a middleware. Manufacturers who successfully complete stage one will become Powered by NDS Certified Partners. In stage two, the manufacturer receives the VideoGuard Integrator Kit, which enables integration of NDS conditional access with all elements of the STB middleware and hardware. Upon completion of stage two, the vendor will achieve the Powered by NDS Premier Partner certification.

NDS Asia Pacific technical staff in Hong Kong, Beijing, Sydney and Bangalore provide 24/7 technical support for the Asian STB partners. The Certified Partners receive the added benefit of access to NDS markets, exclusive NDS developer tools, and dedicated NDS technical support and consulting services to facilitate expansion of their business.

On 27 March the Zee Network took its music channel Zee Music digital. However, the process was not all that simple. The network had to do some jugglery to ensure the transition. It switched off the Panamsat-4 beam for Zee Music retaining only the digitised beam from Asiasat-3S for Indian cable operators to relay on their cable TV networks.
Replacing Zee Music on PAS-4 is the Zee Network co-promoted Urdu Television Network. The channel was earlier beaming off AsiaSat 3S 105.5 degrees East, on transponder number IV (the down link frequency is 3660 megahertz). UTN will be mainly focused on west Asian audiences. The UTN space on Asiasat 3 has been replaced by an info card.

Zee Music, the 24 hour "Indian Hindi family Music Channel" went digital today while remaining a free to air channel.

The decision to turn digital was to give its viewers sharper pictures and better audio quality, fulfilling the Zee Network‘s endeavour to provide the best in quality entertainment, according to a company release.

The channel is beaming off Asiasat 3 on Transponder 13V. The downlinking frequency is 4.135 GHz, FEC is 2/3 and Symbol Rate is 15 Mbauds.