We would like to welcome our latest sponsor, 9×9 Networks. The nice people over at 9×9 are using XBMC as a frontend for their delivery network, and have agreed to make a reasonable annual donation to the XBMC Foundation to help us with travel expenses for conferences, accommodations for developer conventions, hardware for testing, etc. Here’s a brief introduction from COO Jack Chang:

9X9Network is the next generation TV platform known as “Cloud TV.” The 9×9 Cloud TV architecture consists of three elements: the 9×9 Player, 9X9 Interactive Program Guide (IPG); and 9X9 Network.

The 9X9 Player is a media player with a one-button channel browsing user interface (UI); analogous to traditional television’s 10-foot UI. There are three form factors of the 9×9 Player ranging from XBMC-based Windows software optionally paired with a remote control to media server.

The 9×9 IPG is an open platform for any user to set up his TV channel line-up from thousands of available TV channels. Unlike traditional TV EPG (Electronic Programming Guide), the 9×9 IPG allows a user to continually personalize his favorite 81 channels.  Users can also use email or popular social networks (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to automatically create TV channels in the 9×9 Players of his friends/followers/recipients through a function called SocialCast.

The 9×9 Network is a managed P2P CDN to deliver cached videos up to 1080p globally.

The “cloud” nature of 9×9Network allows a “Virtual MSO” to be enabled in just a matter of weeks. For example, traditional media organizations, ISPs, universities, retail chains, multi-level marketing companies, etc. can own and operate (O&O) their multi-channel TV services via the 9×9 Cloud TV.

Thanks again to everyone over at 9×9 Networks for contributing to our project and open-source in general. While we do not officially endorse any outside projects or services, we certainly appreciate them and wish them the best of luck.