TMCnet News

India's Leading Cable Operator, InCablenet, Deploys Entropic's Proven Set-Top Box System-on-a-Chip Technology to Rapidly Embrace 'Analog Sunset' Requirements
[January 15, 2013]

India's Leading Cable Operator, InCablenet, Deploys Entropic's Proven Set-Top Box System-on-a-Chip Technology to Rapidly Embrace 'Analog Sunset' Requirements


NEW DELHI, India, Jan 15, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE via COMTEX) -- Entropic (Nasdaq:ENTR), a world leader in semiconductor solutions for the connected home, today announced its set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) technology, the CX2448x, has been deployed by India's leading cable multi-system operator (MSO), InCablenet. By deploying Entropic's STB SoC, InCablenet can enable advanced digital broadcast and broadband services to the 8.5 million cable-connected TV homes they serve across India.



Fulfilling the Digitization Roadmap with Entropic Termed 'analog sunset,' India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) publicly announced the complete switchover from analog to digitized signals must occur countrywide by December 2014. Additionally, the mandate states that each TV set in the home, rather than each home itself, must now have a digital STB.

InCablenet turned to Entropic's CX2448x as an affordable STB SoC solution to meet these digitization mandates. By deploying Entropic-based Novabase STBs, InCablenet gains access to a state-of-the-art solution with advanced features such as DVR capability that will give them a competitive edge throughout the digitization transition.


"India's cable TV market is poised for a broad network upgrade to provide compelling, interactive and affordable digital services to more than 130 million subscribers," said Mr. Ravi Mansukhani, managing director, IMCL (IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd.), which owns InCablenet. "This opportunity has led us to strategic partners like Entropic, who have a reputable local presence with Standard-Definition SoCs, can minimize new product time-to-market with pre-established Conditional Access relationships, and can help us increase revenue by enabling value-added digitization services." "Given the 'analog sunset' timeframe and the number of potential set-top boxes to be deployed, we worked closely with Entropic to customize a silicon solution for InCablenet's client devices," said Michael Pauli, managing director of Novabase Digital TV. "Our set-top boxes leverage Entropic's advanced silicon and software, which allowed us to focus on delivering a product-to-market quickly while ensuring flexibility, functionality, and cost optimization all remained high priorities." STB Features Reduce Overall Time-to-Market, Costs and Customer Churn The CX2448x offers high levels of performance in a format that saves space, reduces the external component count, cuts design time, and lowers overall cost - all of which were extremely appealing to InCablenet, given the wide-scale deployment required to meet the I&B's initiative.

Mr. Mansukhani stated, "Entropic proved to be the ideal STB SoC technology partner for us, as the Company offers a proven solution with international deployments by Tier-1 MSOs. They also understood our need to stay ahead of the competition, by enabling new consumer services to minimize subscriber churn." The Entropic SoC had several security features including advanced Conditional Access (CA) integration with Nagra for unprecedented levels of protection against piracy; an advanced one-time-programmable (OTP) memory technology to personalize individual STBs with unique serial numbers and encryption keys; and uses embedded cryptographic technology for secure authentication of any STB system software loaded into the Flash memory.

"With India's cable TV market undergoing a massive digital transformation, we are working with InCablenet to seamlessly migrate their subscribers from analog to digital cable," said Mark Samuel, senior vice president and general manager, Set-top Box Group, Entropic. "We understand the market in India, and coupled with our field-proven, cost-optimized set-top box system-on-a-chip solution we are confident we can rapidly assist InCablenet in their wide-scale network upgrade to satisfy the growing needs of its subscriber base." About Entropic's CX2448x Family Built around a 32-bit ARM(R)926 CPU, running at up to 300 MHz and capable of delivering 330 MIPS, Entropic's Cx2448x includes a QAM demodulator, a programmable transport stream processor, an MPEG-2 audio/video decoder, and an advanced graphics hardware accelerator, among other features.

For more information about Entropic's STB SoC family of solutions used at InCablenet, visit the CX2448x page on Entropic's web site.

About Entropic Entropic (Nasdaq:ENTR) is a world leader in semiconductor solutions for the connected home. The Company transforms how traditional HDTV broadcast and IP-based streaming video content is seamlessly, reliably, and securely delivered, processed, and distributed into and throughout the home. Entropic's next-generation Set-top Box (STB) System-on-a-Chip (SoC) and Connectivity solutions enable Pay-TV operators to offer consumers more captivating whole-home entertainment experiences by transforming the way digital entertainment is delivered, connected and consumed - in the home and on the go. For more information, visit Entropic at: www.entropic.com.

The Entropic logo is available at //www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/ pkgid=4255 Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Entropic's STB SoC and Connectivity technology, its related prospects and its role in the 'Analog Sunset.' 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 (included InCablenet and Novabase respectively), technology risks, the risk that the transition from analog to digital may be delayed, solutions may not develop as Entropic anticipates and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Entropic's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended September 30, 2012. 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.

Copyright (C) 2013 Entropic. All rights reserved. All other product or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Investor Contact: Debra Hart +1 858.768.3852 [email protected] Media/Industry Analyst Contact: Chris Fallon + 1 858.768.3827 [email protected] http://media.globenewswire.com/cache/9308/small/4721.jpg <p>(Logo: http://media.primezone.com/cache/9308/int/4721.jpg) (Logo: http://media.primezone.com/cache/9308/int/4721.jpg) //www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/ti nf=MTMjMTAwMTgyMzYjOTMwOA==

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]