Entone Partners with Vudu to Enable Integrated IPTV/OTT Service Offerings

IPTV home-connectivity solutions provider, Entone, said Tuesday that it has integrated Vudu's broadband video entertainment services with its "next-generation" media hubs. According to the company, the integrated solution, which it says will be available this summer, will allow its telco customers (many of which are smaller operators lacking the ability to offer their own VOD service) to supplement their linear-TV and DVR offerings with an over-the-top VOD service featuring Vudu's library of around 14,000 titles (note: according to Entone, Vudu--whose service has until now been delivered through a special, retail set-top box, currently priced at around $150--offers "the largest high-definition library in existence today"). Instead of having to choose between an operator-managed service or an over-the-top Internet video service, Entone says, consumers will now be able for the first time to "enjoy the best of both from a single user interface," resulting in a "dramatic increase" in their choice of content. According to TDG analyst, Colin Dixon (who moderated a panel at [itvt]'s TV of Tomorrow Show in March), "Entone's approach of embracing, rather than defending against, online video services is a win-win-win for operators, content providers and consumers."

According to Entone, its new partnership with Vudu will result in the latter's movie library being available through telcos that deploy its IP Video Gateways and Media Hubs and will provide consumers with "less costly and much more flexible viewing alternative." Entone claims to have over 50 telco deployments in the US alone. "This arrangement brings together the best of live television, as supported by Entone's market-leading IPTV home connectivity products, with the best of Internet video, as supported by Vudu's vast movie library," Entone CEO, Steve McKay, said in a prepared statement. "Previously, consumers
had to choose between pay-TV services and over-the-top Internet video services where the latter was something you did when you were not watching TV. This is the first time two competing visions are coming together in one unified service. By marrying the two concepts, your online movie library is now available as part of your core TV viewing experience from the same user interface and remote control."

Entone bills its flagship product, Hydra, as the world's first and only commercially available IP video gateway. According to the company, it supports multiple video streams in order to enable delivery of video and other media throughout a home from a single device, without requiring extensive new wiring. The company says that one of the differentiators of the integrated Vudu-Entone solution is that it will be accessible from all TV's in a home. "IPTV is becoming an option for consumers and we want consumers to get access to Vudu through the devices they already have in their home," Vudu's EVP of strategy and content, Edward Lichty, said in a prepared statement. "Entone's integration with Vudu is a great consumer experience and we are looking forward to participating in the next generation of television services they are rolling out."

According to Vudu, its service offers around 1,500 hundred HD films and is updated weekly with new releases and library titles. It delivers HD in two formats: "instant start" and HDX. It claims that the latter is the "highest-quality on-demand format available anywhere" and that it is designed to enable an optimized viewing experience on 40-inch and larger HDTV sets and projectors, providing a "virtually artifact-free 1080p picture and immersive, high-definition sound." Entone says that Vudu's VOD service will be available to its telco customers via an IPTV service model, or via a new Entone service called SelecTV that will be released later this year.

In other recent news from Entone:
--In March, the company announced that Hargray Communications Group has selected its DVR-enabled IPTV customer premises equipment. Hargray is a triple-play provider that offers IPTV services in the southeastern US. "We needed a reliable and flexible solution for delivering high-quality video services," Hargray's network engineering manager, Tony Stout, said in a prepared statement. "Entone offers multiple software-compatible platforms to allow us to optimize the CPE configuration for each home." Entone bills its solutions as enabling IPTV and broadband TV services throughout homes that have a variety of network and TV configurations without requiring new home wiring: it claims that its Amulet HD IPTV receiver, for example, supports various home networking technologies, such as HomePNA, HomePlug and 802.11, that enable high-speed distribution of video services via wireless or over a home's existing coaxial or powerline network. It also says that the box supports MPEG-4 (AVC/H.264) encoding and decoding, and an optional internal hard drive for DVR functionality.
--In February, the company announced that it had integrated its Amulet IPTV receiver and its Hydra IP video gateway with Latens' software-based conditional access technology. "Entone's traction is due not only to our field-proven platform but also from our collaboration with best-of-breed partners such as Latens," Mark Evensen, Entone's VP of product development, said in a prepared statement. "Our tightly integrated IPTV solution will enable operators to go to market faster while minimizing installation cost and complexities of deploying IP video services."