Entone Hydra HD Selected By HickoryTech For Advanced IPTV Services Deployment

Entone, Inc., an innovator of IPTV home connectivity solutions, announced today that its award-winning Hydra™ IP video gateway is being deployed by HickoryTech for its IPTV rollout in Minnesota.

SAN MATEO, California — Entone, Inc., an innovator of IPTV home connectivity solutions, announced today that its award-winning Hydra™ IP video gateway is being deployed by HickoryTech for its IPTV rollout in Minnesota.

HickoryTech offers integrated communication products and services to business and residential customers over a regional fiber network. Their telecom sector, with facilities in Minnesota and Iowa, offers local voice, long distance, high-speed Internet, digital TV and IP networking services to residential and business customers. Their Enventis sector provides IP-based voice, data and network solutions to businesses across a five-state region.

“Entone’s Hydra HD IP video gateway enables us to offer HD and advanced services to our subscribers while minimizing our operating expense and reducing our capital investment,” comments Damon Dutz, president of HickoryTech’s consumer and network solutions division. “Hydra’s reliability and cost savings allow us to deliver enhanced video services.”

Hydra IP video gateway is part of Entone’s Connected Home Solution that eliminates the need for multiple set-top boxes or new home wiring to deliver IPTV services. Using patent-pending technology, Hydra can deliver multiple video streams over a single DSL or Ethernet connection using existing in-home coax cabling. The result is a dramatic cost savings over single decoder IPTV set-top box solutions.

Entone’s Hydra HD IP video gateway offers high-definition video services using MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC) compression technologies. Hydra HD comes with several advance service options including HomePNA 3.0, modular Digital Video Recorder (DVR) with up to 1 Terabyte of storage, integrated Caller ID, and an ATSC tuner for receiving over-the-air broadcast television.

“We are delighted that Hydra was chosen by HickoryTech for their high-definition IPTV rollout,” states Steve McKay, CEO of Entone, Inc. “Our Hydra HD is the only solution of its kind on the market and offers profound cost savings over other set-top box offerings, especially for HD services and multi-television homes. We are extremely pleased to add HickoryTech to the roster of progressive operators using Hydra, many of which have commercially launched HD services in the first half of 2007.”