Industry Announcements Home page ›› November 2007 Monthly Archive

November 28, 2007

SMITH MICRO SOFTWARE'S CONSUMER GROUP LAUNCHES DIGITAL TV 4 PC (DTV4PC)

An Innovative Way to Watch TV On Your PC, Offering Over 1,000 Channels With No Monthly Fee

ALISO VIEJO, CA - November 28, 2007 - Smith Micro Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMSI) Compression and Consumer Group today launched DTV4PC, an exciting software program which turns the computer into a digital entertainment center. DTV4PC brings over 1,000 television stations directly to any PC without paying for subscription, pay-per-view or recurring fees.

Over a thousand local, regional, national and international broadcasters can now be easily located and "tuned," providing users immediate online access to a huge variety of programming including sports, news, music, videos, movies and much more. The intuitive software also features the DTV Radio Player that gives users full access to over 2,000 live radio stations from around the world.

"Since the advent of television in the late 1930s, standalone television sets have been a dominant source for entertainment and up-to-date information, but now consumers have a choice," said David Polzine, Senior Product Manager at Smith Micro Software, Inc. "Today, thanks to the Internet, users have access to live and pre-recorded programming on thousands of stations aggregated through digital and satellite signals via their computers. And because it makes locating and watching content effortless, DTV4PC is the perfect solution for everyone from traveling business professionals to busy college students who rely on mobile computing options."

DTV4PC provides an innovative way to find and watch TV from virtually anywhere, whether in the comfort of the home, office, hotel room or even the airport. This innovative software provides easy access to a broad range of programming from primetime TV to sports, movies and children's programs. With DTV4PC there is much more in store for consumers in terms of entertainment at their computer desktops, without the need to pay any on-going fees for access

Key Features of DTV4PC:

Movies & Entertainment - An enormous selection of channels including drama, action, comedy, romance and more. The software even allows viewing of foreign, educational films and documentaries.

Music &Videos - Users can view the hottest music videos, concerts and special events from the world's most popular artists and tune in to over 2,000 radios stations.

Sports - DTV4PC offers a variety of channels showcasing baseball, soccer, football, basketball, tennis, auto racing, etc. With DTV4PC, users have access to premium international sports channels not readily available in the United States.

Premium Channels - Includes a broad range of channels featuring the most popular programming on the worldwide airwaves available with no pay-per view fees, or hidden charges. A small sample of these channels include Comedy Central, ESPN, Fox, ABC News, Discovery Channel, MTV Overdrive, EuroTV, Vintage Cartoons, Food Network, National Geographic, Rapture TV, Broadway Network and the Game Network.

National and Local News, Weather and Politics - Includes dozens of channels with the latest news, weather and politics from all over the country and around the world. Users get channels such as ABC, Fox, NBC and various PBS affiliates with uncensored 24-hours a day access to local news even while on the road.

Children's Channels - Access to special children programs including cartoons and family shows from all over the world.

Pricing, Availability and Requirements

The MSRP for DTV4PC is $29.99. The application is available at the Smith Micro web store at www.mysmithmicro.com/win/dtv4pc/ as well as popular retailers, catalogs and distribution partners worldwide.

System Requirements

DTV4PC supports Microsoft Windows Vista, XP and 2000. 20MB of disk space are required for installation. No TV card is required. Windows Media Player or Real Player is required.

To learn more about DTV4PC and our complete line of software, visit: http://mysmithmicro.com.


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Connexion Selects BitBand for deployment in the US

MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA AND CARY, NORTH CAROLINA - (November 27, 2007) – BitBand, a leading provider of video delivery solutions for broadband IP networks, has been selected to supply its IPTV video servers to Connexion Technologies, the premier fiber-optic amenity company. Through the agreement, BitBand Technologies will help Connexion Technologies provide multi-dwelling residences and communities with advanced entertainment packages delivered over a single Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network.


