France Telecom has introduced the second generation of its Visiopass cable television terminal, which provides an interface to video recorders, two cable programme access card readers and a modem for pay-per-view access. The terminal, manufactured by Philips Electronics NV, is smaller and provides access using the Secam and D2-MAC protocols. Starting next year, says Jean-Pierre Coustel, director of the Visiopass product, some Paris cable operators will begin experimenting with providing high-quality audio programming on their cable channel, via the D2-MAC technology. France Telecom, which now counts 70,000 Visiopass terminals throughout France, expects the total to reach 100,000 by the end of the year. A Philips representative noted that the terminal will be adapted to PAL and satellite technologies for export.
