US-based telcos rely on Celeno's carrier-grade Wi-Fi for IPTV services

RA'ANANA, ISRAEL: Celeno Communications, a leading provider of semiconductors for multimedia Wi-Fi home networking applications, announced today multiple deployments in the United States of Celeno-enabled video bridges for whole-home HD IPTV wireless distribution. The Celeno technology has been adopted by dozens of rural broadband service providers and independent telephone operating companies across the nation, including:

* BTC Broadband (OK)
* DTC Communications (TN)
* Duo County Telephone (KY)
* Etex Telephone Cooperative (TX)
* Farmers Telephone Cooperative (SC)
* Horizon Chillicothe Telephone (OH)
* Liberty Communications (IA)
* Surry Telephone Membership Corporation (NC)
* Star Telephone Membership Corporation (NC)

Rural broadband service providers and independent telephone operating companies are aggressively delivering bundled digital (IP) TV, voice and data services, often referred to as “triple play" offerings. The combination of advanced technology with local knowledge of their customers' preferences and excellent customer service is a winning formula, helping to grow their top line and strengthen customer loyalty.

These telephone companies and cooperatives face significant challenges with respect to distribution of IPTV streams from the broadband connection in the home to televisions located around the house. Wiring the home is time-consuming, labor intensive and increases the overall cost of installation and customer acquisition.

“As a telephone co-op we want to give our members and CLEC customers the best products on the market. From our initial experience in the IPTV world, we have found that there are many home networking challenges,” commented Mike Lawson, Plant Manager, Surry Telephone Membership Corporation in Dobson, North Carolina.

“We required a solution that would enable us to reduce wiring time and to enable delivery of IPTV services in homes that can’t be rewired. Celeno's Wireless Bridge is a very cost effective and easy to use product, which has allowed us to reduce man hours of wiring in several of our installations.”

Avoiding wired technologies and leveraging wireless distribution of HD IPTV over carrier-grade Wi-Fi is becoming the solution of choice for many service providers. The Celeno-powered devices support many “Zero Touch Installation” features that allow for whole-home IPTV connectivity in merely minutes. For example, the device includes a push button for secured, easy pairing of Access Point with client devices, as well as a simple multi-color LED indicator to verify the HD capacity and robustness of the Wi-Fi connections, without having to connect to the IPTV service.

“We are very pleased with the Celeno-enabled video bridge product. The ease of set up and the flexibility it offers in difficult installs gives us more options to serve our customers,” commented Scott Floyd, Director of Sales, Product Development & Customer Services for BTC Broadband in Bixby, Oklahoma.

“At first, we considered it only for hard to wire applications and it worked great. Now we are considering the labor saving aspects of the product. Sending one technician on a three set top box install and completing the job in thirty minutes is a huge advantage.”

“Servicing our customers’ needs quickly and efficiently is our top priority. Wi-Fi for IPTV distribution helps us do just that,” said Steve Johnson, Communications and Video Service Supervisor at DTC Communications in Alexandria, Tennessee.

“The Celeno wireless solution allows us to better serve our customers by installing the service quickly in homes that are tough to wire with virtually no disruptions to our customers’ homes. It provides our customers with the flexibility to place their HDTV sets anywhere in the house and allows them to move their TVs from room to room without requiring on-site support.”

Celeno 802.11 System on Chip (SoC) is a self contained silicon and firmware solution specifically designed for streaming HD video over Wi-Fi applications. Its OptimizAIR feature set includes the first field-proven Implicit Transmit Digital Beamforming MIMO technique which enables live, concurrent streaming of multiple HD streams to the edge of the house, reliably and cost effectively. By using phased array radar like signal processing techniques it delivers the Wi-Fi signals directly to the targeted set top boxes with consistent flicker-free quality.

“It is very exciting to see the advancement in Wi-Fi technology. The reliability and consistency of the home network to support broadcast quality IPTV services is critical,” said Mark Henry, Vice President - Operations at Duo County Telephone, Coop Jamestown, Kentucky. “The Celeno product is very easy to use, and it delivers HDTV streaming quality comparable to the wired alternatives.”

“We are very excited to have been selected by dozens of service providers throughout the US,” concluded Gilad Rozen, CEO and President of Celeno. “This further validates the maturity and quality of the Celeno silicon solutions and technology.”