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Connexion Technologies deploys fiber-optic infrastructures for properties in the US. The company designs, installs and operates the networks and provides a one-stop-shop for real estate developers and communities. Utilizing BitBand's solution allows Connexion Technologies to enable and immediately deploy on-demand IPTV applications and business models.
The agreement with Connexion Technologies further expands BitBand's footprint in the US telecommunications market, as Connexion Technologies demonstrates an accelerated growth in deploying FTTH.
"As our lifestyles change along with advancements in technology, our aim is to offer home owners and residences the best of breed telecommunications and media infrastructure," said Tolga Erkmen, VP of Product Planning for Connexion Technologies. "We selected BitBand's field-proven technology to achieve rapid implementation of on-demand IPTV service infrastructure to meet our distributed infrastructure requirements."
"FTTH networks enable the deployment of TV, Internet and telephony services over a single high capacity network that can easily accommodate high volume transmission of content. This caters to the subscribers' increasing large-content consumption habits and also enhances the quality of their interactive TV experience," said Nati Lavi, vice president, US operations, BitBand Inc. "We predict a growing demand and adoption of this FTTH solution developed with Connexion Technologies and look forward to continuing our work with Connexion Technologies as they roll out advanced TV services throughout the US."
About BitBand
BitBand's (www.bitband.com) advanced video delivery solutions over IP broadband networks help Next Generation Service Providers and Telcos realize the Triple Play offering, enabling quick entry into new markets, faster ROI and a safe track to profitable large scale service. The company's solutions are targeted at large scale deployments of TV-centric residential subscribers and feature high-scale streaming and robust performance optimized for hybrid and distributed network architectures.
BitBand's On Demand IPTV solutions form the most scalable and cost-effective solution existing today for the IPTV environment, including BitBand ISIS™ automated Video Delivery Network, BitBand Maestro™ Content Distribution and Video Network Management Suite and BitBand Vision™ appliance servers. BitBand's technology is field proven and widely deployed, serving more than 750,000 commercial subscribers worldwide. Additionally, BitBand partners with system integrators and suppliers of other components of the IPTV value chain to provide the operator with a complete end-to-end solution.
About Connexion Technologies
Connexion Technologies is the country's premier fiber-optic amenity company. It invests its capital to design, build and operate Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks in single family, multi family, high rise, resort and hospitality properties nationwide. Its award-winning, state-of-the-art networks deliver an unsurpassed technology experience and enable developers to sell units at a faster velocity. By aligning its partners with leading service providers, Connexion Technologies offers the best in enhanced television, telephone, Internet, and security monitoring services. By offering a complete suite of entertainment and communication applications at the speed of light, Connexion Technologies creates A Better Connection SM with its one-source technology solution. The company is based in Cary, North Carolina. It was established in 2002 and is located in 17 offices throughout the country. For more information, visit www.connexiontechnologies.net.

November 27, 2007

Wowza Media Systems

Wowza Media Systems announced today that Rambla (www.rambla.be), a
cutting-edge Belgian CDN predominantly based on open-source solutions, is
now using Wowza Media Server™ Pro, its award-winning commercial Flash
streaming server software, as Rambla’s chosen platform for Flash media
streaming services.

“While we built our CDN mostly on the open source platforms, Wowza’s
commercial server was the only practical choice for streaming Flash,” said
Jo Martens, Managing Director, Rambla. “Wowza gave us the rapid
time-to-market we needed to satisfy the market demand with a reliable and
scalable solution. We are delighted with the Wowza Pro performance,
reliability and even more importantly with the world-class support Wowza
provides.”

The Rambla deal represents a growing trend in the number of service
providers now streaming live and on-demand Flash content on the Wowza
platform and reaffirms Wowza Pro’s undeniable value to a wide range of
service providers. This deal comes on the heels of Wowza’s other recently
announced service provider wins in Europe, Japan and North America.

Among the highlights of the Rambla deployments:
• Top interactive advertising agencies use the Rambla CDN and Wowza Flash
streaming to create rich media environments for customers like Microsoft,
Grohe, and Neckermann.

• Rambla customer Aristo Music (www.aristomusic.be) is using Wowza Media
Server Pro to stream its revolutionary new Internet radio service that
sets the mood at hotels, restaurants and cafes throughout Belgium with
selections from Aristo’s 30,000+ song library.

• Wowza Pro’s exceptional stability and scalability, along with its
SecureToken anti-ripping protection, assures Rambla’s customers like
CarChannel.be of highly reliable and secure 24x7 Flash streaming.
“It’s very exciting for us to partner with a company like Rambla which has
a long history of innovation and an incredibly impressive roster of
customers,” said David Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-Founder, Wowza Media
Systems. “Rambla is truly on the cutting-edge of rich media content
delivery, and it’s wonderful to count them as our Streaming Partner.”

