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Entone Debuts New 400-Series Hybrid TV Products

Entone Inc., a leading provider of hybrid TV and connected home solutions, today announced the immediate availability of its Amulet 400-series hybrid DVR and the Kamai 400-series streaming receiver for the North American market.

The new 400-series offers supreme manageability and administration functionality, while giving operators the opportunity to cost-effectively deliver a differentiating TV service that blends linear TV with cloud-based services and over-the-top (OTT) content. The 400-series update also drives more efficiency into the form factor and adds a sleek, new stylish design.

“Enhanced manageability features were an important consideration for selecting the Amulet 400,” said Tom White, EVP of Network Engineering and Operations at Consolidated Communications, the 12th largest independent local telephone company in the United States. “It addresses our goals to provide the best-of-class video service in the most efficient way possible.”

Both Amulet and Kamai easily integrate with existing home networks and allow subscribers to blend and connect to a variety of broadcast and cloud-based services—all from a single device, for a seamless user experience. They also support personal media sharing throughout a subscriber’s home via a wired or wireless network connection. Both products feature 2D and 3D graphics acceleration to support increasing demands of sophisticated user interfaces. The 400-series is compatible with popular third-party DRM and middleware.

“Our new 400-series provides end-users a much richer user experience while offering service providers the opportunity to deliver more revenue-generating services to grow their subscriber base,” said Mark Evensen, Entone founder and CTO. “The 400-series includes enhanced management and diagnostics tools that can help operators lower their operating cost and improve customer satisfaction.”

The management and administrative enhancements include:

• Automatic Configuration Server (ACS) automates the configuration and management of devices and supports flow- through provisioning of services, reducing workload and streamlining workflow.

• Quality of Experience (QoE) monitoring tools provides deep inspection of video as it’s received at subscribers’ homes, allowing operators to identify and correct network and equipment issues before they become customer complaints.

• Entone’s Ensight™ application enables customer service agents to remotely observe and control customer devices allowing agents to more quickly diagnose and correct troubles thereby shortening the duration of support calls and enhancing customer satisfaction.

The Updated Amulet 400
The refreshed Amulet 400-series blends linear TV and cloud content, and is a high-performance, hybrid DVR with modular storage options that offers flexibility for deploying whole-home DVR without the cost of additional truck rolls. New options available for Amulet include internal DVR, dual tuners and a front panel clock. Amulet also offers Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), HPNA, and HomePlug networking options. Other enhancements include a display that provides clear diagnostic codes and a single button to reset a device to default factory configuration.

The New Kamai 400
Coming to America for the first time, Entone’s compact, entry-level Kamai 400-series is optimized for delivering live broadcast and streaming applications. It offers optional ATSC or QAM tuner for broadcast reception. Kamai supports popular networking technologies such as HomePlug, MoCA, and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n). It also provides CableCARD support for compatibility with legacy conditional access systems. Kamai helps operators to defend against cannibalization from standalone OTT devices and enables operators to deliver a more compelling digital TV service.