Opera TV, a company that helps OTT apps find homes on smart TVs and other connected devices, is expected to announce Friday that it has changed its name to Vewd.

Vewd is launching the new brand to coincide with the IBC show in Amsterdam, and the name change comes 15 years after it started as Opera Software and about ten months after investment holding firm Moore Frères & Company acquired a majority, controlling stake in what used to be known as Opera TV.

RELATED: Opera TV Sings a New Tune for OTT

That latter occurrence opened up an opportunity for the rebrand and for the company to distance itself as a browser company and one that is now entirely focused on OTT and its work with device makers and service providers, Aneesh Rajaram, Vewd’s CEO, said.

“Our core focus is to enable entertainment,” he said, noting that nearly 50 million devices are now being shipped each year with Vewd’s portfolio of products. Those include connected TVs, Blu-ray players and TiVo boxes, among others.

Though deployments on smart TVs remains Vewd’s bread and butter business, it’s seeing opportunities in the pay TV sector as operators use set-tops from Arris and others to deliver OTT services.

“We see significant room for growth there,” Rajaram said. “We see this [transition] accelerating in the coming years as these pay TV operators look not to launch a full portfolio of 1,000 applications, but a limited portfolio of key OTT services that complement the linear TV experience,” he said.

The rebrand also comes about as the company sees increasing competition in its core connected TV business from companies such as Google (Android TV) and Roku.

Android TV, however, is more of a partner as 95% of TVs with that platform on board ship with Vewd product because it enables a range of critical features, Rajaram said.

“We see Roku as another ecosystem that we'd love to power with many of our OTT-enabling features,” he added.

Here’s another snapshot of produce and service news coming way of IBC, getting underway this week in Amsterdam.

RELATED: IBC 2017 News Briefs I

-Arris has introduced HomeAssure, a whole-home WiFi system for service providers that includes configurable extenders and gateways. Arris said the new system proactively optimizes WiFi by intelligently steering devices across access points on the home network for the best connection. Customers, meanwhile, will have the ability to control of their own home network and manage set-up and fix problems via a web portal or mobile app.

-Harmonic said it is helping to simplify OTT delivery by expanding media processing and workflow capabilities for its VOS platform. New workflow orchestration and delivery functionalities, including streamlined content capture, UHD support, personalized ad insertion, and multi-cloud support, have been added to its VOS Cloud media processing software and VOS 360 managed services.

-Roku said Econet Media, an African media company, has inked a Roku Powered license for the launch of a streaming TV service called Kwesé Play. Econet Media is a subsidiary of Econet Global, owner of a large fiber backbone in Sub-Saharan Africa, with and operations in more than a dozen countries.

-Opera TV has introduced a new electronic program guide for smart TV partners. The new platform supports catch-up TV, noting that it’s supporting Freeview Play, the UK-based service that combines live and catch-up content. The Freeview Play profile of the new EPG was developed in technical collaboration with Digital UK, a company closely tied to Freeview Play.

-Accedo is using the show to tout VR capabilities of its Accedo One platform, in partnership with Nokia and its OZO system, including the OZO Player SDK. Accedo said the combo will help pay TV operators, broadcasters and brands create, manage and publish video and VR experiences across multiple devices.

-Celeno Communications said its software will help power Telenet’s “Flow” WiFi management system, which self-optimizes wireless connectivity across multiple WiFi access points, extenders and gateways.

-Ericsson has signed a content services deal with DNA, a major pay TV operator and telecom operator in Finland. Under the deal, Ericsson will provide editorial services and metadata for more than 150 TV channels delivered in Finnish, English and Swedish, including content discovery on DNA’s new 4K-enabled box, the TV-hubi, which also features Chromecast built-in and integration with Google Play.

-Synaptics Inc. has launched the VideoSmart BG5CT, a 4K/HDR video processor for the set-top box market.  The sixth-gen video processor stems from a product portfolio that Synaptics recently acquired from Marvell.