About Wowza Media Systems
Wowza Media Systems, a software company headquartered in San Jose, CA, is
a developer of interactive streaming media server software. Its flagship
product, Wowza Media Server Pro, features an innovative server
architecture that delivers unmatched performance, functionality, and
scalability at a total cost of ownership up to 80% less than the leading
alternative, Adobe Flash Media Server. Wowza Media Server Pro enables
customers like Macy’s, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Thomson Learning,
Interoute, and Julius Blum GmbH to deliver interactive and entertaining
Flash applications and content, including video on demand, live video
distribution, video recording, and chat, and is finding application in a
broad range of industries, including entertainment, social media,
advertising, enterprise, education, government, and Internet commerce. For
more information, visit Wowza Media Systems at www.wowzamedia.com.

# # #


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November 26, 2007

IPTV World Forum Middle East And Africa 2007 Sets New Standards In The

Last month's inaugural IPTV World Forum Middle East and Africa 2007, was
an unprecedented success with the show attracting over 700 attendees,
who were able to see over 20 exhibiting companies from across the region
(www.iptv-mea.com).

Key speeches came from Khaled Taha, Director of Technology for Al
Jazeera Network; Marc-Antoin d'Halluin, President and CEO for Show Time
Arabia, UAE; Mohammad Byouk, Senior Manager of Consumer Multimedia and
IPTV for Qatar Telecom; Alessandro Petazzi, Director of IPTV Marketing
and Content for FASTWEB and Dr Cebrail Taskin, IPTV Program Leader for
Turk Telecom.

"This has been one of our most successful debuts in a new region" said
Ian Johnson, Managing Director of Junction "The growing IPTV market in
the Middle East and Africa helped to increase interest in this year's
event and with nearly all exhibitors already signed up for next years
show, we are confident it will be bigger and better than 2007".

Next year's event will be held at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai from
the 3rd to the 4th of November 2008, and will incorporate new streams on
top of IPTV and Mobile TV.

An early booking discount is available until the 29th of September 2008
and free exhibition passes are available by registering online.


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November 18, 2007

SyncTV Launches Beta of 'Unlimited Download' Service for TV Shows

Home-theater Quality Downloads Play Back on Windows PCs, Macs and Linux
PCs; TVs and Portable Players in Future

San Jose CA, November 19th 2007 - SyncTV (www.synctv.com) today
announced the private beta launch of its TV download service, which will
provide home-theater quality TV shows on an unlimited download basis.
Completely based on open-standards, the SyncTV service works on Windows
PCs, Macs and Linux PCs, and in the future it will also work on TVs and
portable players.

SyncTV's program library is organized by channels, some of which, like
Showtime(r), will already be familiar to viewers. Once subscribed to a
particular channel, viewers can download any show made available on that
channel, which in many cases will include every episode of every season
of a particular show. There is a small monthly fee for each subscribed
channel, though a minority of channels will make their content available
on a pay-per-download basis, rather than through subscriptions.

Those interested in signing up to the private beta can request
participation through the SyncTV homepage at www.synctv.com. Qualifying
beta-testers can then download the media player free of charge to their
PC or Mac to gain access to a rich library of TV content that is
available. As the SyncTV beta continues, there will be even more
content available from major channels and networks, creating one of the
deepest libraries of TV shows available anywhere.

The video and audio quality of SyncTV programming will be the highest
available through Internet download. The minimum video quality of all
the content is comparable to the same content on DVD, and where
possible, HD content will be available across the different channels.
SyncTV will also have programming available in discreet 5.1 Dolby(r)
Digital Plus surround sound, which is being used at the highest
available settings.

SyncTV allows you a great deal of flexibility in how you play back the
TV shows you download. You can play back shows on up to five 'home'
devices, which means PCs/Macs now and other home entertainment devices
in the future. Upon availability of compatible portable devices, SyncTV
will allow you to specify an additional ten portable devices for
playback.

