NDS, the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, today announced that its NDS Snowflake™ user interface (UI) and content navigation model has been awarded a prestigious Janus award from l’Institut Français du Design. The Janus awards for Industry take place annually under the patronage of the French ministry for the economy, finance and industry (ministère de l'Economie, des Finances et de l'Industrie) to recognise cutting edge design in products that provide clear user benefits.

The Institut Français du Design have hosted the Janus awards for more than half a century. For the 2010 awards, Olivier Lacour of Paris-based NDS Studio Design presented the NDS Snowflake ergonomic model for content navigation, including its implementation for Portuguese cable operator ZON Multimedia, to a twelve person judging panel comprising experts drawn from across the design industry.

NDS Snowflake is a user-friendly UI and entirely new model for content navigation based on an overlaid and full screen TV experience. It offers access to a range of content and services from digital video recorder (DVR) library programming and video on demand (VOD) to Catch-up TV and incorporates next generation TV services such as recommendations, search and social networking. The award winning user interface is the materialisation of extensive investment in research, development and design by NDS to enhance the user experience; the Janus committee’s recognition is testament to the standard of NDS’ work in design and constant endeavour to revolutionise the TV viewing experience.

By showcasing the application of the NDS Snowflake ergonomic model to Portuguese operator ZON’s brand the judging panel were able to visualise the user experience applied to a TV platform; the quality of which is the result of ongoing collaboration between dedicated teams from NDS and ZON over the past year.

Caroline Le Bigot, Senior VP and General Manager France, EMEA Sales & Latin America, NDS said: “This award is a distinct honour, and recognises the unfailing efforts of our usability and design experts in marrying the two elements for an optimised user experience. This award is particularly rewarding as the judges represent such a broad section of the design community. Great design crosses the boundaries between formats.” She added “The panel did not hail from the broadcast industry, yet the collective view of the judges recognised how NDS is helping consumers to navigate next generation TV services. In NDS Snowflake, they saw what the future of television could be”.

View and download images of NDS Snowflake or watch the video.

About NDS

NDS Group Ltd. creates the technologies and applications that enable pay-TV operators to securely deliver digital content to TV STBs (set-top boxes), DVRs (digital video recorders), PCs, mobiles and other multimedia devices. Over 75 of the world’s leading pay-TV platforms rely on NDS solutions to protect and enhance their businesses. VideoGuard^® is the world’s market-leading conditional access (CA) and digital rights management (DRM) technology, currently deployed on 138 million active devices, and safeguarding pay-TV service revenues exceeding $40 billion. NDS middleware, including MediaHighway^® which enables a host of advanced services for subscribers, has been deployed on 163 million devices. NDS DVR technology, centred around XTV^™, leads the global industry with 33 million units deployed. (Deployment figures as of 30th September 2010).

Headquartered in the UK, NDS remains committed to investing in R&D with over 75% of its employees dedicated to pioneering work at development centres in China, Denmark, France, India, Israel, Korea, UK and US. NDS has also implemented a host of initiatives aimed at reducing its carbon footprint and helping digital TV subscribers reduce energy consumption.

NDS Group Ltd. is a private company owned by the Permira Funds and News Corporation. See www.nds.com for more information.

Read about the latest developments at NDS and in the pay-TV industry in World Vision.

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