Entropic Communications Announces Its Channel Stacking Switch Technology Supports ASTRA'S Single Cable LNB Specifications

Thursday, June 12th, 2008
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Channel Stacking Switch Technology Dramatically Simplifies Installation and Reduces Costs

SAN DIEGO — Entropic Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTR), a leading provider of silicon solutions to enable connected home entertainment, today announced that its Channel Stacking Switch products support the ASTRA Single Cable Low Noise Block (LNB) down converter technical specification. This news follows ASTRA’s recent release of their specifications for Single Cable LNBs. SES-ASTRA drives industry requirements and standards to ensure end-user quality-of-service and is the leading provider of DTH satellite services in Europe.

ASTRA Single Cable Specification

ASTRA LNB specifications are closely followed and widely adopted by leading DBS Pay-TV Operators as the standard their customer premise equipment (CPE) suppliers need to meet. “ASTRA has a long history of driving open standards to support Europe’s growing satellite subscriber base,” stated Thomas Wrede, Vice President of Product Management Media at SES ASTRA. “The Single Cable LNB recommendations will improve end-user experience as they will facilitate the cost-effective delivery of high volumes of programming to multiple satellite receivers and households via one single coaxial cable.”

In addition to supporting the strategies of DBS Pay-TV Operators, ASTRA technical recommendations also provide specifications for ensuring plug and play interoperability and an excellent customer experience for the Free To Air (FTA) market. “ASTRA’s technical recommendations make installation convenient and universal which ensures the retail success of our products,” commented John Scott, Business Director, Europe LNB Business Group at Microelectronic Technologies Inc. (MTI). “We look forward to working with Entropic to develop single cable solutions to support Europe’s FTA market.”

ASTRA’s Single Cable Specifications, along with the recently released single cable communications standard, CENELEC EN50494, continue to solidify the industry need to provide low cost, high quality and reliable DBS solutions to support the growing satellite-viewing customer demand for easy access to multimedia content and HD programming.

Benefits of Channel Stacking Technology

The increase in HD content and the wide adoption of Personal Video Receivers (PVRs) in the home is driving the need to be able to easily and cost-effectively support multiple tuners. In a traditional DBS installation, a unique cable is required for each tuner from the satellite dish to the set-top-box creating significant cable complexity and cost. With an ASTRA-compliant Single Cable LNB system, installations are simplified by stacking up to twelve user-band channels down a single cable that can be used to support up to twelve tuners within the home.

Entropic’s Channel Stacking Switch (CSS) ICs are compliant with ASTRA’s Single Cable LNB Specifications and allow satellite operators to deliver cost-effective satellite programming to their subscribers. CSS enables multiple video streams from individual or multiple satellites into the home over a single cable. This simplified cabling architecture reduces both the cost and the cabling complexity of single family and multi-resident home DBS installations. Further, Channel Stacking Switches enable future customer-installed plug and play set-top box upgrades and the deployment of set-top boxes, with multiple tuner capabilities, in multiple rooms without the need for expensive installation or retrofitting.

“We are pleased with the release of ASTRA’s Single Cable LBN Specification,” said John Graham, VP of Marketing at Entropic Communications. “Our Channel Stacking Switch solutions support these ASTRA LNB requirements and will allow consumers to receive content from ASTRA satellites throughout Europe and beyond with the same quality of service they have come to expect from ASTRA’s Universal LNB standard.”