Vantiva AI innovations at IBC 2024: STBs and gateways

Vantiva, a global technology pioneer enabling Network Service Providers (NSPs) to connect consumers worldwide, will demonstrate innovative AI-powered products at IBC 2024, including set-top boxes (STBs) and broadband gateways, all connected to Vantiva's Navigate AI cloud.

This new class of CPE features a local Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and enhanced CPU and GPU performance, ensuring more private, secure and lower latency Edge AI use cases. This positions operator as "Home AI" platform providers offering new AI services, while optimising cloud costs and maximising CPE capital investment.

Demands for intelligent interactions

"Our focus and vision for the home of the future incorporates AI-enabled devices that can meet and exceed the evolving demands for intelligent interactions between consumers and their digital environment," said Charles Cheevers, CTO at Vantiva.

"With deep insights we've gained from serving the connected home industry, we are poised to combine the STBs, broadband gateways and cloud capabilities into a unified AI platform delivering new-AI based assistants, enriched video and audio experiences such as automated multi-lingual services, diversified advertising opportunities and cutting-edge gaming experiences, positioning Service Providers at the forefront of generative AI offerings for consumers."

Vantiva at IBC

Vantiva will be demonstrating the following at IBC 2024 in Hall 1, Level 2, Balcony Suite 1.BS2, Rai, Amsterdam, Sept. 13 – 16:

• The STB as a central hub of the AI-powered home: With multi-modal inputs such as camera, far-field microphones and speakers, Vantiva's new STBs enable cutting-edge features such as an AI-powered personal assistant that can understand and engage in human communication. Users can fully engage with this human-like assistant, making interactions with Generative AI feel like real conversations.
• Shoppable TV: Vantiva's STBs improve the shopping experience with AI and NPU capabilities. The "Shoppable TV" feature utilises the NPU for real-time object detection, automatically matching that object in video to a catalog. This allows for instant shopping through the TV via voice commands.
• Audio accessibility feature improvement: AI greatly enhances the STB by enabling live audio transcription, allowing consumers to enjoy video streams in their original audio with auto-generated subtitles in any language. This local transcription capability helps service providers reduce costs by lessening their dependence on cloud services. Vantiva's AI-powered transcription technology empowers operators to offer a richer, more inclusive viewing experience around the world. In addition, local AI can detect noise in a room and automatically adjust the TV volume for optimal sound.
• More immersive gaming experience: By adding a vision camera to the STB, along with NPU acceleration, Vantiva introduces new gesture-based interactions, creating a much more immersive gaming experience. In addition, the ability to run gesture, pose and facial detection models locally on the STB reduces costs and latency by eliminating the need for cloud processing.
• AI upscaling technology: Vantiva significantly improves existing upscaling technology by leveraging the local STB engine to analyse images in real-time to enhance video quality and enable new features, like upscaling and tracking objects in a video for high-quality Picture-in-Picture.    
• Broadband Gateways: Vantiva's broadband gateways complement the STBs with the addition of a NPU on top of their already impressive MIPS count. This allows new broadband apps to run locally for Edge AI services. The broadband gateways also ensure consumer privacy and security by providing real-time activity reports of cameras, microphones and sensors. Additionally, they offer advanced tools to show interactions between devices, leverage the gateways to detect security threats and intrusions and allow consumers to manage or block camera and audio services as needed.

Relentless commitment to innovation

Vantiva has a 130-year history of delivering market-pioneering solutions and services that connect what matters. The solutions Vantiva is demonstrating at IBC 2024 are the latest examples of its relentless commitment to innovation and continually providing services and solutions that set industry benchmarks. 

The company’s ultimate goal is to empower its customers globally to master challenges and seize opportunities in the evolving connectivity market with best-in-class solutions and services.