Minerva and Avail Media Drive IPTV Market Growth in North America

More than 20 operators have installed joint solution for deploying IPTV services

SANTA CLARA, CA — Minerva Networks and Avail Media today announced that they have already installed a joint solution that greatly simplifies the deployment of IPTV services at 23 North American sites. PorchLight Communications in Colorado Springs, the most recent operator to deploy the Minerva/Avail solution, is offering IPTV services in El Paso and Teller Counties over their state-of-the-art, quad-play FTTH network.

The end-to-end solution, which combines Minerva’s iTVManager platform with Avail Media’s content distribution services, enables operators to deploy IPTV quickly and cost-effectively by drastically reducing head-end costs and providing access to compelling content delivered over a proven platform.

Avail Media offers a full content lineup of both on-demand and live television programming, featuring hundreds of channels, all quality-encoded in MPEG-4 SD and HD formats, encrypted, and ready for delivery over a broadband network without the need for any head-end processing. Minerva’s iTVManager platform, combined with certified set-top boxes and video servers, enables operators to manage the Avail Media content and offer a complete set of television services, including high-definition television (HDTV), personal video recording (PVR), video-on-demand (VOD), music, games, and communications applications.

“We tried to deploy services with a competing middleware platform,” said Corey Smith, CTO of PorchLight Communications. “We switched to Minerva once we realized their best-of-breed service management platform is fully-integrated with the Avail Media content offering.”

“Avail Media is pleased that the combination of the Avail Media platform and Minerva middleware application is enabling our customers to have products and services that create a competitive advantage in market,” stated Ramu Potarazu, CEO of Avail Media. “We look forward to future developments that will continue to enable our existing affiliates as well as new customers.”

“The Avail Media services drastically reduce the barriers to entry for a large number of operators,” said Mauro Bonomi, CEO of Minerva Networks. “They have proven to be a great partner for Minerva and we look forward to a growing the number of joint deployments in the coming months.”