SyncTV has developed an open platform, which makes it easy for
manufacturers and application developers to create products to support
it. To facilitate development, SyncTV will make its protocols and data
formats available to developers and is using Marlin, an open-standards
Digital Rights Management (DRM) system. More information about new
partners and products will be announced in the coming months.

To stay in touch with SyncTV news, including details of new channels and
new device compatibility, read the SyncTV blog at www.synctv.com/blog.


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November 17, 2007

IPTV World Forum Latin America Continues To Succeed In Brazil

Brazil - home to one of the world's most vibrant economies and a leader
in the adoption of IPTV technology - is to host January's IPTV World
Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (www.iptv-latinamerica.com).

The event is being staged at The Intercontinental Hotel in Rio de
Janeiro in Brazil from the 29th to the 30th of January 2008. The show
comes at a time when the Americas are showing phenomenal IPTV growth -
up fourfold in the last two years alone*. It will explore the challenges
and the potential for IPTV in Latin America and the issues surrounding
its deployment within the region.

Exhibitors will include Verimatrix, Juniper Networks, Harris, Oracle
Communications and Telergy; with key note speeches from some of the
leading figures within the telecommunications industry including Carlos
Watanabe, Director of Business Development & Video Communication of
Brazil Telecom; Aldo Labra, Business Development Manager of Telefonica
del Sur, Chile; Juan Vasquz, Vice President of Corporate Strategy for
Marcos Mandarano, IPTV Director of Comsat International, Brazil; and
Andres Betancur, Director of IPTV for EPM Telecomunicaciones, Columbia.

"With the ever growing number of IPTV users around the globe, this event
will be crucial in determining Latin America's role within its
development" said Ian Johnson, Managing Director of Junction. "With
talks from those directly involved in local regulatory issues to
Internet Service Providers, broadcasters and major content players, this
year's event is set to furthermore increase IPTV's presence within Latin
America".

An early booking discount is still available until the 14th of December
and free exhibition passes are available by registering online.

The IPTV World Forum Latin America is part of the world series of
industry leading events run by the Junction Group.

Junction Ltd. is a leading specialist in events for the digital
technology market. Its expertise includes home networking, IPTV, digital
radio, interactive TV advertising and mobile TV.


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November 15, 2007

CNN invests in worldwide Newsgathering

TimeWarner_logo.jpg

Reversing a decade long slide for the five major networks of relying on affiliates for more source content, CNN Worldwide announced yesterday they will significantly increase the number of reporters and technology from London too the United Arab Emirates as well as a number of other countries in the Asia pack region.


"This is all about owning more content; these new resources will have a huge impact across all of CNN's networks and platforms," said Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International.


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November 13, 2007

Peter Low, Former MTV Networks Executive Vice President, Joins Ensequence as President and Chief Operating Officer

NEW YORK — November 12, 2007 — Ensequence, the interactive television company, today announced the appointment of television industry veteran Peter Low as president and chief operating officer. Low will be based in New York City and will work closely with cable and satellite distributors, television programmers and the advertising community. Dalen Harrison will continue in his role as Ensequence chief executive officer, and Low will report directly to Harrison.

“Peter Low’s appointment signals a major shift in the industry. I am pleased that a television veteran with broad and extensive expertise has recognized the shift toward interactive television and wants to be part of our expanding team,” said Dalen Harrison, Ensequence CEO. “Television is new again, and interactive television is now going mainstream. Peter shares our excitement about the substantial results our customers are seeing from their interactive television initiatives.”

Ensequence transforms television into an interactive medium across a broad range of devices, now reaching 32 million homes and millions of broadband and mobile subscribers worldwide. Since 2006, Ensequence has produced more than 25 interactive television advertising campaigns for worldwide brands including Nike, Sony Playstation, Ford and Toyota. Ensequence also worked with Brightline Partners to build a campaign for Reebok, which allowed television viewers to purchase Reebok products directly from their remote control – a first for the United States market. In the programming space, Ensequence developed a number of interactive television projects such as the award-winning Major League Baseball Mosaic and the Top Chef interactive television program for Bravo.

“It’s a perfect time to join such a cutting edge company,” said Low. “The industry is more focused than ever on the promise of interactivity, and Ensequence is the company that can help distributors, programmers and advertisers increase their revenues and connect even more powerfully with their customers. I’m thrilled.”

