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Viodi View Newsletter – May 31st, 2006

Indie Telco Local Content Workshop Advertisement

Home Network Developments

By Ken Pyle,ken.pyle at viodi.com, Managing Editor

Entone is making several product announcements at next week’s Globalcomm that addresses what Steve McKay, President and CEO of Entone, considers as the two main pain points for an operator; home wiring and home network manageability. The new gateways, the Amulet HD, Hydra HD and Magi HD are high definition set-tops that will support common compression formats including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (H.264) and VC-1.

The intriguing thing is that the Hydra HD version also supports multiple RF tuners, including QAM, QPSK, ATSC and DVB-T. This means the same basic box could be used by Verizon for their fiber deployments, AT&T for their pure IPTV or hybrid IPTV-Satellite efforts, by cable companies in HFC configurations or by European or American broadcasters for combined broadcast/Internet applications. It supports 250 or 500 GByte hard-drives, so it has plenty of PVR storage. The other big difference with this box is its use of HPNA 3.0 to distribute signals over existing coax or telephone wiring (although MOCA and Ethernet will also be supported).

The other surprising, but complementary announcement from Entone, was the Crescendo iNID. The Crescendo is intended to provide, “IP Dialtone throughout the home,” according to McKay. This device, which is currently in trial, will allow an operator to manage their network within the home and create “home wiring” options that could potentially represent new revenue streams as well as reduce operations costs by providing a better view of the entire network. This box includes a DSL modem, home router capabilities, two VoIP lines and a standard POTS line (default in case of power failure). Power can either be via the copper pair or from the residence.

That there is a market for this type of device is validated by Zhone’s announcement last week of a next generation Network Interface Device with similar capabilities to that announced by Entone. Zhone’s Indoor/Outdoor Residential Gateway also promises home connectivity two VoIP lines, two or four Ethernet ports and networking via HPNA, version 3.0. According to Steve Klein, Director of Video Solutions at Zhone, what hasn’t changed, “is the need to eliminate in-home wiring issues and get to the point where customer self-installs are possible.”

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