Entone Hydra IP Video Gateway Deployed With Minerva Networks' iTVManager

IPTV Market Leaders Offer Field-Proven HD/H.264 IPTV Solution

SAN MATEO, California — Entone, Inc., the innovator of IPTV home connectivity solutions, today announced that its award-winning Hydra™ IP video gateway is deployed with Minerva’s iTVManager™ middleware platform. This fully integrated solution offers service operators a more efficient and cost-effective IPTV solution that can be quickly and easily deployed to enable advanced IPTV services, such as MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC), digital video recorder (DVR), pay-per-view (PPV) and video on demand (VOD).

Entone’s Hydra IP video gateway enables service operators to distribute video signals throughout the home without the costs or installation complexities of putting a set-top box in every room or rewiring the home. Hydra dramatically improves the business case for IPTV services by reducing the CAPEX and OPEX associated with IP video deployment.

“When it comes to the rapid acceleration of IPTV, partnering with a world-class company like Minerva solidifies our presence in the market,” states Ian Jefferson, Entone’s Vice President of Business Development. “Together with Minerva, we are able to dramatically reduce the installation costs of IPTV services as compared to single set-top boxes, the net result is higher profits for the operators.”

“IPTV operators are anxious to deploy HD/H.264 to compete against cable and satellite services. Entone’s Hydra solution is unique in the market by eliminating the need for multiple set-top boxes and reducing installation costs for operators,” said Matt Cuson, Minerva Networks’ Vice President of Marketing. “Entone’s Hydra and Minerva’s open and scalable iTVManager middleware platform will help operators accelerate time to market, lower deployment risks, offer competitive core TV services and build compelling next-generation interactive TV applications.”

Hydra is the only IP video gateway commercially deployed in the market today that can deliver up to three independent video streams, with any combination of SD/HD, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC) signals, over a single DSL or Ethernet connection using existing in-home coax cabling. It supports both SD (480i/480p) and HD (720p/1080i/1080p) signals, as well as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC) and VC-1 compression formats. Entone’s Hydra is also integrated with content encryption solutions from Verimatrix and Widevine.

About Entone’s Hydra

Entone’s award-winning 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. Hydra is a multi-television IP video gateway that uses patent-pending technology to deliver multiple video streams over a single DSL or Ethernet connection using existing in-home coax cabling. It significantly reduces the costs of delivering IP television services to the home. The result is a dramatic cost savings over single decoder IPTV set-top box solutions.

Entone’s Hydra IP video gateway offers high-definition video services using MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC) compression technologies. Hydra 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.

About Minerva’s iTVManager

Minerva’s iTVManager provides the necessary tools to manage all key aspects of an IPTV service. Operations ranging from channel and media asset management to service packaging and pricing, as well as subscriber and device management, are easily performed using iTVManager. Service providers who already have a business support system (BSS) or operations support system (OSS) solution for back-office service management can easily integrate iTVManager into their platform by using a robust set of APIs. Minerva’s iTVManager automates recurring processes like EPG generation, PPV scheduling and billing and supports High Definition Television.