-Quantenna Communications said Technicolor has adopted its QV860 chip in a dual-band extender, called the OWA0130, that will be built into WiFi gateways for service providers. The combo aims to extend WiFi coverage and produce speeds that improve over existing WiFi mesh products.

-Irdeto said its Cloaked CA (conditional access) solution has completed a review by Cartesian against the “stringent usage rules” for 4K/Ultra HD premium content. The audit focuses on content security requirements, aligned with MovieLabs’ Enhanced Content Protection (ECP) requirements and industry best practices, Irdeto said.

-Nagra has booted up OpenTV Signature Edition, a new turnkey, cloud-based and multi-tenant product set that combines the OS, experience/interface and player alongside pre-integrated set-top box hardware, including a 4K-ready box from SmarDTV, and support for third-party apps such as Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video.

-France’s Molotov.TV, an OTT subscription service, is using AWS Elemental’s Live encoders and Elemental Conductor software to power a new TV app for smartphones, PC, tablets, connected TVs as well as Apple TV and Android TV devices, and smart TVs from LG and Samsung. Molotov.TV offers a free version with 35 channels, and a paid offering with more than 70 channels that sells for less than €10 per month.

-Security specialist Nagra and Canal+, the France-based provider of pay TV services and content distribution, have renewed and expanded their content protection partnership. Under the deal, in France, Poland, Caribbean, Africa, Vietnam, Madagascar and Mauritius, Nagra will provide Canal+ with conditional access systems (smartcard-based, cardless and hybrid CAS/DRM) for multiple types of video devices, alongside a new range of anti-piracy services.

IBC is getting underway in Amsterdam this week. Here’s a snapshot of what’s on show there…

-SeaChange International said Partner Communications, an Israel-based telco and mobile services provider, has tapped the vendor’s Adrenalin video backoffice platform for a new all-IP multiscreen OTT service.

-The Streaming Video Alliance is hosting its third quarterly member meeting today in Amsterdam at Liberty Global’s European campus in the Netherlands. The SVA also announced a handful of new members: Viacom, Digital Element, Anevia SA, Viavi Solutions, and Friend MTS.

-Quantenna Communications said it’s entering the OTT set-top box sector with a set of new chipsets that are built on its 802.11ac Wave 2 technology. The QV920CX-K is a 2x4 5GHz only solution, the QV922CX-K is a 2x4 2.4GHz or 5GHz switchable solution, and the QV952CX-K is  2x2 2.4GHz or 5GHz switchable chipset.

-Espial has launched a fifth-generation of a set-top box client product that used the Reference Design Kit (RDK), the preintegrated software stack managed by Comcast, Liberty Global and Charter Communications. The new offering supports operator DevOps models that aim to accelerate product and development time. NOS of Portugal is among a group of operators that have deployed Espial’s G4 STB Client.

-Conax, a unit of Kudelski Group, has teamed up with Joyne, a new Dutch pay TV operator, and SmarDTV on service that targets viewers with second homes and mobile homes, as well as those who need their video fix in venues such as camping sites and bars. The system features Conax’s cloud-based security hub and Cardless CAM, a product developed by SmarDTV that support a lineup that features more than 50 channels, including Fox Sports HD and Discovery Networks Benelux.

-Telecable last month launched a new Android TV-based 4K box, called the “tedi,” that is made by France’s Sagemcom. The integrated tedi application, developed by Telecable, supports live TV, a network DVR, a seven-day catch-up TV service, and a VOD catalogue with more than 5,000 titles.

-NexGuard, another unit of Kudelski, updated a joint Ultra HD and High Dynamic Range content protection solution developed with Telestream. Enhancements made to the Vantage V7 Media Processing Platform eye scalability by automating the watermarking process regardless of how content is transcoded. D

-Edgeware said it can more easily track pirates on its TV content delivery network products after integrating ContentArmor’s bitstream-based forensic watermarking solution. Edgeware said it can be deployed for OTT and managed IPTV services.