Low has an extensive background in television spanning more than 25 years with expertise in programming and distribution. He was most recently executive vice president of cable distribution and marketing for MTV Networks and BET Networks, where he led cable distribution efforts for all 26 of the MTV and BET branded channels. In addition, Low was responsible for negotiating all large distribution agreements and developed the strategy that resulted in the most extensive digital channel launch in the industry.

Prior to his position with MTV and BET, Low served as vice president of programming for CableVision. While there, he built a consumer-driven programming lineup and was responsible for negotiating programming deals and maximizing package revenues. Low currently serves on the board of Cable Positive and The Jazz Foundation of America. He holds a bachelor's degree from Columbia University



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November 10, 2007

Mirial successfully showcased first-in-class HD 720p SIP video desktop client for PC

Milan, 9 November 2007 – Italy-based Mirial (formerly DyLogic) successfully showcased a live demo of its Mirial Softphone at the past Fall VON in Boston, generating noticeable interest and receiving enthusiastic feedbacks from the attendants. The product was launched in June 2007 and is the first software only SIP/H323 PC client to fully support HD 720p and the H264 video compression technology up to 2Mbits.

“High definition is spreading throughout a variety of entertainment forms” comments Cristoforo Mione, Sales and Marketing Director for Mirial. “Mirial Softphone brings all the advantages of a next generation technology to the professional space, introducing a new concept of visual communication and collaborative work. During the Fall VON we could successfully demonstrate the huge potential of HD, performing live video calls with a sharp, impressive video quality - all of this just using a laptop and one of the most diffused HD video conferencing equipments. This means that enterprises of any size, in any industry can integrate Mirial Softphone and start taking advantage of the benefits of video conferencing in no time, plus they can easily and cost effectively enhance their existing communication network with high definition and collaborate or deal with colleagues, partners, prospects and customers wherever they are, sending and receiving a crystal-clear video. Mirial Softphone is the only soft-client product in the market allowing to achieve 720p video quality ".

More information on Mirial Softphone are available at www.mirial.com
About Mirial (formerly DyLogic) Mirial engineers cutting-edge products for audio and video communication over convergent networks. The company portfolio includes a comprehensive set of solutions targeted to carriers, service providers and enterprises, which enable the development of hosted 3G, IP and IMS audio/video services and professional SD and HD videoconferencing. Mirial products and solutions are available at the company’s
sales representatives and resellers worldwide.

For further information: www.mirial.com


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November 7, 2007

KULABYTE™ ANNOUNCES NEW SD AND HD LIVE ENCODING BROADCAST APPLIANCE PRODUCT FOR REALTIME WEB STREAMING

SAN JOSE, CA – Kulabyte™, a leading provider of advanced audio and video processing technologies, today announced that it will be launching a revolutionary real time series of broadcast appliances, Express GreenStream the industry’s first VP6 and H.264 live video encoding appliance for full SD and soon, HD resolutions. This new solution uses Kulabyte’s patent-pending TimeSlice™ video encoding technology to deliver 2 pass VBR qualities in live encoding and streaming environments in a lightweight, ½ half- width, 1RU box with solid state storage and low power multi-core CPU’s. Express GreenStream uses only 50 watts of power at peak load. The company made the announcement today at the Streaming Media West Conference in San Jose, California. Kulabyte will be showing the Express GreenStream prototype and demonstrating its live streaming and transcoding solutions at the SMW exhibition, in Booth # 625.

The Kulabyte Express encoding solutions enable faster-than-real-time video encoding, providing noticeably better picture quality and significant bandwidth savings, while utilizing industry standard codec engines. Media creators can encode, and distribute digital content at speeds more than 12 times as fast as the industry-standard codecs alone, and deliver higher picture qualities in live streaming applications.

A three-year old start-up company, Kulabyte is developing its patent-pending TimeSlice™ video encoding technology for a wide variety of applications. The company has introduced early versions of the technology at previous NAB and IBC industry conferences, as well as at other industry trade shows. The company has announced engagements previously with leading microprocessor company AMD, as well as On2 Technologies, Adobe and BlueFish 444.

