AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, Sept. 9, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (IBC2011; Stand 3.A41) -- Entropic Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTR), a leading provider of silicon and software solutions to enable connected home entertainment, today announced the first public demonstration of its complete MoCA® (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) 2.0 solution. Entropic's newest chipset empowers the next evolution in home networking by answering the growing demand for powerful connectivity within homes throughout the world. Entropic's MoCA 2.0 solution will satisfy the long-term, whole-home digital networking needs of European operators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and consumers by providing unsurpassed throughput, enhanced reliability, new power management features, better security, and backwards interoperability to prior MoCA standards.
A recent report from IHS Screen Digest, "Next-generation Television: The Need for Home Networking in Europe," found the number of households in Europe with more than one TV has grown by 50 percent between the end of 2005 and 2011. This change in TV viewing dynamics, coupled with the need for European operators to be more competitive than ever, will spur the deployment of a home network to satisfy growing subscriber expectations. As such, operators will need to deploy proven connected home entertainment technologies that enable greater revenues, attract new subscribers, lower customer churn and increase loyalty by delivering advanced services that reach these additional TVs along with mobile video devices.
"European viewing habits in the home are starting to transition from a single viewing location - the primary set-top box connected to the main living room TV - towards multiple TV sets, which is more often seen in North American households. As operators try to reach several TVs in each home, the opportunity for home networking increases," said Tom Morrod, senior principle analyst for TV technology at IHS Screen Digest. "Key considerations for operators looking to deploy a home networking technology are achievable speed and reliability or packet loss, since unlike consumer technologies, operators will usually be charging their subscribers for installing a professional network and will aim to avoid additional high-cost truck rolls."
As the recognized pioneer in MoCA development and deployment, Entropic built on its successful MoCA 1.1/1.0 products to make MoCA 2.0 the next key enabling technology that delivers a 'no excuses' whole-home network for high definition (HD) video and streaming media services — all over existing coax in the home. Offered as a complete end-to-end MoCA 2.0 solution with MAC, PHY, analog, RF transceiver and RF front-end functionality, MoCA 2.0 provides 400 Mbps of application throughput in its basic configuration, and is scalable to support 500 Mbps Turbo mode and 800 Mbps /1 Gbps in channel bonded modes. These capabilities make it the highest performing home networking solution available today; delivering more than twice the speeds of existing MoCA solutions. Additionally, by using the latest 40nm semiconductor wafer processes, Entropic's solution transforms current coaxial infrastructure into a highly-efficient, affordable and reliable whole-home entertainment network, ready to meet the new video delivery demands required by the convergence of broadcast and broadband networks.
Entropic's MoCA 2.0 solution provides new opportunities to operators, OEMs, and consumers:
- Operators: With virtually unconstrained throughput available, European operators can easily migrate to an all IP video home network to lower costs and create a more captivating consumer experience that can attract new subscribers and lower customer churn. Entropic's MoCA 2.0 solution is fully backwards interoperable with previous MoCA 1.x investments, allowing for the seamless deployment of new services such as multi-room DVR, backbone Wi-Fi extension, personal content sharing, streaming Video on Demand, 3DTV programming, HD video conferencing and home security/surveillance systems.
- OEMS: Always looking to bring higher value to operators and consumers, Entropic's MoCA 2.0 solution enables service provider OEMs to offer innovative technology for advanced IP media gateways and feature-rich set-top boxes that support features like remote user interfaces and Internet connected applications. For consumer electronics OEMs, Entropic's MoCA 2.0 solution offers an extremely reliable and high throughput connection for devices such as connected Blu-ray players, MoCA to Ethernet bridges, game consoles and televisions supporting over-the-top video, remote user interfaces and advanced Internet applications.
- Consumers: With a whole-home MoCA 2.0 backbone, consumers get future-proof bandwidth which can be used to reliably stream movies, videos, photos and other content throughout the home; quickly connect to online sites such as YouTube and Facebook from any Internet connected consumer appliance like TVs and game consoles; access over-the-top TV services from Blinkbox - all with a reliable and enjoyable customer experience.
"As European consumers add more screens to their home, operators and OEMs can monetize a proven home networking standard to create new strategies — based on Entropic's MoCA platform — that enable higher quality services to deliver rewarding consumer TV viewing experiences," said Patrick Henry, president and CEO of Entropic Communications, Inc. "We believe MoCA 2.0's benefits and features — for operators, OEMs, and consumers, whether in North America or Europe — will be one of the most critical underlying technologies in whole-home networking."
Entropic MoCA 2.0 Highlights:
- Net throughput (MAC) rates of 400 Mbps over 16 nodes and 500 Mbps for two-node Turbo mode
- Channel bonding to support 800 Mbps over 16 nodes and up to 1Gbps for channel bonded Turbo mode
- Full backward interoperability with MoCA 1.1 and 1.0
- Expanded range of operating frequencies: 500 MHz - 1625 MHz
- Low power modes - sleep and standby to address energy conservation initiatives
- Improved reliability with packet error rates of 1e-6 or better and a low latency of 3.5ms
- The only home entertainment networking standard that works in all three pay TV segments: cable, satellite and IPTV
Availability
Entropic's MoCA 2.0 silicon/software solution is currently sampling to early access customers and full volume production is expected for Q1 2012.
Entropic will be showcasing its MoCA 2.0 solution, the fastest coaxial home networking solution available today, delivering up to 1Gbps of MAC layer throughput, at IBC in Stand A41-Hall 3, September 9-13, 2011, at the RAI Amsterdam. For more information on Entropic, visit: www.entropic.com.
Supporting Quotes
"At Liberty Global, we focus on delivering the best consumer experience for video, voice and internet services without getting the consumer involved in the minutia of the underlying technology," said Balan Nair, senior vice president and chief technology officer for Liberty Global, Inc. "The increased throughput offered by Entropic's MoCA 2.0 product and the fact that it's fully backward interoperable with MoCA1.1 enables us to be even more creative in building services that our consumers are interested in for the future."
"Our mission is to give our customers control in ways that are simple and easy," said Mike Hayashi, executive vice president of advanced engineering for Time Warner Cable. "Entropic's commitment to MoCA 2.0 advancements assures Time Warner Cable that our early investments in MoCA can be seamlessly transitioned to customers' interests for new services, applications and architectures."
About Entropic Communications
Entropic Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTR) is a leading fabless semiconductor company that is engineering the future of connected home networking and entertainment by providing next-generation silicon and software technologies to the world's leading cable, telco and satellite service providers, OEMs and consumer electronics manufacturers. As a co-founder of MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance), Entropic pioneered and continues to evolve the way high-definition television-quality video and other multimedia and digital content such as movies, music, games and photos are brought into and delivered throughout the home. For more information, visit Entropic at www.entropic.com.
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Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements." Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Entropic's technology, it prospects and its role in the future of home networking. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause Entropic's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, competition, risks associated with Entropic's dependence on a limited number of customers and suppliers, technology risks, the risk that the market for HD video and multimedia content delivery solutions may not develop as the Company anticipates, and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Entropic's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended June 30, 2011. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Entropic is providing this information as of the date of this release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.