-NeuLion has launched version 3 of its OTT Dashboard for quality of service monitoring. The system, being demoed at IBC, include real-time key performance indicators and consumer trend tracking data, the company said.

-Intertrust Technologies Corp. said it has expanded ExpressPlay in a way that its cloud platform now combines content protection and content management for distributors, operators and broadcasters. Intertrust said the new offering expands on its traditional ExpressPlay DRM platform, and its new offering supports ExpressPlay Universal DRM  (support for Adobe Access, Apple FairPlay, Google Widevine, Marlin DRM, and Microsoft PlayReady; ExpressPlay CA (a Marlin-based conditional access system); ExpressPlay Audience (customer data platform); and ExpressPlay Ads (a white-label ad platform that taps into data from the Audience component).

-Amino, an IP set-top box maker, said its Aria 6 hybrid TV device has been certified for Minerva 10, Minerva’s new pay TV service management platform that supports a guide, and local and cloud DVR offerings. Aria 6 supports HEVC and is capable of blending traditional and OTT video services.

-Accedo, a maker of video interfaces, has introduced its Operator Tier Android TV Launcher for pay TV partners that are running branded services that tap into devices that operate on the Android TV platform.

As Android TV picks up momentum with service providers, the world’s largest maker of set-top boxes has taken note.

Arris is using this week’s IBC show in Amsterdam to introduce a family of Android TV-powered devices that also support Ultra HD and High Dynamic Range.

Devices in Arris’s lineup that can run on Android TV include the VIP5202, VIP5402, and VIP6102W, DVB-C cable (ZC4515); DVB-T terrestrial (ZT4517); and DVB-S satellite (PS5517).

Though major MVPDs such as Comcast have taken a lot of their next-gen video work in-house, Android TV-based platforms are also taking hold with some operators around the world.

Arris is hitting on that trend with Android TV devices alongside a service layer that helps partners customize and integrate those products, while also providing validation and certification with Google and other third-party apps and deployment support across new and legacy set-tops.

"Our new set-top solutions with Android TV bring the best of Arris's global scale, services expertise and latest video technology to operators who want to deliver the future of TV to their customers," said Larry Robinson, president of Arris’s CPE unit, in a statement. "Our longstanding relationship with Google and deep experience of tailoring and integrating advanced video solutions positions Arris as the prime partner for operators around the world to launch new enhanced TV services with Android."

J:COM, Japan’s largest cable operator, has tapped Ericsson for a next-gen, multiscreen TV service that will utilize Ericsson’s cloud-powered MediaFirst platform.

J:COM’s new offering, to become available to about 3.7 million subscribers, will also feature hybrid set-tops that use the Reference Design Kit (RDK), a preintegrated software stack that’s managed by a joint venture of Comcast, Liberty Global and Charter Communications (coming way of Charter’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable).

RELATED: Ericsson Connects With The RDK

In addition to providing personalization features and a cloud-based interface, the new platform will also support Ultra HD content, they said.

Ericsson, which announced the deal ahead of this week’s IBC show in Amsterdam, said the basic design phase for J:COM’s new offering will get underway in Q4 2017.

The deal marks a significant win for Ericsson’s MediaFirst platform, which is also being used by Canada’s Telus for a new IPTV service called Pik TV that runs on smartphones, tablets and an Android TV-powered set-top.

RELATED: Telus Soft-Launches Skinny Bundle IPTV Service

“Consumers have more choice than ever before and it is therefore imperative that we stand out from the crowd to remain competitive in an ever-cluttered TV landscape, Hirohiko Imura president of J:COM, said in a statement. “We believe that a seamless and personalized TV Everywhere service will enable J:COM to create that distinction. By deploying Ericsson MediaFirst TV Platform, we will have access to a range of uniquely intelligent, high performance solutions that will help us to transform our television offering and strengthen our position at the forefront of TV innovation.”