“Express GreenStream is a turnkey targeted solution that allows users the to simultaneously stream and archive live streams to the network via dual-gigabit NIC’s. It is designed to meet the needs of live event productions, sports and event web casters, newsgathering stations and security surveillance providers,” said Chris Gottschalk, co-founder and CTO for Kulabyte. “The Kulabyte Express products remove the encoding time bottleneck, whether the application is encoding to file or live streaming for Internet, or mobile networks.”


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November 1, 2007

IneoQuest Provides Quality and Service Assurance Solutions for SureWest Communications

IQ_logo.jpg

MANSFIELD, Mass.– Nov. 5, 2007 – IneoQuest Technologies, Inc., the leader in Multi-Dimensional Video Quality Management Systems and global provider of advanced quality and service assurance solutions for IP Video, today announced that leading independent telecommunications holding company SureWest Communications (NASDAQ: SURW) has selected and deployed IneoQuest service probes as part of its ongoing commitment to provide outstanding quality of experience (QoE) to the large video subscriber base of its SureWest Broadband subsidiaries in the Sacramento region.

SureWest, which owns one of the largest providers of pure fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connections in the United States, initially relied upon IneoQuest’s award-winning Cricket service probe to help evaluate and test video performance on the SureWest Broadband IP Video vendor equipment (BMR encoders, encryptors, routers, DSLAMs, modems, etc.) in its test labs. These IneoQuest products also have played an active role in the evaluation performance testing of hardware from such vendors as Occam, Allied Telesyn and Cisco.

"IneoQuest hardware, primarily the G1-T, has been incorporated into the test and evaluation phase of most vendor hardware that we are considering for purchase,” says Scott Barber, vice president of network operations for SureWest. “The IneoQuest gear helps us evaluate a vendor’s claims by delivering real-life field results. Most recently, IneoQuest’s service probes allowed us to capture the data needed to analyze and identify any quality issues while working with a new encryption vendor on its broadcast units.”

Impressed with the features offered by IneoQuest products, SureWest has elected to use the IneoQuest probes beyond its test lab—at the homes of IP Video subscribers. This strategy has enabled SureWest to reduce operational expenses (OPEX) related to dispatching service technicians for trouble calls and has improved the ability to install residential IPTV services with little delay.

“Prior to this new technology offered by IneoQuest, customer video issues would require us to dispatch a technician to monitor picture quality and wait for something to happen. This was difficult, because there was no guarantee that the problem would repeat itself, and no way to accurately monitor the events leading up to the problem,” Barber said. “We began strategically placing the Cricket probes at targeted homes where it was necessary to monitor the incoming video feed.”

Using IneoQuest’s Cricket, a compact piece of hardware that fits neatly above a subscriber’s set-top box, SureWest Broadband now has a real-time solution that empowers both the video provider and the customer. “Each Cricket features a call button that a subscriber can press as soon as a picture quality issue starts,” Barber said. “We can set up thresholds to automatically capture the video feed, and allow the customer to manually hit the button to record the feed if they see an anomaly. This reduces the expenses associated with the customer call center and the truck roll—and more importantly, the customer has control over the situation.”

In an industry where customer retention is the key to continued success, a solution that emphasizes quality of experience is a true market differentiator. “IneoQuest’s products are unique in that they address two challenges within the IPTV marketplace: improvement of viewer quality of experience, and the reduction of operational expenses,” said Marc A. Todd, president and CEO of IneoQuest. “We are extremely pleased that SureWest Communications has found a value in our quality and service assurance products—both in and out of the test lab.”

About IneoQuest Technologies

IneoQuest Technologies, Inc., the leader in Multi-Dimensional Video Quality Management Systems, is a global provider of advanced quality and service assurance solutions for IP Video, serving customers in the telephony, cable, broadcast and network equipment industries worldwide. The company enables its customers with unique combinations of hardware, software and services to design, build, deploy, and manage IPTV networks. Headquartered in Mansfield, Massachusetts, IneoQuest has sales operations in the US, Asia and European regions. More information is available at www.IneoQuest.com

About SureWest

Serving the Northern California region for more than 90 years, SureWest Communications (www.surewest.com) is one of the nation's leading integrated communications providers. SureWest's bundled offerings include an array of advanced digital video, high-speed Internet, local and long distance telephone, and wireless PCS. SureWest's fiber-to-the-premise IP-based network features high-definition video and symmetrical Internet speeds of up to 50 Mbps.

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