Sherwood Licenses Verismo's OTT Tech to Transform its Audio Receivers into Internet TV Set-Tops

Verismo, a Silicon Valley-based company that offers an over-the-top-TV platform called VuNow (note: the platform has traditionally been offered in conjunction with a small set-top box device called the PoD; however, back in February, Verismo announced the launch of a global OEM initiative targeting consumer OEM's, content aggregators and ISP's--see the article posted on itvt.com, May 8th), said Wednesday that Sherwood, a company best known for its audio receivers, is integrating its platform into those receivers, enabling them to double as Internet TV set-top boxes.

According to Verismo, its OEM agreement with Sherwood will provide that company with a "powerful way" to differentiate its products: "End-users not only add an award-winning audio receiver to their home theater, but when connected to the home's broadband network, the receiver brings the world of Internet video, as well as personal media such as photos, videos and music from their home network directly to HD and SD televisions," Verismo says. "Consumers are looking for a new breed of appliances for home entertainment that can bring the rich media assets available on the Internet directly to the TV," Sherwood EVP, Jeff Hipps, said in a prepared statement. "We evaluated the available solutions and were impressed with Verismo's open Internet TV platform--both in terms of the breadth of content that is supported, and its ease of integration into other consumer devices."

Verismo bills its VuNow platform as offering an intuitive interface and providing access to content (including live TV and radio channels and on-demand programming) from a broad range of partners. The company recently released VuNow version 3.0 (note: for more on VuNow 3.0's new features, see the article posted on itvt.com, May 8th).