Third Emmy for Ericsson in digital TV

• Award in category of technology and engineering from the National Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Proof of Ericsson's technology leadership in television and entertainment
• Active Format Description technologies from Ericsson enable 70 million US families to view TV content in it's intended image format.

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) will be awarded one of the highest honors from the television industry, an Emmy® Award, for its Active Format Description technology that allows legacy analog narrow screen (4:3) sets to receive an image that is sized correctly to meet the original intent of the program producer, even when the original image was photographed in a wide screen format (16:9).

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences says it will formally present the award at a ceremony during the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2012, where Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg will deliver a keynote address.

The Active Format Description technologies and systems were created in anticipation of the need for cable operators to provide analog narrow screen TV services in parallel with the wide screen HDTV digital service in the United States

Robert Seidel, Chairman of the Engineering and Technology committee of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences says: "Ericsson and seven other companies are receiving the award in recognition of their pioneering development and implementation of the Active Format Description (AFD) technology within many of their products , as well as their evangelizing efforts to drive the industry toward an end-to-end system for AFD, thus enabling tens of millions of US households with legacy analog TVs to see the images intended by the program producer.

Per Borgklint, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Multimedia at Ericsson, said: "Without this technology, 70 million US homes that only have analog TV may only see limited sections of the picture and not the original image intended by the producer. We are immensely proud that the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has recognized our efforts in this area. This award shows our commitment to enable the progression of digital television around the world," he concluded.

This is the third Emmy award that Ericsson has received. In 2007, the OpenStream Digital Services Platform was recognized for its pivotal role in driving the growth of video-on-demand (VOD) television services. In 2008, the company's video compression group was commended for its pioneering development and deployment of MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) systems for high definition television (HDTV). Launched in 1948, the Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards honor development and innovation in broadcast technology and recognize companies, organizations and individuals for breakthroughs in technology that have a significant effect on television engineering. A blue ribbon panel of industry professionals reviews and recommends technologies and potential awardees.

Notes to editors:

Photos and bio Per Borgklint:  http://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/corporate_governance/company_management/per_borgklint

More about AFD technology

Ericsson developed and deployed the first professional-grade ATSC-to-NTSC converter/receiver implementing AFD in advance of the U.S. digital transition. This move was in anticipation of the need for cable operators to keep their analog TV service active post the discontinuance of over-the-air NTSC broadcasts. The ATSC receiver was deployed at over 50% of the cable headends in the USA offering analog TV service, making it appear to the cable headend that it is still receiving off-air analog TV signals, when in fact the receiver is converting the off-air ATSC digital TV signals to the format suitable for viewing on legacy analog (NTSC) TV sets. In the conversion process, AFD codes are used to maintain the correct picture aspect ratio and active image format (i.e., output 4:3 aspect ratio, with letterbox or center-cut image format). This is the first industry-significant implementation of AFD conversion at this point of the broadcast chain.

Our multimedia content is available at the broadcast room:www.ericsson.com/broadcast_room

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services. The company's portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices. 

Ericsson is advancing its vision of being the "prime driver in an all-communicating world" through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 90,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 203.3 billion (USD 28.2 billion) in 2010. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on NASDAQOMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.

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