Perceptual Video Quality Monitoring Solution Delivers Detailed, Real-Time Understanding of Video Service Quality

Monitors Video Quality at the Content Source, Headend, Transport Network, and the Set-Top Box

SAN JOSE, Calif. - January 14, 2008 - Symmetricom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYMM), today announced the availability of its V-FACTOR® Quality of Experience (QoE) Platform that delivers a perceptual video quality solution for cable operators. Building upon 50 years of experience in the communications industry by Symmetricom, V-FACTOR enables the monitoring of key sources of potential video and audio impairments by providing a scalable solution that accurately assesses consumer's video quality experience.

According to Jim Chiddix, a cable industry veteran and Symmetricom board member, the rapid expansion of high definition (HD) and switched and on-demand video service offerings is bringing the issue of video quality to the forefront for cable operators. "Degraded video quality and other performance issues are real-world obstacles that can quickly increase cable operators' technical support costs, create customer churn, and dramatically impact revenue streams. A comprehensive solution is needed to accurately measure video quality from content origination through the network all the way to the set-top box," Chiddix said.

As an element of the V-FACTOR QoE platform for cable operators, Symmetricom is also announcing its Q-1000 video headend analyzer. By digging deep into the actual video content, the Q-1000 examines, in real time, the quality and integrity of source video and detects any transcoding or other encoding impairments. V-FACTOR combines the Q-1000 video headend analyzer with network probes, software agents, and NOC software into a comprehensive end-to-end solution. The Q-1000 delivers specialized functionality for the headend, while Symmetricom's network probes and software agents monitor other network nodes to ensure accurate identification of video quality issues throughout the video delivery chain. Together, V-FACTOR analyzes source video, headend, network, set-top box, etc. for a complete QoE solution.

Stefan Winkler, a principal technologist in Symmetricom's QoE Assurance Division, commented, "Impairments come from various sources including source content, encoders, transcoders, video transmission/distribution, and set-top boxes. Based on the Moving Pictures Quality Metric (MPQM) model adapted specifically for end-to-end video quality scoring, our solution analyzes the actual video content, and combines content impairments with network performance data in order to precisely identify subscriber quality issues. By filtering the results though a sophisticated human vision system (HVS) model, we enable cable operators to understand what quality issues matter to consumers by providing a simple, yet highly accurate video quality score."

Symmetricom is unveiling V-FACTOR for cable at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE)'s Conference on Emerging Technologies (ET)® taking place Jan. 14-16 in Los Angeles. At the conference, Dr. Winkler is addressing the importance of QoE as a critical measure of success for IP-based video services on a panel along with industry executives from Cable Labs, Time Warner Cable, and other companies that will tackle some of the important challenges the industry faces today. The panel, entitled "Rapid Application Delivery and Service Quality Management," is Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in Los Angeles.